Audio describing foreign films

This article presents the main challenges of audio describing foreign films: synchronising the translation of foreign language dialogue with audio description, identifying speakers, describing culture-bound elements, and dealing with intertextuality. The findings are discussed with a reference to an explorative study carried out among Polish viewers with visual impairments. The solutions proposed in this article include the name insertion strategy, audio introductions and a number of strategies to deal with culture-specific items in audio description, such as explicitation, naming, generalisation, specification, retention. The results of the study also demonstrate the feasibility of adopting the Translation Studies toolkit to the benefit of audio description

Line breaks in subtitling: An eye tracking study on viewer preferences

There is a discrepancy between professional subtitling guidelines and how they are implemented in real life. One example of such discrepancy are line breaks: the way the text is divided between the two lines in a subtitle. Although we know from the guidelines how subtitles should look like and from watching subtitled materials how they really look like, little is known about what line breaks viewers would prefer. We examined individual differences in syntactic processing and viewers’ preferences regarding line breaks in various linguistic units, including noun, verb and adjective phrases. We studied people’s eye movements while they were reading pictures with subtitles. We also investigated whether these preferences are affected by hearing status and previous experience with subtitling. Viewers were shown 30 pairs of screenshots with syntactically segmented and non-syntactically segmented subtitles and they were asked to choose which subtitle in each pair was better. We tested 21 English, 26 Spanish and 21 Polish hearing people, and 19 hard of hearing and deaf people from the UK. Our results show that viewers prefer syntactically segmented line breaks. Eye tracking results indicate that linguistic units are processed differently depending on the linguistic category and the viewers’ profile

The Effects of Shot Changes on Eye Movements in Subtitling

In this paper we address the question whether shot changes trigger the re-reading of subtitles. Although it has been accepted in the professional literature on subtitling that subtitles should not be displayed over shot changes as they induce subtitle re-reading, support for this claim in eye movement studies is difficult to find. In this study we examined eye movement patterns of 71 participants watching news and documentary clips. We analysed subject hit count, number of fixations, first fixation duration, fixation time percent and transition matrix before, during and after shot changes in subtitles displayed over a shot change. Results of our study show that most viewers do not re-read subtitlescrossing shot changes

Formy adresatywne w przekładzie z języka angielskiego na polski

This article aims to analyse the difficulties – resulting both from linguistic and cultural differences – encountered by the translator when rendering English texts into Polish. The problem is not limited solely to literary texts; on the contrary, it is present in almost every interaction that is to be rendered into a target language/culture. In this paper, a linguistic repertoire of address forms will be presented, both pronouns and noun phrases, which will be then followed by a description of how these forms are employed in both cultures as well as what implications they carry for translation.Niniejszy artykuł to próba analizy trudności – wynikających zarówno z różnic językowych, jak i kulturowych – na jakie napotyka tłumacz, przekładając formy adresatywne w tekstach angielskich na język polski. Problem ten jest stałym elementem niemal każdej interakcji, z której przekładem borykają się tłumacze. W swojej pracy pragnę przyjrzeć się bliżej repertuarowi językowemu form adresatywnych występujących w obu językach – tak zaimkom, jak i wyrażeniom rzeczownikowym – a także różnicom w użyciu tych form w obu kulturach oraz implikacjom, jakie niosą one względem przekładu

The impact of text segmentation on subtitle reading

Understanding the way people watch subtitled films has become a central concern for subtitling researchers in recent years. Both subtitling scholars and professionals generally believe that in order to reduce cognitive load and enhance readability, line breaks in two-line subtitles should follow syntactic units. However, previous research has been inconclusive as to whether syntactic-based segmentation facilitates comprehension and reduces cognitive load. In this study, we assessed the impact of text segmentation on subtitle processing among different groups of viewers: hearing people with different mother tongues (English, Polish, and Spanish) and deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people with English as a first language. We measured three indicators of cognitive load (difficulty, effort, and frustration) as well as comprehension and eye tracking variables.  Participants watched two video excerpts with syntactically and non-syntactically segmented subtitles. The aim was to determine whether syntactic-based text segmentation as well as the viewers’ linguistic background influence subtitle processing. Our findings show that non-syntactically segmented subtitles induced higher cognitive load, but they did not adversely affect comprehension. The results are discussed in the context of cognitive load, audiovisual translation, and deafness

Using translation process research to explore the creation of subtitles:an eye-tracking study comparing professional and trainee subtitlers

Although translation process research (TPR) has become one of the most active fields in Translation Studies in the last 20 years, the process of subtitle creation has received little attention. This subtitling process research study adopts TPR methods to explore the production of interlingual subtitles. We conducted two experiments: Experiment 1 comparing professional subtitlers and subtitling trainees using the same subtitling tool, and Experiment 2 comparing two groups of professional subtitlers, each using a different subtitling programme. We collected data from eye tracking, screen recording, mouse clicks and keystroke logging, and post-experiment interviews. In Experiment 1, professionals and trainees exhibited different subtitling processes, with trainees following a highly structured sequence of viewing, spotting, translation and revision stages. Professionals were slightly faster, but text condensation levels were similar for both groups. In Experiment 2, the options offered by the subtitling tool significantly affected the process. Additionally, the age and experience were suggested as relevant factors influencing the task. Our findings confirm the suitability of using TPR methods to study the production of subtitles and set the grounds for further studies in the field of subtitling process research