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13 views5 pages

Contents

Uploaded by

Mohamad Namdari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Subtitling

Concepts and Practices

Jorge Díaz Cintas and Aline Remael


Contents

List of fgures ix
List of tables x
Acknowledgements xi
Permissions xiii
How to use this book and its companion website xiv
Te book xiv
Te companion website xiv
OOONA xvi
Wincaps Q4 xvii

1 Reconceptualizing subtitling 1
1.1 Preliminary discussion 1
1.2 Te power of the moving image 1
1.3 From the periphery to the centre 3
1.4 Te many instantiations of audiovisual translation 7
1.5 Classifcation of subtitles 11
1.5.1 Linguistic parameters 11
1.5.2 Time available for preparation 21
1.5.3 Display mode 25
1.5.4 Technical parameters 26
1.5.5 Methods of projection 27
1.5.6 Distribution 29
1.6 Intertitles 30
1.7 Exercises 31

2 Professional ecosystem 32
2.1 Preliminary discussion 32
2.2 Te subtitling process 33
2.3 Te professionals 37
2.4 Dialogue lists 39
2.5 Templates and master (sub)titles 43
2.6 Guidelines and style guides 47
2.7 Subtitling software editors 48
2.8 Te profession 51
2.8.1 Clients and rates 55
vi Contents
2.8.2 Deadlines 57
2.8.3 Authors’ rights and professional associations 58
2.9 Training 61
2.10 Exercises 63

3 Te semiotics of subtitling 64
3.1 Preliminary discussion 64
3.2 Films as multisemiotic and multimodal texts 64
3.2.1 Screenwriting and flm dialogue 66
3.2.2 Intersemiotic cohesion 69
3.2.3 Te multimodality of language 72
3.2.4 Camera movement and editing 73
3.2.5 A blessing in disguise 74
3.3 Subtitling, soundtrack and text on screen 75
3.3.1 Subtitling’s vulnerability 76
3.3.2 Multilingualism and multimodality as a resource for translation 78
3.3.3 Text on screen 85
3.3.4 Speech to writing: a matter of compromise 88
3.4 Exercises 90

4 Spatial and temporal features 91


4.1 Preliminary discussion 91
4.2 Code of good subtitling practice 91
4.3 Spatial dimension 92
4.3.1 Maximum number of lines and position on screen 93
4.3.2 Centred and left-aligned 95
4.3.3 Font type, font size and colour 96
4.3.4 Maximum number of characters per line 97
4.3.5 One-liners and two-liners 99
4.4 Temporal dimension 100
4.4.1 Frames per second 100
4.4.2 Synchronization and spotting 101
4.4.3 Timecodes 103
4.4.4 Duration of subtitles 105
4.4.5 Subtitle display rates: characters per second and words per minute 106
4.4.6 Te six-second rule 109
4.4.7 Gap between subtitles 113
4.4.8 Shot changes 114
4.4.9 Feet and frames in cinema 116
4.5 Exercises 117

5 Formal and textual features 118


5.1 Preliminary discussion 118
5.2 In search of conventions 118
5.3 Punctuation conventions 120
5.3.1 Comma (,) 120
5.3.2 Full stop (.) 121
Contents vii
5.3.3 Colon (:) 122
5.3.4 Parentheses ( ) 122
5.3.5 Exclamation marks (!) and question marks (?) 123
5.3.6 Hyphen (-) 124
5.3.7 Triple dots (...) 125
5.3.8 Asterisk (*) 127
5.3.9 Slash (/) 128
5.3.10 Other symbols 128
5.3.11 Capital letters 129
5.3.12 Quotation marks or inverted commas ("..."), (“...”), (‘...’) 130
5.4 Other conventions 132
5.4.1 Italics 132
5.4.1.1 Songs 134
5.4.1.2 Onscreen text 135
5.4.2 Colours 136
5.4.3 Abbreviations 137
5.4.4 Numbers 139
5.4.4.1 Time 140
5.4.4.2 Measurements and weights 140
5.5 Subtitling quality 141
5.6 Exercises 144

6 Te linguistics of subtitling 145


6.1 Preliminary discussion 145
6.2 Subtitling: translation as text localization 145
6.3 Text reduction 146
6.3.1 Condensation and reformulation 151
6.3.1.1 Condensation and reformulation at word level 151
6.3.1.2 Condensation and reformulation at clause/sentence level 154
6.3.2 Omissions 161
6.3.2.1 Omissions at word level 162
6.3.2.2 Omissions at clause/sentence level 164
6.4 Linguistic cohesion and coherence in subtitling 168
6.5 Segmentation and line breaks 169
6.5.1 Line breaks within subtitles 172
6.5.2 Line breaks across subtitles 174
6.5.3 Rhetorical spotting 175
6.6 Exercises 177

7 Subtitling language variation and songs 178


7.1 Preliminary discussion 178
7.2 Marked speech and language variation 178
7.2.1 Marked speech: a pragmatic classifcation 179
7.2.1.1 Intra-speaker variation: style and register 179
7.2.1.2 Inter-speaker variation: dialect, sociolect, slang 180
7.2.1.3 Intra- and inter-speaker variation: entanglements 180
7.2.1.4 Intra- and inter-speaker variation: swearwords and taboo words 181
viii Contents
7.2.2 Subtitling marked speech and language variation 182
7.2.2.1 Complexity in abundance 182
7.2.2.2 Conficting priorities, difcult decisions 184
7.2.2.3 Subtitling intra- and inter-speaker variation 185
7.2.2.4 Literary styles 186
7.2.2.5 Forms of address 186
7.2.2.6 Agrammaticalities 187
7.2.2.7 Lexical variation 188
7.2.2.8 Swearwords, expletives and taboo words 189
7.2.2.9 Accents and pronunciation 194
7.3 Te translation of songs 195
7.3.1 Deciding what to translate 196
7.3.2 Deciding how to translate 199
7.4 Exercises 200

8 Subtitling cultural references, humour and ideology 201


8.1 Preliminary discussion 201
8.2 Te translation of cultural references 201
8.2.1 Cultural references: what are they? 202
8.2.1.1 Real-world cultural references 203
8.2.1.2 Intertextual cultural references 204
8.2.2 Cultural references: what determines their translation? 204
8.2.3 Cultural references: translation strategies 207
8.3 Te translation of humour 217
8.3.1 Pinning down humour 217
8.3.2 Subtitling humour 220
8.3.2.1 Detecting and interpreting humour 220
8.3.2.2 Translating humour in subtitles 222
8.4 Ideology, manipulation and (self-)censorship 238
8.5 Exercises 241

9 Technology in motion 242


9.1 Preliminary discussion 242
9.2 Tools for subtitlers 242
9.3 Machine translation and translation memory in subtitling 243
9.4 Migrating to the cloud 245
9.5 Exercises 248

10 References 249
10.1 Bibliography 249
10.2 Filmography 262

Index 266
Glossary – available on companion website
Appendices – available on companion website

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