Exploring Audiovisual Translation and Its Main Parameters
Audiovisual translation has been considered as an important field of translation that focuses on two kinds of texts which are multimodal and multimedial. These two texts are transferred through audiovisual into another culture. Multimodal is concerned with semiotic modes which include language, color, music, image and perspective. As for multimedial texts, it is concerned with transferring semiotic modes to the viewer in accordance with the screen. It can also be referred to as film translation and film dubbing. It includes many forms such as dubbing, voice-over and subtitling. Subtitling is a kind of translation that has been used for translating movies from source to target languages through writing. Subtitling process has two forms which are verbal subtitling through screens and aural subtitling through soundtracks. It always appears at the bottom of the screens. Subtitling does not ruin the source text as dubbing does, instead it keeps it as it is with extra information.
As for the subtitlers, they tend to create a connection between audio and visual dimensions to make it easier for the reader to read the subtitles while watching the screen without losing track of any of both. In addition, Fansubbing is a new type of translation done by amateurs and distributed freely on the internet and becomes available for everyone to watch it. Fansubbers appear in 1980s, when a group of fans of Japanese anime have decided to learn the Japanese language and subtitle their favorite programs by themselves until they have become popular, and their strategy spread for long distances. Thus, this research paper will discuss the methodologies of subtitling especially professional subtitling and fansubbing in terms of linguistics, semiotics, cultural, spatial and temporal parameters by showing the distinctions between them through analyzing an excerpt of The Meg movie.
The spatial parameter focuses on three main parts of subtitling which are the position of subtitles, number of characters per line and number of lines. The position of subtitles always appears to be at the bottom of the screen. As for the number of characters per line, the maximum number of characters for “ language based on the Roman alphabet” ranges between 35 and 39. While for Arabic language, it is only 35 characters per line. And finally, the maximum number of lines of professional subtitling is two. Furthermore, the temporal parameter is used to set the time in and out for subtitles and to be in synchrony with the image and the dialogues between speakers. Eight- digit timecode has been used to identify the subtitles in hours, minutes, second and frames. Six seconds is the appropriate time for leaving the subtitle on the screen to avoid re-reading it.
There is a relationship between the semiotic parameter and audiovisual communication, so in order to understand the semiotic status of subtitling, it is essential to understand how the audiovisual texts are formed. Each audiovisual text contains four basic channels which are the verbal auditory channel, including dialogue, background voices, and sometimes lyrics; The non-verbal auditory channel, including music, natural sound and sound effects; The verbal visual channel, including superimposed titles and written signs on the screen; The non-verbal visual channel: picture composition and flow. According to Diaz, it is not preferable to translate the semiotic signs in the presence of dialogue.
The linguistic parameter aims at reducing the length of subtitles by two methods. Firstly, the condensation and reformulation at word level includes generalizing enumerations, using shorter near-synonyms, and changing word classes. And also at clause and sentence level, it includes changing negations or questions into affirmative assertions, changing the subject of a phrase, changing active sentences into passive, and using pronouns instead of nouns. Secondly, omission is also used for reduction purposes. Omission at word level includes repetitions and unimportant question tags, modifiers such as adverbs, phatic words such as “anyway” and “you know”, exclamation words like “wow”, and internationally known words such as “ok”. Omission is not an easy task for subtitlers. Subtitlers must put in their consideration the reader’s ability to understand the omission technique being used in subtitles.
The cultural parameter is concerned with the use offensive words and culture-bound terms. Firstly, offensive words are divided into abusive, swearing and expletives. Swearwords are used to express feelings of rage. In addition to oaths, Wajnryb states regarding oaths that there is a distinction between formal promises which is using swear words related to the bible or swearing by someone or something. Expletives are also swearwords, but it does not refer to certain figures and used to express feelings of frustration, stress and surprise. Secondly, culture-bound terms are associated with country’s culture. Cultures’ varieties impose challenges upon subtitlers to find equivalences in the TT through many strategies such as omission, reformulation and mainly transposition strategy. Subtitlers must fully understand these emotionally charged languages found in source culture, in order to create a convenient translation target culture.
Fansubbing is a new creative way of subtitling that does not always depend on the professional standards of subtitling. It includes many features such as using different fonts to refer to different languages, using different colours. They tend to add information regarding fansubbers. Fansubbers usually use notes and glosses to make it easier for the reader to understand their translation choices and strategies. Moreover, in many cases fansubbers use different colours in translating the semiotics signs to refer to certain message and also to refer to different actors. Fansubbers sometimes violates the standard rule of number of characters to reach 43 characters instead of 32.
