Lesson Six

Subtitling

Jakobson

Intralingual
Interlingual

Intersemiotic

Diagonal translation

Subtitles
Jan Ivarrson Subtitling for the Media

1992
Henrik Gottlieb Subtitling, a new
university discipline 1991, etc.
Irene Kovacic (Llubiana)
Yves Gambier (Turku)
Jorge Diaz (Roehampton)
Pilar Orero (Barcelona)

Intertitles
Two years later Frankenstein had

discovered the mystery of life.

Tiger the bully of the jungle . cruel

.bloodthirsty.

+ letters, signs, etc.

Intertitles 2
UNCLE TOMS CABIN 1927
Across two states George Harris, ever on
the trail of Lemul Proctor, the buyer of Little
Harry.

Moonlight bathing the old Kentucky home in

radiance romance in the winged and
perfumed breezes of the night.

Dunno whar dey is, Missy Liza

Subtitles over the years

photographed on cards and then

together with film;
photo of whole film;
clichs printed on film;
laser vaporises emulsion at correct
point;
computer with time code.

Technical aspects 1
Script (but often transcription)
translation
adaptation
composition
(translate all written elements)

Technical aspects 2
Ideally there should be notes on the film
itself,
the characters, the original story, the
cultural
references, etc. but there never is!!!
(Minchinton)

Technical aspects 3
SPOTTING where to insert the subtitles.
in cue
out cue
spotting list.

Technical aspects 4
BACKGROUND
white titles on dark background
bottom of screen where there is least
light and least action
except in snow scenes, etc. (black box)

Technical aspects 5
DIMENSIONS
width 2/3 of screen centred
height 15% of screen
characters 32-40 per line (28-38 on TV)
(max. 68 or two lines of 20 m.)

Technical aspects 6
LINES
1 or 2 lines
2 lines avoids flash effect; generally
better to have two one-liners together
than two separate titles.

Technical aspects 7
TIME
Film characters speak quicker than the
average reader but what is the average
reader???
As it is necessary to also take in the visuals,
etc., one line should remain on screen for at
least
FOUR seconds, and two lines for 6-8 seconds.
Otherwise there is a danger of re-reading.

Technical aspects 8
GAP BETWEEN TITLES
3-8 frames or second.
Viewers need a fraction of a second to
identify speaker (fixation pause).
Must not overlap scene change or shot
change. Otherwise viewer reads title again
(overlapping effect).

Technical aspects 9
SEGMENTATION
Units must be syntactically and semantically
complete.
Never separate articles & nouns; prepositions
& nouns, conjunctions & clauses, pronouns &
verbs, compund verbs, adjectives & nouns,
etc.

Technical aspects 9a

(from CARO DIARIO)

Non sapeva niente: come poteva immaginarsi
che il giorno dopo per lui sarebbe cambiata la
vita?
He didnt know his life would
change the next day
He didnt know
his life would change the next day

Technical aspects 10
DIALOGUE
Character One
- Character Two
-

Hello, how are you?

- None the better for seeing you!
- (second part appears before it is spoken)
-

Technical aspects 11
PUNCTUATION
Every language has a different prosody (rhythm of text,
emphasis, irony, etc.)
Fullstop to end title.
Dots for hesitation, interruption
Exclamation and Question marks.
Underlining.
Italics voice off, flashback, etc.
Capitals for signs, posters, etc.
Brackets (in arabic) or for deaf (train passing)
# songs eg. #tralala

Readability
The quality that makes possible the

recognition of the information content of

material when it is represented by
alphanumeric characters in meaningful
groupings, such as words, sentences or
continuous text.

Fixation
During reading our eyes do not move

smoothly across the page they make

a series of jumps
between the jumps the eyes remain
relatively still, for about a quarter of a
second, in what is referred to as a
fixation.

Public view

(from Too Close to Home : L.Barclay)

A. And he loved movies. But not the ones

everyone else liked. He liked the ones with
the words at the bottom.
B. Subtitles.
A. Thats right. Movies in different languages.
He liked to watch those. He had an
appreciation for things that other people didnt
care much about.

Video Echo

Video Echo sub

Gottlieb on Subtitling
Prepared communication
using written language
acting as an additive
and synchronous semiotic channel
as part of a transient
And polysemiotic text

Subtitles/spontaneous
conversation
Prepared

not prepared
Written
spoken
Additive
original
Synchronous
extempore
Transient
ongoing
Polysemiotic
multimodal

Written
As such, subtitling differs from all other
types of screen translation.
Loss: reducing a language to writing.
Gain: introduction of extraneous
features that are not part of spoken
discourse. Cf. Pro rata.

Additive
Verbal material is added to the original
maintaining the source language
discourse.
Intralingual/Interlingual

Immediate
All discourse is presented in a flowing
manner, beyond the control of the
viewer.
This is changing with the introduction of
video, DVD, repetition in 24-hour TV
news programmes, interactive TV
(press your red SKY button), etc.

Synchronous
The original film and the translated
dialogue are presented simultaneously,
not even like simultaneous interpreting,
where there are dangers.

Polymedial
Multimodal
At least two parallel channels are used
to convey the total message of the
original.

The Gottlieb Strategies

TRANSFER
EXPANSION
CONDENSATION
DECIMATION
DELETION
PARAPHRASE
IMITATION
TRANSCRIPTION
DISLOCATION
RESIGNATION

Transfer
Complete translation
Not word-for-word.
Hi, honey.
Ciao, dolcezza.

Expansion
Give extra information, for example in
the case of culture bound terms.
eg. In the Name of the Father: I.R.A.

Condensation
Say the same thing in a shorter way,
If only I could
Magari

Decimation
Remove completely a part of the discourse.
Si ma guardi cosha combinato, guardi che
casino, porca puttana
But look at this bloody mess
(from La Bionda di S. Rubini)

Deletion
Remove entire text.
Would you like a cigarette?
---------------------------------

Cf. sign language for the

deaf

Ultimo confronto stasera di questa coppa dei

campioni della politica in cinque giornate che
si disputata nelle ultime settimane su RAI
uno e partita di ritorno tra Silvio Berlusconi e
Romano Prodi.

Stasera, su RAI uno, ultimo dibattito politico

della campagna elettorale tra Silvio
Berlusconi e Romano Prodi.

Paraphrase
Say the same thing in a different way.
For example Kramer versus Kramer
Ebbets Field.
monopattini

Imitation
Repeat verbatim.
For example, names, quotes, etc.
Janes Bond, Fifth Avenue, cest la vie.

Transcription
Copy any speech defects, etc.
A fish called Wanda
They dont sh..sh..sh..
Non c..c..c..

Dislocation
Shift from say song to prose.

Resignation
Defeated by culture bound reference.
For example Friends
a big foam finger.
una birra gigantesca.

Strategies

Expansion: expanded expression, adequate

rendering;
Paraphrase: altered expression, adequate rendering;
Transfer: full expression, adequate rendering;
Imitation: identical expression, equivalent rendering;
Transcription: anomolous expression, adequate
rendering;
Dislocation: different expression, adjusted content;
Condensation: condensed expression, concise
rendering;
Decimation: abridged expression, reduced content;
Deletion: omitted expression, no verbal content;
Resignation: differing expression, distorted content;

Transfer Caro Diario

Destate a Roma i cinema sono tutti
chiusi.
Summer in Rome, the cinemas are all
closed.

Expansion Caro Diario

caseina di capra, groviera.
gorgonzola
goats cheese, Swiss cheese,
gorgonzola

Condensation Caro
Diario
Ora tutto cambiato, ora tutto
veramente cambiato.
Everything has really changed.

Decimation Caro Diario

Agenti di borsa, deputati, assessori,
giormalisti,
Brokers, congressmen, journalists,

Deletion Caro Diario

Te lo dico io perch. Perch odio gente
come te!
I hate people like you!

Paraphrase Caro Diario

Ormai ha paura di rimettermi in gioco.
Im afraid to re-think my life.

Imitation Caro Diario

Quam juvat quant bello!
Quam juvat how beautiful!

Transcription Caro
Diario
Ca-pi-sci quel-lo che ti dico?
Un-der-stand what Im say-ing?

Resignation Caro Diario

Garibaldi qui ci ha fatto la resistenza.
Garibaldi fought here.

Moretti monologue:
Italian
Destate a Roma, i cinema sono tutti chiusi.
Oppure ci sono
film dellorrore come Henry.
Oppure qualche film italiano.
Ormai ho paura di rimettermi in gioco..
Sono un vigliacco.
Ma cosa successo in tutti questi anni? Ditemelo voi.
Ti si stanno imbiancando le tempie.
Incominciano a pesare le sconfitte..

Moretti monologue:
English
Summer in Rome, the cinemas are closed.
All you can see is
(P)
horror films like Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
Or some Italian films.
(T)
Im afraid to re-think my life.
(P)
Im a coward.
(T)
What happened. Tell me?
(D)
Your temples are turning white.
(T)
The weight of defeat.
(C)

(T)
(E)

ENGLISH

transfer

No.
subtitles
661

condensation

165

16.5%

decimation

45

4.5%

paraphrase

35

3.5%

deletion

35

3.5%

imitation

33

3.3%

transcription

11

1.1%

expansion

0.9%

resignation

0.3%

dislocation

0.1%

TOTAL

997

100%

66.3%

SPANISH

No.
subtitles

transfer
condensatio
n
imitation
decimation
paraphrase
transcription
deletion
expansion

950
96
40
27
23
15
13
5

80.7
8.2
3.4
2.3
2
2.3
1.1
0.4

A Stranger among us
(1992)
Transfer

79%
Condensation 7%
Imitation 5%

La vita bella scena

dellinterpretazione

Video Posto sub max

Video Posto sub min

Subtitling for what?

Subtitling of different film types
documentary, soap opera, film
Subtitling from filmese
to filmese
to natural
Subtitling for
didactic purposes
entertainment purposes

Subtitles for teaching

lexico-grammar items
registers
genres
conversation analysis
translation

Other languages
Intralingual subtitling
English-English
Italian-Italian
Gaelic-Gaelic?
Interlingual subtitling
English-Italian and vice versa
English-Galician Portuguese and vice
versa

Database
Create database of subtitled genres:
car adverts (drinks adverts)
domestic soap scenes
nature documentaries
rows
etc.

Relational database
Relate subtitled text to other semiotic

modalities

gesture
music
camera angle/position
etc.