Transfer of English Proper

Nouns into Serbian: An

Analysis of a Parallel
Subtitle Corpus of
Childrens Films

Student: Boko Marijan Supervisor: Aleksandar Kavgi, PhD

Introduction

Childrens films a great impact on children

Direct characterisation - descriptive adjectives, phrases, epithets, character
names (e.g. Buzz Lightyear, Hiccup, Evil Dr. Porkchop, etc.)
The only way to transfer the intended meaning is to actually translate the
character's name
Audio-visual translation (AVT)

Also called the translation of products of cinematography

AVT - umbrella term for media translation, multimedia translation,
multimodal translation, screen translation
Translation of the verbal component of the video
Dubbing vs. subtitling
Subtitling

The presentation of dialogue translation in a film in the form of titles, usually

at the bottom of the screen
More visual than revoicing and it involves a written translation that is
superimposed on the screen
Subtitled text has to be shorter than the audio done through elimination,
rendering and simplification
Criteria for classifying subtitles

linguistic criteria:
Intralingual and interlingual

technical criteria:
open or non-optional subtitles
closed or optional subtitles
Translating literature for children

Two principles:
adjusting the text in order to make it appropriate and useful to the child
adjusting the plot, characterisation and language to the childs level of
comprehension and its reading abilities
Translating proper names in literature
for children
Names in literary works are used for:
creating various effects
portraying the character in question
leading the reader throughout the plot of the story
conveying a message to the reader
Translation methods for translating
proper names
Several authors Aguilera, Hermans, Newmark, Fernandes

Rendition
Copy
Transcription
Substitution
Recreation
Deletion
Addition
Transposition
Phonological replacement
Conventionality
+ COUPLETS
 Methodology

Corpus 214 words extracted from fan subtitles: Despicable Me, Toy Story 3,
Happy Feet, Hotel Transylvania 2, and How to Train Your Dragon 2
Several criteria:
the company producing the film
neutrality of the film regarding gender
variety of proper nouns used in the film
the rating of the subtitle
Despicable Me

Chart 1: Translation procedures used in Despicable Me, shown in percentages

Overall impression: the author of the Serbian subtitle tried to

make the film very understandable and close to the
Serbian-speaking audience
 How to Train Your Dragon 2
Overall impression: the author of the Serbian subtitle followed the rules of
translating proper nouns when dealing with texts for children, i.e. they tried
to make each name understandable and memorable to the target audience

Chart 2: Translation procedures used in How to Train Your Dragon 2, shown in

percentages
 Toy Story 3
Overall impression: the author of the subtitle did not put much effort into
trying to make the names memorable or understandable, or lacked the
knowledge for achieving that

Chart 3: Translation procedures used in Toy Story 3, shown in percentages

Happy Feet

Chart 4: Translation procedures used in Happy Feet, shown in percentages

Overall impression: Mostly transcription poor choice in some cases

Hotel Transylvania 2

Chart 5: Translation procedures used in Hotel Transylvania 2, shown in

percentages

Overall impression: most of the nouns were transcribed, recreation was used
for transferring only 6 nouns, but producing mostly interesting and
memorable solutions that may be said to attract viewers attention
Discussion

most commonly used translation procedures are transcription and copy

The film subtitle in which the use of translation procedures was the most
diverse is the one for the film Despicable Me most nouns translated in line
with the recommendations of previously-mentioned authors
Chart 7: Share of translation procedures in all the subtitles, shown in percentages
Conclusion

The translation methods used in translations of literature for children can be

applied on translating subtitles for childrens films
Pirated versions of films fan subtitles (cheaper, more accessible)
Names can sometimes be embedded with a semantic load poses a problem
when translating
Some films were likely translated by language and/or translation experts who
invested a lot of effort in their work, while others were likely translated by
laymen with a higher level of knowledge of English
Further research needed, preferably on a larger scale
 Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?