A Relevance-Theoretic Approach to Decision-Making in Subtitling


Book Description

This book aims to investigate the process of decision-making in subtitling of feature films and entertainment series. The author uses Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson,1986) to argue that the technical, linguistic and translational constraints at work in subtitling result in a curtailed target text, and illustrates this argument by invoking examples drawn from the English-Polish subtitles of films and television series available through the subscription service Netflix. After introducing the current state of research on audiovisual translation within and outside the framework of translation studies, he presents the core concepts underpinning Relevance Theory and explains how it can be used to construct a model of the process of subtitling. This book will be of interest to students and scholars working in the fields of translation studies, audiovisual translation studies, and communication studies.




Relevance Theory in Translation and Interpreting


Book Description

This book illustrates the potential of Relevance Theory (RT) in offering a cognitive-pragmatic, cause-effect account of translation and interpreting (T&I), one which more closely engages T&I activity with the mental processes of speakers, listeners, writers, and readers during communicative acts. The volume provides an overview of the cognitive approach to communication taken by RT, with a particular focus on the distinction between explicit and implicit content and the relationship between thoughts and utterances. The book begins by outlining key concepts and theory in RT pragmatics and charting the development of their disciplinary relationship with work from T&I studies. Chapters draw on practical examples from a wide range of T&I contexts, including news media, scientific materials, literary translation, audiovisual translation, conference interpreting, and legal interpreting. The book also explores the myriad applications of RT pragmatics-inspired work and future implications for translation and interpreting research. This volume will be of interest to scholars in T&I studies and pragmatics.




Relevance and Text-on-Screen in Audiovisual Translation


Book Description

This book examines audiovisual translation (AVT) practices that fall outside conventional AVT norms, drawing on work from relevance theory to highlight alternative perspectives and make the case for a multidisciplinary approach to AVT. The volume focuses on creative subtitling – otherwise known as 'text-on-screen' – through the lens of relevance theory, a cognitively grounded theory of communication. Sasamoto explores the ways in which a relevance theoretic approach can provide an analytical framework for a better understanding of the interaction between 'text-on-screen' and viewers' interpretation processes and, in turn, how media producers, professional or otherwise, use 'text-on-screen' to engage viewers in innovative ways. The volume looks at such forms as telop, creative text use on screen, and forms of user-generated text-on-screen. The book introduces a new dimension to work on cognative pragmatics and the wider applications of relevance theory in multimodal communication and AVT, making it of interest to scholars in these disciplines.







The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Translation Studies


Book Description

This Handbook offers a comprehensive grounding in key issues of corpus-informed translation studies, while showcasing the diverse range of topics, applications, and developments of corpus linguistics. In recent decades there has been a proliferation of scholarly activity that applies corpus linguistics in diverse ways to translation studies (TS). The relative ease of availability of corpora and text analysis programs has made corpora an increasingly accessible and useful tool for practising translators and for scholars and students of translation studies. This Handbook first provides an overview of the discipline and presents detailed chapters on specific areas, such as the design and analysis of multilingual corpora; corpus analysis of the language of translated texts; the use of corpora to analyse literary translation; corpora and critical translation studies; and the application of corpora in specific fields, such as bilingual lexicography, machine translation, and cognitive translation studies. Addressing a range of core thematic areas in translation studies, the volume also covers the role corpora play in translator education and in aspects of the study of minority and endangered languages. The authors set the stage for the exploration of the intersection between corpus linguistics and translation studies, anticipating continued growth and refinement in the field. This volume provides an essential orientation for translators and TS scholars, teachers, and students who are interested in learning the applications of corpus linguistics to the practice and study of translation.




A General Theory of Interlingual Mediation


Book Description

The author has more than 30 years experience in literary and pragmatic translation and in conference interpreting. His is the most ambitious attempt at unifying every aspect of translational and other connected activities under one overarching general theory. A most specific theory, at that, that conceptualises and explains what translators and interpreters actually do in real life and, at the same time, offers objective quality criteria. The book has many practical examples, from public announcements and owner's manuals for videocameras to poems by Pushkin and Shakespeare. Sergio Viaggio, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1945. MA in Russian Language and Literature, Moscow's Peoples' Friendship University, 1971. UN translator in 1974, interpreter in 1975, and, between 1991 and 2005 Chief Interpreter with the UN Office at Vienna. He has widely lectured and written on the practice and theory of translation and interpretation.




Translation and Relevance


Book Description

From the outset, this book has evoked strong responses. Its central claim is that given a comprehensive theory of inferential communication, there is no need for a special theory of translation. This has been praised by some as "wise and right" (Dell Hymes) and condemned by others as "astonishing, not to say perverse" (Kirsten Malmkjaer). Gutt's call to move from semiotics to an inferential paradigm of communication remains a challenge for many. The debate continues and so does the demand for the book, resulting in this second edition. There is a 'Postscript' entitled 'A decade later', where the author addresses peer criticism, especially from those involved in the movement of 'translation studies', and attempts to bring out more clearly the unique mandate of translation. New perspectives, such as authenticity, are also introduced. Marginal notes, some tongue-in-cheek, liven up the discussion and new references ensure its currency.







Subtitling Norms for Television


Book Description

In most subtitling countries, those lines at the bottom of the screen are the most read medium of all, for which reason they deserve all the academic attention they can get. This monograph represents a large-scale attempt to provide such attention, by exploring the norms of subtitling for television. It does so by empirically investigating a large corpus of television subtitles from Scandinavia, one of the bastions of subtitling, along with other European data. The aim of the book is twofold: first, to provide an advanced and comprehensive model for investigating translation problems in the form of Extralinguistic Cultural References (ECRs). Second, to empirically explore current European television subtitling norms, and to look into future developments in this area. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in gaining access to state-of-the-art tools for translation analysis, or in learning more about the norms of subtitling, based on empirically reliable and current material.




Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation


Book Description

This edited collection offers a rounded vision of some of the ways in which audiovisual translation (AVT) can be approached from an academic, professional and educational point of view. The studies provide a stimulating and thought-provoking account of some of the most representative themes that are currently being researched in the field of AVT, while also highlighting new directions of potential research from a cognitive perspective. A conscious effort has been made to cover not only cultural and linguistic approaches to traditional domains of AVT (such as dubbing and subtitling), but also to look into lesser known areas of research that are attracting substantial interest from various stakeholders and gradually becoming part of the remit of AVT (including subtitling for the deaf and audio description for the blind). In this respect, the chapters of this book tackle the field of AVT from a plural, comprehensive and up-to-date perspective; speak of a rich and complex academic subject in the making; broaden our existing knowledge on AVT; reflect the many crossroads and junctions it currently faces and outline some of the issues that will become topical in the near future in this fascinating, flourishing discipline.