Audiovisual

Translation 
Prepared by Yurii Vakulchyk
Group MA-51
Plan

 Types of translation
 Types of audiovisual translation 
 Subtitling, dubbing, or voice-over?
 Subtitlingfor the hard-of-hearing. Audio
description for the blind.
 AV translation and language policy
Types of translation
 Translation

Approaches to translation
 source versus target oriented
 linguistic, functional, cultural studies-oriented, cognitive,
philosophical

Examples of issues:
 equivalence, e.g. formal versus dynamic
 strategies to be adopted, e.g. domesticating versus
foreignising
 textual features such as deixis, presupposition, lexical
choice, modality, politeness markers
 ideology
Types of audiovisual translation

 Inter-lingual translation
 Subtitling
 Dubbing
 voice-over
 Intra-lingual (monolingual) subtitling for the hard-of-hearing and the deaf
 Audio description for the blind
 Live subtitling (e.g. news broadcasts)
 Subtitling for opera and the theatre
Subtitling, dubbing, or voice-over?
 Subtitling advantages: does not distract attention from image, is better for children and for
people with poor reading skills, less reduction of the original dialogue compared to subtitling
disadvantages: expensive, takes more time, loss of the original soundtrack, the voices of
dubbing actors can become repetitive after a while
Note: oral text written text
 Dubbing advantages: does not distract attention from image, is better for children and for
people with poor reading skills, less reduction of the original dialogue compared to
subtitlingdis
advantages: expensive, takes more time, loss of the original soundtrack, the voices of
dubbing actors can become repetitive after a while
Note: oral text oral text
 Voice-over advantages: not expensive, does not take a long time to make, may be
appropriate to some audio-visual genres (such as documentaries, particularly when it comes
to translating the narrator’s part)
disadvantages: it ‘contaminates’ the original soundtrack, if used in genres such as feature
films it may create confusion as to who is speaking
 Subtitling for the hard-of-hearing. Audio description
for the blind.
 Subtitling for the hard-of-hearing
 indicate relevant noises in your subtitles (music, phone or doorbell ringing, footsteps,
shouting). Otherwise, scenes may become incomprehensible
 make it easier to understand who is speaking (especially if off-screen): use colour codes
and/or change the position of the subtitles
 avoid paraphrase; use as many of the ST words as possible (unlike in interlingual
subtitling!)
 take into consideration the issue of reading speeds
 Audio description for the blind
 the ‘usual’ soundtrack is not enough to understand what is going on in the programme
 but why does someone blind need to ‘watch’ TV? Can’t they listen to the radio instead?
Issues of social integration and access to information
 different views on how to best do audio-descriptions
 the skills of an audio-describer
AV translation and language policy

 the right of linguistic and/or ethnic minorities to have access to

audio-visual programmes in their own language;
 the role of nationalism in decisions with respect to form of audio-
visual translation;
 the right of the hard-of-hearing and the deaf to have access to
audio-visual programmes;
 the role of screen translation in language acquisition.
Thank you for attention!