Читать книгу The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics - Carol A. Chapelle - Страница 202

Subtitles consist of “the rendering in a different language of verbal messages in filmic media in the shape of one or more lines of written text presented on the screen in sync with the original message” (Gottlieb, 2001b, p. 87).

Subtitles are an abbreviated written translation of what can be heard on screen and are known as “open” when they are incorporated onto the film itself and as “closed” when chosen by the viewer from a DVD or teletext menu. At film festivals subtitles are generally projected live onto the screen in real time.

Subtitles considerably reduce the actual dialogue simply because viewers need the time to read them without running the risk of missing any of the action on screen (Antonini, 2005, p. 213). Furthermore, ideally, viewers should be unaware of the fact that they are reading and be able to simultaneously watch the film, read the subtitles, and enjoy it. The subtitling process involves three basic steps: elimination, rendering, and condensation. Elimination consists in reducing elements that do not change the meaning of the source dialogue such as false starts, repetitions, and hesitations. Rendering refers to the elimination of taboo items, slang, and dialect and condensation involves the simplification of original syntax in order to render the subs more easily readable (Antonini, 2005, pp. 213–15). Traditionally a technician carries out the spotting or cueing process that involves marking the transcript of the dialogues according to where the subtitles should begin and end. Translators then gauge their work in line with these cues after which subtitles are checked for sync with changes of frames. However, technology now allows translators to work directly onto electronic files that enable them to create complete products from their personal workstations.

Conventionally, subtitles were restricted to 30 to 40 characters, including spaces, that were displayed at the center bottom of the picture, or else left aligned (Gottlieb, 2001b). Nowadays, such restrictions are disappearing as subtitling programs working with pixels allow letters to be modified according to space. Furthermore, wider screens tend to have longer lines and DVDs allow viewers to rewind and reread features they may have missed, while alignment changes according to the directionality of script in individual languages (Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007). In addition, because of the possibility of placing the titles anywhere on the screen, the term “caption(ing)” is now becoming widespread.