Date: 27-Sep-2006
From: Elizabeth Specker <speckereemail.arizona.edu>
Subject: El subtitulado cinematográfico
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2771.html
AUTHOR: María José González RodríguezTITLE: El subtitulado cinematográficoSUBTITLE: Fusión de palabra, gesto y movimiento escénicoSERIES: Linguistics Edition 51PUBLISHER: LINCOM GmbHYEAR: 2006
Elizabeth Specker, University of Arizona
In this short book, the author gives an overview of the subtitling processfor movies. Based on work done during her dissertation, González Rodríguezworks her way through the history, purpose and complex editorial choices ofinterlingual subtitling. As she explains the factors that are involved inthe editorial choices, she gives examples from the Spanish subtitles of''Cat on a hot tin roof.''
SUMMARY
The book, written in Spanish, is divided into six sections which guide thereader through the history of subtitles, from silent movies with'intertitles' to the beginning of talkies and through to more recent usesof translation between the different modal qualities in film. A variety offactors are involved in the decision as to whether movies are dubbed orsubtitled, which include not only financial reasons but also multilingualfactors in the areas in which the movies are shown or sold.
González Rodríguez outlines the limitations of the subtitle process,showing the reader some of the reasons why subtitles are presented in theirpresent format on a screen. Not only are there spatial limitations ineffect, namely that subtitles should not aesthetically interfere with theimages on the screen, but also the physical limitations of the human eyewhen reading text. Other considerations include the color of the text incontrast to the background images, and that many viewers don't like thedistraction from the images and the extra cognitive load. In addition tothe physical and psychological limitations of subtitling, financiallimitations are also in play as subtitling is less expensive and quickerthan dubbing.
The author then briefly discusses the process of layering the subtitles onthe screen. As the space available for subtitles is limited, the writtentext is frequently an adaptation from the verbal dialogue. The subtitlesmust remain on the screen long enough to be read, which, according toGonzález Rodríguez, is at the rate of about 120 words per minute, or 3seconds per line of text. Each line of text has a maximum limit of 32-34characters. Interestingly, the subtitles have general guidelines that arefollowed: they should disappear at the end of the verbal speech, there is aminimum use of punctuation, when dialogue is dropped off then ellipsismarks may be used, and the subtitles should try to be even in length ifmore than two lines. Since turns of speech are frequently longer than thespace available for the written text, the lines should be broken atconjunctions, between subordinating and principal clauses, or at relativepronouns. A second possibility for dividing a turn of speech is at anatural pause. Another possibility for subtitles in rapid speech is to'double text', or put a marker in front of the changing conversationalturns as they are shown in rapid succession.
González Rodríguez also includes a short section about subtitling andaccommodations for the deaf and hard of hearing. Subtitles use capitalletters to indicate sounds, allusions to background noises that arerelevant to the dialogue or storyline, and even the word SONG added toindicate that the characters on screen are singing.
In the fourth and fifth sections, the author emphasizes the role ofediting: subtitling is more of an interpretation than a straighttranslation. The subtitler must be well versed in both languages, invernacular as well as more formal registers and idiomatic phrases. Oftentimes, the subtitler must either use red-pencil editing, in which words aretaken out yet the semantic meaning is retained, or rewrite editing, inwhich the editing may slightly change the meaning. Colloquial phrases maybe dropped from the subtitles, (e.g. like, you know, what I want to say),as well as terms of endearment, (e.g. sweetie, honey, dear). Otheralterations between the original dialogue and the subtitled version includelanguage use that is considered objectionable, such as swear words, whichare often reduced in their impact with the reason that the written wordappears stronger to viewers than spoken. Often syntactically complexphrases are simplified, and to make reading faster, the low frequency wordsare replaced with semantically similar high frequency ones. Throughoutsection four, examples of these editorial decisions are given, and many ofthem illuminate the idea that subtitling is indeed more of aninterpretation used in the process of giving written access to a verbalsemiotic medium. González Rodríguez concludes with a few remarks about thepurpose of the text: to give a short overview of the process of subtitling,as well as to give recognition for the complicated and often artisticdecisions that are made during the process.
EVALUATION
González Rodríguez's text is useful as a general guide to the subtitlingprocess. But that is all it was: an overview with examples from one movie. The examples given within were quite illustrative, and the inclusion of atable giving the interlingual and intralingual translation, (namely that ofthe original version, to the translated version, to the quite alteredsubtitled version), added to the overall text by clearly illustrating thealterations that the verbal dialogue goes through before it is placed onthe bottom of the screen as written subtitles. However, the massiveappendices that contain similar long excerpts, although not in acontrastive table, seem superfluous, especially as they are not referred towithin the text nor necessary in order to understand the subtitle process.Within the content of the book, the weight of the focus of GonzálezRodríguez's text was on linguistic choices, with only mere mentions aboutthe relationships of gesture and scene and their impact on subtitling.Although this seemed misleading when compared to the book's title, perhapsthe point the author was trying to make was that all of the words,gestures, actions in scenes, as well as the individual characters, actors,subtle humor and allusions, the intent of the director, etc, must beconsidered when making interpretations and editorial choices in renderingthe above into short, moving written text that is in a different languagefor an audience of a different cultural background. As González Rodríquezwrites near the end, ''En resumen, todos aquellos aspectos que necesitan serinterpretados, no solo traducidos de una lengua a otra'' (p. 18). Her textgives the reader a quick peek at the subtitling process and itsdifficulties and constraints.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Elizabeth Specker is a doctoral candidate in Second Language Acquisitionand Teaching, at the University of Arizona. Her major research interestsinclude using media as a learning tool, including a focus on closedcaptioning/subtitling, discourse analysis, metaphor and multilingualism.
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