Prioritizing the most challenging pragmatic principles in Persian dubbing

Abstract

In the process of transferring source language elements to the target ones, the translator faces many challenges, one of which is the pragmatic aspect of the text. Some translators take only the vocabularies and grammatical structure of the texts into account, and neglect this hidden aspect of meaning. This is also the case in audiovisual translation. In fact, sometimes disregarding the hidden aspects of meaning in audiovisual translation leads to misunderstanding film's content and also losing its pleasure. Therefore, the current study aims to prioritize the most challenging pragmatic principles in Persian dubbing. To this end, four American films (Notting hill, The bucket list, The ultimate gift and Still Alice) were chosen, all of which had been dubbed into Persian. First, the most challenging pragmatic principles in Persian dubbing are identified. Then, the present study examines the frequencies and types of mismatches between the original and dubbed films in terms of these pragmatic principles. The kinds and frequencies of translation strategies which the translators applied to deal with these principles will be illustrated too. Finally, it sets a hierarchy in the most challenging pragmatic principles in Persian dubbing. It is concluded that there are mismatches between the original and dubbed versions in terms of these pragmatic principles, and the most challenging of them are implicatures, presuppositions and speech acts, respectively.