The Strategies of Subtitling the Saudi Films from Arabic into English: Masameer: The Movie – Case Study

Abstract

This paper seeks to determine the appropriate strategies for providing English subtitles for Arabic films. It has been designed to analyse the Saudi film Masameer: The Movie, which has English subtitles, and identify the main strategies used for the target language in terms of (a) idiomatic expressions and (b) cultural references. Two strategies have been classified for each of these, the first proposed by Baker (1992) for conveying idiomatic expressions, and the second suggested by Pedersen (2011), which refers to standard strategies for audiovisual translation. Both contribute to identifying appropriate strategies for cultural references. This study attempts to determine the most frequently employed strategies as well as notable discrepancies in their use. Following the completion of a descriptive statistical analysis for the two strategies, each strategy was assessed for idiomatic expressions in terms of “using an idiom of similar meaning and form,” “using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form,” and “translation by paraphrase.” They were also assessed in terms of substitution, retention, and specification of cultural references. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that there should be sufficient knowledge of translation issues and the translation methodologies proposed by various linguists. In addition, an improvement in the skills for audiovisual translation is required because it is a broad and evolving field