Audiovisual translation of discursive markers in texts with academic terms

Abstract

This research aimed to identify effective ways to translate discursive markers from English when subtitling and dubbing feature films. Facilities translation of subtitles and dubbing were studied on the example of "well, you know, like and I mean," which, according to many linguists, are the most frequently spoken markers of the English language. During the study, it was found that discursive markers "well, you know, like and I mean" perform formal discursive and pragmatic functions in the dialogues of artistic films. From a formally discursive point of view, well, you know, like, and I mean help the addresser in formulating and correcting an utterance (functions of searching for an expression and corrections) and contribute to the coherence and organization of discourse (functions of the communicative step, thematic organization, explanations, entering an example and quoting). From a pragmatic point of view, discursive markers express the subjective attitude of the addresser to the content of his statement (functions of emphasis and uncertainty) and help the addresser to establish contact (functions of mitigation and a call for solidarity) or, conversely, keep a distance with the addressee (functions of evasion and etiquette). We noticed that in both types of audiovisual translation, there is the tendency to reduce discursive markers well, you know, like and I mean. However, the studied discursive markers are omitted more often than dubbing when subtitling. Firstly, we connected it with the hard spatiotemporal limitations of subtitling, which force the translator to reduce language units that do not carry plot-forming and character-forming load. Second, we noted a change in the form of speech during subtitling from oral to written. In this regard, the translator is forced to omit colloquial discursive markers well, you know, like and I mean, which are not peculiar to a written form of speech. In turn, dubbing does not apply the space-time constraints described above, so the translator has more opportunities to convey discursive markers well, you know, like and I mean. Translation of discursive markers often seems even desirable, as it allows you to achieve synchrony of the sound of the original and translated replicas and "put" the dubbing text on the lips of actors. Secondly, during dubbing, there is no change in the form of speech from oral to written, in connection with which the discursive markers well, you know, like and I mean, characteristic of colloquial speech, not only can but often must be translated, as this contributes to realism and natural sounding of the dubbed dialogue. We have established that when subtitling and dubbing artistic films, the reduction of discursive markers sometimes leads to functional loss. However, in dubbing, with the omission of discursive markers well, you know, like and I mean functional losses are observed much less often than in subtitles. We conclude that a smaller proportion of functional loss in dubbing is because when omitting discursive markers in translation, most of their formal discursive and pragmatic functions can be transferred by voice actors using phonation-paralinguistic means (intonation-prosodic means).