Особенности перевода текстов научно-популярного стиля в сфере аудиовизуального перевода

Одной из основных особенностей синтаксиса научно-популярного подстиля является употребление вопросно-ответных комплексов, с помощью которых устанавливается связь между автором и читателем. (М. Н. Кожина) Кожина М.Н. Стилистический энциклопедический словарь русского языка; члены редколлегии Е.А.Баженова, М.П.Котюрова, А.П.Сковородников. -2-е издание, испр. и доп. - М.: Флинта: Наука, 2006. - С. 239.

Ср.: 1) What is it then that makes dubbing a viable alternative when it is so expensive? The argument seems to be that costs do not matter too much if revenues are big enough.

Что же что делает дублирование обоснованной альтернативой, когда это так дорого? Ответ очевиден - затраты не имеют значения, если доходы достаточно высоки.

Нередко и использование парцеллированных конструкций, которые упрощают структуру предложения, передавая информацию по частями. Данные конструкции могут выражать точку зрения автора. (М. Н. Кожина) Кожина М.Н. Стилистический энциклопедический словарь русского языка; члены редколлегии Е.А.Баженова, М.П.Котюрова, А.П.Сковородников. -2-е издание, испр. и доп. - М.: Флинта: Наука, 2006. - С. 239.

Ср.: 1) The constraining factors of this approach are very obvious. One important consideration is the loss of authenticity.

Сдерживающие факторы такого подхода очевидны. Одна из проблем- утрата аутентичности.

В данном примере с помощью парцеллированной конструкции детализируется сообщение, выделяются наиболее существенный момент. То есть второе предложение «One important consideration is the loss of authenticity.» - «Одна из проблем - утрата аутентичности несет в себе основную мысль.

Также следует отметить: инверсии, короткие вопросительные, восклицательные и номинативные предложения, риторические вопросы, присоединительные конструкции и тд. Все эти экспрессивные и образные средства являются характерной чертой научно-популярного стиля. (К. В. Прохорова) Прохорова К. В. Научный стиль: учебно-методическое пособие для студентов-журналистов. - Санкт-Петербург, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 1998. - С. 18.

Еще одним необходимым элементом данного подстиля является субъективация повествования или выражение личностного начала. Данная особенность - главная отличительная черта научно-популярного подстиля от других разновидностей научной речи. Основная задача - донести и сделать понятной научную информацию, а также заинтересовать читателей. Авторское «я» облегчает данную задачу. (К. В. Прохорова) Там же, С. 17.

Ср.: 1) Based on the premises outlined above, my conclusion is that subtitling is normally a better approach to screen translation than is dubbing.

На основе указанного выше, я пришел к выводу, что по сравнению с дублированием, субтитрование является лучшим подходом для экранного перевода.

2) I have heard the term `over-voicing' to describe the super-imposition of a second voice in the context of an interview in a commercial video.

Я слышал термин «переозвучивание» для описания наложения второго голоса для интервью в коммерческом видео.

И последняя особенность научно-популярного стиля - наличие заголовков. Они выполняют информативную и рекламную функции. В заголовках часто используются эмоционально-окрашенные средства языка. (М. Н. Кожина) Кожина М.Н. Стилистический энциклопедический словарь русского языка; члены редколлегии Е.А.Баженова, М.П.Котюрова, А.П.Сковородников. -2-е издание, испр. и доп. - М.: Флинта: Наука, 2006. - С. 240.

Ср.: 1) Dubbing versus Subtitling:

Old Battleground Revisited

Дублирование против субтитрования:

Возвращение на старое поле боя

Для перевода последней фразы «Old Battleground Revisited» - «Возвращение на старое поле боя» был использован способ перестановки.

«Таким образом, языковые средства выразительности научно-популярного подстиля выступают лишь как сопутствующее явление стиля, они придают научным текстам большую убедительность, наглядность. Произведения научно-популярного подстиля требуют от автора в равной степени и научной осведомленности, и художественного таланта. Писать о серьезных научных проблемах просто, доступно, понятно и интересно - основная задача журналистов, создающих материалы научно-популярного характера.» Прохорова К. В. Научный стиль: учебно-методическое пособие для студентов-журналистов. - Санкт-Петербург, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 1998. - С. 18-19.



ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ

При переводе текстов аудиовизуальной тематики, где смешаны признаки научного стиля и научно-популярного подстиля, переводчик сталкивается с различного рода переводческими трудностями, для решения которых необходимо адекватно выполнить перевод и сделать его понятным и интересным для читателей - неспециалистов. Для выполнения этих задач переводчик, будучи посредником между двумя разными культурами и языками, должен обладать хорошим уровнем фоновых знаний, уметь трансформировать мысли автора научного текста в доступной для читателя форме и быть достаточно осведомленным в определенной научной сфере, только тогда перевод текста научного и научно-популярного стиля может считаться удачным.

Исходя из признаков, характерных для научного стиля речи, можно сделать вывод, что основные его признаки:

- точность в употреблении терминологии, употребление прямых значений слов, использование общеупотребительной и общенаучной лексики, а также интернационализмов, аббревиатур, преобладание имен существительных;

- отвлеченная-обобщенность, абстрактность;

- логичность и объективность изложения, использование клише;

- прямой порядок слов, использование сложноподчиненных, бессоюзных и безличных предложений, а также пассивных конструкций;

- скрытая эмоциональность;

- однородность (из-за малого количества синонимов, употребляются одни и те же слова и словосочетания);

- монологичный характер речи;

- авторитетность (использование примеров, ссылок и тд.);

Указанный ниже отрывок из переведенного текста является абсолютным примером чисто научного стиля:

Ср.: 1) The unresolved terminology employed in the wider discipline of AVT (Orero, 2004: vii) also applies to the field of voice-over. Many definitions of the term have described voice-over in a misleading or inaccurate form. Thus, it has been referred to as a category of revoicing, lip synchronisation dubbing, narration and free commentary (Luyken et al., 1991: 71; Baker and Brano, 1998: 75; O'Connell, 2003: 66); as a type of dubbing, either `non-synchronized dubbing' (Dries, 1995: 9), or its opposite `doublage synchrone' (Kaufmann, 1995: 438). It has also been described as `dubbing-with-voice-over' (Baranitch, 1995: 309), as a type of interpreting (Pцnniц, 1995: 303; Gambier, 1996: 8) and finally as `half-dubbing' (Hendrickx, 1984).

Терминология, которая используется в более обширной дисциплине АВП (Ореро, 2004: VII), также является неразрешимой проблемой для сферы голоса за кадром. Многие определения этого термина - ложные или неточные. В результате, голос за кадром был рассмотрен как категория озвучивания, синхронного дублирования, закадрового текста и вольных комментариев (Луикен др., 1991: 71.; Бейкер и Брано, 1998: 75; О'Конел, 2003: 66); как тип дублирования либо как «не синхронное дублирование» (Дрис, 1995: 9); как его противоположность - «двойная синхрония» (Кауфман, 1995: 438). Он также был представлен как «дублирование с голосом за кадром» (Баранич, 1995: 309), как тип перевода (Поньё, 1995: 303; Гамбир, 1996: 8), и, наконец, как «полу-дублирование» (Хендрикс, 1984).

Данный отрывок насыщен терминологией («voice-over» - «голос за кадром», «revoicing» - «озвучивание» и тд.), общеупотребительной и общенаучной лексикой («discipline» - «дисциплина», «category» - «категория»). Все слова имеют прямое значение, используются интернационализмы («terminology» - «терминология»), аббревиатуры («AVT» - «АВП»). Преобладают имена существительные. Логичность и объективность изложения достигаются с помощью прямого порядка слов, сложноподчиненных, бессоюзных и безличных предложений, пассивных конструкций. Характер речи монологичный. Для повышения авторитетности используются фамилии известных ученых («Orero» - «Ореро», «Baranitch» - «Баранич»).

Исходя из признаков, характерных для научно-популярного подстиля, можно сделать вывод, что основные его признаки:

- термины, абстрактная и разговорная лексика, наличие фразеологизмов, пословиц и поговорок;

- преобладание глаголов над существительными, наличие у глаголов значения «необходимости»;

- использование эмоционально-экспрессивных средств, таких как эпитеты метафоры, олицетворения, сравнения, риторические вопросы, перефразы, каламбуры, вопросно-ответные комплексы, парцеллированные конструкции и тд.;

- занимательная и доступная подача научной информации;

- наличие авторского «я»;

- заголовки;

Приведенный ниже отрывок из оригинала текста является примером научно-популярного подстиля:

Ср.: 2) In France, cinema audiences have been able to choose between dubbed and subtitled versions of major productions for a number of years. Although it is still only the thin end of the wedge, a similar development can now be seen in Scandinavia. What is it then that makes dubbing a viable alternative when it is so expensive? The argument seems to be that costs do not matter too much if revenues are big enough. If lip synchronisation can attract bigger audiences, increased translation costs would not present too much of a problem. The television business is increasingly preoccupied with ratings. If a network is able to get an edge on its competitors, costs are not likely to hold it back.

Долгое время во Франции киноаудитория могла выбирать между дублированной и субтитрованной версией фильма. Хотя это еще цветочки, ягодки - впереди, подобное можно увидеть и в Скандинавии. Что же что делает дублирование обоснованной альтернативой, когда это так дорого? Ответ очевиден - затраты не имеют значения, если доходы достаточно высоки. Если синхронное озвучивание может привлечь большую аудиторию, повышение стоимости перевода не является большой проблемой. Телевизионный бизнес больше думает о рейтингах. Если у телесети есть возможность обойти конкурентов, расходы не помеха.

В данном отрывке также имеется терминология («subtitled version» - «субтитрованная версия»), абстрактная и разговорная лексика, фразеологизмы, пословицы и поговороки («it is still only the thin end of the wedge» - «это еще цветочки, ягодки - впереди»). Глаголы преобладают над существительными. Используются эмоционально-экспрессивные средства: олицетворение («business is preoccupied» - «бизнес думает»), вопросно- ответные комплексы. Подача научной информации происходит в занимательной и доступной форме.

Поскольку текст перевода обладает всеми вышеописанными признаками научного стиля и научно-популярного подстиля, он является своего рода гибридом. Будучи неспециалистом в сфере аудиовизуального перевода, с учетом всех нюансов, автор перевода постарался вникнуть в суть данной научной области и перевести текст максимально понятно и доступно для читателя. В ходе исследования были выполнены все цели и задачи дипломной работы: рассмотрены и проанализированы все признаки, характерные как для научного стиля, так и для научно - популярного подстиля, проанализированы трудности перевода и способы переводческих решений для адекватного перевода научного издания.



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Приложение А

Оригинал фрагмента книги, главы 7, 10, 11

«Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer on Screen», edited by

Jorge Dнaz Cintas and Gunilla Anderman, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2009

Dubbing versus Subtitling:

Old Battleground Revisited

Jan-Emil Tveit

Introduction

Early in the twentieth century the new film medium transcended all national and cultural borders, but with the arrival of the talkies, the film industry faced a translation problem since only a small percentage of the world's population understood English. As a result, there was a growing need to find appropriate screen translation approaches.

In Europe, France became a forerunner experimenting with both dubbing and subtitling. It did not take long, however, to find out that both approaches had their disadvantages: it was even claimed that translating a film ruined it. To solve the problem a third approach was tried out in the form of multiple versions, which meant that films were shot in several languages instead of one. But the different versions were not on an equal footing, and it did not take long before it became obvious that the TL-versions were suffering. A main problem was that their linguistic quality was not up to par.

As time went by, however, French audiences grew increasingly dissatisfied with subtitling and dubbing gained considerable territory. Along with other countries like Italy, Spain and Germany, France gradually developed into a dubbing stronghold, while the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, on the other hand, opted for subtitling. During the first few years, this was largely a question of money. But much has changed since the arrival of the talkies and the advent of television. Which one of these two translation solutions is the best option for today? In order to answer this question, I will compare the two approaches paying special attention to their constraining factors.

Constraining factors of subtitling

Whereas it may be argued that subtitling is the only intelligent solution (Reid, 1978), it has also been claimed that this approach is only the lesser of two evils (Marleau, 1982). And there is no doubt that subtitling has its constraints.

An important aspect of the subtitling process is the filtering of potential loss of information: for the purposes of expressing nuances the written word cannot possibly compete with speech. Hence a large number of lexical items tend to be required in order to match what is conveyed by stress, rhythm and intonation. Normally, however, the subtitler does not have room for wordy formulations or complex structures: in order to enhance readability, brevity is the essence. And if the subtitles are to remain on the screen long enough for audiences to read them, contraction is a must, which in turn can result in a regrettable loss of lexical meaning. Often it is not easy to decide what to leave out. Although there are redundant linguistic features in speech, sometimes even slight omissions may bring about significant changes in meaning.

It is difficult to generalise when it comes to reading speed and rate of standardised presentation. According to Luyken et al. (1991), the reading speed of adult viewers hovers around 150 to 180 words per minute. This is, however, subject to extensive variation and depends on the complexity of the linguistic and factual information that the subtitles contain. If lexical density is high, accessibility to the information tends to be low, which calls for added subtitle exposure time.

Furthermore, readability is said to be affected by film genre. This is how Minchinton (1993: 14-15) comments on love stories: `Viewers need not read many of the titles; they know the story, they guess the dialogue, they blink down at the subtitles for information, they photograph them rather than read them'. Crime stories, according to Minchinton, may give translators and viewers a harder time: if the action is to be understood the subtitles have to be read.

A further point made by Minchinton concerns reading speed that may be affected by the viewers' attitude to the subject matter of films or programmes. He suggests that if viewers find a story exciting they are able to read the subtitles faster. On the other hand, it may be argued that the more interesting audiences find a film, the less inclined they are to spend the time reading.

As far as television subtitling is concerned, condensation levels vary between countries. If we compare the Scandinavian countries, stricter rules have traditionally applied in Sweden than in Norway and Denmark. In Sweden the duration of a full double-line subtitle is supposed to be 6-7 seconds, compared to 5 seconds in Denmark. The position of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) is that a full double-line subtitle should remain on the screen for at least 6 seconds.

Except for some research carried out in Sweden a couple of decades ago, the definition of readability is determined more by common sense than on research results. By way of obtaining what I felt was necessary empirical evidence, I decided to test whether the exposure time of Norwegian subtitles could be cut down without significantly reducing readability and comprehension. My samples were drawn from pupils/students at nine Norwegian lower and upper secondary schools. There were 508 respondents of between 13 and 20 years of age, and the response rate turned out to be as high as 95%. The samples would appear to be sufficiently random to constitute a representative cross-section of Norwegians belonging to these age groups (Tveit, 2005).

My results showed that the retention of textual information was only marginally reduced when the exposure time of each subtitle was cut by 1 second. Hence readability was not dramatically affected when the duration of a full double-line subtitle decreased from 6 to 5 seconds. When the exposure time was cut by a further second, however, the situation changed significantly, most respondents losing out on a considerable amount of information.

Cohesive devices are often considered omittable. But although they may not have obvious semantic functions, these still play an important role in making relationships and events explicit. A text that does not contain words of this kind may be difficult to access, and omitting cohesive devices in order to boost readability can therefore prove counterproductive. It may, indeed, reduce readability.

Admittedly, Gottlieb (1997) has a point when he emphasises the fact that subtitling is additive by nature, that is verbal material is added to the original programme and nothing is removed from it. The usefulness of this addition, however, depends on the viewers' comprehension of the original dialogue. It is true that tone of voice, stress and intonation may contribute to conveying information across language barriers, but if source and target languages are poles apart in terms of lexis, the value of keeping the original soundtrack may be rather limited. Very few Scandinavian viewers benefit much from dialogue in Russian or Greek being retained in order to further understanding of lexical meaning. They may benefit greatly, however, if the dialogue is in a language similar to their own, and therefore, comprehension is markedly facilitated for Norwegian television audiences when Swedish interviewees appear in, for instance, news bulletins as, in addition to being subtitled into Norwegian, they continue to speak in Swedish.

Although my research indicates that it is possible to reduce exposure time by a second, it is difficult to generalise in terms of reading speed and rates of presentation of information. As mentioned, the complexity of the linguistic and factual information has to be taken into account.

Traditionally, a distinction has been made between television and video on the one hand and cinema on the other. It has been assumed that identical subtitles are easier to read on the cinema than on the television screen. The reason for this has never been satisfactorily investigated, but it is assumed to be related to the size of the screen, the font used for the letters, and the better image resolution of the cinema.

Spoken versus written language

Another constraining factor of subtitling results from the spoken word containing dialectal and sociolectal features which are extremely difficult to account for in writing. Whereas spoken language tends to contain unfinished sentences along with redundant speech and interruptions, writing has a higher lexical density and a greater economy of expression. In addition, written translations of spoken language often display a tendency toward nominalisation, whereby verbal elements are turned into nouns. Hence it is difficult to retain the flavour of the spoken mode in subtitles. When it comes to keeping the register and appropriateness of the SL-version dubbing can undoubtedly be at an advantage.

Previously it was rather common for informal stylistic features of speech to be replaced by more formal and inappropriate language in subtitles, but in this respect a marked improvement can be observed in recent years. It could well be that the orientation away from a traditional `bookish' approach is related to the increasing number of American productions that are shown on television in Norway. This reflects a trend away from a formal register of language in American culture. Sitcoms like Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld and Ally McBeal are far from easy to handle for screen translators and seem to have contributed to making subtitlers more aware of the need to handle register at both the lexical and syntactic level. The translation of such programmes into other languages requires a high degree of communicative competence.

Traditionally, Norwegian television has handled four-letter words with conspicuous caution. Since the advent of television, taboo words have been used increasingly in foreign language programmes that the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation has bought from abroad, but they have not always been translated into equally strong language. This has to do with the assumption that the effect of swear words is reinforced when they are printed. Not uniformly accepted in a country like Norway with its deep-rooted puritan traditions, it now seems strange that it took such a long time for Norwegian translators to challenge the assumption that the printed swear word is stronger than the spoken one. If anything, it ought to be the other way around; a printed representation is probably only a weaker version of a word pronounced with stress and intensity. Literature is full of four-letter words and it seems hardly likely that their force or effect would be reduced in films based on the books.

As for the handling of four-letter words in translation, the most difficult task I have encountered was the translation of a Channel Four production portraying Graham Taylor who had been sacked as England manager following the failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in soccer. The programme provided me with a number of challenges, not least because of its continuous context-dependent changes of style and register. It ranged from the elevated and analytical language of Channel Four reporters to Graham Taylor giving his players a dressing down for being unable to produce their best results. The most difficult part to transfer to Norwegian was Taylor's verbal behaviour during matches. As the ball did not roll England's way that season, four-letter words were fired in rapid succession. Pretty much in line with Norwegian subtitling tradition and what I had been trained to do, I tried my best to tone down the expressive force of the four-letter words, in addition to leaving many of them out. But on the day that the programme was to be broadcast, Norwegian morning newspapers focused on the reception the programme had got in the UK, where Graham Taylor's strong language had created a stir. As a result, I felt I had to change a number of my translation solutions, the neutralisation strategy having turned out to be inappropriate. Fortunately, I still had a couple of hours to bring the register of the target version in line with the rather colourful original. When the programme was aired in the late evening, the subtitled Norwegian version contained a rather high number of four-letter words; there were no viewer reactions in the days and weeks to follow.

Visual, spatial and decoding restraints

In addition to linguistic restraints there is the visual factor. Trying their best to read everything that has been translated, viewers are often unable to concentrate adequately on other important visual information and sometimes also on oral information. This is regrettable since audiovisual programmes combine words and images, and the translation should observe the interrelation between the way a plot is told and the manner in which it is shown. Subtitles should synchronise not only with speech, but also with image.

Twenty years ago, cinema and television films were cut less fast than they tend to be now. This is undoubtedly an important reason why the history of subtitling does not contain much discussion of editing and camera manipulation techniques. Visual aspects are now more an issue, which reflects the rapid development of the last couple of decades in camera manipulation, sequence construction and programme editing. This is not only due to the number of cameras involved and the way they are used, but also to what takes place when the filming of a programme is complete, when the different sections, with their shots, scenes and sequences, are assembled and edited.

It is increasingly important for the subtitles to be integrated with the film and to fall in with the rhythm of the visual information on the screen. This is far from easy to achieve when the editing of the film is gaining momentum and the flow of the shots is adjusted to the demands of the narrative and the impact on the audience. With respect to spatial constraints, in the Nordic countries, one- and two-line subtitles are used. The length of the line varies, but normally does not exceed 38 characters. The main limiting factors are the size of the television screen and the size of the font.

When the subtitles follow each other in rapid succession, reading one two-liner appears to be less strenuous than reading two one-liners containing the same amount of information. Although precise timing has usually been defined in terms of subtitle-speech synchronisation, research carried out by Baker (1982) in Great Britain indicates that subtitles overrunning shot changes cause perceptual confusion. Interesting as these results may appear, they do not seem to have had too much of an impact on subtitling territory in the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries and the great majority of Norwegian screen translators still favour two-line subtitles.

Sometimes, however, two lines occupy too much space and interfere substantially with the visual information and composition of the picture. A case in point is the animation series South Park, where the bodies and faces of the characters fill up most of the screen. This series can be difficult to handle for subtitlers. Also in news bulletins, faces often dominate the screen as the camera focuses on the so-called `talking head' but since there is limited activity in the picture, the viewers are able to concentrate on the translation.

News, current affairs and documentary programmes frequently contain captions or inserts. These are texts added to the film after shooting. They may be names of people taking part, or names of places visited or shown. As captions often appear at the bottom of the screen, there is the risk that they may collide with the subtitles, a situation that should obviously be avoided.

Decoding may present translators with a difficult task due to the presence of ambiguities. Normally a translator has the means of following up unclear linguistic or factual points; for the subtitler, however, this is not necessarily the case. One reason may be the lack of a manuscript or dialogue list, often the situation when interviews are made in news programmes. However, as the reporter tends to know enough about the context, the subtitler may be helped with potential decoding problems.

Frequently the subtitler does not have the time to obtain adequate knowledge of the context. In addition, the huge number of varieties of English - and the fact that the interviewees' command of the language may be far from satisfactory - often make translation a rather difficult process. A mistake may occur after the translator has spent considerable time trying to decode a difficult word. But sometimes we simply misinterpret what somebody is saying without realising it until we are con-fronted with our mistake at a later stage. The following mistake belongs to the latter category. It was made by Swedish television in a translation of Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. The words of the president were: `We've created nine and a half million jobs, more than half of them high-wage jobs'. The translator, who does not appear to have had access to a manuscript, produced the following translation:

Vi har skapat 9 Ѕ milj.arbetsplatser,

mer гn hдlften inom motorvдgsarbete.

[We have created nine and a half million jobs,

more than half of them highway jobs.]

Mishearing phonemes is a common type of decoding mistake, and seems to be what occurred here. The translator must have been convinced that s/he heard `highway jobs' (motorvдgsarbete) and not `high-wage jobs'. In this particular case there is no doubt that decoding was extremely difficult. The two constructions contained very similar sounds. Nevertheless, common sense combined with adequate knowledge of US society and politics would probably have saved the translator from dropping this brick. After all, it would have been rather extraordinary if half of all new jobs had been created in the field of road construction - even in the homeland of Henry Ford.

Stringent deadlines in combination with decoding problems often present screen translators with difficulties and lead to misunderstandings, errors and inaccuracies. They represent considerable decoding constraints and are bound to have a negative impact on the quality of the translation. And when the audience has access to the Source Language dialogue, a high degree of translation accuracy is required.

The constraints of dubbing and lip synchronisation

When we experience state-of-the-art lip synchronisation, it is not difficult to understand why this method is the favoured screen translation approach in large parts of the world. However, the constraining factors of this approach are very obvious.

One important consideration is the loss of authenticity. An essential part of a character's personality is their voice, which is closely linked to facial expressions, gestures and body language. Authenticity is undeniably sacrificed when a character is deprived of their voice and instead the audience hears the voice of somebody else. At the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, I interviewed 25 people working in the film industry about their screen translation preferences. All but two said they favoured subtitling. When asked why, most of them answered that they regarded subtitling as the most intelligent and authentic option. For actors to experience what their contribution has been turned into in different Target Language versions must be somewhat startling, and it may seem a bit strange that directors do not put their foot down more often than they do, for example, in cases where dubbing has been favoured and subtitling would have been the preferred option.

When such linguistic transplantation takes place, it is not only authenticity that is sacrificed but, in addition, credibility, which may be particularly problematic in news and current-affairs programmes when voice-over is used. Reporters seem to be increasingly preoccupied with the dramatic effect subtitled interviews are reputed to have. This probably has to do with the transnational qualities of the human voice. Even if we do not understand the words of a foreign language, the voice itself may convey a great deal of information. Although intonation patterns often vary from language to language, universal features such as the expression of pain, grief and joy should not be ignored: linked to pitch, stress, rhythm and volume, they contribute considerably to conveying information not only about the speakers, but also about the context of which they form a part.

Voices reflect the mood and atmosphere of a situation, whether it is at a major sports event, the scene of an accident or the convention of a political party. The effect of a persuasive speech during a presidential or parliamentary election campaign is probably significantly reduced in a voice-over. Since many politicians capitalise on their voices, sound is an important part of their public image. The Northern Ireland politician Gerry Adams is a good example of the significance of the impact of a political voice. For a long period of time the British people did not have the opportunity to hear his voice on radio or television. Whenever Adams made a statement, it could only be broadcast when somebody else read his words, revealing the importance the British authorities attached to the voice of the charismatic politician. It also underlines the significance of letting the audience have access to the original soundtrack.

There is little doubt in my mind that subtitling has an important educational value. Visitors to the Scandinavian countries are often impressed by the standard of English of the people they meet, most of whom have never lived in an English-speaking country. Rather than reflecting the superior result of differing language teaching standards, it may in fact be the inherent pedagogical value of having access to the original English language soundtrack that has brought this to bear. In 1987 I undertook a study that had as its objective to monitor the needs, preferences and perceptions of the linguistic standard of 4,200 students of English from the following nine European countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands (Tveit, 1987). An interesting result of the study was that listening comprehension was perceived as significantly more difficult by students from `dubbing countries' than by students from `subtitling countries', the former category showing a much stronger need for an increased knowledge of vocabulary when communicating in English.

Dubbing is both expensive and time-consuming

A further factor to be considered is cost; dubbing is a lot more expensive than subtitling. The fact that figures vary considerably might be linked to the relationship between supply and demand. Since trained actors have traditionally been in short supply in small countries like Norway, the cost of using their services has been high, which has contributed to making subtitling a much cheaper alternative. Although the difference in cost has started to even out, dubbing remains 5 to 10 times more expensive. It might therefore seem odd that an increasing number of foreign films and television productions are dubbed for the Scandinavian markets. A case in point would be the family film (children under 7 are not admitted) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, 2005). It was dubbed into Norwegian, something that would hardly have happened a few years ago. Other productions that have been dubbed for the Scandinavian audiences in recent years are the animation films Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, 2001) and The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004). In France, cinema audiences have been able to choose between dubbed and subtitled versions of major productions for a number of years. Although it is still only the thin end of the wedge, a similar development can now be seen in Scandinavia.

What is it then that makes dubbing a viable alternative when it is so expensive? The argument seems to be that costs do not matter too much if revenues are big enough. If lip synchronisation can attract bigger audiences, increased translation costs would not present too much of a problem. The television business is increasingly preoccupied with ratings. If a network is able to get an edge on its competitors, costs are not likely to hold it back.

In 1997, an interesting screen translation experiment on subtitling took place in Scandinavia. TV 2, Norway's biggest commercial television channel, decided to test viewer reactions to lip synchronisation and the first three episodes of The Gregory Hines' Show were dubbed into Norwegian. Some of the country's most renowned actors were hired, and the show was given prime viewing time on Friday evenings. After three weeks the viewers were asked for their verdict. The result showed that 85% of the viewers wanted to see subtitled versions of the remaining episodes, a somewhat baffling reaction, considering The Gregory Hines Show is a family programme, aired at a time when parents tend to watch television together with their children, many of whom have not yet learned to read.

Film aficionados looked at the result as proof of subtitling being the best solution - and far superior to dubbing. But there is clearly a lot more to it than that, and tradition is a key word. One should not forget that preferences depend on what viewers are accustomed to - and Norwegians are used to subtitling. In a country lacking the tradition, it takes time to develop state-of-the-art dubbing. As for TV 2, the result of their market research seemed to convince the powers that be that dubbed versions did not attract big enough audiences.

Normally the dubbing process takes considerable time. In the case of news bulletins, it is obviously not possible to invite actors to play the parts of interviewees. Instead, the big US and European networks make use of voice-over. It is a reasonably speedy process, but it tends to distract viewers who tend to concentrate on the initial voice to the extent that they lose out on parts of the voice-over.

In most cases, the subtitling of news reports can be done swiftly, and often takes place minutes before the news bulletin starts. The subtitling of films and series can also be done surprisingly quickly, as illustrated by the following example dating back to the 1990s. A couple of hours after US television audiences had been treated to the solution to the murder mystery, the final episode of Murder One was on its way to Europe. It arrived in Norway 11 hours before the ending to Steve Bocho's drama was to be shown on Norwegian television. Nine hours later the target version had been brought to completion and the programme was ready for transmission. In dubbing countries such as Germany and Spain, the linguistic adaptation process would probably have taken weeks rather than hours, involving a large number of people. For a start, the dialogue list has to be translated. Then the chosen actors have to be given the time to study and rehearse their parts. The recording sessions also tend to take time. From this it would seem evident that as far as meeting stringent deadlines is concerned the usefulness of this screen translation approach is rather limited.

Conclusion

Based on the premises outlined above, my conclusion is that subtitling is normally a better approach to screen translation than is dubbing. This does not follow logically from counting the number of constraining factors of the two approaches, but has to do with the fact that some of the constraining factors are easier to get around or compensate for than others. In my opinion the loss of authenticity in dubbing, since important aspects of a character's personality are revealed through the use of their voice, is the biggest problem of all.

There are, however, cases where the voice does not form an integral part of a character, it simply belongs to the off-screen commentator. This tends to be the case in documentary programmes, which normally lend themselves more easily to revoicing than subtitling. Here, if the latter method is chosen, it may lead to extensive loss of information.

Programmes that are cut extremely fast and have rapid speech rates should not necessarily be subtitled. If readability requirements are to be met, the sheer levels of condensation needed result in too great a loss of information. In spite of all its disadvantages, in such cases dubbing may be the lesser of two evils. Moreover, films and programmes aimed at small children have to be dubbed for the simple reason that the target audiences have not yet learned to read.

Voice-over in Audiovisual

Translation

Pilar Orero

Introduction

Nowadays audiovisual translation (AVT) is a thriving field within Translation Studies. This is, however, a recent development. Although research in the audiovisual field dates back to 1932 (Franco and Orero, 2005), it remained in the realm of Film or Media Studies and it was only in the 1980s that it started to be studied from a translation perspective, within the discipline of Translation Studies. This transition from Film Studies to Translation Studies may account for the blurred terminology in use, the research guidelines and the somewhat unbalanced interest shown in the many modes within AVT. While subtitling and dubbing have been attracting interest in both research and teaching at university level, other techniques such as voice-over have been left aside or not clearly understood, as pointed out by Grigaravi? i? te and Gottlieb (1999), Franco (2000), and Gambier (2003).

Some scholars have analysed this unbalanced situation in the amount of attention paid to the many communication forms within AVT. Gambier and Suomela-Salmi (1994: 243) suggested the following possible explanation:

Up till now, research [in AVT] has mainly been concerned with the subtitling and dubbing of fictive stories/fiction films. In the light of the huge variety of audiovisual communication, this may seem somewhat surprising; in fact, however, it reflects the prevailing orientation in translation theory, which is still highly dominated by literary translation.

One could argue that most research carried out in AVT has concentrated on dubbing and subtitling because these are the modes used to translate fictive stories and fiction films, objects of study which tend to be favoured by academics. However, it seems to have been forgotten in many studies that in some countries like Poland and the Baltic States voice-over is used as the translation mode for films. The traditional stance in most academic studies has been to associate voice-over with the translation of documentaries covering topics like nature and travel (Luyken et al., 1991). The general trend has been to consider it as a technique suitable for the translation of non-fictional genres, an approach that Franco (2000: 3) regrets:

Translating reality must inevitably be a straightforward, non- problematic activity. What such a belief implies is that translated foreign material within non-fictional output (e.g. interviews in news and documentaries and sometimes commentaries as well) constitutes uninteresting data for the purposes of research. Traditionally claimed as objective, deprived of the artifices of literary language or cinematic invention, factual programmes would and could not represent any real challenge to the translator or stimulus to the researcher; in sum, the translation of `real life' would constitute a boring field of study.

Still, voice-over is normally included when scholars want to provide a taxonomy of the many - and not universally used - audiovisual translation modes. In some cases, voice-over has been classified within the technique of dubbing by authors such as Luyken et al. (1991: 80), Baker and Brano (1998: 75), Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997: 45), and Franco (2001: 290). No doubt, simplification and a lack of understanding of the media and its process have made voice-over to be seen in the same light as dubbing, which is certainly a different mode, subject to different translation and production processes. As a result, it comes as no surprise that reference works on AVT have not considered voice-over as a discrete entry (Luyken et al., 1991; Dries, 1995; Baker and Brano, 1998; Shuttleworth and Cowie, 1997; Sбnchez-Escalonilla, 2003).

The unresolved terminology employed in the wider discipline of AVT (Orero, 2004: vii) also applies to the field of voice-over. Many definitions of the term have described voice-over in a misleading or inaccurate form. Thus, it has been referred to as a category of revoicing, lip synchronisation dubbing, narration and free commentary (Luykenet al., 1991: 71; Baker and Brano, 1998: 75; O'Connell, 2003: 66); as a type of dubbing, either `non-synchronized dubbing' (Dries, 1995: 9), or its opposite `doublage synchrone' (Kaufmann, 1995: 438). It has also been described as `dubbing-with-voice-over' (Baranitch, 1995: 309), as a type of interpreting (Pцnniц, 1995: 303; Gambier, 1996: 8) and finally as `half-dubbing' (Hendrickx, 1984).

The process of voice-over has also been described as `the easiest and most faithful of the audiovisual translation modes' (Luyken et al., 1991: 80; Dнaz Cintas, 1997: 112). This definition, however, has not helped towards further understanding of the technique and bears little resemblance to the real process of translation. A possible reason for this reputed easiness and faithfulness of voice-over is its alleged disregard for synchronisation between source and target texts, pointed out originally by Luyken et al. (1991: 80) and later by Lambert and Delabastita (1996: 41), Franco (1998: 236), and Grigaravi? i? te and Gottlieb (1999).

To date, attempts to define voice-over seem to have focused on its reception. That is, voice-over is viewed as the final product we hear when watching a programme where a voice in a different language than that of the original programme is heard on top of the original soundtrack. This new voice is normally recorded some seconds into the beginning of the original utterance - and sometimes finishes before the actual person on screen - allowing the viewer to hear part of the original, although this practice is not universal.

These technical dimensions mentioned by numerous translation scholars when defining voice-over may have a common starting point that can be traced back to Luyken et al. (1991: 80) who in their seminal book Overcoming Language Barriers in Television described voice-over not as a complex and highly specialised translation technique but as:

The faithful translation of original speech. Approximately synchronous delivery. It is normally used only in the context of a monologue such as an interview response or series of responses from a single interviewee. The original sound is either reduced entirely or to a low level of audibility. A common practice is to allow the original sound to be heard for several seconds at the onset of the speech and to have it subsequently reduced so that the translated speech takes over. This contributes to the sense of authenticity in the translation and prevents a degree of mistrust from developing. Alternatively, if the translation is recorded as part of the original production, it may follow the original speech exactly.