1,720,967 research outputs found
Vocatives galore in audiovisual dialogue: Evidence from a corpus of American and British films
No full textThe paper explores the use of vocatives in a corpus of 24 American and British films (the Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue) by comparing film dialogue with spontaneous speech. A systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis of empirical data is provided to assess how address forms used by English speakers in natural verbal exchanges are reproduced on screen, and to identify patterns of address that can be regarded as distinctive of film dialogue. The findings show a higher frequency of vocatives in film dialogue, which serve diegetic and extradiegetic functions. From a qualitative point of view, filmic speech effectively reproduces interpersonal functions and sociolinguistic variation associated with vocatives in spontaneous interactions; on the other hand, it is characterized by a sophisticated use of address strategies accounted for in terms of authorial expressivity
Address practices in academic interactions in a pluricentric language: Australian english, American english, and British english
Full text linkFollowing the recent development of address research in pluricentric languages (Clyne et al. 2006), the present study describes address practices in English-speaking academic settings and pursues two main objectives: (a) to provide a profile of address patterns in academic interactions in Australian English; and (b) to compare address practices in higher education across the three dominant varieties of English, namely American English, Australian English, and British English. The data on Australian English are drawn from 235 questionnaires completed by students, who reported on the address strategies adopted by students and teaching staff in classroom interactions in an Australian university. Data on American and British academic settings were retrieved from the research literature on the topic. The findings show a high degree of informality and familiarity in student-teacher relations in Australia, where reciprocal first names are the default pattern of address at all levels. By contrast, in American academia the hierarchical organization of roles and the different professional positions are foregrounded and reinforced through an asymmetrical use of titles, honorifics and first names. Finally, the British university setting displays a non-reciprocal usage of first names and titles between lecturer and students, which gradually evolves into a more generalised reciprocal use of first names, usually after extended contact and collaboration. We argue that the distinctive patterns of address observed in the three varieties of English reflect diverse social and cultural values systems at work in different speech communities
Comparing insults across languages in films: Dubbing as cross-cultural mediation
No full textInsults are prototypical means to express impoliteness in social interactions. In film they are prime ways of staging conflict or jocular abuse, reflecting everyday communicative practices while contributing to the emotionality of dialogue, characterisation and plot advancement. Both original and dubbed films offer a privileged perspective to investigate the codification of impoliteness within and across linguacultures. In this contribution, we hypothesise that cross-cultural mediation in dubbing arises from hybridisation, a product of the contact between source and target language. Drawing on a parallel and comparable corpus of original and dubbed films, the study focuses on two major categories of insults and explores contrastively their overall frequency, the distinction between genuine and mock impoliteness and the structural complexity of forms. A degree of comparability is observed across Anglophone, Italian and dubbed Italian films, although distinctive trends also emerge from the corpus analysis. If Italian films globally make more frequent use of insults, Anglophone films stand out for their greater reliance on mock impoliteness and greater elaboration of forms. Dubbed films tend to position midway, reproducing source language patterns, while also partaking distinguishing lexico-grammatical traits of the target language. The results substantiate the function dubbing serves in cross-cultural mediation by activating an array of frames of reference that allow the new receiving audiences to experience foreign communication practices from their native language perspective
Address practices of Deaf undergraduate students and faculty: A study of language, identity, and community
No full textThe members of a community have conventionalized linguistic structures to convey both the content of a message and the social status of the interlocutors. Crucial in the codification of interpersonal relations are address terms, which are determined by pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic norms (Leech, 1983:11) related to the language system, the local communicative event and the broader social context. The study examines the usage of address terms (direct address, reference, introductions) at a bilingual university that uses American Sign Language (ASL) as language of instruction and socialization, and English in teaching/learning materials, email correspondence, written announcements, inter alia. Based on interviews with Deaf undergraduate students and Deaf faculty members, the study investigates the production of address terms in this bilingual academic setting and discusses the factors that shape their usage, including ASL linguistic structure, English address norms, participants’ educational background, age and status, sociocultural characteristics of the Deaf community, and assumptions from society-at-large. The results reveal that Deaf students and faculty have expectations about address practices inside and outside university campus and follow a complex set of norms in ASL and written English. The findings also provide insights into how members of the Deaf community experience linguacultural contact between signed and spoken/written languages
Address in Italian academic interactions: The power of distance and (non)-reciprocity
No full textThe chapter offers a detailed description of address practices in Italian academic interactions, based on the reported usage of address forms by students and lecturers via questionnaires. The data reveal that the reciprocal use of V form Lei is the main strategy to convey respect and distance. However, they also show that a frequent practice is the non-reciprocal use of pronouns (Lei-tu) and the combination of lexical forms encoding various degrees of social distance (names, titles, honorifics). Address non-reciprocity is perceived as the natural reflection of different roles and relative age, and is evaluated positively by the majority of students, the increase in familiarity putting students at ease inside and outside class
Translating slanguage in British and American films: a corpus-based analysis
No full textThe translation of slang in British and American film
“It feels like bits of me are crumbling or something”. General extenders in original and dubbed television dialogue
No full textVague language is a common feature of everyday conversation that is also reflected in fictional dialogue, to which it conveys spontaneity and naturalness. The rendering of vague language expressions may pose problems for translators due to cross-cultural differences between the two languages involved. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies dubbing translators use in dealing with a particular type of vague language, namely general extenders. The term denotes a set of multi-word units, such as, for example, or something, and everything, and stuff, which are characteristically associated with informal spoken language. The main characteristic of these expressions is that they do not have independent reference, but rather serve to indicate that the expression preceding the conjunction is not to be taken as precise or exhaustive. Research has shown that the translation of these devices can be problematic, since not only do languages differ in the way they express vagueness, but even when identical or similar forms are shared, there is no overlapping of functions, plus there can be divergence in frequency and conditions of use.
This paper reports on the results of a preliminary study conducted on a small parallel corpus of recent British and American television series. The findings reveal that general extenders are frequently omitted in dubbing owing to a number of factors, the most important of which are the limits imposed by synchronization as well as the divergence between source and target language norms. It is suggested that translators’ concern for target audience expectations and levels of understandability should also be counted among the factors that determine translation choices
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