262,982 research outputs found
Functional equivalence and domestication strategies in film translation
No full textThe issue of equivalence has long been of crucial importance in translation theory, even though its definition and interpretation have often caused controversy among theorists within this field in the past fifty years. Undoubtedly, Eugene Nida is among the scholars who have approached the question from a functionalist perspective, proposing his well-known distinction between formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. It is a fact that in his pursuit of naturalness Nida theorises a target oriented approach to translation, an approach aiming at domesticating the target text, where “the target text language should not show interference from the source language, and the ‘foreignness’ of the source text setting is minimised” (Nida 1964: 167-8, quoted in Munday 2008: 42). Considering these assertions, it is not surprising that Venuti holds “Nida’s concept of dynamic equivalence up as the epitome of domesticating translation” (Woodham 2002: 138). Moreover, Nida’s statements related to the necessity of adaptations of grammar, lexicon and cultural references have sometimes been interpreted as a licence to freely manipulate the text in the name of functional equivalence. The relationship between functional equivalence and domestication strategies is particularly evident within the field of audiovisual translation. This is especially the case of dubbing, rather than subtitling. It is the nature of the two different screen translation modes that makes the former more inclined towards domestication and the latter towards foreignization. A clear example of the relationship between the search for functional equivalence and the use of domesticating strategies in dubbing can be found in the Italian versions of Quentin Tarantino’s films. Among the elements that characterise Tarantino’s style it is worth mentioning the numerous references to films and directors that are found in all the films written by the author. The aim of this analysis is to investigate the approaches adopted by the various film adaptors who have translated his screenplays into Italian in the specific case of the direct references to films and directors cited in the dialogues. It is a fact that the films written by Quentin Tarantino have been translated into Italian by different people and This obviously accounts for the fact that the translation strategies adopted are by no means homogeneous. This lack in homogeneity of strategies is observable at various levels (Parini 2000), and the case of the references in question is no exception
Audiovisual translation and censorship : the case of taboo language in mafia movies
No full textSince the dialogues of audiovisual works are written with the purpose of representing spontaneous spoken language (“written to be spoken as if not written”, Gregory and Carrol 1978:42), it is not surprising that taboo language is one of the features, together with slang and non-standard forms, that characterize many contemporary products, especially films. Indeed, such elements contribute to characterizing the language variety spoken both at the diamesic, and at the diaphasic and diastratic levels. As Pavesi and Malinverno (2000: 76) observe, these features have become even more common in a recent stream of American films, such as, among the others, mafia and gangster films. Indeed, taboo language is one of the verbal cultural metonymies (Bollettieri Bosinelli et al 2005: 405-427) that characterize the variety spoken by Italian Americans in mafia movies as a sociolect, as it contributes to conveying the characters’ belonging to the group of mobsters.
Several studies conducted on Italian dubbing reveal a general tendency to attenuate the level of obscene expressions present in the original films (Parini 1998: 208-209; Pavesi and Malinverno 2000: 77; 82; Chiaro 2000: 29; Pavesi 2005: 47). Sometimes this is due to the differences in the levels of tabooization of certain fields between the two cultures, on other occasions taboo expressions are not translated because of a lack of semantic and functional correspondence between English and Italian, while some other times the mitigation of taboo language in Italian dubbing is not ascribable to formal constraints, but is rather due to policies of censorship or even self-censorship. Indeed, attenuating the level of vulgarity of the language of American films is quite the norm in Italian dubbing, and it is often the translators themselves who level out the language, in compliance with the requests of the dubbing and production companies. The analysis of the Italian dubbed versions of five American mafia movies released in the 90s confirms this tendency, as will be shown in this paper
«A scuola più dei latini che dei nostri»: Virgil's classicism in Giuseppe Parini
No full textopenL'elaborato propone un confronto, a livello macro-testuale e micro-testuale, sul concetto di classicismo in Giuseppe Parini e sulla ripresa sistematica a livello stilistico, di immagini e concetti, del classicismo virgiliano, attingendo sia alle prime due opere di Virgilio, sia, in misura maggiore, all'Eneide. Un confronto più ravvicinato è istituito poi tra il Giorno e l'epica virgiliana, con i dovuti scarti e interventi operati dall'autore italiano
Il Parini epistolare
No full textRiflessioni e integrazioni (o correzioni) relative al volume delle Lettere, uscito nel 2013 nell'Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Giuseppe Parini, che toccano i punti salienti del corpus: la natura occasionale ed eterogenea dei documenti superstiti, spia della scarsa propensione dell’autore, a dispetto dei costumi del suo secolo, al commercio epistolare; la gittata ridotta – sul piano geografico – degli scambi, che ben riflettono il radicamento di Parini nel mondo milanese; il valore speciale di alcuni brani, come le sei lettere a Giuseppe Paganini, di dove emergono il culto del mittente per l’amicizia (di contro al rigetto di ogni forma di impostura e vanità) e la sua disponibilità all’amore (di un Parini ‘innamorato’, e per ciò stesso inappagato e inappagabile, testimoniano anche le tre lettere, più tarde, a Silvia Curtoni Verza); la possibilità di ricavare da tali carte tracce della vicenda compositiva del Giorno oppure del ruolo e delle mansioni pubbliche ricoperte da Parini in contatto con figure di spicco nell’amministrazione della Lombardia austriac
"I'm going to f***** kill you!" Verbal censorship in dubbed mafia movies
No full textSince the dialogues of audiovisual works are written with the purpose of representing spontaneous spoken language (“written to be spoken as if not written”, Gregory and Carrol 1978:42), it is not surprising that taboo language is one of the features, together with slang and non-standard forms, that characterize many contemporary products, especially films. Indeed, such elements contribute to characterizing the language variety spoken both at the diamesic, and at the diaphasic and diastratic levels. As Pavesi and Malinverno (2000: 76) observe, these features have become even more common in a recent stream of American films, such as, among the others, mafia and gangster films. Indeed, taboo language is one of the verbal cultural metonymies (Bollettieri Bosinelli et al 2005: 405-427) that characterize the variety spoken by Italian Americans in mafia movies as a sociolect, as it contributes to conveying the characters’ belonging to the group of mobsters.
Several studies conducted on Italian dubbing reveal a general tendency to attenuate the level of obscene expressions present in the original films (Parini 1998: 208-209; Pavesi and Malinverno 2000: 77; 82; Chiaro 2000: 29; Pavesi 2005: 47). Sometimes this is due to the differences in the levels of tabooization of certain fields between the two cultures, on other occasions taboo expressions are not translated because of a lack of semantic and functional correspondence between English and Italian, while some other times the mitigation of taboo language in Italian dubbing is not ascribable to formal constraints, but is rather due to policies of censorship or even self-censorship. Indeed, attenuating the level of vulgarity of the language of American films is quite the norm in Italian dubbing, and it is often the translators themselves who level out the language, in compliance with the requests of the dubbing and production companies. The analysis of the Italian dubbed versions of five American mafia movies released in the 90s confirms this tendency, as is shown in this paper
Functional equivalence and domestication strategies in film translation
No full textOne of the charges made against Nida's theory of dynamic equivalence is that “if we follow his injunction to preserve the genius of the target language, it will mean suppressing the Otherness of the source language” (Fawcett 1997). As a matter of fact, achieving functional equivalence in a translated text quite often implies strategies of domestication (Venuti, 1995). Countless examples of domestication strategies aiming to achieve functional equivalence can be found in Italian dubbing. Italian dubbing professionals have often claimed that the ultimate aim of their profession is to make the translation invisible, in order to create an effect of suspension of disbelief in the spectators (Galassi, 1994). In other words, their purpose is to make the dialogues sound as natural as possible, so that the audience are not disturbed in their vision by destabilizing unfamiliar linguistic and cultural elements. Such a target oriented approach very often leads to justify extreme examples of adaptation of the source text, and sometimes one might even wonder whether we can still speak about a search for functional equivalence, rather than simply of manipulation. A clear example can be found in the various strategies adopted in the Italian versions of Questin Tarantino's films. For the purposes of this paper, the particular case of the references to film titles has been taken into consideration. Being Tarantino an expert cinephile, such references are definitely recurrent in the dialogues of his films. However, the Italian translators quite often appear to have adopted a functional approach limited to the level of the single line to be dubbed, and not to the level of the macrocontext made up of the whole filmography of the author. Sometimes they have adopted strategies of substitution, others of generalization, others of omission, and even in the cases where the translation turns out to be functional at the level of the microcontext of the lines, most of the time such equivalence is achieved at the expense of a more comprehensive macrocontext
The translation of ethnolects and sociolects in animation. Case study : the Italian dubbing of ItalianAmerican gangsterspeak in DreamWorks’ Shark Tale
No full textThe use of dialects and regiolects in films is a long established practice that manipulates language as a tool in the construction of character. As Lippi-Green notes, ‘film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on established preconceived notions associated with specific national loyalties, ethnic, racial, or economic alliances’ (1997:81). This is even more evident in animated films, where language is used as a quick way to build character and reaffirm stereotype (ibid. 85). Disney feature films have often relied on language variation in order to convey specific characteristics of the characters (see Lippi-Green 1997; Di Giovanni 2003), and recent releases of animated films produced and distributed by other companies have shown to follow this tendency as well.
Shark Tale is a Computer-Generated Imagery comedy produced in 2004 by DreamWorks Animation. It tells the story of Oscar, a young fish who claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss in order to advance his own community standing. The characters of the film actually speak different variations of American English, which are used to attribute different features to them. Some characters speak a distinguishable African American hip-hop variety, whereas others speak Caribbean English. However, it is the use of the Italian American ethnolect which has become quite an issue for the distributors and producers of the film.
Indeed, the film underwent many critiques by various associations of Italian Americans concerned about the perpetuation of negative stereotypes related to their ethnic group. The variety in question is actually spoken in the film by a group of sharks that are a clear parody of the Italian American gangsters portrayed in films such as The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas, and TV series such as The Sopranos. The film is extremely rich in references to the mafia genre, both at a visual and a verbal level.
The linguistic cultural metonymies (Bollettieri Bosinelli et al. 2005: 405-427) that are used in order to quickly draw character are identifiable at various levels. First of all, the voices themselves are familiar to the American audience and are used as a tool to associate the characters with Italian American gangsters. The mobsters are played by Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and The Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore. Still at a phonological level, the pronunciation and intonation are definitely characteristic of the Italian American ethnolect. Moreover, at a lexical level, the dialogues are rich in slang and phrases that are clearly associated with the Italian American variety spoken by mobsters in mafia films.
As far as Italian dubbing is concerned, the analysis confirms the results of previous studies (Parini 2009b, 2009c). The Italian industry has an established practice related to the dubbing of mafia movies, so that it uses certain strategies in order to maintain the original verbal characterisation of the characters; strategies which are even more evident in the case of mafia comedies, and seem to be exaggerated in animation too. Such strategies consist in conferring to the target language specific characteristics which allow the audience to associate the speakers to the group of Italian American gangsters. Again, such verbal cultural metonymies are observable at various levels: phonological, lexical, and syntactic
The changing face of audiovisual translation in Italy
No full textEven though audiovisual translation currently involves the use of new modes, such as audiodescription and audiosubtitling, the two most common forms of screen translation still remain dubbing and subtitling. Italy is a traditionally dubbing country. Audiovisual products started to be dubbed in Italy in the 1930s, consequently to a Fascist law which forbade the use of any foreign word. Since then, the practice of dubbing has become so deeply rooted in the Italian culture that the dubbing industry has developed into an extremely active and profitable business. The practice of audiovisual translation has obviously undergone considerable changes during these years, and it is continuing to evolve. Specifically, such changes are observable both at a diatopic and at a diaphasic and diastratic level and they reflect the effort on the part of the dubbing professionals to make the language spoken in dubbed films as similar as possible to spontaneous spoken Italian
8 minuti per salvare Chicago - Source Code di Duncan Jones
No full text8 minuti per salvare Chicago - Source Code di Duncan Jones
di Ilaria Parin
Quentin Tarantino in italiano. Analisi comparata delle scelte linguistiche e culturali nelle sceneggiature
No full textQuesto saggio si propone di analizzare alcune sceneggiature scritte da Quentin Tarantino e le rispettive versioni doppiate in Italiano. Lo studio ha innanzitutto individuato alcune caratteristiche linguistiche ricorrenti in alcuni brani tratti da tre sceneggiature, le quali permettono di accomunare i tre testi e di descrivere il linguaggio usato negli stessi termini a livello diamesico, diafasico e diastratico. Il linguaggio dei tre brani tratti dalle sceneggiature originali può essere descritto come tipico della produzione linguistica orale delle classi socioculturali di basso o livello in contesti situazionali di tipo informale. Gli espedienti linguistici tramite i quali l’autore caratterizza in modo significativo il linguaggio su questi tre livelli sono la lingua non standard, lo slang e il linguaggio osceno. Dopo aver svolto un’analisi comparata tra i brani originali e le loro versioni tradotte in italiano, confrontando la trasposizione di tali elementi linguistici nelle versioni doppiate sono state tratte alcune conclusioni. A livello quantitativo si è riscontrato un totale di occorrenze minore rispetto alle versioni originali. Tuttavia, le connotazioni a livello diamesico, diafasico e diastratico del linguaggio dei brani tradotti risultano nel complesso mantenute. Conseguentemente, anche il linguaggio delle versioni doppiate dei brani può essere descritto in termini di produzione linguistica orale tipica delle classi socioculturali di basso livello in contesti situazionali di tipo informale. Ciononostante, si sono riscontrate alcune perdite nella caratterizzazione del linguaggio dei brani doppiati su altri livelli. Tali perdite sono dovute nella maggior parte dei casi alle differenze di base che esistono tra le due lingue; tuttavia in alcuni casi le perdite in caratterizzazione sono causate dalla traduzione non adeguata, o meglio, dalla mancata traduzione degli elementi, per cui le versioni doppiate risultano sotto alcuni punti di vista meno marcate e meno espressive delle versioni originali. Riguardo la trasposizione nelle versioni doppiate dei riferimenti culturali o extralinguistici presenti nelle versioni originali, le soluzioni adottate risultano differenti a seconda dei casi. In alcuni casi le scelte traduttive risolvono in maniera adeguata i problemi connessi ai riferimenti presenti nel testo originale a realtà extralinguistiche non familiari al pubblico italiano. In altri casi, invece, le scelte traduttive inadeguate compromettono la resa di alcuni elementi significativi a livello di caratterizzazione del contesto extralinguistico del brano. Non è possibile fare considerazioni generali riguardo le trasposizioni culturali nei brani tradotti, in quanto non risulta possibile delineare una linea comune di condotta nella scelta delle soluzioni adottate
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