Article,
Studying subtitle translation from a multi-modal approach
Babel: Revue internationale de la traduction/International Journal of Translation, (2007)
Abstract
This paper investigates subtitle translation from a multi-modal approach. Approaching subtitle translation from a multi-modal perspective is an attempt to consider subtitle translation as intersemiotic translation. It suggests that subtitle translation involves more than the spoken mode, but also involves other semiotic modes, such as the mode of sound effects, the mode of moving images, the mode of music and the written mode. In doing this, this paper takes an approach in which the multiplicity of modes in film is represented in the subtitle translation. From a theoretical point of view, it assumes that all modes are given equally serious attention. From this perspective, this paper focuses on two interrelated areas: (1) how the concept of mode works in the translating process; that is, how the translator makes use of the specialized meaning of each mode (2) how the translator represents the meaning of the source text through the target modes; that is, how the translator organizes the specialized meanings to produce the target text designed for the target context. In other words, this paper aims to understand the interrelations of the materiality and the representation of subtitle translation, to explore the previously-ignored but significant resources in the multiplicity of modes of subtitle translation, and to help to come closer to a satisfactory theoretical framework to deal with subtitle translation.
