Linguistic Issues and Quality Assessment of English-Arabic Audiovisual Translation

216 Pages·2018·2.24 MB·English

by  Ahmad Khuddro

Linguistic Issues
and Quality
Assessment of
English-Arabic
Audiovisual
Translation

Linguistic Issues
and Quality
Assessment of
English-Arabic
Audiovisual
Translation
By
Ahmad Khuddro
Linguistic Issues and Quality Assessment
of English-Arabic Audiovisual Translation

By Ahmad Khuddro

This book first published 2018

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2018 by Ahmad Khuddro

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-1318-1
ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1318-1
Ahmad Khuddro is a former visiting professor at Bologna University,
Italy; the former chair of the English and Translation Dept and currently
secretary general of graduate studies council at Effat University, KSA;
visiting professor at London City University, UK; and an authority on
English–Arabic audiovisual translation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1
Introduction
1.1 Focus ................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Value and Significance .................................................................... 2
1.3 A New Perspective of Audiovisual Translation (AVT) .................. 2
1.4 Audiovisual Material Used .............................................................. 3
1.5 Outline ............................................................................................. 4
Chapter Two ................................................................................................ 7
Audiovisual Translation and Linguistic Background
2.1 Defintion of Translation................................................................... 7
2.2 Audiovisual Translation (AVT) ..................................................... 10
2.2.1 Definition ............................................................................. 10
2.2.2 Main Modes/Genres of AVT ................................................. 10
2.2.3 Features of AVT: ................................................................... 15
2.2.3a Dubbing ......................................................................... 15
2.2.3b Subtitling....................................................................... 16
2.2.4 Complexities of Subtitling as a Supporting Toolkit
and Not as a Constraint ............................................................. 17
2.2.5 Multimodality and Multimediality in Audiovisuality ............ 21
2.2.6 Similarity between Drama Texts and Audiovisual Texts ...... 22
2.2.6.1 Drama Texts and Audiovisual Texts ............................. 22
2.3 Linguistic Background ................................................................... 28
2.3.1 Enkvist’s Model .................................................................... 29
2.3.1.1 Theme Dynamics .......................................................... 29
2.3.1.2 Cohesion Aspects .......................................................... 29
2.3.1.2a Contextual Cohesion ............................................. 30
2.3.1.2b Lexical Cohesion ................................................... 30
2.3.1.2c Clausal Linkage ..................................................... 30
2.3.1.2d Iconic Linkage ....................................................... 30
2.3.2 Gutwinski’s Model ................................................................ 31
2.3.2a Grammatical Cohesion ................................................... 31
2.3.2b LexicalCohesion ........................................................... 32
2.3.3 De Beaugrande and Dressler’s Model ................................... 32
2.3.4 Text Definition ...................................................................... 35
viii Table of Contents

2.3.4.1 Halliday and Hasan’s Approach to Text ....................... 36
2.3.4.1a What Text Is .......................................................... 36
2.3.4.1b Textual Situational Context ................................... 37
2.3.4.1c Textual Cultural Context ....................................... 38
2.3.4.2 De Beaugrande and Dressler’s Approach to Text ......... 38

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 40
Text-types of AVT
3.1 Typology of Audiovisual Text ....................................................... 40
3.2 Legal Text-type in Subtitling ......................................................... 41
3.3 Medical Text-type in Subtitling ..................................................... 44
3.4 Narrative Subtitles ......................................................................... 45
3.4.1 Numbers ................................................................................ 45
3.4.2 Stills such as Signs on a Road or Wall .................................. 47
3.5 Multilingualism and Audiovisual Material .................................... 47
3.6 Dialogue in Subtitling .................................................................... 49
3.6.1 The Use of Deictics ............................................................... 49
3.6.2 Ellipsis ................................................................................... 49
3.6.3 Exophora ............................................................................... 50
3.6.4 Technical Restraints—Duration and Reading Speed ............ 50
3.7 Idiomatic and Figurative Language in Subtitling ........................... 52
3.8 Colloquial Language in Subtitling ................................................. 53
3.8.1 The Use of Phrasal Verbs ...................................................... 53
3.8.2 The Use of Negation.............................................................. 54
3.8.3 Polysemous Lexical Items ..................................................... 54
3.8.4 Register ................................................................................. 56
3.8.5 Conversion of Imperial Measurements.................................. 56

Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 58
Issues Encountered and Plausible Solutions of English–Arabic Subtitling
4.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 58
4.2 Linguistic Aspects of Subtitling ..................................................... 58
4.2.1 Othrographical Issues ............................................................ 59
4.2.1.1 Arabic Spelling Schools................................................ 59
4.2.1.2 Typographic Errors ....................................................... 61
4.2.2 Grammatical Issues ............................................................... 62
4.2.2.1 Collective Nouns .......................................................... 64
4.2.2.2 Diacritics ....................................................................... 65
4.2.2.3 Duality .......................................................................... 65
4.2.2.4 Exophora—Deictics (Pointing Words)
and the Pronoun “You” ....................................................... 66
Linguistic Issues and Quality Assessment of English-Arabic ix
Audiovisual Translation
4.2.2.5 Gender .......................................................................... 67
4.2.2.6 Hamzas ......................................................................... 72
4.2.2.7 Negation ........................................................................ 73
4.2.2.8 Numbers ........................................................................ 74
4.2.2.9 Plurality ........................................................................ 74
4.2.2.10 Prepositions ................................................................ 76
4.2.3 Syntactic Issues ..................................................................... 76
4.2.3.1 Passive Voice and Active Sentence .............................. 77
4.2.3.2 Sentence Structure ........................................................ 78
4.2.3.3 Subject–Predicate Agreement ....................................... 80
4.2.3.4 Subject–Verb Agreement .............................................. 81
4.2.3.5 Wh-structure ................................................................. 81
4.2.4 Lexical/Semantic Issues ........................................................ 83
4.2.4.1 Acronyms ...................................................................... 83
4.2.4.1.1 Reading Speed ........................................................... 86
4.2.4.2 Collocation .................................................................... 87
4.2.4.3 Eponyms ....................................................................... 87
4.2.4.4 Polysemy ...................................................................... 88
4.2.4.5 Superordinates/Hypronyms .......................................... 89
4.2.4.6 Transliteration/Borrowing ............................................ 90
4.2.4.7 Word Choice ................................................................. 91
4.2.5 Technical Issue—Line Splitting ............................................ 92
4.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 92

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 95
Effective Strategies in Subtitling
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 95
5.2 Effective Strategies of Subtitling ................................................... 95
5.2.1 The Episode Wild Things ...................................................... 96
5.2.1.1 Addition ........................................................................ 96
5.2.1.2 Direct Translation ......................................................... 96
5.2.1.3 Intertextuality ................................................................ 96
5.2.1.4 Literal Translation ........................................................ 98
5.2.1.5 Shortening ..................................................................... 99
5.2.1.6 Less Wordy Translation, Less is Better ...................... 101
5.2.2 The Clip from the Film Good Morning, Vietnam ................ 102
5.2.2.1 Text, Context, Cohesive Devices, and Standards
of Textuality ...................................................................... 102

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