The Languages of Dubbing: Mainstream Audiovisual Translation in Italy

293 Pages·2015·1.335 MB·

by  Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli, Elisa Ghia

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Linguistic Insights
206
Studies in Language and Communication
The purpose of this volume is to investigate the
languages of dubbing. The plural evokes the g
complex interplay of different codes as well as n
bi
the numerous levels of analysis involved. The b
u
volume focuses on the languages of Anglo- D
phone films and television series and their dub- of
bing into Italian while broadening the perspec- s
e
tive to the general debate on audiovisual trans- g
a
lation. Dubbing offers itself as a privileged gu
place where languages interact in simulating, an
creating and recreating fictive orality and e L
where influential linguistic and pragmatic con- h
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ventions are generated and developed. The •
chapters cover a rich range of topics including s)
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syntactic, lexical and sociolinguistic features of e
audiovisual dialogue, cross-linguistic con- hia (
trasts, and the translation of culture specific G
references and multilingualism on screen. The sa
volume provides an updated picture of research Eli
&
on Italian dubbed language, a key area of in-
quiry with reference to the investigation of tele- elli
t
cinematic discourse, Audiovisual Translation n
e
and Corpus-based Translation Studies. m Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli
r
o
F & Elisa Ghia (eds)
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ai
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Maria Pavesi, Ph.D., is Professor of English Lan- si, The Languages
e
guage and Linguistics at the University of Pavia. av
P
She has coordinated several national and interna- a of Dubbing
tional research projects and has published widely ri
a
on language learning, audiovisual translation and M
the features of spoken language in film dubbing,
including personal and spatial deixis.
Mainstream Audiovisual
Maicol Formentelli, Ph.D., is researcher in English
Translation in Italy
Language and Linguistics at the University of East-
ern Piedmont. His main research interests are na-
tive and non-native varieties of English with a more
recent focus on the sociolinguistics and pragmatics
of film dialogue.
Elisa Ghia, Ph.D., is contracted lecturer of English
Language and Translation at the University for For-
ISBN 978-3-0343-1646-0 eigners at Siena and the University of Pavia. Her g
research interests include second language acquisi- n
a
tion, audiovisual translation, corpus linguistics and
L
the study of spoken English. r
e
t
e
www.peterlang.com P
li206 li206
li
Linguistic Insights
206
Studies in Language and Communication
The purpose of this volume is to investigate the
languages of dubbing. The plural evokes the g
complex interplay of different codes as well as n
bi
the numerous levels of analysis involved. The b
u
volume focuses on the languages of Anglo- D
phone films and television series and their dub- of
bing into Italian while broadening the perspec- s
e
tive to the general debate on audiovisual trans- g
a
lation. Dubbing offers itself as a privileged u
g
place where languages interact in simulating, n
a
creating and recreating fictive orality and e L
where influential linguistic and pragmatic con- h
T
ventions are generated and developed. The •
chapters cover a rich range of topics including s)
d
syntactic, lexical and sociolinguistic features of e
audiovisual dialogue, cross-linguistic con- hia (
trasts, and the translation of culture specific G
references and multilingualism on screen. The sa
volume provides an updated picture of research Eli
&
on Italian dubbed language, a key area of in-
quiry with reference to the investigation of tele- elli
t
cinematic discourse, Audiovisual Translation n
e
and Corpus-based Translation Studies. m Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli
r
o
F & Elisa Ghia (eds)
ol
c
ai
M
Maria Pavesi, Ph.D., is Professor of English Lan- si, The Languages
e
guage and Linguistics at the University of Pavia. av
P
She has coordinated several national and interna- a of Dubbing
tional research projects and has published widely ri
a
on language learning, audiovisual translation and M
the features of spoken language in film dubbing,
including personal and spatial deixis.
Mainstream Audiovisual
Maicol Formentelli, Ph.D., is researcher in English
Translation in Italy
Language and Linguistics at the University of East-
ern Piedmont. His main research interests are na-
tive and non-native varieties of English with a more
recent focus on the sociolinguistics and pragmatics
of film dialogue.
Elisa Ghia, Ph.D., is contracted lecturer of English
Language and Translation at the University for For-
eigners at Siena and the University of Pavia. Her g
research interests include second language acquisi- n
a
tion, audiovisual translation, corpus linguistics and
L
the study of spoken English. r
e
t
e
P
The Languages of Dubbing
Linguistic Insights
Studies in Language and Communication
Edited by Maurizio Gotti,
University of Bergamo
Volume 206
ADVISORY BOARD
Vijay Bhatia (Hong Kong)
Christopher Candlin (Sydney)
David Crystal (Bangor)
Konrad Ehlich (Berlin / München)
Jan Engberg (Aarhus)
Norman Fairclough (Lancaster)
John Flowerdew (Hong Kong)
Ken Hyland (Hong Kong)
Roger Lass (Cape Town)
Matti Rissanen (Helsinki)
Françoise Salager-Meyer (Mérida, Venezuela)
Srikant Sarangi (Cardiff)
Susan Šarcˇevi´c (Rijeka)
Lawrence Solan (New York)
PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli & Elisa Ghia (eds)
The Languages
of Dubbing
Mainstream Audiovisual
Translation in Italy
PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
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is available from The British Library, Great Britain
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015933223
The volume concludes the two-year international project English and Italian
audiovisual language: Translation and language learning funded by the Alma
Mater Ticinensis Foundation (2010-2012) and was published with a grant
from the University of Pavia, Department of Humanities.
ISSN 1424-8689 pb. ISSN 2235-6371 eBook
ISBN 978-3-0343-1646-0 pb. ISBN 978-3-0351-0809-5 eBook
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Printed in Switzerland
Contents
MARIA PAVESI, MAICOL FORMENTELLI, ELISA GHIA,
The languages of dubbing and thereabouts: an introduction .............. 7
Section 1: Conversational Phenomena and Fictive Orality
MARIA PAVESI
The Pavia Corpus of Film Dialogue: a means to several ends ......... 29
ELISA GHIA
“That is the question”: direct interrogatives
in English film dialogue and dubbed Italian ...................................... 57
VERONICA BONSIGNORI, SILVIA BRUTI,
How people greet each other in TV series and dubbing ................... 89
SERENELLA ZANOTTI
“It feels like bits of me are crumbling or something”:
general extenders in original and dubbed television dialogue .......... 113
MAICOL FORMENTELLI
Exploring lexical variety and simplification in original
and dubbed film dialogue ............................................................... 141
Section 2: Sociolinguistic and Lingua-Cultural Variation
MAICOL FORMENTELLI, SILVIA MONTI
Translating slanguage in British and American films:
a corpus-based analysis ................................................................... 169
JOSEPH BRINCAT
Morphological and semantic simplification in dubbing.
Translating the dialogue of British films:
From Ae Fond Kiss to The Queen ................................................... 197
IRENE RANZATO
Period television drama: culture specific
and time specific references in translation for dubbing .................. 217
GIUSEPPE DE BONIS
Dubbing multilingual films between neutralisation
and preservation of lingua-cultural identities: a critical review
of the current strategies in Italian dubbing ..................................... 243
Notes on Contributors ..................................................................... 267
Index ................................................................................................ 273
MARIA PAVESI, MAICOL FORMENTELLI, ELISA GHIA
The languages of dubbing and thereabouts:
an introduction
1. Why study the language of screen dialogue?
For a long time relatively few studies investigated the languages of the
small and big screens despite the huge share in language reception these
media discourses have across geographical borders. While the visual
dimension and semiotic complexity of film mostly attracted critics’
attention, the non-spontaneous and pre-fabricated character of audio-
visual speech justified linguists’ limited interest in this verbal
expression. In the past few years, however, such surprising neglect has
given way to a remarkable surge in scholarship, and a number of
publications, monographs, articles and specialised papers have
appeared on the topic. The need is now felt to move forward from the
initial view of audiovisual dialogue as inauthentic orality, a mere and
far-removed imitation of spontaneous spoken language, and make the
fictional language of the screen a worthwhile object of inquiry in Lin-
guistics and Translation Studies alike. As argued by Alvarez-Pereyre
(2011: 48), film dialogue can rightfully be examined both as a language
artefact deriving from an artistic and social endeavour as well as a
specimen of real language use. Fictive orality, simulated spoken lan-
guage, parlato-recitato, dialogo riprodotto, oralidad prefabricada
(Brumme/Espunya 2012; Pavesi 2008; Nencioni 1976; Rossi 2002;
Chaume 2013), just to mention a few of the labels used to refer to this
variety of translated and non-translated language, deserve close
inspection as stand-alone registers or genres, in which specific language
features correlate with specific communicative functions. At the same
time, both original and translated audiovisual speech constitutes a
source of data that can contribute to our linguistic, sociolinguistic and
8 Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli, Elisa Ghia
pragmatic knowledge, an effective indicator of how conversation is per-
ceived (Rey 2001: 138; Quaglio 2009: 13) and a legitimate way of
capturing oral discourse (Amador-Moreno/McCafferty 2011: 1).
Among the various translation modalities, dubbing is the one that
most closely reproduces the goals and nature of the original dialogue,
replacing the soundtrack of an audiovisual product in the source lan-
guage with a soundtrack in the target language, with the aim of repro-
ducing a semiotic whole acceptable to the new, receiving audiences. In
addition, due to the wide circulation of audiovisual products, dubbing
comes to the fore as the screen language viewers most frequently access
in those countries where it is still predominant in cinemas and on tele-
vision (e.g. Antonini 2008).
For these reasons, the purpose of this volume is to thoroughly
investigate the language, or better the languages, of dubbing, with a
special focus on Italian but broadening the perspective to the general
debate on audiovisual language. The plural is intentionally used in the
title to evoke the complex interplay of different codes in dubbing as
well as the numerous levels of analysis involved. First and foremost, at
least two are the languages in contact in the dubbing process, i.e. the
source and the target language, which leave their visible marks in the
alignment of translation to the target language norms and, perhaps to a
lesser extent, in patterns of source language interference (Pavesi 2008).
Secondly, several are the social and regional varieties spoken by
characters that are dealt with in dubbing (Taylor 2006; Ranzato 2010)
along with the growing multilingualism in films (O’Sullivan 2011;
Minutella 2012). Finally, the reference to the languages of dubbing
effectively captures the rich dimension of stylistic variation and the
specificities of different fictional genres across and within television
and filmic speech.