Some Lessons for the Subtitler Chris Taylor University of Trieste

1. Some Lessons for the SubtitlerChris TaylorUniversity of Trieste Fourth Conference in Translation for Dubbing and Subtitling of the University of Alicante ALICANTE, 4th-6th May, 2004

2. Multimodal Transcriptions Multimodal transcriptions (Thibault, Baldry, 2000) provided a basis for the formulation of translation strategies for subtitling.

4. Phasal Analysis Phasal analysis (Gregory, 2002) took us a step further in the understanding of how multimodal texts work. • Continuous and discontinuous stretches of discourse which share ideational, interpersonal and textual consistency and congruity. • Phases are a configuration of • experience relationships • interpersonal relationships • medium relationships

5. …related to film • Thibault, applying phasal analysis to multimodal text explains that phases are characterised by: • “a high level of metafunctional consistency… among the selections from the various semiotic systems”. Assists in decoding visual and aural information.

6. Insert video Californication

7. Californication: phasal analysis CA

8. What do we look for in phases? • Phasal analysis helps us establish patterns of cohesion and coherence in both verbal and non-verbal elements of multimodal text.

9. COHESION The alternation of phases, subphases and ‘phaselets’ and, equally importantly, the transitions between them create the cohesion that enables us to comprehend a multimodal text. Cf. phrase structure, conjunctions, discourse markers, etc.

10. Parataxis 1

11. COHERENCE 1: clusters • According to Scott “words which are found repeatedly in each other’s company” (cf. collocation) are clusters.

12. COHERENCE 1a Other semiotic modalities ‘found repeatedly in each other’s company’ also form clusters. Musical crescendo + stabbing + close-up + scream…

13. Coherence 2: bundles Biber (1999) refers to lexical bundles. i.e. the identification of groups (bundles) of lexico-grammatical elements that co-occur with more than usual frequency in particular genres eg. newspaper editorials (present tense, deontic modals, etc.)

14. Coherence 2a Bundles of semiotic modalities Court scene visual set of courtroom and personages court jargon eg. “Objection” close-up shots of lawyers, witnesses no or subdued music gestures eg raising of arm etc.

15. Coherence 3: lexical sets • At the word level, lexical sets can be identified within a single text, identified in terms of repetition, synonymy, hyponymy, meronymy or any other semantic relation.

16. Coherence 3a Sets of all semiotic modalities are also repeated, synonymised, etc. in the course of a film. As well as words being repeated, scenes, musical scores, lighting effects, characteristic traits, movements and so on all co-occur and re-occur.

17. Coherence 4: clusters and bundles • “Clusters and bundles (and lexical sets) can provide clues as to the frequently recurring themes of a discourse” (Partington & Morley, forthcoming)