Scarica Question Tags, Discourse Markers, Calques e Collocations e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity!
Question Tags
Midway between open statement and a yes-no question, used when the speaker wants to be less assertive. They provide a mechanism by which a speaker can avoid coming into conflict with the addressee, give the impression of being unsure of themselves and seek corroboration through the interlocutor’s approval.
3 types of tag:
1. Noun Phrase Tags function is to clarify or highlight the noun phrase, especially the pronoun in the preceding noun phrase. Ex. “it makes you wonder, you know, all this unemployment ” “it was a good book this ” 2. Declarative Tags like question tags but less frequently used. They stress the speech-act function that is the meaning of the main clause, what it aims to express and do. Ex. “it looks terrible it does ”, “he’s alright he is ” 3. Question Tags made of an auxiliary verb followed by a personal pronoun. Function of question tags is to seek the addressee’s approval or agreement. They are usually followed declarative clauses.
Problems in translation into Italian bc the target language doesn't have an equivalent form.
Or Ex. Something of a dish, isn’t she? Certo che è un bel bocconcino! This translation does not render the speaker’s attempt to involve the listener and seek for approval. Another translation strategy is “ già ” in initial position and “ vedi ” at the end: Ex. Extraordinary thing, isn’t? Già, straordinario, vedi? Not very natural in IT & doesn’t render the speaker’s attempt to involve the hearer in phatic communication. Ex. What’s the use of studying the novels of Wordsworth, eh? Che cosa serve conoscere i sonetti di Shakespeare? The translator could have used the same tag “eh?” used in IT communication Wordsworth is replaced by Shakespeare, more know by the target audience, could be immediately recognized. Tags : a short structures which can be added at the end of the clause in conversation or in written presentation of speech. Take either the form of: - noun phrases
- interrogative clause
- declarative clause Italian question tags tend to be in the form of “eh?/ no?” and are less frequent than English. Presence of English QT may lead the translator to insert Italian syntactic structures which copy the English ones, to the use of translation routines such as vero?/non è vero? (can also occur in initial position and so they are not tags) , è così?/ non è così?, credi?/ non credi? at the end of an utterance. It must be the right decision, mustn’t it? dovevi essere quantomeno convinto, credi? Example of ADAPTATION : what the translator thinks the target audience would know and understand Example of FOREGNIZATION : the source text is taken towards the target audience
QT may also be left untranslated result to make the character more assertive and self-confident =
translation of question tags in the dubbed version changes the personality of the character Italian dubbing industry is more focused on rendering lexical choices while do not pay much attention to elements which are not lexical and so do not carry meaning such as question tags. (examples form the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994 )
Discourse markers
According to Biber they: 1. Signal a transition in the evolving progress of the conversation
- Signal an interactive relationship between the speaker, hearer and message Words and phrases that are discourse markers often are ambiguous, sharing the discourse marker function with an adverbial function (ex. Now and well are both circumstantial adverbs AND discourse markers) More typical of oral discourses and informal interactions Usually appearing at the beginning or at the end of a sentence Semantically have little or no propositional meaning Phonologically are prosodically marked (uttered as a separate tone unit followed by a pause) Pragmatically have a prime function in discourse
Have 2 main functions:
1. Interactional Function : 2. Textual Function
- Identify different turns in the conversation - Their role is to structure the text providing cohesion
- Signal the speaker’s request of attention among its different parts
- Indicate agreement or disagreement - Their presence determines different turns in a
- Can be used by the addressee to interrupt the conversation speaker, confirm attention, signal agreement, - Signal the beginning or the end of a new topic recaption of information Several linguistic items can perform these functions and behave like Discourse Markers: Ex. - Interactive uses of connectors/ adverbs ( well, right, now, then actually)
- Finite verb formulae-clauses ( I mean / you know / you see, I think) - Interjections ( oh / ah /uh)
- Coordinators or Conjunctions ( and/but) - Hesitation sounds (mm / erm /mm) Common DMs: alright, God, mind you, yeah, yes, really, right, anyway, kind of, like, that’s right, please, quite.
- WELL: used to initiate a turn, function of taking time as it signals the speaker’s need to think about what to say.
- RIGHT: at the beginning of a turn, signals that the speaker is initiating a new phrase of the conversation.
- NOW: is an utterance launcher, function of continuing the topic of the conversation while also moving it forward adding information, it also changes the topic. DMs can have the function of: 1. backchannels ( mhm, uhu, I see ) 2. comprehension ( okay, right ) 3. frame a new topic ( now, right ) linguistic items which establish and help organizing interaction between participants in a conversation. function is of structuring conversation and turn-talking
- EX_. Notting Hill:_ all references to specific places in London (Notting Hill Gate, Portobello Road, Kensington High Street, etc.) are kept and not domesticated, as it is obvious from the film itself that the story takes place in London.
- EX. Finding Forrester: Jamal mentions “the Hamptons” (a popular summer place for rich people), the translator preferred translating it with “Miami” and “Caraibi”, so to retain the implied meaning of the line. Measurements are also often changed and domesticated in Italian dubbed films, as the USA, UK and Italy have different measurement systems: “18 yards” becomes “diciassette metri”, “a 6-pound ham” becomes “un prosciutto di 3 kili”, etc. Loan Words, Anglicisms and Calques The insertion in the vocabulary of a language of new words from other languages is called borrowing. They can be divided into 2 categories: loan words and calques. The Italian language of dubbed films seems to be affected by the
impact of anglicisms , as dubbing and subtitling favour the
introduction and dissemination of English words. EX:
- ‘muffin’ (cultural-specific word not contained in Italian dictionaries when the film was released) in The Importance of Being Earnest ;
- ‘drink’ and ‘whiskey’ in Four Weddings and a Funeral ;
- the anglicisms ‘background’ and ‘establishment’ (political lexicon) in the film The Queen ;
- the use of the title ‘Miss’ in the film Billy Elliot , highly understandable by an Italian audience;
- various anglicisms (coach, cheerleader, playmaker, drama club…) in the film High School Musical ; Anglicisms are extremely frequent in films aimed to a young audience bc young people use words from EN in everyday conversation and are more exposed to them through videogames, Internet, music, sports...
- In dubbed films there are more calques than loanwords, as translators tend to remain closer to the syntactic structure of the original.
- Calques contribute to making dubbed dialogue sound unnatural. Some of them are due to the translator’s lack of knowledge or the pressure under they work.
LOANWORDS: (in our case anglicisms)
foreign words that have become part of the vocabulary of the borrowing language; they can be:
- direct anglicisms = they maintain the original English linguistic form (bed and breakfast, okay, babysitter…);
- adapted anglicisms= they modify the original linguistic form either orthographically or morphologically (dribblare, scellino, manageriale, dollaro…)
CALQUES: less faithful copies of the English linguistic term bc they do
not reproduce completely the formal, external features of the original, but they adapt the foreign word or expression to a greater extent; they can be:
- lexical calques = a word in the target language adopts a new meaning, which is derived from a foreign word (realizzare > to realise ‘rendersi conto’, bene > well, prego > please);
- structural calques = they occur when the structure is that of the source language expression although elements of the target language are used (fine settimana > weekend, posso aiutarla? > can I help you?).
Pavesi’s list of the most common calques:
- assoutamente (absolutely);
- bene (well), instead of ‘ecco’;
- ci puoi scommettere (you can bet), instead of ‘certamente’, ‘puoi star sicuro’;
- dacci un taglio (cut it out), instead of ‘smettila’;
- esatto (exactly), instead of ‘sì, hai ragione’;
- fare la differenza (make the difference), instead of ‘essere importante’;
- l’hai detto (you said it), instead of ‘proprio così’;
- la sai una cosa? (you know what?), instead of ‘sai che ti dico?’;
- nessun problema (no problem), instead of ‘non fa niente’;
- niente di personale (nothing personal), instead of ‘non ce l’ho con te’;
- posso aiutarla? (can I help you?), instead of ‘desidera?’;
- scordatelo (forget about it?), instead of ‘non importa’);
- sì/no, signore (yes/no, sir), rather than ‘sì/no’;
- sicuro (sure), instead of ‘certo’;
- sta/stai bene? (are you okay?), instead of ‘ti senti male?’;
- stai scherzando? (are you kidding?), instead of ‘dici sul serio?’;
- tranquilli (be quiet), instead of ‘zitti’;
- già (yeah), instead of ‘sì’;
- amico (man) and the previously highlighted ‘fottiti amico!” (fuck you, man!). Some translation routines or stock translations typical of dubbing ended up entering the Italian language and are used in conversation ( già , salve from hello/hi bc ciao is too informal and buongiorno doesn’t fit lip movement, buon pomeriggio, buona giornata from have a niche day …). The introduction of calques sometimes is because there are no equivalents to some EN forms. Ex. Take it easy fai con calma/non ti preoccupare; I’ll tell you what sai cosa ti dico/bene/allora. Collocations & idioms Different languages contain different collocational patterns important for translators to recognise such difference and provide a collocation that is typical of the target language. Ex. break the rules = infrangere le regole; make a decision = prendere una decisione. The risk is to stay linked to the source language collocation creating unnatural-sounding expressions (*rompere le regole, *fare una decisione) which are calques from EN. Italian dubbed film dialogue contains a lot of unusual combinations of swearwords which are influenced by the EN collocations: - Lurida mignotta - Maledette puttanate - Un cazzone merdoso Example of unusual or wrong collocations in Italian dubbing:
- in Family Man the word internship (‘tirocinio’ or ‘internato’) was wrongly translated with ‘internato’, that has a slightly different meaning.
- in Shakespeare in Love “clean your teeth” was translated with “pulitivi i denti”, even though “denti” typically collocates with “lavarsi”.
- in The importance of Being Earnest “eating muffin” is rendered with “sgranocchiare muffin” to avoid repetition, but it does not collocate well bc muffins are soft and “sgranocchiare” can only be used for crispy and crunchy food. the occurrence of 2 or more words within a short space of each other in a text (pay a visit, run a business, deliver a letter, watch television, brush your teeth…)
Ex. Bitch = stronza; fuck = cazzo; bullshit = stronzate/cazzate (also Palle di merda, creative translation to retain the bilabial consonant). Italian dubbed versions contain less swearwords than the original dialogues. Ex. the film Pulp Fiction has 389 taboo words in English, and 272 in Italian. This toning down of bawdy language is a typical feature of dubbed films and provokes a shift in the register towards formality. Ex: It’s a goddamn shame è davvero una vergogna I’m bullshitting you stavo solo scherzando I gotta pull all this shit back? devo rimettermi addosso tutta quella chincaglieria Just don’t bullshit me anymore solo, non mi piace essere preso in giro They lose their informal and vulgar tone cause a shift in register The choice of the appropriate IT equivalent of taboo words in EN depends on the target audience and on censorship. If it is shown in TV and is for a young audience, swearwords are adapted and rendered less vulgar The film Billy Elliot contains several swearwords, some of them toned down in the Italian dubbed version ( testa di cavolo for twat , segaiolo for wanker ). In the film Intolerable Cruelty: bitch = stronza bastard = bastardo whore = troia Christ = Cristo bloody = maledetta bitch! Bitch! Bitch! = troia! troia! troia! The target audience is made of adults so it allows to use strong language also in the dubbed version
Translation of written language
Films sometimes contain visual parts which are written in the source language (name of shops, of streets or places shown by signposts, newspapers, letters, book titles) => written language that is inside the scene. Several strategies may be adopted the choice depends on the role of captions in the film: the written part can be left untranslated , as it doesn’t need to be understood by the target audience. In the film Romeo + Juliet the captions appearing in English during the Prologue are left untranslated, as the same lines are repeated by a voice-over crating an effect of redundancy in the source film that is lost in the target film. In the film Shark Tale the humour name of the shops (Coral Cola for Cola Cola) and of starfish (Tuna Turner, Mussel Crowe…) are written and uttered in the original language, so the Italian audience can read and hear the references to famous names but they could not be able to understand the internal puns they are untranslated bc they’re too difficult to render in Italian. translated inserting subtitles. In the film Back to the Future 2 , the time changes are underlined by newspaper headlines, which in the dubbed Italian version are translated though subtitles. translated adding a voice-over. In the film Suspect , the protagonist is deaf and can only communicate with his lawyer through text; in the dubbed version, the character’s notes are read with the use of a voice-over with the voice of the actor that was dubbing the lawyer. In the film Finding Forrester the same technique is used when Jamal reads Forrester’s comments on his notebooks. According to Salsi and Trapani: translation of written words through voice-over or subtitles always implies an addition to the source film and so a change in its psychological impact on the audience, but it is unavoidable
Translation of humour/wordplay/creative language
Humour is particularly difficult to translate it is closely linked to the language and culture in which it originates, and puns on screen may be intertwined with the images. If the characters on screen laugh, translators will have to recreate a humorous line. When translators are faced with words and images that create humour, they resort to one of the following options: When a pun is omitted translators may adopt the compensatory strategy of inserting a different pun in another part of the text, even though at that point there was no word play in the original the guiding principle must be to create an equivalent effect on the target audience. The translation of puns in films is particularly challenging when there’s visually linked humour, as words are linked to the visual code. The use of creative language or rhyming language may also pose translation problems. Poetry is the most difficult genre to translate. Other examples can be found in films for children, where rhyming and play on words are especially present. In Shark Tale the Italian translators managed to build a very humorous, creative language which plays on typical Italian expressions that are transferred to the world of fish. Who in the halibut trips under water? = No, dico io, come cefalo si fa a inciampare sott’acqua? Whale wash. And the price... oh my gosh! = Lavaggio e asciugatura a un prezzo da paura! altri esempi vedi pag. 96 + p.97 checklist per svolgere textual analysis
1. leave the pun unchanged , which is quite unlikely to occur in films, as it would be almost impossible for the
target audience to understand it.
4. replace the source pun with a pun in the target language , which is rather difficult bc finding a pun in
the target language that uses the same elements is quite difficult. A good example is the film Horse Feathers : the dean of a university faculty is signing a document and says “give me a seal ” (which can mean both ‘timbro’ and ‘foca’), but Harpo brings him the animal. In this case the translation of the pun is complicated by the fact that the film contains the image of the seal, but the translator could successfully use the alternative pun “ focalizziamo! ” ( let’s focus on that ), which is different from the meaning of the original but enables to create a play on words and images.
3. replace it with an idiomatic expression which may (or may not) contain an element of the source
pun’s core meaning. In the film Blame it on the Hellboy two men talking about a professional killer use the
expressions “ bang on time ” and “ dead on time ”, which were translated with “ puntuale come un orologio svizzero ” e “ puntuale come la morte ”, similarly humour.
2. ignore it altogether , which happens quite often, either because the translator couldn’t recognise the pun
or because of deliberate translation choices.
Ex. film High School Musical , Sharpay wishes Gabriella to “ break a leg! ” but as G. seems puzzled at her S.
adds an explanation “in theatre it means good luck”; in the Italian dubbed version the line was translated with “ in bocca al lupo ” which doesn’t have the same metaphorical meaning towards possible injuries so the pun on the double meaning is lost, maybe “in culo alla balena” could have been a better translation to justify G.’s puzzled face as she could have not understood the meaning; and then “sono sincera, sul serio!” which doesn’t translate the original but is coherent with what she had previously said in Italian.
