| Abstract [eng] |
This Master’s thesis is an analysis of translation of culture-specific items from English to Lihhuanian in feature film subtitles. Film subtitling in Lithuania has been scarcely investigated. Therefore, audiovisual translation with particular focus on the translation of culture-specific items that require particular specifics in the field of subtitling is a relevant topic. The two theoretical objectives are: to analyse culture-specific items in terms of characteristic features, classification, and translation strategies, and to overview methods of audiovisual translation and its main forms with the focus on subtitling. The practical objective is to analyse the translation of culture-specific items in the subtitles of feature films translated from English to Lithuanian. The theoretical analysis has revealed that culture-specific items are words or combinations of words that define objects that are specific to a given nation’s daily life, culture social and historical development, but are foreign to another nation due to their national and/or historical coloring. Culture-specific items (CSIs) are expressions pertaining to cultural items that are not part of a language system. culture-specific items define objects, phenomena, and situations of material and spiritual culture that do not exist in foreign cultures and languages. Culture-specific items can be classified according to particular cultural references. While there are many classifications of culture-specific items, in general, they include proper names (including personal names), geographic, historical, cultural, and societal CSIs. Audiovisual translation is sometimes referred to as “multimedia translation” or “screen translation,” but audiovisual translation is the broadest term of them all and encompasses the translation of all media. The analysis has shown that there are two united larger groups of audiovisual translation: revoicing and subtitling. Revoicing can be further divided into voice-over, dubbing, free commentary, narration, and audio description. Voice-over is regarded as the most precise and the easiest SL translation that is delivered in approximately the same time as the original. Narration is a translation type that does not concentrate on the lip movements of the original text. It is a faithful translation source text approximately in the simultaneous way. Free commentary does not focus on lip movements and is not faithful to the source text. It is performed in different modes of translation which are complemented by different journalistic elements and text is covered partially or completely. Audio description tis a type of translation in which visual information in transformed into words. It is used to transfer visual images into spoken language complementing sound and dialogues of the film. Dubbing is a form of audiovisual translation when the phonogram of the SL is replaced with a TL phonogram that strives to match the phrasing, timing and lip movements of the original to make it seem that the translation is the original. For the practical analysis of this Master’s thesis, five science fiction films were selected. The films include Edge of Tomorrow, Arrival, The Martian, Interstellar, and Inception. Subtitles featuring culture-specific items were analyzed using the classification of culture-specific items provided by Nedergaard-Larsen. Pedersen’s taxonomy of translation strategies for culture-specific items in subtitles was used and the results of the analysis. Retention was most widely used for rendering personal names. Official equivalent was the most widely used translation strategy for rendering geographical culture-specific items. Retention and direct translation were the most often used translation strategies for rendering historical culture-specific items while retention and generalization were the most widely used strategies for rendering societal culture-specific items. Overall, retention and official equivalent were the most often used translation strategies when rendering culture-specific items. The analysis has shown that, when subtitling English language films into the Lithuanian language, source-oriented translation strategies were the most often used with 59 % of all translation strategies used. Target-oriented translation strategies accounted for 26 % of all translation strategies used. Official equivalent that is neither a source-oriented nor target-oriented translation strategy accounted for 15 %. Lithuanian subtitlers try to stay true to the original text and prefer to use source-language oriented translation strategies. |
