THE EFFECTS OF DEAF AND HARD-OF HEARING SUBTITLES ON THE CHARACTERISATION PROCESS: A COGNITIVE STYLISTIC STUDY OF THE WIRE- MCINTYRE AND JUGEA, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica THE EFFECTS OF DEAF AND HARD-OF HEARING SUBTITLES ON THE CHARACTERISATION PROCESS: A COGNITIVE STYLISTIC STUDY OF THE WIRE- MCINTYRE AND JUGEA e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! THE EFFECTS OF DEAF AND HARD-OF HEARING SUBTITLES ON THE CHARACTERISATION PROCESS: A COGNITIVE STYLISTIC STUDY OF THE WIRE- MCINTYRE AND JUGEA INTRODUCTION Spatio-temporal constraints of subtitles often lead to the omission of elements in DHOH subtitles. This practice is often unavoidable, but omissions should be made without impacting on the viewing experience of hearing-impaired viewers. This article will explore the potential effects of subtitling techniques on characterization. By comparing the original dialogue and the DHOH subtitles provided by the DVD version of the first 3 scenes of episode 1 of The Wire, we will estimate to what extent alteration influences the characterization process and the result of an impoverished viewing experience. SUBTITLING PRACTICE Constraints Transferring language from spoken to written involves some constraints that are evident when the viewer is able to access both the original spoken dialogue and subtitles. This is due to the average reading speed that is 66% of the speaking speed, so subtitles can show approximately 43% less than the original dialogue. Reduction is also due to spatial and temporal restrictions: only 40 characters per line can be displayed at one time, the reading speed of 150-180 words per minute limits the amount of dialogue that can be shown at a time, subtitles cannot be shown after a shot change because it limits the viewer’s attention and also subtitles cannot appear for more than 6 seconds because it leads to annoying rereading. DHOH subtitles involve a greater reduction for 2 reasons: - Hearing-impaired viewers have a slower reading speed (at least the ones that have born profoundly deaf) - DHOH subtitles must provide non-verbal auditory information, such as prosodic details, sound effects, music and speaker identity resulting in the need for extra time and space for this information  more omissions Text reduction Text reduction is essential to subtitling. As a general rule, it is said that omissions should regard what is padding information, while vital information should be maintained. However, there is no suggestion as how to determine what is essential and what can be cut. Usually, many elements of speech, such as discourse markers, appear superfluous at first, but then could actually be integral to characters’ style in spoken discourse. In fact, discourse markers are known to contribute to interpersonal information and to structure ideas in conversation they indicate characters’ relationships and intersubjective positioning. However, omissions are not made at random. Researches have identified consistent subtitling strategies that claim that ideational meaning should be preserved, while elements contributing to interpersonal and textual meaning can be omitted. In the article, McIntyre and Lugea focused on interpersonal and ideational meaning and found out that vital information about text’s narrative is generally maintained, while information that contributes to characterization and our understanding of character relationships is often cut. As far as characterization is concerned, accent, dialogue and colloquial features pose another challenge in their rendering in subtitles. Research shows that DHOH viewers want these features to be portrayed, as they contribute to interpersonal meaning and characterization  hearing-impaired people don’t want to be marginalize from mainstream society. Guidelines for text reduction Subtitling has developed in response to technological, utilitarian and financial demands, without much attention to the linguistic style of the text. The stylistics in DHOH subtitling is even more neglected. In fact, we have some research about style in interlingual translation, while style in intralingual translation is overlooked focus on the functionality for DHOH viewers. It is strange that a practice as subtitling, founded on reducing language, has no guidelines to outline which linguistic elements can be omitted while maintaining a balance between the informative aims, the practical constraints and the style of the text. Standardized guidelines in fact, would benefit the subtitles and the viewing experience, but also the status of the professionals of the field. THE WIRE - Each season deals with a different aspect of urban life in Baltimore: the streets, school, port, media, politics - Drug trade is a central focus - Themes: daily struggles of the underclass, drug dealers, junkies, as well as police, dockers, journalists, teachers and politicians and their interplay and inextricability from the capital system - Round characters, they are not stylized dilemmas, but they are many things at once (ex. Police officers are as aggressive, dysfunctional and intoxicated as drug dealers, while sometimes lacking the criminals’ moral code) - Characterization is at the heart of the series  use of actors together with real Baltimore people that speak Baltimorese (often incomprehensible) as markers of identity - Naturalistic and realistic tone - The fact that we cannot comprehend every single word shows that we are not supposed to focus just on dialogues, but also on other features of the characters and their relationships - The format also helps and guides the viewers towards a deep process of the characters: HBO is a subscription-only channel with no advertisement breaks to produce more involvement  the long multi-season format allows in-depth and extended character development  suggestions to watch the DVD version to have the possibility to access rewind functions, audio commentaries and DHOH subtitles - The linguistic opacity (incapability of the viewer to understand the whole dialogue) is typical of gangster movie dialogue and the frustration of the viewer’s experience is an integral part of their aesthetic it is a deliberate decision of the filmmakers to include dialogue that is difficult to comprehend - In this context of difficulties in comprehension, the subtitling process is relevant to a large portion of audience, both hearing and hearing-impaired and so are the choices of the subtitler in terms of characterization CHARACTERIZATION: A MODEL FROM COGNITIVE STYLISTICS The ontological status of a character is described as the representation of imaginary beings in the minds of the audience. Describing the characterization process means to explain how Scene 2 interior, courthouse hallway - McNulty is relating the conversation he had with the witness to Detective Bunk Moreland - Short scene of just 10 turns, serves to establish the relationship between the 2 - A number of significant deletions (whole turns also) due to the fast shot change, some of them are of evident characterization triggers Examples: 1. - ‘Gotta let him play, this America.’ - [Bunk laughs] No fucking way. [McNulty: Did I make that up?] He give you the shooter?  deletion of the indication of laugh because it is evident from the visuals but it is not clear why, since McNulty’s turn is deleted  deletion of the entire turn of McNulty compromises the comprehension of the bantering relationship between the 2, their friendship is less comprehensible due to the cut of turns 2. Barksdale’s in Part 12, right? [Security guard: Huh?]  complete omission of the guard’s reply that conveys an air of minor incompetence which is lost in the subtitle: this is a characteristic of The Wire, where also minor characters have a part to play Scene 3: interior, courtroom - Begins in medias res - The prosecutor addresses the witness Gant and later the witness Lyles Examples: 1. [And] Is that your signature on that photo array card?  the omission of and eliminates the effect of a beginning in medias res 2. (Woman) And [those are] your initials [as well], next to the photo [you identified]? (Man) Yes.  no grammatical coherence is loss with these eliminations but we can see from this and from the following examples that the courtroom discourse is adversely affected 3. Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth [so help you God]?  the omitted element is not essential to the propositional content but it doesn’t reflect the formulaic discourse of the courtroom. Viewers can recover this information from their previous knowledge but DHOH viewers will not know if the omission is in the original or due to the space restrictions of subtitles 4. - (Woman) [Ma’am] Can you state your name, please?  omission of the vocative removes an element of conventional politeness typical of the courtroom discourse  also a marker of interpersonal relations  all these examples may give the image of a less professional prosecutor 5. (Woman) [And is that] The guard booth in the lobby of the Fremont Avenue high-rise? + [And you’re] Behind bulletproof glass, with a clear view of the lobby?  omission of coordinating conjunctions that removes the sense of building an argument through the sequencing of information 6. [Now] Ms. Lyles, I know this may be difficult [for you], but can you tell us what you saw?  omission of now that indicated the culmination of the argument  removal of for you implicates the loss of empathy from Hansen towards her witness 7. Erm, a man, [you know] he was waiting for the elevator, omissions of non-fluency features that may characterize a nervous and unsure attitude in the courtroom setting CONCLUSION This analysis shows that valuable character information is often lost, especially information pertaining to interpersonal relationships between characters, often conveyed by discourse markers. However, the extended use of these discourse markers may represent the importance of the relationships in the series. Maybe when we cannot clearly understand what is being said, propositional content is less important than interpersonal relationships. This is understandable by hearing viewers, but we have seen that in DHOH subtitling this kind of information lacks. It should be paid therefore more attention to the realization of these features in the subtitles, at least when no space or time restrictions are present. Moreover, it should be given more importance to long- term character traits such as dialectal features. As a result, we have seen that some subtitling choices have an impact on the characterization process, so it will be advisable to pay attention to these features. However, the is no one size fits all there are choices that must be made in order to respect the practical constraints of subtitling and some practices proposed to solve these problems may be valid for The Wire and useless for another drama. There are many factors to consider when making stylistic decisions and they should be made by studying each case separately.