Linguistic aspects in audio description in Greece. A reception study

Audio Description (AD) is a service offering blind and visually impaired people (B/VIPs) “a verbal screen onto the world” (Díaz Cintas, Orero, and Remael, 2007, p. 13). However, even if there is invaluable progress regarding AD abroad, its research in the Greek academia has recently started. The research is user-oriented and deals with AD of foreign animation films projected to the Greek B/VIP audience with the use of audio subtitles (AST) in Greek. Taking into account that animation, as a film genre, is effective for conveying dynamic information, the AD and the voice used are very important to the engagement of the audience. Since “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter” (Twain, 1888), it is obvious that language plays a crucial role on how to translate images to words. In particular, the use of precise adjectives and adverbs (Hernàndez and Mendiluce, 2004; ITC, 2000), as well as metaphors and similes (Snyder, 2014) are analysed. Animation uses objects that have some sort of emotional inner life that is somehow conserved and liberated by touch (“tactile memory”) (Wells, 2014). Thus, since animators view the potential of the object or puppet, using animation as a method to reveal this emotive narrative, adjectives may “perform further description” (Chatman, 1990, p. 16), while “adverbs are useful shorthand to describing emotions and actions” (Rai, Greening and Petré, 2010, p. 11). The projection of the audio-described foreign animation film to the audience (comparative study) is followed by the distribution of questionnaires and discussion from a linguistic and sensory point of view, analysing also the vocal delivery of the AD. The goal is not only to make the viewing experience of B/VIPs more immerse, giving the audience an engaging and enjoyable experience, but also to add new insights into the discussion of AD strategies to be followed in Greece.