Title
Multimodal marine metaphors. On the subtitling and dubbing of metaphors in "SpongeBob Squarepants"
Conference name
Languages & the Media 2024
City
Country
Hungary
Modalities
Date
13/11/2024-15/11/2024
Abstract
How are metaphors rendered in audiovisual translation (AVT)? Metaphors and related figures of speech is one of the classic translation problems, even the most important one, if Newmark (1988) is to be believed, and it has been investigated a great deal over the last few decades (e.g. Toury 1995; Lindqvist 2002; Shuttleworth 2017). It is severely under-researched in AVT, however, with just a handful of studies in subtitling and the odd one in dubbing. As part of a monograph-length research project (Pedersen: under review), I have investigated the translation of metaphors in sitcoms, reality shows and children’s programming. In this talk, I will present the result from the last of these genres.
Children’s programming is indeed very underexplored when it comes to the translation of metaphors, and that is in a way extraordinary. The playfulness of animated children’s movies allows for a multitude of metaphors, wordplay and even visualised figures of speech, which are not always very easy to render in a foreign language, as these images are often culture-bound (Lakoff & Johnson 1980: 257). There might also be a clash of translation norms, as metaphors are regularly retained if possible (Tirkkonen-Condit 2001)), and this may be at odds with the pedagogical norm of children’s literature (Nikolajeva 2004). Still, stylistics and multimodality in children’s literature have been studied as a means of children’s meaning-making process (Epstein 2012; Campagnaro 2015). It thus makes sense to view audiovisual translation (AVT) of children’s movies through this lens. The picture is even more complex, however, as different modes of AVT have different conditions and constraints to grapple with. For subtitling, it is a matter of limited space and time, the shift from speech to writing, and the interaction with the other modes of the polysemiotic text, including the audible original dialogue. For dubbing, the preferred AVT mode for this sort of content, the issue of synchronization and the substituting dialogue is added to the mix (Chaume Varela 2012).
This study explores these complexities by investigating the dubbing and subtitling of metaphors in two films starring that silly soaked submersible SpongeBob Squarepants (Hillenburg & Osborne 2004/Hill 2020). It seeks to find out whether metaphors are treated differently in AVT than in traditional forms of translation. More specifically, it investigates whether subtitlers and dubbers are aware of transculturality (Pedersen 2011) in relation to translating metaphors, and if different types of metaphors are handled differently. Finally, the study investigates whether there are differences in how metaphors are rendered in the two different modes. The results show that audiovisual translators are indeed aware of transculturality and they treat different types differently depending on how entrenched and complex they are. There are also differences between how dubbers and subtitlers render metaphors; difference which might very well stem from the differences between the additive nature of subtitling and the substitutive nature of dubbing. Finally, the polysemiotic influence, not least from the visual channels, makes translation of metaphors different from how metaphors are rendered in other kinds of translation.
Children’s programming is indeed very underexplored when it comes to the translation of metaphors, and that is in a way extraordinary. The playfulness of animated children’s movies allows for a multitude of metaphors, wordplay and even visualised figures of speech, which are not always very easy to render in a foreign language, as these images are often culture-bound (Lakoff & Johnson 1980: 257). There might also be a clash of translation norms, as metaphors are regularly retained if possible (Tirkkonen-Condit 2001)), and this may be at odds with the pedagogical norm of children’s literature (Nikolajeva 2004). Still, stylistics and multimodality in children’s literature have been studied as a means of children’s meaning-making process (Epstein 2012; Campagnaro 2015). It thus makes sense to view audiovisual translation (AVT) of children’s movies through this lens. The picture is even more complex, however, as different modes of AVT have different conditions and constraints to grapple with. For subtitling, it is a matter of limited space and time, the shift from speech to writing, and the interaction with the other modes of the polysemiotic text, including the audible original dialogue. For dubbing, the preferred AVT mode for this sort of content, the issue of synchronization and the substituting dialogue is added to the mix (Chaume Varela 2012).
This study explores these complexities by investigating the dubbing and subtitling of metaphors in two films starring that silly soaked submersible SpongeBob Squarepants (Hillenburg & Osborne 2004/Hill 2020). It seeks to find out whether metaphors are treated differently in AVT than in traditional forms of translation. More specifically, it investigates whether subtitlers and dubbers are aware of transculturality (Pedersen 2011) in relation to translating metaphors, and if different types of metaphors are handled differently. Finally, the study investigates whether there are differences in how metaphors are rendered in the two different modes. The results show that audiovisual translators are indeed aware of transculturality and they treat different types differently depending on how entrenched and complex they are. There are also differences between how dubbers and subtitlers render metaphors; difference which might very well stem from the differences between the additive nature of subtitling and the substitutive nature of dubbing. Finally, the polysemiotic influence, not least from the visual channels, makes translation of metaphors different from how metaphors are rendered in other kinds of translation.