The role of the null constraint as a driving force towards a literal approach to translation

The concept of constraint was brought to the fore for audiovisual translation by Mayoral et al. (1988), based on Titford (1982). Martí Ferriol (2006, 2007, 2010, 2013) developed a new classification of constraints using these previous publications as a reference. These studies by the author were aimed at describing the method of translation for dubbing and subtitling, and they introduced the concept of ‘null constraint’, to help term the lack of constraints, of any kind, in an audiovisual text. This article uses the most important conclusions of previous research as a starting point, as it develops the concept of null constraint in two new ways. Firstly, the null constraint is combined with other types of constraints, to thus generate a first parameter which indicates the difficulty of an audiovisual source text to be translated (‘percentage degree of translation easiness’). This parameter is then exported to written texts, by combining the null constraint only with the constraint types that do appear in them. Secondly, translation of texts is investigated in particular instances where the null constraint rules. This is quantified by means of a second parameter (‘percentage degree of translation literality and fidelity’). This study finds significant statistical correlations between the two above mentioned parameters in different scenarios.