電影字幕中的粗話翻譯策略：以美國電影「男孩我最壞」為例

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(1)國立台灣師範大學翻譯研究所碩士論文 A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY. 電影字幕中的粗話翻譯策略：以美國電影「男孩我最壞」為例 Translation Strategies of Vulgarism in Subtitling: The American Movie "Superbad” As a Case Study. 指導教授：李根芳博士 THESIS ADVISOR: Dr. Ken-fang Lee. 研究生：羅玉潔 Yu-Chieh Lo. 中國民國九十八年六月 June, 2009.

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(4) 誌. 謝. 一路走來，要感謝的人太多。論文尚未動工前就已經開始構思，這一長串的感謝名單，直到寫完後仍然有許多感恩的思緒不知從何下筆。幾年的研究所生涯，讓我成長許多，師大翻譯研究所無疑地是目前我的學生階段中，最具挑戰性的一個學術環境，培養我的專業能力，也考驗我的耐力。數不出來多少次想要放棄的念頭，但是也撐到最後，這一切都要感謝許多老師、助教、同學、學長姐、學弟妹們，一路的鼓勵和支持。首先，滿心感謝指導教授李根芳所長，在繁忙的所務及教學壓力之下，總是充滿耐心和愛心撥空指導，老師的理論課也帶給我前所未有的研究所層次的學習經驗，雖然課前準備壓力大，但是奠定了論文資料蒐集的理論基礎。論文寫作期間，在我低潮的時候，老師總是給我親切的鼓勵及專業的建議，每每與老師的討論總是令人覺得獲益良多。同時也要感謝我的口試委員，周中天教授及黃希敏教授。在任所長期間，周教授不僅給我入學的機會、也真誠地鼓勵我繼續前進，感激黃老師一路不斷給我加油打氣。兩位口試委員非常仔細閱讀我的論文，在口試時提出精闢的見解及指導，您的師長風範及恩情我會一輩子牢記在心。要感謝的人還包括所上的李助教、註冊組的盧珠藍小姐、永遠以親切的態度支持我，還有譯研所的學長姐、同學、許多學弟妹們，與您的道路曾有過交集是我在譯研所最棒的經驗之一。還要感謝後期同班的 Shannon 怡敏，還有修辭學專家的東吳學伴林 PULI 小姐，這幾個月若沒有您的催促及不斷彼此施壓，真的難以想像一個人苦讀的日子。最後，我要謝謝爸媽不斷的督促叮嚀加上威脅利誘，還有在論文密集期時，給予我最大的自由及支持，還花精神替照顧我的狗寶貝們肉鬆、屁貓和妹妹。譯研所走一遭，箇中甘苦自知，但是我很幸運地，能夠有大家的相助和祝福，支持我一路到研究所學業終點，再怎麼謝都不夠，就謝天吧! August 2009, Taipei.

(5) Abstract By using profane words, fictional characters are given a sense of reality and drawn closer to audiences. Vulgar words abound in the highly successful American comedy ‘Superbad’, which has great entertainment value.. But technical constraints. of subtitling make it hard for translators to convert oral language into concise, written form as close to the source text as possible.. Therefore, this movie serves as a great. material to explore translation strategies for vulgarism.. The thesis, taking. ‘Superbad’ as a case study to examine the translation strategies of vulgarism in Chinese subtitle, consists of six chapters.. Chapter One reveals the research. motivation and the structure of the thesis, with a brief introduction of the movie. Chapter Two explores the characteristics, restrictions, translation strategies of subtitling. In Chapter Three, features and functions of vulgarism are investigated from the perspective of social linguistic psychology, with Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker’s proposed functions on swearing as basis.. Chapter Four illustrates. the methodology of this research. Chapter Five categorizes different translation strategies and pursues a detailed analysis of the examples.. Chapter Six provides. conclusions and recommendations for further search.. Key words: vulgarism, taboo words, subtitling, translation strategy.

(6) 摘要. 電影世界中虛構的人物透過使用情緒性的粗鄙字眼，被賦予了凡人的靈魂，與觀眾的真實世界更加貼近。美國喜劇《男孩我最壞》裡充斥著大量不雅語言，卻令人發噱，極具娛樂價值。然而在字幕翻譯的制約因素及中西文化差異下，譯者必須將口語轉換成最精練的書面語。本論文意旨探討此片的譯者是如何處理這種困境。. 論文分為六章，第一章概述研究動機與目的以及《男孩我最壞》一片簡介。第二章文獻回顧探討影視翻譯中字幕翻譯的功能、特性及其制約因素，第三章談粗俗語的在社會語言學中扮演的角色、類別、形式及意義及社會語言學家對粗俗語的分類，利用認知心理學家 Steven Pinker 的粗話功能分類為基礎。第四章敘述本論文的主要研究方法，及其從翻譯理論的角度探討字幕翻譯的文本類型，第五章分類比較在不同粗話功能下，本片譯者的翻譯策略。最後綜合整理歸納出六類字幕粗俗語翻譯策略。在第六章結論裡，筆者總結字幕粗俗語翻譯的策略，闡述本論文之研究限制，並提出未來可行的研究方向。. 關鍵字：粗俗語、禁忌語言、字幕、翻譯策略.

(7) Table of Content Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………….. 1 1.1 Research Motivation………………………………………………... 1.2 Significance of the Research………………………………………... 1.3 Thesis Structure……………………………………………………... 1.4 Introduction of the movie ‘Superbad’ ……………………………… 1.4.1 Movie Plot……………………………………………............ 1.4.2 Movie Genre and Target Audience………………………….... Chapter 2 Literature Review…………………………………………... 2.1 Audiovisual Translation (AVT) …………………………………….. 2.2 Subdivision of audiovisual translation………………………............ 2.2.1 Dubbing……………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Subtitling ……………………………………………………. 2.3 Audiovisual Translation in Taiwan………………………………….. 2.4 Subtitling – Constraints and Features……………………………….. 2.4.1 Constraints of Subtitling……………………………………. 2.4.2 Features of Subtitling………………………………………... Chapter 3 Offensive Language………………………………………... 3.1 Definition of Vulgarism……………………………………………... 3.2 Functions of Vulgarism……………………………………………... 3.3 Categories of Swearwords……………………………………........... 3.4 Vulgarism in Subtitles……………………………………………….. Chapter 4 Methodology………………………………………………… 4.1 Peter Newmark’s theory…………………………………………….. 4.2 Subtitling Strategies for Vulgarism………………………………….. Chapter 5 Examples and Analysis of Vulgarism translation in the movie ‘Superbad’ …………………………………………... 5.1 Dysphemistic………………………………………………………... 5.2 Abusive………………………………………………………........... 5.3 Idiomatic Swearing……………………… ………………………… 5.4 Emphatic Swearing…………………………………………………. 5.5 Cathartic Swearing………………………………………………….. 5.6 Others……………………………………………………….............. 5.7 Summary…………………………………………………………….. 3 4 5 6 7 9 14 14 15 17 19 20 20 20 22 24 24 25 28 31 35 35 37 43 45 50 53 55 58 60 61. Chapter 6 Conclusion…………………………………………………… 63 References..….…………………………………………………………… 66 Appendix A table of Swearwords in ‘Superbad’ …………………... 72.

(8) Chapter 1 Introduction ‘No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.’ -Edward Sapir Translation is cross-cultural communication. It deals with language transfer within two cultures on both the linguistic and the social levels. One of the most evident examples is the translation of audiovisual contents, which realistically reflect the foreign culture and challenge translators’ ability to render the meanings in another language comprehensible to the target audience.. Under the umbrella of the. translation discipline, subtitling translation, also known as screen translation, or the recently coined terminology as audiovisual translation, serves as one major medium for these materials to convey messages to foreign audiences. Media contents can be informative, educational, persuasive and educational in various contexts.. When such. contents are being broadcast to a foreign language audience, screen translation is required. The demand of audiovisual translation is increasingly worldwide as digital technology gives rise to easier content production and higher accessibility of such materials to viewers.. Given the advent of various media outlets, it is hard to quantify. the exact demand of screen translation.. As far as the figure is concerned, one way of. surveying the needs is to start at how many hours of foreign audiovisual materials are broadcast or screened in Taiwan each year.. As for the cinema, in 2008 alone, 351. foreign movies 1 obtained the screening license from the Government Information Office, the regulatory agency for movie screening and distribution in Taiwan, Republic of China.. This number does not include the plethora of movies directly. released on DVD, films shown in certain film festivals, such as the Golden Horse 1. The figure is retrieved from GIO’s Taiwan Cinema website, in the market statistic section under the industrial news category. http://tc.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=133&ctNode=265&mp=1 1.

(9) International Film Festival and the re-runs of film broadcast on movie channels. Besides the pouring influx of English-speaking Hollywood-made movies, there are many American TV programs, such as recent, scripted TV series like Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, CSI, 30 Rock and the Mentalist, and reality TV shows, namely America’s Top Supermodel, Donald Trump-starred The Apprentice, Runway Project and et cetera, that can be seen on TV channels here in Taiwan.. Moreover,. educational channels such as National Geographic, Discovery, and Travel and Living are also offering more programming in the country.. Numerous entertainment. contents are provided by international movie channels HBO and Cinemax and on local channels as well. This is just a fraction of the amount of entertainment contents that require screen translation. There are also theater performances and live events that may require some forms of translation, such as subtitle.. Although the attempt to quantify the hours of. foreign-language materials is in vain, the phenomenon indicates the continuous needs of quality translation for audience. However, only in recent years has the study of audiovisual translation gained more attention in the academic landscape. Audiovisual translation is the only form of translation that unavoidably presents the source text (in the form of soundtrack or on-screen cue cards) and the target text to receptors at the same time. translation is subtitling.. One of the most common methods of audiovisual. Subtitle translation is, like other types of translation,. stressful for its technical word limitation and alternating verbal contexts. For example, a word ‘please’ may seem ironic, if the speaker deliberately drags on the syllables, or sounds loud.. The emotion of speakers in such text is visible on the. screen to viewers and thus has to be taken into consideration when choosing a proper translation of the responding register. The facet of emotional expression in subtitling is intriguing and may not travel 2.

(10) well across languages. What can possibly be the most emotion-loaded words in dialogues are swearwords.. Vulgarism and sexually-oriented languages are. commonly used and heard as street languages in the United States of America and almost everywhere else in the world, especially among teenagers, gangsters, the lower-class, and almost everyone, to different extents.. This thesis attempts to. analyze the obstacle in translating taboo words such as vulgarism and sexually-oriented languages in subtitles and explore whether the emotional power of the words can be translated, by examining the utterances these colorful words in the hit American comedy ‘Superbad’ and their renditions in Mandarin Chinese.. 1.1 Research Motivation My first job after college was an in-house subtitle translator for a post-production company, which provides traditional Chinese subtitles of movies and TV series to international movie channels including HBO, Cinemax and some local movie channels. After a few months, I was recruited to join the team to launch the first Kaohsiung Film Festival in 2002. While working as the international affairs coordinator, I also translated several movies in the festival. Ever since, I have been a part-time movie subtitle translator, mostly in the domestic film festival circuit, on a case-by-case basis.. I have been translating movie and TV subtitles for nearly a. decade, with perhaps a hundred titles of movie and TV work under my belt. Having translated movies from almost every genre, I have come to realize that the most challenging one is surprisingly, comedy. puns, gags, and wordplays. full of these jokes.. As an audience I especially enjoy. But that’s not the case when I get to translate a movie. Still, I enjoy watching quality movies and TV series from time. to time to sharpen my language skills and get the updates of the American pop culture. I came to notice the movie ‘Superbad’ because of its leading character played by 3.

(11) Michael Cera, who is a brilliant, young, and next-door boy type of actor in ‘Arrested Development’, which was a critically acclaimed comedy TV series and praised as the smartest sit-com in the recent years.. Therefore, I rented the movie on DVD, and was. amazed by the interesting plot depicting a string of hilariously unfortunate events that happened to three high-school kids over one night.. While these teenagers are. considered potty-mouthed and eager to enter adulthood, they use constant swearing and sexual jokes as a disguise or a tool to protect their true feelings and dignity. The movie characters, all teenagers, try to look tough by using vulgarism and sexually-oriented slangs in order to hide their own insecurity and awkwardness.. As. the movie is filled with numerous instances of foul languages pertaining to offensive sex-oriented languages, vulgarism and slang, commonly used by today’s American teenagers, that could present a big challenge for subtitling translators. I am especially intrigued by whether there are equivalents of the colloquial swearwords in Chinese and if not, whether translation theories can provide some applicable strategies to find proper solutions.. 1.2 Significance of the Research Despite cultural differences in the Western and the Eastern world, the objects of vulgarism and sexually-oriented languages are sometimes quite similar, such as unpleasant, disgusting and disturbing things or action, for example, the use of swearword involving sex and excrement.. Although the languages are explicit, they. are often used as a way to fully express one’s emotion in certain scenarios and their existences in the culture can not be ignored.. As language changes over time, updates. of these strong languages continue to surface and replace the old ones with the same meanings.. The emergence of these constantly renewed languages represents a sense. of vitality, creativity and even imagination to the language itself. 4. The movie.

(12) ‘Superbad’ is lauded for its commercial success yet its script has abundant materials regarding to crude and vulgar humor, with various instances of sexual wordplays, some of which may not have equivalents in Chinese renditions or even be mentioned in a Mandarin-speaking society because talking about taboo acts is socially forbidden. Since these taboo acts are less confabulated in the public, the amount of swearwords in the certain regards is lower than those of their American counterparts. Also, previous studies on these features in subtitling vulgarism are rather limited (cf. Chen 2004; Fong 2009), which legitimizes the importance of the thesis.. 1.3 Thesis Structure The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One is to introduce the background and motivation of the thesis as well as the case study material. In Chapter Two literature reviews of audiovisual translation will be presented with a focus on the constraints of this form for translation.. In Chapter Three, the definition and features. of vulgarism and sexually-oriented languages will be discussed and their categories by different authorities.. After close comparison, I found that Harvard cognitive. scientist Steven Pinker’s proposed functions of swearing provides more concrete approaches in categorizing profane utterance. Therefore, in the thesis, the materials will be categorized by Pinker’s functions of swearing. In Chapter Four, a detailed research process will be laid out while introducing the standard of selecting the materials in the movie ‘Superbad.’ Based on one of the most prominent English translation theorist, Peter Newmark’s Semantic and Communicative Translation theory, a list of strategies will be concluded.. In the following chapter, examples. from the movie ‘Superbad’ will be examined in different categories with commentary and/or suggestions.. Chapter Six will be the conclusion of the thesis.. 5.

(13) 1.4 Introduction of the movie ‘Superbad’ Superbad (2007) is American comedy director Greg Mottola’s latest offering and the most recent in a string of comedy hits by producer Judd Apatow, who is the producer of blockbuster comedies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, and Knocked up. Interestingly, these movies also center on similar topics such as men’s desire for sex, substance use, i.e., marijuana or alcohol, only in different backgrounds. The film, a high school comedy starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, offers a partially self-biographical episode for writers Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg who themselves had written the film script during their high school years. Seth Rogan began to do stand-up comedy when he was 15 and it was then he began to write his own materials along with Evan Goldberg, whom he grew up with in Canada. entertained the dream of making it big in show business.. Both. After moving to Los. Angeles from Vancouver to work on a role in a TV series, which was cancelled not long after his relocation, he stayed in Los Angeles to look for other writing and acting jobs.. Fortunate enough, he was led under the guidance of Judd Apatow to start his. own movie career as a screen writer and actor later on. He has been in the leading cast in at least fives movies as of summer 2009.. In Superbad, Rogan writes himself. in and plays one of the wacky police officers Michaels.. He and Goldberg even go so. far as to grant the main characters with their own given names.. ‘Superbad’. chronicles the final weeks of high school for Even (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) and follows them in their vigorous and flamboyant escapades as they struggle to shed their overlooked social irrelevance and define for themselves a final youth legacy, primarily based on the achievements of getting drunk and having sex. Since the movie itself depicts teenagers’ relentless pursuit of sex, it is predictable the foul-mouthed tone throughout the movie.. 6.

(14) 1.4.1 Movie Plot The movie depicts a day’s life for Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill), who are with only weeks before their high school graduation.. Bound for different. universities after the summer, the duo are on a mission to make the most of their final moments together in high school. Enabled by a fake ID from their neglected friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the duo hatch a plan to crash a weekend party armed with the booze. As the providers of alcohol they hope to propel themselves into the social limelight at the party and into the affections of hosts Jules (Emma Stone) and Becca (Martha Maclsaac). The trouble starts when Fogell’s mission to buy alcohol at the local cornerMart is abruptly interrupted by an assault from a hooded robber. Confident that Fogell's fake ID in which he is simply named ‘McLovin’ would not pass police scrutiny, Seth and Evan can only watch in horror as Fogell is seemingly apprehended by the bumbling police officers Michaels (Seth Rogan) and Slater (Bill Hader) who have been sent to investigate the crime. Horrified and on the hook for the booze, the two are desperate for a solution. While unbeknownst to them Fogell ‘McLovin’ has been offered a ride to the party by police officers so board they entertain themselves by miscreant abuses of police power much to the amusement of McLovin. While bemoaning their loss, Seth is suddenly hit by a car. Although uninjured, the remorseful driver Francis (Joe Lo Truglio) who fears the consequences of the accident serves Seth and Evan’s needs by promising them more liquor at a second party across town.. Little do they know that. Francis is in fact unwelcome at the party and is assaulted upon arrival. A fight scene ensues providing the necessary distraction needed for Seth and Evan to smuggle a share of the parties alcohol out into the night. 7. The success of the theft is suddenly.

(15) curtailed by the arrival of officers Slater and Michaels with McLovin responding to the skirmish at the party. Although nearly apprehended by the officers, Evan, Seth and Fogell all manage to escape with the alcohol and finally make it to the Jules-hosted party.. Once reunited with the girls and all the raw potential of the night. the trio begins binge drinking.. Seth becomes radically intoxicated and propositions. Jules who politely rejects him based on his drunken state.. Seth then continues to. destroy what potential he has with Jules by blacking out in the middle of a drunken ramble and head butting her on his way down to the floor. Miraculously, Evan gets his chance with Becca when she tries to tackle him into bed.. She is completely inundated by alcohol as well and promptly vomits on the. bedding before Evan builds the nerve to sleep with her. Fogell ‘McLovin’ does succeed with another party reveler Nicola and manages only a few moments of awkward sex before being rudely interrupted by the sudden arrival of officers Slater and Michaels. The officers admit sheepishly that they had known of McLovin’s forged identity the whole time but chose instead to ignore it because they saw aspects of their own lost adolescence in him.. In exchange for ruining his lusty moment with. Nicola it is agreed that the officers will mock Fogell’s arrest in front of the entire party thereby propelling him to cult level popularity.. Fogell’s night finally ends. when he joins the officers in recklessly destroying their squad car just for fun. Extremely hung-over and in a daze from the party Seth and Evan wind down by reaffirming their friendship in juvenile expressions of attachment. Luckily for them, Becca and Jules are discovered the next morning at the mall and are somehow able to look past the mishaps of the party and accept their company for the day. It’s a major success for Seth and Evan as they take this to be the prelude of a relationship.. 8.

(16) 1.4.2 Movie Genre and Target Audience The small budget movie ‘Superbad’ became an instant commercial success after it opened theaters across the United States.. While not every movie of the teen sex. comedy genre pans out commercially, ‘Superbad ‘successfully tells a story of sex-fuelled teenagers troubled with eager desire to enter adulthood while dealing with the fear and uncertainty of having to make new friends after high school, an experience common to most American audiences.. The movie plays with the. insecure feelings of one’s experiences exploring the issue of sex without removing the illusion.. The experience is so recognizable, such an integral moment in the building. of the individual, that we are able to identify.. Thanks to the interesting plot, funny. dialogues and storyline, the small budget movie in Hollywood turned into a big blockbuster nationwide. According to Box Office Mojo 2 , the film opened at #1 at the U.S. box office, as of January 3, 2008, the film has grossed an estimated total of $169,860,655 worldwide. Compared to the relatively small budget of $20 million, the film was a massive financial profit and it is the highest domestic grossing high school comedy of all time.. However, despite its massive success in the U.S., probably due to cross-cultural differences or its less known cast members, the movie went directly to DVD when it was released in Taiwan in 2008. According to The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) 3 , which provides the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) 4 with its. 2. Box Office Mojo is an online movie publication and box office reporting service. http://www.boxofficemojo.com 3 The MPAA film rating system is by far the dominant motion picture rating system in the United States. This is the current list of the MPAA's ratings: G The movie contains no mild violence, sexual content, and/or language. There is no need for parental guidance. PG The movie may contain mild violence, mild sexual innuendo, or language. Young children (ages 9 and under) should have parental guidance. 9.

(17) ratings 5 reasons, ‘Superbad’ is rated R (Restricted) ‘for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image all involving teens.’. Also coming from the website of the IMDb, at least 213 f-words are recorded in the unrated versi0n of the movie. In addition, close to 200 other obscenities with anatomical, scatological and religious profanities combined.. Movie Genre. Clearly, it’s a comedy film intended for mature audience of age over 18. However, as the background is set in a high school. It can be categorized as ‘high school comedy’, ‘Teen Film’ or ‘Young Adult/American’ movie because the genre is about movies related to teen viewers or teen experiences. One of the common themes includes the exploration of first sexual encounter.. Wikipedia has the. definition of teen films as such:. The Teen film, (teen movie or teenpic) is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst and alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way. Films in this genre are often set in high schools, or. PG-13 The movie may contain intense violence (but no gore), some sexual content, partial nudity, drug references, and/or infrequent strong language. Children under 13 should have parental guidance; however, parental guidance is not legally enforced. R The movie may contain strong violence (including gore) and language, drug uses, sexual content, and/or full-frontal nudity. People under 17 must be with an accompanying parent or adult guardian when watching an R-rated film in a cinema. NC-17 The movie may have extreme violence, explicit sexual content, hard drug use and/or very strong language. People ages 17 and under must not be admitted to an NC-17 rated film in a cinema. 4 The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a HUGE collection of movie information at www.imdb.com 10.

(18) contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes are also common, as are nudity and crude forms of humour. (Wikipedia). Besides the young adult theme, the movie is also linked by Wikipedia with a sub-genre of sex-comedy.. As noted in the Encyclopedia of Children Adolescents. and the Media, the majority of sex comedy ‘were nonetheless decidedly negative in their portrayals, demonstrating the complications of sex as well as its disappointments, confusions, and potential dangers’ (Shary). It’s self-explanatory that the movie contains sexual description and is adult-themed. sex-related jokes or references.. Viewers can expect the usage of. The journey for teenagers or in the movie high. school students to pursue their first sexual experience in their life is a popular theme for not only among American viewers but also worldwide comedy-lovers.. A great. example is ‘American Pie’, which also centers around the topic and was a great box office success.. The formula of creating funny plot is not about handsome cool. ‘dudes’ hanging out with ‘pretty chicks’ but about underdog-typed average Joes realizing their sexual dream/fantasy and their journey of making it happen.. Their. ‘good-for-nothing’, ‘loser’ image makes audiences easier to relate to their own experiences.. An online movie review by Anthony Chatfield explains the never ending supply of such feel-good movies, describing the underdog-typed characters as ‘often full of weaker personality characteristics and lacking the skills of their more talented competition, the one thing they always have is the tenacity to become better.’ Like ‘American Pie’, ‘Superbad’ also has seemingly underdog-typed characters, people with flaws. Wikepedia explains the character of typical teen movies introduced as followed:. 11.

(19) Codes and conventions of the teen film genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties and all-night raves, losing one's virginity, relationships, social groups and cliques, and American pop-culture. The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include: The Jock, The Princess or The Plastic, The Geek, The Rebel, The Misfit, or The Outcast, The Average Girl/Boy (the boy/girl next door), The New Girl/Boy (Wikipedia). In the case of ‘Superbad’, one of the leading characters, Seth is an overweight, underachieved student who thinks nothing but sex.. From one of the beginning. scenes, some bully-typed students flaunt that they are invited to Jules’ party and spit on him because he’s not invited. action right on the spot.. Infuriated but coward, Seth doesn’t dare to take any. It shows he’s a type of the ‘Outcast’ in the categories above.. His best friend Evan is a well-behaved boy and will soon enter one of the Ivy league school Dartmouth College along with glasses-wearing, shy-looking ‘McLoving.’ It shows that Evan and ‘McLoving’ are the type of ‘Geek’ in the categories. Although they are not the most likable types of characters, the story shapes the characters by using colorful words to affirm their brotherhood and manhood.. Target Audience. High school life in the U.S. is very much different from what it is in Taiwan. The constant pursuit of losing one’s virginity, drug use, alcohol consumption is not a mainstream high school life in the Taiwanese society. 12. However, for American.

(20) audience, high school life depicted in the movie is a shared memory and they can all find a little of themselves in the movie. Therefore, movies of the genre have been produced one after another to please nostalgia-seeking audiences.. As the film is. rated R, it is targeted to viewers of age 18 and above, who are supposedly mature enough to be entertained by the dialogues rather than being influenced.. 13.

(21) Chapter 2 Literature Review In the chapter, the common methods of audiovisual translation and the current situation in Taiwan will be discussed with the focus on subtitling as type of translation since the thesis’ corpus is based on a movie.. An overview of the features and. constraints of subtitling translation from English to Chinese will be presented. It is a fact that technological advances enable more audiovisual contents to be circulated around the world more rapidly and massively than ever. While Hollywood movies still play a dominant role in the world’s movie market, the emergence of digital cinematography film and video production provides access to more individuals to launch independent productions. Therefore, for better trans-cultural communications the need for quality screen translation is growing exponentially. As Yves Gambier notes (2003: 171), the rise of technology, language policy awareness(especially in Europe), and the rapid change of translation practice contribute to the establishment of a proper name in the field. The earlier studies referred mainly to film translation. Then came the term language transfer, focusing on 'language', followed by audiovisual translation (AVT). Since translation studies have been considered an emerging discipline, the research is rather limited in the field of audiovisual translation as a whole.. 2.1 Audiovisual Translation (AVT) Naturally, audiovisual translation is based on ‘audiovisual text.’ Bartrina uses the term “audiovisual text” to refer to ‘that which we receive via two channels, the visual and the acoustic. ‘Essential to understanding is the synchrony between verbal and non-verbal message.’ (2004: 157). In the workshop for subtitles for Almodovar,. Díaz-Cintas defines ‘audiovisual translation’ as it ‘refers to the translation of products 14.

(22) in which the verbal dimension is supplemented by elements in other media[….]The concurrence of different communication systems such as images, sound (music, noise) and the verbal component (oral production, written text) is responsible for a series of limitations that constrain the translator's task.’ (Díaz-Cinta) In a further explanation to the constraints mentioned by Diaz-Cinta, Chaume offers a more comprehensive account on the nature of audiovisual text, elements that create difficulties of translating subtitles, while proposing his translation paradigm based on Film Studies. She made the following comments: An audiovisual text is a semiotic construct comprising several signifying codes that operate simultaneously in the production of meaning.. A film is composed. of a series of codified signs, articulated in accordance with syntactic rules. Its typology, the way it is organised and the meaning of all its elements results in a semantic structure that the spectator deconstructs in order to understand the meaning of the text. (2004: 16) Put in another way, subtitle, though merely a semantic structure created under space-and-time limit, is the essence of combined signifying codes. Therefore, it is clear that translating for audiovisual texts, besides linguistic elements, the polysemiotic nature of the text should be brought into play. But to how and to what extent it is adequately presented is an arduous effort that requires the translator to make constant decisions, sentence by sentence.. 2.2 Subdivision of audiovisual translation Although the audiovisual translation is normally associated with the subtitling and lip-synch dubbing of audiovisual material for television and cinema, its range is actually much greater, covering as it does the translation of television programmes, films, videos, CD-ROMs, DVDs, operas and plays. (O’Connell. 2007: 123) Acknowledging that the most prevalent two methods in screen translation are 15.

(23) subtitling and dubbing, Gambier categorizes cross-language transfer in audiovisual translation into two major groups: Dominant type and Challenging type (172-175). The ‘Dominant Type’ means the most prevalent practices in the field of translation and the ‘Challenging Type’, as Gambier argues that they are more difficult to process. Here I have organized the subcategories of the two types into a table for a clear review.. Figure 2.1 Gambier’s AVT categories Audiovisual Translation Categories Dominant Types 1. Interlingual subtitling. involves moving from the oral dialogue to one to. (or open caption). two written lines and from one language to another, sometimes to two other languages. 2. Dubbing. adapts a text for on-camera characters. 3. Consecutive interpreting. can be done in three possible modes: live, prerecorded or link-up. 4. Simultaneous interpreting. is used, for instance, during a debate in a studio such as presidential debates. 5. Voice-over. occurs when a documentary or an interview. or ‘half dubbing’. is translated/adapted and broadcast about in synchrony by a journalist or an actor. 6. Free Commentary. is clearly an adaptation for a new audience, with additions, omissions, clarifications and comments. 7. Simultaneous (or sight). is done from a script or another set of subtitles. Translation. already available in a foreign language (pivot language) or from a dialogue list 16.

(24) 8. Multilingual production. such as double versions (same actors, but film dubbed) and remarks (recontextualization in accordance with the new target culture.). Challenging Types 1. scenario/script. is required to get subsidies, grants and other financial support for a co-production. 2. 3. intralingual subtitling. is done for the benefit of the deaf and hard of. (or closed caption). hearing (HH) in the same language as content. live (or real time). is used in various types of interviews, such as. subtitling. Clinton’s hearing in the Supreme Court for sexual harassment in 1998. 4. Surtitling. Is one-line subtitling placed above a theatre stage or in the back of the seats, and displayed non-stop (i.e. without interruption) throughout a performance. 5. audio description. is a kind of double dubbing in interlingual transfer for the blind and visually impaired.. Which translation or form is chosen is based on the genre of the program, the need of target audience and the broadcaster’s concerns. But the two best-known and most widespread techniques of screen translation are no doubt dubbing and subtitling because of the relatively easy technologies these two forms require and the least interfering for audience’s viewing experience.. Since the two types of methods. are most common practices, they will be introduced in the following sub-segments.. 2.2.1 Dubbing Dubbing, also known as ‘post-synchronization’, is an oral form of 17.

(25) communication used to cover the original soundtrack by another voice, involving ‘the replacement of the original speech by a voice track which attempts to follow as closely possible the timing, phrasing and lip movements of the original dialogue’ (Luyken et al. 1991: 31 qtd. in Baker and Hochel: 95). The method is known to be one that modifies the source text to a large extent and thus makes it familiar to the target audience through domestication and it requires less cognitive effort from viewers as who only need to concentrate on watching the images and listening to the dialogue. While both dubbing and subtitling deal with ‘language transfer’ from one culture to another, the constraints and preferences are different.. Baker and Hocher (75). summarize the pros and cons of dubbing in the following: The disadvantages include the cost and time factor, loss of authenticity, impossibility of maintaining the illusion of authenticity given the presence of visual reminders of the foreignness of the setting and characters and the need to maintain lip synchronization.[…] On the positive side, dubbing involves less textual reduction than subtitling, is more professionalized, draws on established methods of post-synchronization, constructs a more homogeneous discourse,[…] and it does not require a high level of literacy from its users. Although dubbing faces doubts of ‘undetectable textual manipulation’ as there is no access to the source text on screen, it is an effective way to reach audiences with low literacy rates (O’Connell, 2007: 126).. In other words, children and illiterate. viewers can also enjoy foreign productions and entertainment through dubbing. This explains most cartoons and imported TV soap operas broadcast in Taiwan are usually dubbed. Baker and Hochel (75) sum up the factors that determine the choice of dubbing or subtitling, i.e., ‘cost, availability of relevant technology, standard of literacy, interest in foreign languages, degree of cultural openness, and the strength of the local film industry.’. These elements play a dominant role in deciding one 18.

(26) country’s preferred method of screen translation.. 2.2.2 Subtitling Unlike dubbing, subtitling is the visual form of communication, consists of written texts on the screen, ‘graphically extrinsic to the visual track.’(Fong, 2009: 40) Prominent scholar in the field of subtitling, Henrik Gottlieb defines it as ‘diasemiotic translation in polysemiotic 6 ‘ media (including films, TV, video and DVD), in the form of one or more lines of written text presented on the screen in sync with the original dialogue’ (2004: 220). There are two types of subtitles: intralingual and interlingual, which serve different needs for audiences. From a linguistic viewpoint, Intralingual subtitle (within one language) is ‘done for the benefit of the deaf and hard of hearing (HH), or sometimes to help migrants, for instance, to learn or to improve their command of their new language.”(O’Connell, 174) Interlingual subtitle, i.e., subtitle between two languages, involves moving from the oral dialogue to one/two written lines and from one language to another. Subtitles can be divided into open and closed type based on the technical needs. Open subtitles, including cinema subtitles and interlingual television captions that are processed on the moving images and cannot be removed from the screen, whereas viewers have the freedom to choose to access to closed subtitles, that can be chosen. (Gambier, 2003: 170) This translation technique involves not only translating from the source into the target language but also from a spoken dialogue into a written one. Raphael Nir referred to interlingual subtitling as a ‘’double conversion’; from one language to. 6. The term 'polysemiotic' is explained by Gottlieb in his 2004 paper in the Nordic Journal of English Studies, referring to the presence of two or more parallel channels of discourse constituting the text in question. In a film, up to four semiotic channels are in operation simultaneously: non-verbal picture, written pictorial elements, dialogue, and music and effects. 19.

(27) another and from one medium to another.’ (1984: 84) On a similar note, Gottlieb, a veteran subtitler-turned-professor, coins the subtitling process as ‘diagonal translation’, arguing the complexity of interlingual subtitling as ‘being two-dimensional, 'jaywalks' (cross over) from source-language speech to target-language writing.’ (2004:220) Their views acknowledge the high level of complexity involved in the process of rendering movie subtitles that is far more than traditional translation of written texts.. 2.3 Audiovisual Translation in Taiwan Popular English-speaking TV series such as MacGyver, Michael Knight, and Sledge Hammer! were broadcast in Chinese dub in Taiwan, back in 1980’s. However, for more recent English-speaking TV series or programs, dubbing has been replaced by Chinese subtitles, a result that can be linked with the country’s rigorous effort to promote English education and a demand of authenticity.. Currently in. Taiwan, only TV drama series from South Korea and Hong Kong and cartoon programs, aimed at children or teenagers, use dub and subtitle broadcast in Chinese dub with same language subtitles. There are some exceptions, such as that re-runs of the programs are broadcast with the original soundtrack and Chinese subtitles. In general, Taiwan is a ‘subtitling’ country because the country embraces imported a great amount of audiovisual contents. Therefore it has a high and steady demand for subtitling translation.. 2.4 Subtitling – Constraints and Features 2.4.1 Constraints of Subtitling As O’Connell notes (126), interlingual subtitling leaves original soundtrack intact and ‘those who know both languages to a greater or lesser extent have the chance to check the translation for themselves.’ This phenomenon is also observed by Fong (44), adding that in Hong Kong, catching subtitle mistakes on the television 20.

(28) or cinema screen is ‘the favourite game of many audience members.’ Gottlieb acknowledges the phenomenon as the ultimate constraint for translators because of the pressure from audience’s constant supervision. In this sense, the translation is constantly ‘monitored’ by receivers, who will find out what part of the soundtrack is missing in the subtitle. Scandura argues that ‘when watching subtitled material, audiences often feel they are being cheated because they realize that what was said could not have been what was written in the subtitles. (2004: 126). Any omission or. adaptation in subtitle due to the various constraints stemmed from the nature of audiovisual text is often not understood by audiences, who are more likely to blame translators for infidelity to the text. Guardini (1998: 97) suggests three main categories of the constraints in subtitling: technical, textual, and linguistic. (1) Technical constraints are space and time limitation. (2) Textual constraints are the need to synchronize visual and verbal elements of the original content with subtitles and the change in medium. (3) Linguistic constraints include the differences in grammar, syntax and culture related elements between the source and the target language. Since the number of words uttered in a sentence can be faster than eyes to finish reading its written form, having the subtitle to “sync” with the scene will nevertheless compress the written words.. The technical constraints thus force the translator to. truncate and compress the written form of the oral dialogue, which naturally contains verbal fillers, false starts, backtrack, discourse markers and swearwords.. The. translator has to make decisions about what part of messages should remain and the like.. Under the three constraints, subtitling translator is to provide one to two. sentences of “meaningful translation,” to be appeared at the bottom of the screen, which should not occupy the screen, compact enough to appear at the same time as 21.

(29) the speaker begins and finishes each sentence. For Chinese subtitles, the limit for each line ranges from 11 to 15 characters. Each broadcasters and film festival organizers have different rules on the maximum characters appearing on the screen due to technical reasons. Drawing from my own experience with subtitling translation, I find the limit of one or two lines make a huge difference in rendering a text into Chinese translation, since each sentence has to make sense to viewers during the very brief time it appears on the screen. Because the usage of two lines of Chinese characters, which add up to, say, 30 characters tops, has enough room to express a lengthy sentence, but it would take much more effort to express a long sentence using several lines, while making sense of each line. This is the usually case with film festival, which adopts open subtitles.. However, there are. not many researches on the differences between the two subtitling methods, i.e., breaking sentence into one or two lines. The issue can be further discussed if the synchronization differences matter to the segmentation of subtitle translation into Chinese.. 2.4.2 Features of Subtitling Tianjin University Professor Li Yun-xing acknowledges that the two features of subtitling. First, the appearance of subtitles does not change the video, audio including language, music and other sound effects, and original spoken dialogue. Therefore the subtitle compliments the message on the original soundtrack. What is lacked or missed in subtitle can be compensated from the original soundtrack, i.e. the tone of the sentence and other image or details that cannot be expressed in written texts.. Secondly, the soundtrack provides the original dialogue.. Any viewer who. has a relatively high level of the foreign language proficiency will unconsciously criticize the subtitle.. Therefore, a minor inappropriateness will raise the eyebrow of. audiences (2001: 39). Li’s second point coincides with the certain constraints 22.

(30) aforementioned by Fong, Gottlieb and O’Connell. Two other features concerning the functions of subtitling are the intertwined relations between written words and auditory message and that subtitle is presented to audience in a gradual manner, though the wait time is only seconds away. Unlike books that readers can always go back and check, the short-lived appearance of each sentence in subtitles creates a constraint, which requests translators to make connection between each line to guarantee audience can grasp most out of the subtitles in a minimum effort.. In order to achieve the goal, the text of subtitles. should be commonly used characters, simple and brief words in concise sentence patterns (Li, 2001: 39).. 23.

(31) Chapter 3 Offensive Language 3.1 Definition of Vulgarism Vulgarism originates from the adjective “vulgar”, which means offensive in language or lewdly or profanely indecent, according to the Merriam and Webster dictionary online. It’s broad and hard to define. But anyone who hears it knows it is offensive, like obscenity, argued by the famous quote ‘you know it when you see it.’ Although difficult to define in a detailed manner, swear words are known by all or at least the majority of the speakers of a language. American’s first amendment protects the freedom of speech, including the use of offensive language. Therefore it is not uncommon to hear such strong language in a real English-speaking environment. When searching for literatures related to vulgarism, often the results turn out to be limited or associated with taboo words, profanities, or swearwords as these words are ostensibly synonyms. Terms used about taboo words in literature often overlap. Taboo words, curse words, dirty words, swearwords, and offensive speech are used interchangeably and there is no real difference in what they designate (Jay 1999:10). For this reason, in the thesis, these terms offensive, coarse languages, profanities, filthy words, vulgarism among others, are used interchangeably to avoid repetition. Back in 1990, British linguists Lars Andersson and Peter Trudgill wrote the book ‘Bad Language’, together they took a dispassionate look at negative attitudes to language use and try to account for the various types of hostility, one of which is ‘swearing’ and here is their attempt to try to define swearing (Andersson and Trudgilll 1990: 53). It is much harder to define what swearing really is.. Since swearing is. more or less universal, we have to try to give it a general characterization 24.

(32) and not just an English-specific one.. We suggest that swearing can be. defined as a type of language use in which the expression (a) refers to something that is taboo and/or stigmatized in the culture; (b) should not be interpreted literally; (c) can be used to express strong emotions and attitudes A swearword is not any dirty word, but a word referring to a subject of taboo in a certain circumstance: the primary function of a work like shit, for instance, is to refer to human or animal excrement. It has, however, through frequent usage as ‘a concept our culture sees as taboo […] gained a widened meaning and become a dirty word, a swearword’ (Karjalaninen 2002:13). Since taboo words are not socially acceptable, it is common to see people, as much as they feel like swearing, try to avoid the usage, because these words are offensive, rude, vulgar, derogatory, and in many case, unnecessary (Andersson and Trudgilll 1990: 53).. This can be one of the reasons to explain the under-translation. of some of the swearwords.. 3.2 Functions of Vulgarism Swearwords are taboo words, something that shouldn’t be said but in fact used quite a lot in daily conversation, believed to be offensive or illicit negative feelings or used as expressions of anger, surprise, etc. Swearing is to provide a shock value, to offend, to be aggressive or provocative, and to draw attention to speakers themselves. (Andersson and Trudgill 1990: 14) In her analysis of taboo words in The Bergen Corpus of London Teenager Language, Stenstrom (1995) ‘confirmed the generational difference (teenagers swearing more than adults, possibly as a way to establish group identity.)’(qtd. in Dewaele: 206).. Stenstrom’s observation is a precise description of the brotherly. bond between the movie’s characters. 25.

(33) Drescher (2000) also mentions that sexual and taboo words (S-T words) are multifunctional, pragmatic units which assume, in addition to the expression of emotional attitudes, various discourse functions. ‘They contribute, for instance, to the coordination of the interlocutors, the organisation of the interaction and the structuring of verbal exchange; in that they are similar to discourse markers’(qtd. in Dewaele: 205).. And the use of swearwords or taboo words is a linguistic device. used to affirm in-group membership and establish boundaries and social norms for language use.. Drescher’s argument also echoes to a research (Ginsburg, Ogletree, et. al 2003), that from a Darwinian perspective, vulgar language production is a human species-specific display serving a communication function to other humans. This could further be proven by the spoken dialogues in the movie ‘Superbad’, as potty-mouthed, sex-fuelled young protagonists utter almost every sentence with swearwords. Andersson and Trudgill (1994:57) also recognize that ‘there is great variation in what is taboo or significant in different cultures.’ What is considered a taboo is not necessarily in another culture. Take Christianity for an example.. The. literal translation of religion-derived swearwords could evoke little or none emotional response in a foreign culture that favors Buddhism for example. that swearwords are partly or largely culture-specific.. It can be inferred. Also, because of the widening. acceptance of swearing, new meanings derive from swearwords, making the language more colorful and creative, though often in a derogatory way.. I would like to. summarize the scholars’ views on the functions and features of swearwords: 1. as a means of expressive behavior derived from male combat originally used to shock and awe opponents. 2. having psychodynamic origins and function in every human culture as a source of emotional stimulation. 3. displacing aggression and compulsive cursing as an involuntary energy discharge. 26.

(34) 4. confirming the generational difference, i.e. in-group membership and social norms. 5. as a human species-specific display serving a communication function to other humans. Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, a highly respected cognitive scientist, pulls together the fragments and provides his account on the range of circumstances of swearing in his 2007 publication ‘The Stuff of Thought’, in which he breaks profanity down into five categories (323-372) :. Figure 3.1 Steven Pinker’s Five Categories on Profanity Categories. Explanation and Examples. Dysphemistic. Exact opposite of euphemism forces listener to think about. swearing. negative or provocative matter. Using the wrong euphemism has a dysphemistic effect. (Example: He fucks her!). Abusive swearing. for abuse or intimidation or insulting of others (Example: You motherfucking son of a bitch! Fuck you, asshole.). Idiomatic swearing. swearing without really referring to the matter, just using the words to arouse interest, to show off, and express to peers that the setting is informal. (Example: Fuck, man). Emphatic swearing. to emphasize something with swearing. (Example: It was so fucking big!). Cathartic swearing. when something bad happens like coffee spilling, people curse. One evolutionary theory asserts it is meant to tell the audience that you're undergoing a negative emotion. (Example: Aww, fucker! Damn this coffee.). 27.

(35) Pinker’s explanation clearly illustrates the different functions of swearing that exist in the English language and is valuable in helping to dissect the linguistic nuances of swearing. However, Pinker has yet to acknowledge in his elucidation the newly derived usages of swearwords, such as the empowering effect from appropriating otherwise offensive words. For example, the word ‘bitch’, a negative, sexist term against women, is now gaining a positive connotation of women empowerment too, if used in a positive way to the interlocutor. It can be interesting, humorous, funny and even complimentary. And another example is the word ‘nigger’, it’s an unacceptable racial slur, highly offensive in almost every setting but the use of such term among black people confirms ‘in-group’ membership, if used in a proper occasion. While most of the subjects in swearwords may be similar in different languages and cultures, the degrees of strong emotions referring to the same thing differ. The context in which the words are uttered also determines the level of emotion and rudeness. Ideally, the emotional weight should be carefully matched with the specific situational context in a foreign language. But in the nature of subtitling translation, that requires translators to condense oral message into written form, the emotional power of words may be stripped with the use of a compete sentence.. 3.3 Categories of Swearwords The Federal Communication Commission, the regulatory agency charged with overseeing the broadcast industry in the United States, has a clear categorization on indecency giving detailed information on words banned from airwaves. Offensive words were classified into 1 of 5 groups: the ‘‘seven dirty words,’’ sexual words, excretory words, mild-other words, and strong-other words. The seven dirty words (cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit and tits) 28.

(36) were put in their own category because the Federal Communication Commission has singled out these words as being too indecent to be heard on broadcast television. Besides the seven dirty words, ‘sexual words’ refer to words that describe sexual body parts (e.g., ‘‘testicles,’’ ‘‘boobs,’’ ‘‘pussy,’’ ‘‘cock’’), or sexual behavior (e.g., ‘‘jackoff,’’ ‘‘hummer’’). Excretory words are direct and literal references to human elimination processes and body parts (e.g., ‘‘fart,’’ ‘‘asshole’’). Kaye and Sapolsky (2004) segmented the ‘other’ category into mild and strong words, based on their level of taboo. Mild-other classified such words as ‘hell,’ ‘damn’ and slut.’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ were also mild-other if the words were uttered in vain and not reverence. The strong-other label was reserved for words considered to cause strong emotions and offense, like ‘bastard,’ ‘bitch’ or ‘bullshit’. I have made a table to show the categories and their responding examples.. Figure 3.2 Categories of Profanity On Rudeness Level Categories. Examples. The ‘‘seven dirty words,’’. cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit and tits. Sexual words. describe sexual body parts (e.g., ‘‘testicles,’’ ‘‘boobs,’’ ‘‘pussy,’’ ‘‘cock’’), or sexual behavior (e.g., ‘‘jackoff,’’ ‘‘hummer’’).. Excretory words. Direct or literal references to human elimination processes and body parts (e.g., ‘‘fart,’’ ‘‘asshole’’).. Mild-other words. ‘hell,’ ‘damn’ and slut.’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’. Strong-other words. ‘bastard,’ ‘bitch’ or ‘bullshit’. According to Pinker, the content of profane language can also be broken into five categories of negative emotion (2007: 323-372).. 29.

(37) Figure 3.3 Pinker’s Categories On Profanity Categories. Examples. The Supernatural. Evokes emotions of awe and fear. (Examples: damn, hell, Christ). Bodily effluvia and organs Evokes disgust, since effluvia are major disease vectors. (Examples: shit, piss, asshole) Disease, Death, and. Evokes dread, fear of death or disability. These are. Infirmity. words which are normally avoided or treated euphemistically. (Examples: The pestilence and pox on you!, A plague on both your houses!). Sexuality. – Evokes images of revulsion at depravity. Profanity of a sexual nature conjures images of illegitimate or exploitive sexuality, jealousy, etc. (Examples: fuck, cunt, prick, pussy). Disfavoured people or. Evokes hatred and contempt. Such groups include. groups. infidels, the disabled, enemies, or subordinated groups. (Examples: gimp, fatso, fag, kike, nigger, cracker, coon, raghead, chink, gook). Sine the corpus is based on a movie that has already been rated ‘Restricted’ for adult viewers, the audiences are expected to be ready and are supposed to be ‘capable of’ handling the colorful dialogues before they choose to watch the movie. Unlike movies, broadcast airwaves, in which the need of censorship on the contents related to sex, profanity and violence is mandatory, because TV viewers may be involuntarily 30.

(38) exposed to objectionable materials they find appalling or offensive. On the other hand, to translate for cinema, it is inevitable to have to translate these offensive words. Attached in the appendix is a list of swearwords used in the movie ‘Superbad’ based on the general categories suggested by linguistic scholars Andersson and Trudgill (1990: 55), i.e. ‘Religion’ (God, Christ), ‘Sex’ (fuck), ‘Excrements’ (shit), ‘Sexist terms of abuse’ (Bitch).. Since the movie’s soundtrack contains many slangs. relating to bodily organs, I will include these words in the fifth category ‘Bodily organs (dick).’. 3.4 Vulgarism in Subtitles There is only a small body of literature in Taiwan discussing vulgarism in subtitles. Huang (2006:39) argues in her master thesis that emotion-charged profane words are often omitted in subtitling translation for the sake for preventing miasma to children and teenagers, unless the movie is rated R.. And out of the ten ‘Scheiße’. (‘Shit’ in German) uttered in the movie ‘Goodbye, Lenin’, only six of them are translated into a milder tone in Chinese. But since the movie is rated for general public, there are not many swearwords in her corpus and she didn’t go into exploring in-depth reasons. Of the dozen master theses on subtitling in Taiwan, only one author attempts to analyze vulgar words in subtitling translation from English to Chinese.. In his master. thesis on subtitling vulgarism based on the Quentin Tarantino-directed film ‘Pulp Fiction’, Chen (2003) explains in great details in his MA thesis on how to translate different swearwords based on the contexts of which the words are uttered.. I find. some of his suggestions valuable. However, his explanation would befittingly serve as a reference for word-for-word base, since the analysis is solely based on his own ‘feeling’ as he admits in his conclusion. As subtitling is a type of translation that converts spoken words into written form, 31.

(39) whether vulgar words should be translated to their meaningful equivalents (if there is any), is the question. Writers and directors add informal and colloquial dialogues into the scripts to give the characters some naturalness and realism. Their main purpose in doing so is not so much to shock but to make their characters more compelling (Dobao:223).. As suggested by Andersson and Trudgill, the use of swear words is. indeed unnecessary in many contexts.. I argue that, to be faithful to the text, subtitle. translator should not randomly omit swearwords just because these words are ‘unnecessary’ in the first place.. Swearwords have their functions in the movie and. their semiotic meaning should be reserved or why would they be written in the script. However, the phenomenon of omitting swearwords is common in Chinese subtitles, in which oral speech has to be condensed to fit into the form of the written words. Several scholars in the audiovisual translation studies observe the phenomenon and offer their views in explaining the possible reasons.. Commenting on the Hong. Kong Chinese subtitling on English swearwords, Hong Kong Polytechnic University professor Chapman Chen cites a veteran Hong Kong dramatist Can Zitman, who says “although swearwords can be heard everywhere in everyday life, they appear much less frequently in texts of Chinese culture which stresses the importance of the cleanliness of written language” (qtd. in Chen, 2004: 138). Ivarsson and Carroll (1998:83) share the observation, believing that swearwords can be more unacceptable when written, in particular in subtitles, than when spoken, probably it is because written words seem more concrete and hard to deny than oral utterances (qtd. in Chen, 2004: 137). Scholars in Hong Kong, such as Gilbert Fong and Chapmen Chan, have explored the reasons how English swear words are rendered into Chinese subtitling for Hong Kong cinema.. Fong notes that under-translation of swearwords may be linked to the. movie rating system in Hong Kong that the appearance of swearwords leads to the 32.

(40) movie being rated R and thus limits the demographic of movie-goers (2009: 49). Chapman Chen has been dedicated to the promotion of adopting Cantonese dynamic equivalents in subtitling English-speaking movies, in particular, American swearwords and sexually-oriented words as Chen firmly believes the adoption of Cantonese dynamic equivalents would provide a better choice of wordings to render “salty speech” in subtitling and keep local audience engaged. Chen also points out the several factors that will influence translators’ performance in rendering English swearwords into Chinese subtitles, such as linguistic, psychosexual, and religious differences between American and Chinese languages and cultures. Real dialogues contain colorful language that may hijack viewers’ ears already and are more obscene to be read in written form, thus abusing audiences’ eyes.. To. address the reason why swearwords remain ‘unprintable’, Pinker describes in an article for the New Republic, referring to an experiment carried out by the psychologist Don MacKay, who found that ‘people are slowed down by an involuntary boggle as soon as the eyes alight on each swear word. The upshot is that a speaker or writer can use a taboo word to evoke an emotional response in an audience quite against their wishes’ (Pinker, 2007). Although so far, the government sources have not had a clear guideline on what words should not appear on screen subtitles. Therefore, translators’ personal styles and the translation agency’s or film distributors’ attitude will make a huge difference in the subtitle production process. Based on my previous experience, when translating major movie productions, it always comes with a detailed dialogue list, which has close explanations on puns, word play and possible double entendre, as well as the meaning of slangs and other linguistic features that may confuse translators. Sometimes, swear words are explained in the detailed dialogue list too. This is to say, the original film production company already presupposes that these 33.

(41) linguistic features in English may cause problem in translation as they cannot be translated literally. I argue that another factor that leads to the omission of swearwords in subtitles may be the unconscious, involuntary self-censorship by the translator.. If English is. not the first language of the translator, s/he may not perceive the strong emotional force of swearwords as would native English speakers. This can be observed by the example that bilingual people tend to swear in their second language. Also addressing the same point, Pinker offers his interesting observation on the issue regarding to written form of swearwords from a cognitive psychology point of view. The emotional flavoring of words seems to be picked up in childhood: bilingual people often feel that their second language is not as piquant as their first, and their skin reacts more to hearing taboo words and reprimands in their first language than in their second (Pinker, 2007:332).. 34.

(42) Chapter 4 Methodology 4.1 Peter Newmark’s theory Leading Translation studies scholar Peter Newmark established his status in the academic circle by his breakthrough publication of ‘A textbook of translation’ in 1988, in which he systemically categorizes the various strategies and approaches to handle different types of texts. In Peter Newmark’s translation theory, language can be divided into three main functions, they are the expressive, the information and the vocative functions; these are the main purposes of using language (1988: 39). The original figure which further elaborates the details of the three functions is presented as follow:. Figure 4.1 Language functions, text-categories and text-types. Based on the figure it is apparent to see that movies, like popular fiction, belong to the vocative function category, which features readership as the core of language. The main idea of a comedy film is to make audience laugh and feel that they identify with characters in the movie scenes. Therefore, when swearing is a part of their dialogues, how to render them into a translation that appropriately projects the emotional power is the issue.. As cultural differences play a big part in swearwords, 35.

(43) to produce literal translation of these words may seem useless and difficult for audiences to understand. Newmark lists two factors to explore the definition of the vocative function: The first factor in all vocative texts is the relationship between the writer and the readership, which is realized in various types of socially or personally determined grammatical relations or foams of address: […] The second factor is that these texts must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the readership. Thus for translation, the linguistic and cultural level of the SL text has to be reviewed before it is given a pragmatic impact.. Newmark asserts that the level of naturalness binds translation theory to translating theory, and translating theory to practice and sets out a framework for practical applications, which is shown in the figure below. (1998:20).. Figure 4.2 A functional theory of language. 36.