Cover not available
Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 66:1 (2020) ► pp.46–69

A metaphorical map of subtitling

Idiom vs. explicit meaning in translated filmic texts

 | Universitat de València
This study explores the metaphorical dimension of idioms in original filmic texts and their translations in subtitles, in order to shed light on strategies used in the translation process. The research focuses on a corpus of 20 films from the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips (LFLFC), at the Berkeley Language Center of the University of California, Berkeley. More specifically, I analyze films in German and Spanish with English subtitles from a cognitive and contrastive perspective. My goal is to explore how translation can affect understanding and reception by an audience with limited or no skills in the original language. Results of the analysis show a tendency towards reduction of metaphorical expressions in translated English subtitles, these varying according to the original language of the film. Contrastive analysis demonstrates that in translation from Spanish, the explicit meaning strategy is far more frequent than in translation from German. The findings of this study can be applied in foreign language teaching as a means of developing learners’ cultural awareness and language comprehension, as well as in the field of audiovisual subtitling translation.
Keywords: audiovisual translation, cognitive linguistics, contrastive analysis, filmic text, German-Spanish-English translation, idioms, metaphors, subtitles
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Filmic text, subtitles and subtitling
  • 3.Idioms and their importance
  • 4.Metaphor, culture and translation
  • 5.Methodology and corpus
  • 6.Results of the analysis
    • 6.1Omission
      • 6.1.1Idiom: No comerse un rosco. Film: Te doy mis ojos (2003)
      • 6.1.2Idiom: Den Ton angeben. Film: Die Welle (2008)
      • 6.1.3Idiom: Auf den Hintern sitzen bleiben. Film: Die Welle (2008)
    • 6.2Explicit meaning translation
      • 6.2.1Idiom: Hacerle una putada a alguien. Film: Bajo las estrellas (2006)
      • 6.2.2Idiom: Tener en el bote. Film: Te doy mis ojos (2003)
    • 6.3Partial equivalence
      • 6.3.1Idiom: Einige Leichen im Keller haben. Film: Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer (2015)
      • 6.3.2Idiom: Die Schnauze voll haben. Film: Die Berliner Mauer (2009)
      • 6.3.3Idiom: Die Schnauze voll haben. Film: Im Juli (2000)
      • 6.3.4Idiom: Nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank haben. Film: Die Berliner Mauer (2009)
      • 6.3.5Idiom: Nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank haben. Film: Im Juli (2000)
      • 6.3.6Idiom: Scheiße bauen. Film: Die Fetten Jahren sind vorbei (2004)
      • 6.3.7Idiom: Despachar a alguien. Film: Los lunes al sol (2002)
    • 6.4Total equivalence
      • 6.4.1Idiom: Comersele el gato la lengua a alguien. Film: Bajo las estrellas (2007)
      • 6.4.2Idiom: Die Augen aufmachen. Film: Die Welle (2008)
      • 6.4.3Idiom: Blöde Kuh. Film: Die Berliner Mauer (2009)
    • 6.5Loan translation
    • 6.6Creation
      • 6.6.1 From the film Mar adentro (2004)
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00141.pos
References (51)
References
Primary sources
Films in German
Ade, Maren. 2009. Alle anderen [Everyone else]. Germany: The Cinema Guild.Google Scholar
Akin, Fatih. 2000. Im Juli [In July]. Germany, Hungary and Turkey: KOCH Lorber Films, LP.Google Scholar
. 2004. Gegen die Wand [Head on]. Germany and Turkey: KOCH Lorber Films, LP.Google Scholar
Cotter, Paul. 2009. Die Berliner Mauer [The Berlin Wall]. Germany: Film Movement.Google Scholar
Gansel, Dennis. 2008. Die Welle [The Wave]. Germany: Sundance Selects.Google Scholar
Henckel von Donnersmarck, Florian. 2006. Das Leben der anderen [The Life of Others]. Germany: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.Google Scholar
Kraume, Lars. 2015. Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer [The People vs. Fritz Bauer]. Germany: Netflix.Google Scholar
Schütte, Jan Georg. 2008. Die Glücklichen [Lucky people]. Germany: WVG Medien GmbH.Google Scholar
Weingartner, Hans. 2005. Die Fetten Jahren sind vorbei [The Edukators]. Germany: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.Google Scholar
. 2005. Goodbye, Lenin! [Goodbye, Lenin!]. Germany: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.Google Scholar
Films in Spanish
Sariñana, Fernando. 2002. Amar te duele [Love Hurts]. México: Distrimax Inc, Lionsgate.Google Scholar
Viscarret, Felix. 2007. Bajo las estrellas [Beneath the Stars]. Spain: Notro Films SL.Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro. 1997. Carne trémula [Live Flesh]. Spain: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.Google Scholar
Serrano, David. 2003. Dias de futbol [Soccer Days]. Spain: Venevision International, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.Google Scholar
Sorin, Carlos. 2012. Historias mínimas [Minimal / Intimate Stories]. Argentina: Optimum Releasing, BBC Discoveries.Google Scholar
León de Aranoa, Fernando. 2002. Los lunes al sol [Mondays in the Sun]. Spain, Italy, and France: Lions Gate Entertainment.Google Scholar
Campanella, Juan José. 2004. Luna de Avellaneda [Moon of Avellaneda]. Argentina: A.V.H. San Luis SRL.Google Scholar
Amenábar, Alejandro. 2004. Mar adentro [The Sea Inside]. Spain: New Line Home Entertainment, Inc.Google Scholar
Bollain, Iciar. 2003. Te doy mis ojos [Take my eyes]. Spain: Manga Films, S.L.Google Scholar
. 2007. Mataharis [Mataharis]. Spain: Vene Vision International.Google Scholar
Secondary sources
Attardo, Salvatore. 2002. “Translation and Humour”. The Translator 8 (2): 173–194. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words – A Coursbook of Translation. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cacciari, Cristina. 2001. “Cognitive Psychology of Figurative Thought and Figurative Language”. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, ed. by Neil J. Smelser; and Paul B. Baltes, 5632–5637. Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chaume, Frederic. 2004. “Discourse markers in audiovisual translating”. Meta 49 (4): 843–855. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Conca, Maria; and Guia, Josep. 2014. La fraseologia. Principis, mètode i aplicacions. Alzira: Bromera /Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana.Google Scholar
Corpas, Gloria. 1997. Manual de fraseología española. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
. 2000. “Acerca de la (in)traducibilidad de la fraseología”. In Las lenguas de Europa: Estudios de fraseología, fraseografía y traducción, ed. by Gloria Corpas, 483–522. Granada: Comares.Google Scholar
Díaz Cintas, Jorge; and Anderman, Gunilla. 2009. Audiovisual Translation. Language Transfer on Screen. Houndmills Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz Cintas, Jorge; and Remael, Aline. 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell. 2012. “Textual reduction in translated dialogue in film versus literary fiction”. Nordic Journal of English Studies 11 (3): 100–126.Google Scholar
Fernando, Chitra; and Flavell, Roger. 1981. On Idiom. Critical Views and Perspectives. Exeter: University of Exeter.Google Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W.; Nayak, Nandini P.; and Cutting, Cooper. 1989. “How to kick the Bucket and Not Decompose: Analyzabitity and Idiom Processing”. Journal of Memory and Language 281: 576–593. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W.; and O’Brien, J. E. 1990. “Idioms and mental imagery: The metaphorical motivation for idiomatic meaning”. Cognition 361: 35–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W. 1996. “Why many concepts are metaphorical”. Cognition 611: 309–319. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W.; Bogdanovich, Josephine M.; Sykes, Jeffrey R.; and Barr, Dale J. 1997. “Metaphor in Idiom Comprehension”. Journal of Memory and Language 371: 141–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond. 2001. “Proverbial themes we live by”. Poetics 291: 167–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gottlieb, Henrik. 1994. “Subtitling: Diagonal Translation”. Perspectives 2 (1): 101–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harvey, Keith. 1995. “A descriptive framework for compensation”. The translator 1 (1): 65–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George; and Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, Georg. 1993. “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor”. In Metaphor and Thought (2nd ed), ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202–251. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morvay, Karoly. 1996. “Harri batez bi kolpe. Cuestiones de fraseología comparada”. Euskera: Euskaltzaindiaren Ian eta agiriak 41 (3): 719–767.Google Scholar
Newmark, Peter. 1988. A textbook of translation. New York: Prentice Hall International.Google Scholar
Oltra, Maria D. 2015. La traducció de la fraseologia en obras literàrias contemporànies i les seues adaptacions cinematogràfiques (anglés-català-espanyol). Castelló de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, PhD Dissertation. Google Scholar
Pedersen, Jan. 2011. Subtitling Norms for Television. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Penadés, Inmaculada. 2013. “La imagen subyacente a las locuciones como criterio de marcación diafásica”. In Fraseopragmática, ed. by Inés Olza; and Elisa Manero, 23–48. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar
Sancho Cremades, Pelegrí. 2017. “Fraseología, enacción y traducción”. In Enacción y léxico, ed. by Ángel López; and Daniel Jorques, 145–163. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanc.Google Scholar
Schellheimer, Sybille. 2016. La función evocadora de la fraseología en la oralidad ficcional y su traducción. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar
Timofeeva, Larissa. 2012. El significado fraseológico. En torno a un modelo explicativo y aplicado: Madrid: Liceus.Google Scholar
Trim, Richard. 2007. Metaphor Networks. The Comparative Evolution of Figurative Language. Houndmills Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Van Lawick, Heike. 2006. Metàfora, fraseologia i traducció. Aplicació als somatismes en una obra de Bertold Brecht. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Katalanistik. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Obeidat, Mohammed M.
2023. Translating Culture in the Jordanian T.V. Comedy Series “al jar gabl al dar” (My American Neighbor) Into English. Sage Open 13:3 DOI logo
Labarta Postigo, María
2022. Metaphorical dimension of idioms in TV series for German, Norwegian and Spanish audiences. Estudios de Traducción 12 ► pp. 151 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.