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Part of
Reassessing Dubbing: Historical approaches and current trends
Edited by Irene Ranzato and Serenella Zanotti
[Benjamins Translation Library 148] 2019
► pp. 191–209

Chapter 9
More than words can say

Exploring prosodic variation in dubbing

Prosodic choices enable on-screen characters to express more than words can say. The pragmatic content attached to their utterances needs to be grasped and reflected in dubbing. Given that the denotative meaning of words can be modulated and even altered by prosodic cues, the role of prosody in audiovisual discourse cannot be neglected in dubbing research and practice. This chapter sets out to explore the relevance of four prosodic systems, namely pitch-direction, pitch-range, loudness and tempo, and their pragmatic implications for English-Spanish dubbed dialogue. The examples provided within each category aim to illustrate via a qualitative analysis how variations in prosody can be used by the original characters to show their attitudes and intentions and how practitioners can reproduce this underlying content by drawing upon their own linguistic resources while complying with dubbing conventions.

Keywords: prosody, dubbing, translation, pitch-direction, pitch-range, loudness, tempo, pragmatic implications, English, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The prosodic-pragmatic interface
  • 3.Where prosody meets dubbing
  • 4.Dubbing prosodic features from English into Spanish
    • 4.1Pitch-direction
    • 4.2Pitch-range
    • 4.3Loudness
    • 4.4Tempo
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Filmography
Published online: 6 August 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.148.09san
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