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Part of
Pragmatics and Translation
Edited by Miriam A. Locher, Daria Dayter and Thomas C. Messerli
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 337] 2023
► pp. 195–220

Chapter 9
(Im)politeness and plot advancement in screen translation

A pragmastylistic analysis of Korean fiction film subtitling strategies

| University of Suwon
This contribution explores the workings of linguistic (im)politeness in plot advancement in the context of audiovisual translation with a focus on English-Korean film subtitling, which represents a transfer between considerably remote linguacultures that rely on very different pragmalinguistic means of expressing interpersonal meanings. Challenges of interlingual subtitling are associated with cultural asynchrony both between the source and target cultures and between the verbal component recreated in a different language and the original semiotic system. The discussion is based on examples from relatively recent mainstream fiction films that demonstrate some of the solutions deployed by screen translators in order to capture and re- or co-create the interpersonal effects of the original that have direct bearing on the general plot development.
Keywords: (im)politeness, film discourse, audiovisual translation, interlingual subtitles, cultural asynchrony, Korean honorifics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.(Im)politeness in fictional film discourse
  • 3.Key challenges of interlingual fiction film subtitling
  • 4.(Im)politeness and plot advancement in Korean film subtitles
    • 4.1Local specifics: Translating films for the Korean audience
    • 4.2Case study: Get Out (2017)
  • 5.Outlook and conclusions
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • References
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.337.09pak
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Primary sources
Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele. Universal Pictures, 2017. Blu-ray.Google Scholar
Kingsman: The Secret Service. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. 20th Century Studios, 2014. Blu-ray.Google Scholar
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