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Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 33:2 (2020) ► pp.641–666

Subtitling of ostensible speech acts (OSAs)

Towards proposing a guideline

| University of Ottawa

Persian-English subtitling of Iranian films deals with the challenges of understanding and transferring ostensible speech acts (OSAs). Both linguistic and cultural variations of these elements in Persian and English are expected to create serious difficulties for subtitlers. Although few studies with pragmatics approach have been conducted to interpret the meaning of Persian OSAs, they have been practically ignored in the fields of translation and subtitling. To fill this gap, this study aims to descriptively investigate the transference of the meaning of 80 Persian OSAs from selected Iranian films. It also analyses perceptions of 106 target text audiences of subtitled OSAs by examining their level of comprehension of 14 subtitled OSAs and the effective factors on their understandings. Finally based on the findings emerged from the descriptive and survey analyses, this study proposes a guideline for Persian-English on assisting the transfer of the intended meaning of OSAs.

Keywords: ostensible speech acts (OSAs), ta’ārof , subtitling, perception, Iranian films, translation strategy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Ostensible speech acts (OSAs) in English
    • 1.2 Ta’ārof: Ritual system of persian politeness
    • 1.3Persian OSAs as manifestation of Ta’ārof
    • Invitation
    • Refusal of offer and invitation
    • Offer
    • Apology
  • 2.Identifying the problem and gaps of the study
  • 3.Conceptual frameworks and methodology
  • 4.Results and data analysis
    • Descriptive analysis
    • Survey analysis
    • Stage 1
    • Stage 2
    • Stage 3
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • 7.Guideline
  • References
Published online: 10 February 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.18033.yaq
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