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Target
Vol. 29:3 (2017) ► pp.416–439

How metaphors are rendered in subtitles

ORCID logo | Stockholm University
Metaphors have been thoroughly studied as translation problems in recent decades. However, they are still under-researched in the subfield of audiovisual translation. This is strange since this mode of translation, particularly subtitling, has very special conditions which complicate the translating of metaphors, such as the interplay between dialogue, image and subtitles, as well as severe time and space constraints. This paper investigates how metaphors in the British sitcom Yes, Prime Minister were subtitled into Swedish. The results show that subtitlers treat metaphors as an important language feature, less prone to omission than other features. Furthermore, monocultural metaphors, which are not shared between cultures, are subtitled using more strategies than transcultural ones. Metaphors are also subtitled differently depending on the degree of entrenchment. Typically for metaphor translation, there is a loss of metaphor force, but more research is needed to ascertain whether this is media-specific or a general translation effect of growing standardization.
Keywords: audiovisual translation, subtitling, metaphors, translation strategies, transculturality, image transfer, conceptual metaphor
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphors
  • 3.Translation of metaphors
    • 3.1Translation strategies for metaphors
    • 3.2Subtitling metaphors
  • 4.Material
  • 5.Method
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Main results
    • 6.2Dead metaphors
    • 6.3Stock metaphors
    • 6.4Adapted metaphors
    • 6.5Original metaphors
    • 6.6Mixed metaphors
    • 6.7Extended metaphors
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16038.ped
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