Compliments in Audiovisual Translation – issues in character identity

Abstract

Over the last decades, audiovisual translation has gained increased significance in Translation Studies as well as an interdisciplinary subject within other fields (media, cinema studies etc). Although many articles have been published on communicative aspects of translation such as politeness, only recently have scholars taken an interest in the translation of compliments. This study will focus on both these areas from a multimodal and pragmatic perspective, emphasizing the links between these fields and how this multidisciplinary approach will evidence the polysemiotic nature of the translation process. In Audiovisual Translation both text and image are at play, therefore, the translation of speech produced by the characters may either omit (because it is provided by visualgestual signs) or it may emphasize information. A selection was made of the compliments present in the film What Women Want, our focus being on subtitles which did not successfully convey the compliment expressed in the source text, as well as analyze the reasons for this, namely difference in register, Culture Specific Items and repetitions. These differences lead to a different portrayal/identity/perception of the main character in the English version (original soundtrack) and subtitled versions in Portuguese and Italian.

Keywords

• compliments
• multimodality
• Audiovisual Translation (AVT)