Subtitling is the most common mode in Audiovisual Translation. Subtitling is used not only in cinema and TV programmes such as films, series and TV shows but also in debates, documentaries and video games. Besides, it is also used even in cartoons, eventhough its use is controversial. This interest in subtitling and widespread use is due to two factors: (1) It is more economical than dubbing; (2) It can be achieved in shorter periods of time.
Technically speaking, subtitles can have many forms:
1/ According to number of languages: (a) Interlingual subtitles; (b) Intralingual subtitles
2/ According to quality: (a) Professional Subtitling; (b) Fansubbing
3/ According to format: (a) Subtitles; (b) Captions (Open or Closed)
4/ According to position on screen: (a) Subtitles; (b) Surtitles
The creation of subtitles consists in producing a written translation that is adapted to fit the screen size. It is not a word-for-word translation. Thus, subtitles are the text (sentences, chunks, utterences, etc) derived from the spoken discourse (dialogue, commentary, etc) that accompany the picture/image displayed on screen. Subtites are ususally displayed at the bottom of the screen. However, in opera, the "titles" are displayed on a screen above the main stage; therefore, they are called "Surtitles". Closed Captioning is an alternative term for subtitling.
Sometimes, when subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people, subtitlers add other signs and symbols (e.g. music) to depict the non-verbal process of communication, as shown in the picture below.
In some of our previous posts, we dealt with the software used to produce subtitles. We will step-by-step deal with the problems that subtitlers face and their solutions soon. All these posts can be accessed via the label "Subtitling" (Labels are on the left side of the blog). In addition, a lot of Video Tutorials have been curated and organized in the form of Playlists on Youtube to help you learn at your own pace.
From a reserach perspective, many research problems have been investigated in subtitling; namely, reduction, linguistic variation and expletives (Cintas, 2004). If you are interested in such kind of content, please let us know.
2/ According to quality: (a) Professional Subtitling; (b) Fansubbing
3/ According to format: (a) Subtitles; (b) Captions (Open or Closed)
4/ According to position on screen: (a) Subtitles; (b) Surtitles
The creation of subtitles consists in producing a written translation that is adapted to fit the screen size. It is not a word-for-word translation. Thus, subtitles are the text (sentences, chunks, utterences, etc) derived from the spoken discourse (dialogue, commentary, etc) that accompany the picture/image displayed on screen. Subtites are ususally displayed at the bottom of the screen. However, in opera, the "titles" are displayed on a screen above the main stage; therefore, they are called "Surtitles". Closed Captioning is an alternative term for subtitling.
Sometimes, when subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people, subtitlers add other signs and symbols (e.g. music) to depict the non-verbal process of communication, as shown in the picture below.
In some of our previous posts, we dealt with the software used to produce subtitles. We will step-by-step deal with the problems that subtitlers face and their solutions soon. All these posts can be accessed via the label "Subtitling" (Labels are on the left side of the blog). In addition, a lot of Video Tutorials have been curated and organized in the form of Playlists on Youtube to help you learn at your own pace.
From a reserach perspective, many research problems have been investigated in subtitling; namely, reduction, linguistic variation and expletives (Cintas, 2004). If you are interested in such kind of content, please let us know.
