Translating Code-Switching on the Screen

Abstract

This paper outlines the complexity of accounting for multilingual audiovisual films for the purpose of their translation. In particular it focuses on an issue that has not received much scholarly attention so far, the fictional representation of code-switching in feature films, with particular attention to Spanglish, given that language and its interlinguistic barriers towards interpersonal communication is one of the main themes of the film. The paper distinguishes different types of language shifts (alternations) as part of a film’s plot or script, like straightforward translation between characters, in order to better characterize code-switching as concept borrowed from sociolinguistics. This, in turns allows for a broader notion of language shifts, of which code-shifting is a part. Finally, the paper also includes a three-type classification of films depending on the amount and importance of languages other than the main language of a film: anecdotal, recurrent, and L3-as-theme, L3 being the notation system used to label all instances of languages in a text (written, oral or audiovisual) other than the main language.

The Analysis of Subtitling: Pirates of the Caribbean. On Stranger Tides

“…When performing the analysis we have noted that both in the original film and in the one subtitled in Romanian, the sentences presented in Spanish are not translated: As Example 17 shows, in the original film as well as in the Romanian version, subtitlers have chosen to omit all spoken phrases in Spanish, without adding any explanation. Further studies should confirm whether the omission of what is called third language (Corrius 2008) is a recurring fact, or only occurs with Romanesque languages.…”

Multilingualism as a Functional Element, a Useful Category for the Study of the Construction and Translation of Linguistically Diverse Discourse

“…Code-switching is the linguistic mechanism by which speakers with knowledge of several languages alternate the use of these languages in the development of discourse (Poplack 2001;Corrius and Zabalbeascoa 2019). As shown in Figure 7, among the solutions that can be applied to the translation of code-switching, two choices can be made by the translator: the discourse can be preserved in two or more languages by repeating the L3 or replacing it with a different L3, cases T1 and T2.…”

Analysis of Code Switching and Code Mixing Translation Quality in Yowis Ben Film Structure

“…Many kinds of research related to multilingual film translation have been conducted. There have been many studies only focused on the analysis of code-switching translations (Corrius & Zabalbeascoa, 2019;Tuomisto, 2021;Emelyanova, 2019;Shen, 2019). Furthermore, studies related to multilingual translation have analyzed the use of code mixing (Dweikat, 2017;Poudel, 2019).…”