Third language translation strategies in subtitles from the perspectives of translators and audience a case study on skipped l3 in the tv series grimm season 1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THIRD LANGUAGE TRANSLATION STRATEG

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THIRD LANGUAGE TRANSLATION

STRATEGIES IN SUBTITLES FROM THE

PERSPECTIVES OF TRANSLATORS AND

AUDIENCE: A CASE STUDY ON SKIPPED L3 IN

THE TV SERIES GRIMM (SEASON 1)

Supervisor: Ngô Hà Thu, MCS

Student: Phạm Hồng Anh Course: QH2013.F1.E16

HANOI – MAY 2017

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ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁC CHIẾN THUẬT DỊCH NGÔN NGỮ THỨ BA TRONG PHỤ ĐỀ PHIM TRÊN QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA DỊCH GIẢ VÀ KHÁN GIẢ - TRƯỜNG HỢP NGHIÊN CỨU: PHIM TRUYỀN HÌNH GRIMM

(SĂN LÙNG QUÁI VẬT) MÙA 1

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Ngô Hà Thu Sinh viên: Phạm Hồng Anh

Khóa: QH2013.F1.E16

HÀ NỘI – THÁNG 5, 2017

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I hereby state that I: Phạm Hồng Anh, class QH13.E16, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (English Language – Translation and Interpreting) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature of the supervisor

Signature of the student

Hanoi, May 31 st 2017

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper was able to become reality thanks to the kindness of numerous individuals that forever shall I remain indebted to

First and foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude towards

my supervisor, Ms Ngo Ha Thu, MCS., for accepting my thesis proposal and

believing in my potentials to conduct the study Her kind support, continuous encouragement, as well as constructive advice and feedback altogether are the greatest sources of motivation leading me through this journey

Secondly, I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Dr Do

Minh Hoang, for the guidance and opportunities offered by him have greatly

enhanced my self-confidence and perseverance on this pathway

In addition, I am also thankful to other academic and non-academic staffs from the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, and particularly the lecturers from Translation and Interpreting Division With a

special mention to Ms Trieu Thu Hang, MA, Mr Nguyen Thanh Van, MA, and Ms Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy, MA, for their helpful suggestions in my

thesis proposal and work-in-progress reports

Moreover, I also owe indebtedness to the translators from iflix Vietnam and Phudeviet, as well as the survey respondents participating in my research

Without their help, this paper would never be completed

Another word of gratefulness should be addressed to iflix Vietnam, as

this paper rooted from my own experience collaborating with the company as a freelance subtitle editor and translator

Furthermore, I am truly grateful to my former teachers and friends, especially those from class C42 – Foreign Languages and International Studies (FLSS), for their mental and physical encouragement

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Je tiens également à exprimer ma profonde gratitude à Mme Dao Thi

Le Na et mes camarades (notamment Khuc Thuy Duong, Nguyen Tien Dat et

Nguyen Quang Hung) au Lycée à option de Langues Étrangères (THPT

Chuyen Ngoai Ngu) Cette dissertation n’aurait jamais vu le jour sans leurs

soutiens et leurs encouragements

Last but not least, had it not been for the unconditional love and support

from my family members and university classmates, I might have abandoned

the thesis Particularly, I am thankful for the constant assistance and

stimulation of my two best friends at the university, Nguyen Tat Dat and

Nguyen Hoang Anh Phuong

Once again, thank you all for helping me through this life phase

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ABSTRACT

This paper utilized the TV series Grimm (season 1) to investigate the

perception of translators and audience towards third language (L3) translation

strategies By using the term L3, the researcher aimed at any languages other

than the main language used in the source text (ST) Specifically, for translators, it aimed at exploring the possible difficulties they encountered

when subtitling skipped L3 (i.e the untranscribed or untranslated L3 in the

original English subtitles) in relation to their choices of translation strategies

As for audience, the goal was to find possible inter-relations between their selections and their language competencies To achieve these objectives, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were utilized, corporealized by document observation, interview and questionnaire

In fact, the findings justified that translators’ L3 competency, quality of the original English subtitles and the commissioners’ requirements are three major hindrances to their decision-making process Overall, the translators and audience’s preference of strategies are quite similar, but it is noteworthy that the audience favors side notes indicating L3’s origins

Unfortunately, a small number of respondents obstructed the researcher from deducing any significant connection between foreign language competencies and audience’s perception of the translations Nonetheless, the existing limitations in this paper are unavoidable since L3 in audiovisual translation has not received adequate attention from both international and Vietnamese scholars Therefore, to shed light on further studies, the researcher included her own recommendations and suggestions for improvement in the last chapter of the paper

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

ABSTRACT v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale and statement of the research problems 1

1.1.1 Background of the study 1

1.1.1.1 Audiovisual (AV) and Audiovisual translation (AVT) 1

1.1.1.2 Third language (L3) and multilingualism in films 1

1.1.2 Personal motivations 2

1.1.3 Justification for the choice of the case study 3

1.2 Objectives of the study and research questions 4

1.3 Scope of the study 5

1.4 Methods of the study 5

1.5 Significance of the study 5

1.6 Organization of the thesis 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Third language translation 7

2.1.1 Definition 7

2.1.2 Classification of third language 8

2.1.3 Third language - a constraint in translation 10

2.2 Subtitling 11

2.2.1 Overview of subtitling and other common AVT modes 11

2.2.2 Rules of subtitling 13

2.2.3 Subtitling third language 13

2.2.3.1 Strategies to translate third language in film subtitles 13

2.2.3.2 Priorities and restrictions in subtitling L3 16

2.3 Assessment of L3 subtitling and audience’s perception on L3 subtitling 18

2.3.1 Assessment of L3 subtitling 18

2.3.2 The use of audience’s perception for assessment 18

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2.4 Summary of the chapter 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Case study - the series Grimm 20

3.1.1 Synopsis of the plot 20

3.1.2 Overview of the characters and L3 used in the series 20

3.1.3 Further justifications 22

3.2 Data collection procedures and research instruments 23

3.2.1 As for the RQs 1 and 2: 23

3.2.1.1 Phase 1: Document observation 23

3.2.1.2 Phase 2: Interview 24

3.2.2 As for the RQ3: 26

3.2.2.1 Phase 3: Questionnaire Design 26

3.4 Data analysis methods and procedure 29

3.5 Summary of the chapter 30

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 31

4.1 Results 31

4.1.1 Research question 1: What are the strategies chosen by the translators to translate the non-transcribed and directly transferred L3 in the original English subtitle of Grimm (season 1)? 31

4.1.2 Research question 2: What are the factors affecting the translators’ choice of L3 translation strategies? 33

4.1.2.1 Translators’ choices of strategies 34

4.1.2.2 Affective factors 35

4.1.3 Research question 3: From the audience’s perspective, how do the strategies chosen by the translators affect their comprehensibility of the series? 36

4.2 Discussion 43

4.2.1 Hypothesis 1: Translators’ restrictions and priorities 43

4.2.2 Hypothesis 2: Audience’s perception 45

4.3 Summary of the chapter 46

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 47

5.1 Summary of the findings 47

5.2 Limitations of the study 48

5.3 Recommendations for further studies 49

5.4 Contributions of the study 50

BIBLIOGRAPHY 52

FILMOGRAPHY 56

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APPENDIX A - Interview questions 57

A.1 Vietnamese version 57

A.2 English version 59

APPENDIX B 61

B.1 Vietnamese version 61

B.2 English version 65

B.3 Fully-expanded version of Table 6 69

APPENDIX C 70

APPENDIX D 74

APPENDIX E 78

APPENDIX F 82

APPENDIX G 86

APPENDIX H 90

APPENDIX I 97

APPENDIX K 102

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Classification of L3 in the case study of the series Grimm (my

suggestion) 9

Table 2 L3 translation strategies by Ghaemi and Benyamin (2010) and Ávila-Cabrera (2013) 14

Table 3 Possible priorities – restrictions for AVT translators 17

Table 4 Example of collected data from subtitles 24

Table 5 Synopsis of the interview questions 25

Table 6 Summary of the questionnaire's content 29

Table 7 Strategy comparative table 33

Table 8 Coding system comparative table 33

Table 9 Overview of translators’ profiles 34

Table 10 Remarkable difference in two translated versions of iflix and phudeviet 44

Table 11 Choices of respondents regarding side notes 46

Table 12 Table 6* fully expanded 69

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 The use of L3 in ST 7

Figure 2 Type of L3 by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) 8

Figure 3 L3 translation strategies by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) 14

Figure 4 Grimm S01 E01 21

Figure 5 Grimm S01 E04 22

Figure 6 Screenshot of the e-questionnaire (question 1) 27

Figure 7 Classification of L3 (1) 32

Figure 8 Classification of L3 (2) 32

Figure 9 Language competencies of the survey participants 37

Figure 10 Synopsis of answers from respondents for all four questions 38

Figure 11 Choices of respondents for question 1 based on English level 39

Figure 12 Choices of respondents for question 1 based on L3 level 39

Figure 13 Choices of respondents for question 2 based on English level 40

Figure 14 Choices of respondents for question 2 based on L3 level 40

Figure 15 Choices of respondents for question 3 based on English level 41

Figure 17 Choices of respondents for question 3 based on L3 level 41

Figure 18 Choices of respondents for question 4 based on English level 42

Figure 19 Choices of respondents for question 4 based on L3 level 43

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter serves as the synopsis of the paper, as it discusses the rationale, research problems, research objectives, significance, as well as the scope of the study It also reveals the research questions - the backbone of this study - and the methodology employed to address those questions

1.1 Rationale and statement of the research problems

1.1.1 Background of the study

1.1.1.1 Audiovisual (AV) and Audiovisual translation (AVT)

Since the first appearance of motion picture made by the Lumière brothers in the 1880s, the past decades have witnessed rapid development of film industries worldwide In addition, due to globalization and growing interest of the audience, film translation service has been currently on demand

in many countries worldwide, and even in Vietnam In fact, it has become a

fast-growing industry and given rise to a new research field called audiovisual

translation, focusing on audiovisual products like movies, TV shows, dramas,

video games, radio shows, etc As international researchers have shown an increased interest in AVT, great work has been published pertinent to this field

of study, namely Pillar Orero (2004), Jorge Díaz Cintas and Gunilla Anderman (2009), and Luis Perez-González (2014) Nevertheless, in Vietnam, it appears that this field of study has not received adequate attention from translation researchers and experts Among all AV products listed above, movies and TV products are presumably the most exploited ones, regarding AVT research

1.1.1.2 Third language (L3) and multilingualism in films

In today’s world, talk of multilingualism no longer raises eyebrows […]

(Delabastita & Grutman, 2005, in Bandia (2008))

Apparently, with globalization and people being more open-minded, the use of L3 in films has become more common nowadays Jackel (2000) noted that multilingualism, or the use of L3 in multimedia is not a new phenomenon,

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it often appears in advertisements as catch-phrases to intrigue clients’ attention; additionally, in accordance with advertisements, there has also been an increased use of L3 in films and TV products (as cited in Gambier & Gottlieb,

2001, p 85) To my knowledge, film-producers have various use of third language in their products: it can play a minor role like in the cases of

Cinderella (2015), Burnt (2015), the TV series Dexter (2006 – 2013); or a

significant role like in the cases of Inglorious Basterds (2009) or X-men – Days

of future past (2014) as an effective device for depicting characters’ traits

Serban (2012) also noticed this phenomenon and in his paper, various cases of

multilingual films were listed based on his own experience, such as “Babel (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Le Concert (2009), Avatar (2009), Inglourious

Basterds (2009)…” and he interpreted that it was adopted for particular

aesthetic effects More specifically, multilingualism plays a significant role in conveying “themes, story lines, character portrayal, voice, and point of view” (Meylaert & Serban, 2014), or “realistic rendering, conflict, and confusion” (De Bonis, 2014) Accordingly, this situation has challenged AVT researchers

to integrate the study of L3 into AVT studies

1.1.2 Personal motivations

Although the use of multilingualism (or L3) in films is not new, it is still quite recent regarding translation studies This paper took inspiration from my own interests and experience with L3 while working as a freelance translator

for iflix Vietnam On one hand, the knowledge of various languages (English,

French and basic Spanish) truly affects my perception as an audience watching multilingual films On the other hand, as a translator, my language proficiency also influences the choices of strategies when addressing films containing L3 for the commissioners This situation triggered my curiosity about the choice of other film translators when dealing with third language, as well as audience’s perception concerning the translation strategies For any strategy chosen by translators, the audience should be an important factor to be considered, because, generally speaking, not all Vietnamese viewers are proficient in

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English, and only a minority of them are multilingual (knowing more than one foreign language.)

1.1.3 Justification for the choice of the case study

It is noteworthy that although L3 is often accompanied with hard

subtitles in several situations, there are still various cases where L3 is

intentionally skipped in the source text (ST), which means it is either: a) not transcribed or b) directly transferred as L3 in the subtitles During two

months translating film subtitles for iflix Vietnam, I have encountered two

series containing L3, namely Grimm and Dexter However, I decided to select

the TV series Grimm in this paper, as it meets the following requirements: a)

Grimm contains more L3 than Dexter; b) the series consists of various

types of L3; c) not all cases of L3 in the series are accompanied with hard subtitles; and d) I have access to the official English subtitles provided by

my commissioner, iflix Vietnam, and the Vietnamese subtitles produced by my

colleagues, as well as other free online resources An additional factor leading

to this choice of material is the great number of views of the TV series Grimm

On one of the famous film websites of Vietnam, http://www.phimmoi.net

(retrieved October 31, 2016), the numbers of views from the first to the fifth seasons are nearly 800,000 on average, which is relatively high – compared to

other popular series like The Walking Dead (approximately 1,000,000 views on

average) The series is also highly appreciated by viewers worldwide, as it scores 8 out of 10 on http://www.imdb.com/ and 8.5 out of 10 on

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/, two most popular websites allowing users to review and rate films

All aforementioned reasons stimulated the conduct of this study on

Third language translation strategies in subtitles from the perspectives of translators and audience: a case study on skipped L3 in the TV series Grimm (season 1) This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive approach to L3

translation by addressing the problem from the viewpoints of both translators

and audience In addition, when choosing the series Grimm as research

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material, I hoped that the paper would partially bridge the gap of L3 translation between theories and real-life practice

1.2 Objectives of the study and research questions

In the initial phase of this study, I was concerned with several hypotheses about the restrictions that translators may encounter when dealing with multilingual films, and accordingly, various effects that different types of audience may perceive from their translation products My hypotheses are listed below:

 H1: Major factors that may affect translators’ choice of strategies are:

1) their commissioners’ requirements, specifically rules of subtitling; 2) Specificness of the English subtitles in terms of L3; and 3) Language competency (multilinguality) of the translators

The following RQs were addressed to verify my expectations stated in H1:

1 What are the strategies chosen by the translators to translate the

non-transcribed and directly transferred L3 in the original English subtitle of Grimm (season 1)?

2 What are the factors affecting the translators’ choice of L3 translation

strategies identified in the first question?

 H2: Two main factors that may affect audience’s perception of L3

subtitling are: 1) English competency and 2) Third language competency (multilinguality) of the audience

The hypothesis above was justified by this RQ:

3 From the audience’s perspective, how do the strategies chosen by the

translators affect their comprehensibility of the series?

Hence, in this research, the strategies used by the researched translators

to tackle L3 in film subtitles and the factors affecting their choice were identified Afterwards, based on the strategies chosen by the translators, the

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audience’s comprehension was examined with a view to validating the selected strategies

1.3 Scope of the study

As the title implies, the research only concentrated on the first season of

the TV series Grimm due to my capability, time limitation and accessibility of

the resources More specifically, only cases of intentionally skipped L3 in original English subtitles were filtered for further analysis, as they are the main and direct interference for translators to transfer the target language into the

SL

Moreover, the samples of this research were restricted to a small group

of audience and translators The paper does not expect to generalize situations associated with multilingual films; rather it hopes to provide an initial insight into the issue To ensure the credibility of the research, the translators and audience selected are typical cases Further details on sampling techniques are discussed in Chapter 3

1.4 Methods of the study

With a view to conducting a comprehensive study on both translators and audience’s perspectives to evaluate L3 translation strategies, a combination

of qualitative and quantitative methods was utilized in this paper The research methodology was validated by three research instruments - document observation, interview (for the translators) and questionnaire (for the audience), respectively The participants of this study involved 5 translators and 45 questionnaire respondents

1.5 Significance of the study

The paper will serve as one of the pilot studies regarding L3 translation

in film subtitle in Vietnam The study is expected to reveal the preference of translators and audience toward L3 translation strategies Therefore, on one hand, in terms of theoretical work, students, teachers and researchers interested

in translation studies might find this research helpful for their future studies

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concerning this particular topic On the other hand, regarding practical work, it

is hoped that the recommendations suggested in this paper will assist translators to choose appropriate translation strategies when dealing with L3, specifically in translating film subtitles

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The paper consists of five main chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 – Introduction – a synopsis of the paper

Chapter 2 – Literature Review – a critical, analytical synthesis of

theoretical frameworks and key terms

Chapter 3 – Methodology – a description of research instruments and

the choice of participants

Chapter 4 – Results and Discussion – an analysis of collected data to

answer research questions, thus validating the proposed hypotheses

Chapter 5 – Conclusion– a summary of the paper and suggestions for

further studies in AVT and multilingualism

The bibliography, filmography and appendices are included in the last

section of this paper

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, relevant literature and theoretical bodies are synthesized, analyzed and criticized to identify the research gap As the study involves translation of L3 (or multilingualism) in film subtitles, two targeted key concepts “third language” and “subtitling” are thoroughly elaborated Referring to language variations in the source text, two most common terms proposed by translation scholars are “third language” and

“multilingualism” The pertinent studies discussed in this part use the terms interchangeably Nevertheless, within this research paper, the term “third language” is more preferred Finally, a comprehensive description of the case

study is included to justify the relation between theoretical framework and authentic materials

2.1 Third language translation

2.1.1 Definition

Perhaps the term “third language” (L3) is more familiar in the field of

language teaching, particularly foreign language acquisition, when the mother tongue is regarded as first language, and the other languages are called second, third or fourth language, etc In this paper, however, L3 is employed under a different notion, taken from Gimbert (2005, p.148):

By “third language” I mean any language that may exist in an audiovisual source text (ST) and that is not the main language of this ST

For instance, when English is used in the ST as the primary language, but French phrases appear in the ST dialogues, then French is considered L3 The use of L3 in ST is illustrated in the diagram below:

Figure 1 The use of L3 in ST

Along with L3, other terms were employed by scholars to convey the similar concept, such as “multilingualism” and “polyglot”, “pluralingualism”,

ST

(𝐿1𝑇𝑇 + 𝐿3𝑇𝑇)

TT

𝐿2𝑇𝑇

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“polyglossic” (Delabastita & Grutman, 2005, in Bandia (2008)) Among them,

“multilingual” is the most frequently used by contemporary researchers The definition of Grutman (2009), cited in Meylaert (2013) is as follows:

[…] multilingualism, commonly defined as ‘the co-presence of two or more languages (in a society, text or individual)’ (Grutman 2009a: 182) […]

Multilingualism, however, may carry a broader meaning It might invoke both intertextual and intratextual aspects of linguistics While intertextuality involves the variety of languages used in a text, intratextuality refers to the variety of verbal and non-verbal factors of the same language used in text Regarding intratextuality, Serban (2012) argued that silence can be considered

a language, and Lisbon-based scholar Francine Arroyo’s paper similarly contended that wordplay is a kind of “foreign language within a language”, as reported by Bréan and Cornu (2012) Within the scope of this study, only intertextual multilingualism (third language, as preferred) is elaborated

2.1.2 Classification of third language

Like any individual language, L3 can be classified based on the level of difficulties; however, that way of classification would be inadequate when it comes to linguistics-related research Consequently, it is necessary to take both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of L3 into consideration

On one hand, Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) indicated that L3 might

be an authentic, natural language or an invented one The figure below represents their classification method and the evaluation spectrum:

Figure 2 Type of L3 by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011)

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On the other hand, as suggested by Meylaerts (2013), studies on multilingualism cover a wide range of topics and settings such as “literary translation, audiovisual translation, localization, machine translation, […]” Furthermore, inspired by the real multifaceted, multilingual world, the use of L3 or multilingualism also varies in quantity, level of foreignism and functions:

Literary multilingualism may take on numerous forms according to the quantity (one single word vs entire passages) and the type of foreignisms used (dialects, sociolects, foreign languages, etc.) It can fulfil various functions in terms of plot construction, character discourse and behaviour, mimesis, etc (cf Schogt 1988; Stratford 2008)

(Meylaerts, 2013, p 538)

It is obvious that Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) tackle L3 from only one dimension (naturalness), whereas Meylaerts (2013) provided a multi-dimensional approach to the issue Furthermore, regarding invented language, Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa only investigated L3 based on L1 without acknowledging the cases where L3 is invented based on other languages than L1 In addition, as the paper attempts to detect the factors affecting the translators’ choice of L3 translation strategies, all types of L3 should be taken into account Therefore, I proposed an integrated set of classification criteria of

L3 to apply for the case study of the series Grimm (season 1) as follows:

- How strongly natural-language-based (applicable

to any authentic language, not just L1)

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Despite various classification methods suggested above, only the second and third ones were used within the scope of this study The reason behind this choice is that all translators, audience and I are not L3 native speakers, therefore we were unable to assess the naturalness or foreignism of L3 Furthermore, that categorization method requires to be addressed by other translation strategies, thereby complicating the data collection and analysis procedures Hence, the second and third methods were purposely selected to

assort L3 in the series Grimm (season 1)

2.1.3 Third language - a constraint in translation

As stated in the first chapter, research on third language or multilingualism has only blossomed since recent decades In contrast, language variations have been employed since the early day of literature, “a historical reality” and “a solid tradition” as suggested by Forster (1970) and Stratford

(2008), with the examples from Dante’s Divina Commedia (1304–21), Rabelais’s Pantagruel (1532), Lawrence Stern’s Tristram Shandy (1760), Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1868–69), Anthony Burges’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), or Umberto Eco’s Il nome della Rosa (1980), as cited in Meylaert

(2013) This field of study challenges conventional definitions of translation, as

it was used to be perceived as a bilateral procedure between texts and languages, as Meylaerts (2013) argued in her article This issue was also well

discussed in Bellos (2008)’s article The awkward issue of L3, where two

possibilities of L3 were presented along with their constraints Both scholars agreed that the issue of L3 should be seriously considered and the traditional translation studies proved to be inadequate for L3 translation, thus demanding new theoretical framework for the issue

Therefore, the translators have great power and responsibility when it comes to L3 translation, Delabastita and Grutman (2005 cited in Bandia, 2008) argued They have a decisive role in the whole procedure of transferring the meaning and message Delabastita and Grutman continued their argument by listing the major “affective components of translators’ subjective experience”:

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trust, loyalty versus betrayal, invisibility, untranslatability, trauma, and identity (2005, pp 164-169) Such issues were also mentioned by Meylaerts (2013) in forms of “questions of fidelity, authenticity and translatability” when translators render the message of the multilingual ST Regarding the solutions for L3 issue, Bellos (2008) provided examples from empirical experience which suggested the cultural ideology in translators’ choice of solutions for L3:

While in French culture, “en français dans le texte” means that it is mandatory

to include footnote in any circumstance of L3, and the American editor may also conduct the same practice, a British editor may just ignore the L3 case This raises questions about the conformity and international standards for L3 translation Meylaerts (2013, p 539) also offered several solutions; however,

hers are still not specific enough to constitute a framework:

[…] in-text translations in the form of explanations, translations or glosses Translation being in the text, not in between texts, and the original and its translation being present side by side within the same text […]

Overall, the insufficiency in translation studies theoretical framework required that L3 translation should receive more attention from researchers, and L3 translation should be acknowledged a supplementary branch of translation studies Many scholars reached the consensus regarding this inadequacy, namely Gambier and Gottlieb (2001), Bellos (2008), Meylaerts (2013)

2.2 Subtitling

2.2.1 Overview of subtitling and other common AVT modes

As suggested by scholars such as Orero (2004), Díaz-Cintas (2009), the three most common AVT modes are subtitling, dubbing and voicing over,

regarding “habit, cultural disposition and financial considerations.”

Definition of subtitling, dubbing and voicing over are as follows (based

on Díaz-Cintas (2009)):

 Subtitling refers to the use of written text at the bottom of the screen to

render the original message without interfering the original audio

Subtitling is somewhat similar to literary translation; however, there are

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several constraints to be respected (i.e.: number of characters limited per line.)

 Dubbing is the technique involving the replacement of SL audio with

the TL audio to render the original message under the constraint of synchronization

lip- Voicing over involves the parallel existence of SL audio and TL audio,

yet the volume of original (SL) soundtrack is minimized

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, for instance, considering cost and speed, dubbing or voicing over are less preferred than subtitling, as they involve the participation of voicing actors Another strength

of subtitling over the others is argued in Orero (2004) that the translation of subtitle is more “faithful”, as the ST (original audio) and TT (the translation) coexist at the same time, whereas the translation in dubbing is “freer” as the audience are not provided with the ST Regarding the domestication – foreignization spectrum, Szarkowska (2005) stated that while dubbing is more towards the domestication side, subtitling belong to the other end of the spectrum In other words, the major advantage of subtitling is the preservation

of the ST foreignness, not only because the audience will have access to both audio and visual channels, but also because subtitles “alters the source text to the least possible extent”, for instance, cultural aspects like measuring units, currency will remain unchanged in the TT subtitles, thus the audience will be constantly reminded of the ST’s ‘foreignness’ (Szarkowska, 2005)

Particularly, in the case of multilingualism, subtitling supports translators to signal language variations more easily and freely, as they are allowed to use diverse coding features

It [subtitling] has the particularity of always creating multilingualism: even the subtitling of monolingual characters’ speech adds an extra layer of multilingualism to

a film […]

(Meylaerts & Serban, 2014)Therefore, subtitling was selected as the targeted AVT method of this paper with a view to minimize the restrictions for translators regarding their choice of strategies in L3 translation

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2.2.2 Rules of subtitling

Subtitling norms was first discussed by Fotios Karamitroglou in “A

proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe” Translation Journal in 1997

Later, the topic was elaborated in a more thorough manner by Diaz Cintas and Aline Remael (2007)

In general, both Karamitroglou (1997) and Díaz-Cintas and Remael

(2007) mentioned the six-second rule as an important temporal parameter, as

it ensures enough time for the average reading speed of the general audience

Correspondingly, the appropriate spatial parameter is maximum two lines per

time frame, with the number of characters ranging from 35 (Karamitroglou,

1997) to 37 (Díaz-Cintas& Remael, 2007) The spatial aspects; however,

depend greatly on the width of screen, as cinema screen might allow subtitles

consisting up to 43 characters

Nevertheless, the basic subtitling rules are often modified when it comes

to Vietnamese as target language Specifically, for instance, in text messaging, each diacritical mark is treated as a character Therefore, it is essential to

examine the similarity and differences in the style guide of iflix and phudeviet

Basically, both style guides follow closely the international standards

However, while iflix Vietnam uses similar character parameter to basic subtitling rules, phudeviet uses word parameter To be exact, iflix allows 38 characters per line, whereas phudeviet allows 10 words per line (which may exceed 38 characters) Furthermore, it is interesting that phudeviet’s style guide

permits the use of note and annotation, and the number of lines per frame may extend to three in specific cases For further details, please refer to Appendices

H and I

2.2.3 Subtitling third language

2.2.3.1 Strategies to translate third language in film subtitles

Regarding L3, a common question of translators is whether it should be translated or adapted Researchers have addressed this barrier from both

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theoretical and practical approach In terms of theoretical approach, detailed models were adapted by scholars like Ghaemi and Benyamin (2010) or Ávila-Cabrera (2013) based on previous studies The models applied in their research

article are presented in the table below:

Ghaemi and Benyamin (2010)

Based on Gottlieb (1992)

Ávila-Cabrera (2013)

Based on Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007),

and Santamaria Guinot (2001)

Table 2 L3 translation strategies by Ghaemi and Benyamin (2010) and Ávila-Cabrera (2013)

However, the models stated above did not cover the possible occurrence

of L3 in the ST, thus failed to provide adequate explanation of how it can be applied to L3 translation in films Such occurrences were envisioned by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) They then provided the translation strategies

(as illustrated in image 2.5), based on their classification of L3 (Figure 3):

Figure 3 L3 translation strategies by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011)

Firstly, the term “unchanged” offered by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) is similar to what Newmark called “transference” in 1988, or “transfer”

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as used by Ghaemi and Benyamin (2010), and “loan” as employed by

Ávila-Cabrera (2013) In this case, the words or phrases are kept as their original in the ST to preserve the foreignism, exoticness of the ST Secondly,

“neutralized” L3 in the ST (the same as “substitution” in Ávila-Cabrera (2013))

is achieved by substituting it with L2 equivalent in the TT, thus resulting in the

invisibility of L3 in the TT Lastly, “adapted” L3 means replacing it with

another language different from L2 Adaptation is often used in the case that L3 (ST) is similar to L2 (TT)

On the other hand, in terms of practical approach, through observation

of Alfred Hitchcock’s film corpus, De Bonis (2014) also noticed three translation strategies in the Italian dubbed and subtitled versions of Hitchcock’s

movies: (1) neutralization – using only L2 in the dubbing versions, (2)

“preservation of different lingua-cultural identities” through various

techniques and (3) “quantitative reduction” of L3 in the ST Only one subtitled

film was incorporated in the corpus, and De Bonis argued that the strategies employed in the subtitles are generally similar to those in the dubbed versions

Nonetheless, within the small scope of this research, the L3 translation

strategy model offered by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) (Table 2)

proves to be the most appropriate as it provided detailed instructions for identifying L3 instances, as well as indicating the feasible strategies for each case Nevertheless, regarding subtitling as the targeted AVT method of this study, the model of Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) might be altered in compliance with the subtitling norms The solutions in Bartoll (2006) might be great recommendations for translators who are forced to neutralize or adapt L3

in the TT but still determined to signal its presence by various compensation techniques

I [Bartoll] think that a possible and reasonable solution would be the addition of this information (Icelandic) within brackets, or the use of different colors […] Maybe we could use italics for all the secondary languages […]

(Bartoll, 2006, p.3)

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2.2.3.2 Priorities and restrictions in subtitling L3

As stated in the previous part, the main difference between subtitling and the other two AVT modes is the presence of written words (known as subtitles) Several basic constraining feature of subtitle suggested by Gambier

& Gottlieb (2001, p xvii) are as follows:

- Spatiotemporal features (fonts, position and the length of the two lines on the screen)

- Textual features (division into semantic and syntactic coherent units; language register; etc.)

- Others (punctuation, rhythm, etc.)

Díaz Cintas & Remael (2007) also discussed that the subtitle should be

in synchronization with the audio and visual elements; the meaning should be preserved, and the appropriate time location for each subtitle (the six-second rule of subtitling) Besides the common rules, different clients would provide the translators with their own set of rules Several aspects of the rules may be

considered restrictive factors, for instance, in the case of iflix Vietnam, swear

words and taboo language are required to be neutralized or toned down, thus hindering the translators’ power to deliberately render the ST message

(Appendix I)

To this point, L3 per se is no longer the only constraining factor in the translation process Aware of various affective factors, Gimbert (2005) suggested the use of P-R Model by Zabalbeascoa (1999) While several academics like Nida (1982) and Larson (1998) considered meaning as the first priority of translation, Zabalbeascoa (1999); however, saw the gap of previous studies and provided “a new proposal for priorities”, in which he discussed the rank of priorities from different angles and “variables” (or restrictions), namely

“deadline, financing, technical or material limitations”, etc The working

condition (i.e deadline, financing, technical equipment…) was also mentioned

in Faucet (1983:189 cited in Gambier & Gottlieb, 2001) “The most important

● Function (relevance to the plot)

● Connotation (implied information, if applicable)

● Target audience’s assumed knowledge of the language and culture of the source language programme

● Feedback effect

● Media related constraints

Accordingly, based on the aforementioned points on L3 classification, translation strategies and subtitling principles, I propounded my compilation of possible priorities and restrictions that AVT translators in general (and film translators, in particular) may encounter, demonstrated in Table 3:

- Quality of the originals

- Training and experience of the translators

- Targeted audience

- Types of AV products

- Others (deadlines, financing)

Table 3 Possible priorities – restrictions for AVT translators

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2.3 Assessment of L3 subtitling and audience’s perception on L3 subtitling

2.3.1 Assessment of L3 subtitling

Broadly speaking, the evaluation framework for AVT and subtitling L3,

in particular, is still in building progress Since AV texts differ greatly from literary texts, assessment criteria for AVT need to be distinguished from conventional translation quality assessment criteria, or TQA needs altering in accordance with AVT Plus, AVT does not necessarily have to be evaluated on the good – bad spectrum, as Schröter (2010:143 cited in Denton & Ciampi, 2012) argued Three main assessing criteria for AVT suggested by Gambier and Gottlieb (2001) are “comprehensibility, accessibility and usability” Later, when discussing subtitle in particular, they included “legibility and readability”

as key features in deciding the quality of the subtitles It can be implied from

these criteria that researchers should consider the audience’s perception and reception when evaluating the subtitles’ quality Nonetheless, until

now, no precise assessment framework has been provided by scholars over the

globe Even Gambier and Gottlieb (2001), who suggested “comprehensibility,

accessibility, usability, legibility and readability”, did not specify any method

to experimentalize each criterion

2.3.2 The use of audience’s perception for assessment

As stated above, since no fixed method has been provided to investigate the audience’s perception and reception to evaluate AVT products, I had to refer to several AVT studies for the research instruments I then discovered that the use of audience’s perception for assessment is not rare in AVT theoretical bodies For instance, with a view to advocate their argument on the importance

of target audience’s perception on AVT products, Denton and Ciampi (2012) employed questionnaire to check audience’s comprehensibility In addition, the same validating instrument was also employed by Szarkowska and other researchers (2014) in the research addressing the hearing impaired as targeted audience Eventually, I designed a small-scale survey based on the existing

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questionnaires found in AVT research with regard to partially fulfil the research gap

2.4 Summary of the chapter

This chapter provided an overview of existing studies pertinent to subtitling L3 Although key terms were intensively explained and various international scholars’ views were incorporated, the research gap remains obvious as none of the aforementioned studies refers to Vietnam’s current situation, and Vietnamese scholars have not paid sufficient attention to this field of study

To sum up, within the limited scope of this study, L3 translation strategies by Gimbert and Zabalbeascoa (2011) were adopted for their simplicity and comprehensiveness Furthermore, I also provided my compiled

frameworks for classifying L3 (Table 1) and determining several restrictions and priorities of translators when tackling L3 (Table 3) This chapter also

pinpointed a research gap in AVT studies concerning the use of audience’s perception to assess translation products, which stimulated me to use questionnaire in my research design

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The research methods, choice of materials and participants, as well as data collection and analysis procedure are thoroughly elaborated in this section of the paper

3.1 Case study - the series Grimm

3.1.1 Synopsis of the plot

The TV series "Grimm" depicts the life of a homicide detective in a dangerous world full of mysterious creatures It was mostly “inspired by the classic Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales”, but the creatures may also come from other sources (NBC, n.d.) Six seasons of the series have been released to the public; each season includes 22 episodes (except for season 5 with 21 episodes, and season 6 with 13 episodes.)

3.1.2 Overview of the characters and L3 used in the series

It is evident that L3 plays a crucial role in Grimm Although it did not

convey many aesthetic effects, it did help express the diversity of wesen’s origins To be specific, among all the L3 found in the series, German is the most frequently used, as it was mainly inspired by the original tales of the Brothers Grimm, who were Germans As a consequence, most creatures (as

known as “wesen” in German in the series) carry German names such as

Blutbad (Blood bad – Wolf-like creatures), Bauerschwein (Country pig –

Pig-like creatures), Dämonfeuer (Fire daemon – Dragon-Pig-like creatures), Dickfellig (Thick skin – Rhinoceros-like creatures), Folterseele (Torture soul – Frog-like

creatures),… Besides German, other languages were also employed to indicate

the names of wesen like French: Cracher-mortel (Deadly split – Puffer

fish-like creatures) or Spanish: El Cucuy (The Boogeyman – Vigilante-type

creatures), and so on

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In conjunction with the names, the characters and the wesen also use L3

in the dialogue Below are several examples of multilingual speaking characters from the main cast:

- Captain Sean Renard (casted by Sasha Roiz) is a hybrid of royal father

and wesen mom He can speak English, French, German, Russian, Latin

fluently and knows basic Greek and Arabic;

- Monroe (casted by Silas Weir Mitchell) is a Blutbad and his ancestors were born in Germany He can speak English fluently and German at intermediate level;

- Rosalee (Monroe’s wife – casted by Bree Turner) is a Fuschbau She is

fluent in English and able to speak German, French, and Irish

All aforementioned details were gained from my observation in the data collection process, with reference to the information contributed by the fans on the Wikipedia of the series, as it is the only source of information that I had

access to, concerning the series’ characters and wesen Figures 4 and 5 on the

preceding page illustrate two examples of untranslated L3 found in the English subtitles

Figure 4 Grimm S01 E01

“Wieder” (German) – “again”

“Blutbad” (German) – General name for the wolf-like species, meaning “Blood bath”

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Figure 5 Grimm S01 E04

“Je sais qui tu est, ferme la porte.” (French) – “I know who you are, close the door.” However, the above sentence found in the original English subtitle contains a grammar

mistake, and it should be: “Je sais qui tu es, ferme la porte.”

3.1.3 Further justifications

Other than the aforementioned features, the TV series Grimm can also

be considered an atypical example of multilingual films Concerning several

other multilingual cases like Inglorious Basterds (2009), Dexter (2006 – 2013),

How to get away with murder (2014 – now) or X-men: Day of Future Past (2014), L3 is often transcribed in the original English subtitles; or accompanied

by on-screen hard subtitles In contrast, the TV series Grimm consist of numerous intentionally skipped L3 that are worth investigating

To sum up, striking characteristics of the case study were described to validate my choice of materials The series Grimm undoubtedly suffice the requirements to be considered multilingual Preliminary data collection from original English subtitles shows that L3 appear in every episode of the series, including all types of L3 as classified in Chapter 2 Thus, the case study of this paper involves 22 episodes of season 1 of the series and: (1) their original English subtitles provided by iflix Vietnam; (2) Vietnamese subtitles from iflix

Vietnam’s freelancers; and (3) Vietnamese subtitles from phudeviet.org

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3.2 Data collection procedures and research instruments

The data collection procedures were divided into three main phases; however, I decided to elaborate this part based on the RQs and hypotheses for the readers’ convenience

3.2.1 As for the RQs 1 and 2:

The two first RQs involve my first hypothesis on factors affecting the translators’ choice of strategies:

H1: Major factors that may affect translators’ choice of strategies are: 1) their commissioners’ requirements, specifically rules of subtitling; 2) Specificness of the English subtitles in terms of L3; and 3) Language competency (multilinguality) of the translators

Thereby, the two main methods employed were document observation and interview

3.2.1.1 Phase 1: Document observation

Concerning this research instrument, I observed the original English subtitles which were translated by the selected translators to identify the skipped L3 in the first season of the series Next, Vietnamese subtitles from

iflix and phudeviet.org were analyzed to find out which strategies were

selected by the translators Finally, the strategies found in two translations were compared in order to identify the similarities and differences between two translations

As suggested in Chapter 2, only the second and third classification methods were deliberately used within the scope of this study to simplify the data collection and data analysis procedures Next, the data extracted from

three versions of subtitles are organized as in Table 4 (See Appendix K for the

full version):

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Table 4 Example of collected data from subtitles

3.2.1.2 Phase 2: Interview

In reference to H1, the targeted group of translators was selected based

on their experience corresponding to the TV series Grimm Specifically, the

research involves five translators: a) four freelance translators who worked

directly with the English subtitles of the series Grimm provided by iflix

Vietnam, and b) a freelance translator who provided non-profit translations for

the TV series Grimm, posted on two famous online subtitle provider

http://phudeviet.org/ and https://subscene.com/

After the stage of document observation and translation strategies being

identified, several short questions were given to the translators in order to

investigate the reasons why they had chosen the strategies, as well as to

examine their awareness of the restrictions or difficulties affecting their choice

Additionally, I had already contacted the translators before the proposal

submission date, so technically, after the set of interview questions being

agreed by the supervisor, interviews could be immediately conducted

However, I had to reconsider each translator’s profile and make necessary

adjustments before sending the official question set to them

Besides, the translators were also asked to select either online (via

Skype or email), or face-to-face interview, as long as they felt comfortable with

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it Nonetheless, all of them chose to receive questions and answer via email, so the final form was structured interview Therefore, the reconsideration step was essential to ensure the quality of interviewees’ answers

The set of questions were designed based on the studies discussed in

Chapter two, including explicit factors (e.g technology-related aspects,

workplace condition such as deadlines, wages, quality of original English

subtitle, audience, etc.) and implicit factors (like language proficiency,

comprehensibility of the ST, etc.) While the first and second interview questions aimed at the translators’ experience, background knowledge, language competency, the others are in-depth examination of translators’ mindset regarding the case study See Appendix A for more detailed interview

questions The main contents of the questions are displayed in Table 5:

Question

1 Experience in translating films

Experience

2 Experience in translating L3 in films, by listing:

- Their translated films containing L3

- Frequency of encountering L3 when translating

- Types of L3 they have dealt with (e.g.: proper names, idioms,…)

3 English & other languages proficiency

3.1 How proficient are they in other languages, compared to English?

3.2 Did this knowledge help them in the translation process?

Language proficiency

4 Their thoughts on the role of L3 in the series Grimm

Perception

5 - Their evaluation of the complicatedness of L3 in the series Grimm

(on the scale of 1 to 10)

7 Do the rules of subtitling have any influence on their translation’s

process?

Difficulties

& Restrictions

8 Other difficulties they have encountered when translating L3 &

further elaboration?

9 How the translators addressed the untranslated or non-transcribed

cases of L3 in the series Grimm

10 Other thoughts

Table 5 Synopsis of the interview questions

I decided to run a survey among the audience of the subtitled series

The audience are classified according to three categories: age, gender

and level of foreign language proficiency (the foreign languages may vary:

English, French, German, Russian, etc.) Gambier & Gottlieb (2001) stated that

“the conditions of reception (age, level of education, reading habits of the viewers)” is one important factor to be considered by translators More

specifically, the audience’s background knowledge may immensely affect their comprehension and perception of L3 in films As reminded by Meylaerts and Serban (2014), researchers should also prepare for the occurrence where the audience are multilingual Accordingly, those suggestions were adopted in this paper, regarding questionnaire design Nonetheless, since I could not find any research providing the specific age ranges for TV viewers, I ended up testing audience’s opinions based on their English and L3 competency

To enhance the research’s reliability, the audience were chosen by using purposive and chain-referral sampling technique I began with my acquaintances as pilot respondents Next, they were asked to introduce their friends to me, or simply forward the online questionnaires to other people within their network Eventually, I was fortunate to receive answers from 45 survey participants

3.2.2.1 Phase 3: Questionnaire Design

My ultimate objective in this phase is to verify the influence of English and L3 competencies on their preference towards L3 subtitling strategies

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Besides, I also want to find the possible similarities between translators’ and audience’s choice of strategies Additionally, since AVT is the center of this research, the audience were also provided with the clip in the survey, so that they could consider various audiovisual factors (speed, timeframe, content) and

be objective when evaluating the quality of the subtitles (See figure 6)

Figure 6 Screenshot of the e-questionnaire (question 1)

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The e-questionnaire was designed partly based on Denton and Ciampi (2012) However, I did not employ the matrix rating scale like in Denton and Ciampi’s (2012), as this approach may encounter a risk that several nonchalant respondents would just randomly select the answers without even watching the videos Eventually, the multiple choice question form was adopted in this paper regarding the audience’s choice of subtitles

The questionnaire was designed with four main parts as follows:

- Part 1: A brief introduction and explanation of the questionnaire’s

objectives

- Part 2: Asking personal questions, involving age, gender, education

level, English and L3 competence; along with a brief definition of the term “third language” and a likert scale to test their standpoint on the importance of L3 in films

- Part 3: A short summary of the series’ plot and characteristics

- Part 4: Providing four cases of L3 in the first season of Grimm In

each case, three subtitled versions of a short film extract were given,

including two options from iflix and phudeviet, and another option

suggested by me (except for question 2 with two options from me) Each option represents a single strategy or couplet/triplets The respondents were also able to add their own opinion if they disagreed with the existing options The questions in part 4 are presented in the table below (please refer to the full version of the questionnaire in Appendix B)

1 – short

sentences

1A Unchanged + note Iflix

1B Unchanged + format Phudeviet

1C Neutralized + note Researcher