The intralingual subtitling of The Wire: Changes of style and substance

Q2 Arts and Humanities

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice Pub Date : 2018-07-05 DOI:10.1558/jalpp.24620

Jane Lugea

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

This article examines the effects of the omissions made in the intralingual subtitling of the cult TV series The Wire, building on previous research. By extracting the English subtitles from the DVD and comparing them to the audio dialogue, I ascertain which features are omitted from the subtitles. A qualitative analysis reveals that the omission of features that contribute to interpersonal meaning has a cumulative effect on the representation of characters and their relationships. Furthermore, the subtitles frequently omit spatial information, which is shown to be key in constructing the nuanced hierarchical structure of the institutions and their players. The qualitative findings are supported by a quantitative analysis of the correlations between the cuts and their effects. It is argued that because interpersonal relations and social structures are so intrinsic to The Wire’s message, the ideational meaning of the subtitled text suffers. The results are pertinent to the ongoing debate on the merits of verbatim versus edited subtitles, and point to the need for stylistic considerations to be implemented into subtitling practice.

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The Wire的语内字幕：风格和内容的变化

本文在前人研究的基础上，考察了邪典电视剧《火线》在语内字幕中的疏漏所产生的影响。通过从DVD中提取英文字幕并将其与音频对话进行比较，我确定字幕中遗漏了哪些特征。定性分析表明，省略有助于人际意义的特征会对人物及其关系的表征产生累积影响。此外，字幕经常省略空间信息，这被证明是构建机构及其参与者微妙层次结构的关键。定性研究结果得到了削减及其影响之间相关性的定量分析的支持。有人认为，由于人际关系和社会结构是《火线》信息的内在特征，字幕文本的概念意义受到了影响。研究结果与正在进行的关于逐字字幕与编辑字幕优点的辩论有关，并指出有必要在字幕实践中考虑文体因素。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics

CiteScore

0.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice was launched in 2004 (under the title Journal of Applied Linguistics) with the aim of advancing research and practice in applied linguistics as a principled and interdisciplinary endeavour. From Volume 7, the journal adopted the new title to reflect the continuation, expansion and re-specification of the field of applied linguistics as originally conceived. Moving away from a primary focus on research into language teaching/learning and second language acquisition, the education profession will remain a key site but one among many, with an active engagement of the journal moving to sites from a variety of other professional domains such as law, healthcare, counselling, journalism, business interpreting and translating, where applied linguists have major contributions to make. Accordingly, under the new title, the journal will reflexively foreground applied linguistics as professional practice. As before, each volume will contain a selection of special features such as editorials, specialist conversations, debates and dialogues on specific methodological themes, review articles, research notes and targeted special issues addressing key themes.