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DÍAZ-CINTAS, JORGE, REMAEL ALINE. SUBTITLING CONCEPTS

AND

PRACTICES. LONDON, ROUTLEDGE, 2020, 292 PP., ISBN

9781138940543

Subtitling: Concepts and Practices, written by Jorge Díaz-Cintas and

Aline Remael and published by Routledge in 2020, is an augmented

hypermedia version of Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling published by the

same authors in 2007 (St Jerome). Yet, the reader should not be mistaken,

as this new publication is not meant as a mere second edition. Indeed, as

the very title itself already suggests, this new book targets translation

trainers, students, practitioners and academics in the field, and offers a fresh

look on all things audiovisual translation (AVT). What is more, it is not just a

volume, at least not in a traditional way, as it comes complete with a

companion website containing bonus resources, such as video clips, and

exercises with answer keys. Readers are also provided with access to

Wincaps Q4, a professional desktop-based subtitle editor as well as a

leading web-based subtitling platform, OOONA Tools.

The volume consists of nine chapters. Starting from the very definition

of AVT and its terminological fluctuations throughout time, which are but a

mere «reflection of the changing times» (p. 6), the first chapter mainly

focuses and further expands on a comprehensive reconceptualisation of

subtitling. Chapter 1 invites the reader to reflect on the most recent

technological, cinematic and societal developments, and then on the

progress made so far in terms of subtitling research and practice, that has

managed to revolutionise and largely reshape the AVT landscape. Yet, in

section 1.4, where the authors list the various instantiations of AVT, fan

practices were not included, whereas an insight into parallel modes of AVT,

such as fansubbing and fandubbing, would have provided a wider

perspective on the state of the art of AVT, extending its scope to non-

professional practices.

Chapter 2 takes the reader into the professional ecosystem of

subtitling, describing old and new practices in the AVT industry, as well as

updated information on decentralised workflows (Díaz-Cintas and Massidda

2019), general guidelines, turnaround times, cloud-based environments

(Bolaños-García-Escribano, Díaz-Cintas and Massidda 2022) and overall

ad-hoc workflows adopted by big players in the field, i.e. Over-the-Top (OTT)

and Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) platforms such as Amazon

Prime, Disney+, HBO Now, Netflix, and so on.

In Chapter 3, devoted to the semiotics of subtitling, the authors delve

into the topics of intersemiotic cohesion and dialogue dynamics (Linell 1998)

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as a way to explain how multimodal products work. The multimodal nature of

AVT and the filmic sign system are the focus of this section and the authors

analyse how the filmic text is created through the concurrent interaction of

the aural and visual channels with verbal and nonverbal modes of transfer.

In other words, the emphasis is on how subtitling, as well as other forms of

AVT, are integrated in the filmic text and then activated to fill the gap when

the aural-verbal dimension becomes somehow inaccessible to the audience.

Subtitling conventions are addressed in Chapter 4 (spatial and

temporal features) and Chapter 5 (formal and textual features). The novelty

of Chapter 4 is in the updated subtitling norms as far as characters per line

(

CPL) constraints are concerned. For example, according to the authors, the

introduction of proportional lettering has led to considerable freedom on the

part professional subtitlers: «variable-width fonts, where the letters and

spacing between them have different widths, [allow] for greater

rationalization of the space available for subtitles». As a result, Language

Service Providers (LSPs) and SVoD new practices are currently «elongating

the lines to accommodate up to 42 characters, as in the case of Netflix» (p.

98).

At the beginning of Chapter 5, the authors introduce the context of the

main topic of the section, subtitling norms and conventions, by questioning

the «apparent lack of harmonization in the presentation of subtitles» (p. 119)

in the localisation industry, due to the numerous language service providers

(LSPs) currently operating in the market. A series of recommendations on

how to use punctuation, and related practices (e. g. use of colours and

abbreviations), is provided along with specific examples. An interesting

section on subtitling quality, which remains a rather delicate and challenging

dilemma in the new millennium (Nikolić, 2021), is accurately described by

the authors in terms of quality control (QC) tasks that are included in the

overarching quality assurance (QA) and quality management (QM)

processes.

A plethora of translation strategies (e.g., condensation, reformulation

and text reduction) is analysed in Chapter 6. This section, whose focus is the

linguistics of subtitling, provides a set of strategies, along with practical case

studies, in a variety of languages (e.g., Dutch, French, German, and

Spanish) on how to deal with the linguistic dimension of subtitling such as

line breaks. Rhetorical spotting, in particular, is an interesting and relevant

feature addressed by the authors when taking the theme of “disorderly

speech” (Parra-Lopez 2019) into account.

Marked speech and language variation are at the core of Chapter 7,

in which the authors investigate intra-speaker variations (e.g., style and

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speech habits and personal styles typical of a specific speech community.

The inter-speaker variation (e.g., dialects and slang) and intra-speaker

variations (swearwords and taboo words) are also described and

categorised following Alan and Burridge’s framework (2006). The last

section of the chapter zones in on a fascinating topic that is currently re-

surfacing in academic discourse: the translation of songs in media

productions (Desblache 2019; Low 2017).

Chapter 8 explores cultural references, a theme the authors here

intertwine with humour and ideology. Cultural references are explored in

terms of real-world references (geographic, ethnographic, social or political)

to be transposed by way of a set of strategies previously described by the

same authors (Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007) and backed by the works of

Pedersen (2011) and Ranzato (2016). In addition, the themes of ideology

and humour in the translation of audiovisual productions, are conceptualised

and supported by a variety of studies (De Rosa et al. 2014; Martínez-Sierra

2009; Pai 2017; Zabalbeascoa 1997).

Last but not least, in Chapter 9, the authors explore some of the

newest trends that they had not covered in their previous book. These

include, the technological advances in the digital age as they relate to AVT.

This chapter offers a long-awaited update on the impact of the new

technological strides led by LSPs as a means to provide an effective

solution to “the boom in popularity of OTT services […] with the

explosion of audiovisual serialized productions [that have] led to a

growing demand for content localization across the world” (Díaz-Cintas and

Massidda 2019: 256). Among the cutting-edge AVT technologies, which

have been progressively integrated within localisation workflows, the

authors analyse automatic speech recognition (ASR) cloud computing,

machine translation (MT), and translation memory (TM) tools.

On the whole, this publication, a comprehensive multimedia package,

is unquestionably a must-have in that it succeeds in accounting for the core

concepts of the Translation Studies discipline. It will most definitely allow the

reader to become more familiar with the fundamental dimensions of

subtitling: not only the conceptual, cultural and linguistic basics, but the

technical aspects as well. Additionally, the companion website keeps this

work solidly grounded in the professional realm by providing translation

students, and users in general, with specialised, commercial subtitling tools.

The practical training offered by way of specific examples along with video

clips and related tasks allows for a hands-on, real-life experience of

concepts and practices that can otherwise be considered extremely abstract.

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EFERENCES

Allan, K. & Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden Words. Taboo and the Censoring

of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bolaños-García-Escribano, A., Díaz-Cintas & J., Massidda, S. (2021).

Subtitlers on the Cloud: The Use of Professional Web-based Systems

in Subtitling Practice and Training. Tradumàtica, 19, 1-21.

Desblache, L. (2019). Music and Translation: New Mediations in the Digital

Age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Díaz-Cintas, J. & Serenella M. (2019). Technological Advances in

Audiovisual Translation. In Minako O’Hagan (Ed.) The Routledge

Handbook of Translation and Technology. London: Routledge, 255-

270.

Díaz-Cintas, J. & Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling.

Manchester: St Jerome.

Linell, P. (1998). Approaching Dialogue: Talk, Interaction and Contexts in

Dialogical Perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Low, P. (2017). Translating Song: Lyrics and Texts. London: Routledge.

Nikolić, K. (2021). Quality Control of Subtitles: A Study of Subtitlers,

Proofreaders, Quality Controllers, LSPs and Broadcasters/Streaming

Services. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 4(3), 66-88.

Nikolic, K. & Bywood, L. (2021). Audiovisual Translation: The Road Ahead.

Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 4(1), 50-70.

Parra-López, G. 2019. Disorderly Speech in Audiovisual Fiction and its

Translation: Portrayals of Characters Under the Influence of Alcohol

and Drugs. Doctoral Dissertation. Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu

Fabra.

Pedersen, J. 2011. Subtitling Norms for Television. Amsterdam: John

Benjamins.

Ranzato, I. 2016. Translating Culture Specific Reference son Television:

The Case of Dubbing. London: Routledge.

ERENELLA MASSIDDA]