89 FACTORS IN DUBBING TELEVISION COMEDY ...

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FACTORS IN DUBBING TELEVISION COMEDY

Patrick Zabalbeascoa, University of Lleida, Spain

Abstract This article is based on a descriptive approach to translation studies and on the assumption that the existence of so many different kinds of translating activities is due to the variable nature of the factors of translation. Therefore a translator must be aware of the precise nature of the operative factors in each assignment. This article is an attempt to create a greater awareness of the factors involved in dubbing television comedies, without losing a wider perspective of general factors that must be taken into account in all translating activities. Studies of dubbing will thus contribute to general theories of translation. Dubbing deserves more objective, empirical research and fewer anecdotes that do little to farther our understanding of the true facts of both dubbing and translation in general.

Defining the theoretical framework The nature of translation theory and translation studies are inevitably tied to our understanding of what translation is and what it involves. One approach to translation is to say that only the theorist is capable of accurately defining translation and all its parameters. Following this line of thought one can only conclude that no-one can be expected to translate properly unless he/she has first become familiar with the theory's definitions and principles along with lists of translation strategies that are acceptable and unacceptable. This is what is called a prescriptive theory of translation. The opposite approach is to accept the idea that translation is what translators do, for better or for worse, and build a theory

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that describes the translating activity as accurately as possible. This is a descriptive theory of translation and it is the approach used in the present study. For professional translators, prescriptive guidelines will come from the employers or institutional orders, requirements, and/or expectations. The professional translator can benefit from specialized style-sheets and handbooks. The success of any translation will always depend on the dominant sociocultural conventions of its time. Arbitrary influences on translation This angle on translation implies that the various different approaches to translation are the result of different conventions. Translations do not just happen, they are made according to subjective criteria and goals. There is no inherent underlying translation (latent in the source text) which has to be 'discovered' by the translator. For a translation to be properly evaluated, either the client (teacher in the case of trainees) or the translator will have to state the purpose and aim of the target text and its relationship with the source text. Translations must be evaluated according to their success in achieving predefined goals against the operative constraints for each occasion: that is, their success as a communication act. The importance of contexts: factors in translation A descriptive approach towards translation involves an objective assessment of all of the factors that are operative in a given translating process and which may not necessarily be distributed in exactly the same manner in other translating processes. We distinguish three contexts and their related factors: the original context of the source text (its production and reception) time, place, language, culture, society, audience, discourse factors (field, tenor and mode), etc. Then we have to take into account the factors related to the context of the target text; its time, place, language, culture, society, audience, discourse factors (field, tenor and mode), purpose of the target text, intertextuality, etc. A third context, the importance of which should not be underestimated, is the translator's and the context in which the translating process takes place. It involves factors such as: the translation initiator, translator competence, specific motivations for the translator, and professional conditions and constraints.

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Priorities and restrictions in the translating process The translator must identify the restrictions (which vary) for each new translation and be aware of the relative importance of each restriction during the process (thus the main goal of translator training schools must be to create and develop 'translator-awareness'). Restrictions can be contextual, professional or textual. Some restrictions will be operative throughout the process, whereas others will be localized (e.g. lip synchronization for dubbing). The translator must then establish a hierarchy of priorities and aim to satisfy predetermined goals as thoroughly as possible. Each priority in the hierarchy will be given a relative value; some will be stable over the whole process and the relative importnace of others will change at certain points in the text. Translating television comedy Potential shortcomings in television dubbing are mainly in the following areas: firstly, and quite generally, there is always the danger of some kind of interference from the conventions of the source text and/or the original language. A factor that favours this kind of weakness in the target text is the specific nature of the restrictions imposed on dubbing such as timing and turn-taking. Secondly, the translator may choose an unsuitable hierarchy of priorities for the text-type or for the purpose of the translation. Translators of television comedy cannot use the same set of criteria that are used for translating a novel or a medical report and expect the same degree of success. For example, informativeness is not nearly as high on a scale of priorities for the translation of comedy series as it would be for a translation of a sociological report. Potential consequences of weaknesses like the ones just described for television comedy are: (a) lack of coherence and a loss of intelligibility, (b) partial or total loss of jokes; (c) a loss of naturalness. Thirdly, there are dubbed versions that produce target text ambiguity or nonsense where the target audience misinterprets or simply does not see the point that had existed in the source text. As has already been stated, a descriptive approach to translation involves an assessment of a number of variable factors in each case. Below is an outline of the factors involved in dubbing television comedy. First of all there is the common ground of all translating processes and gene-

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ral questions and aspects related to the nature of translating. Then we have to take into consideration the current dubbing techniques, means, conventions and technologies. Thirdly, the factors involved in television production. Fourthly, the professional context; the degree of team work (how much is required and how much there actually is). Finally, it is also important to have a good grasp of the nature and devices of humour and, in particular, of comedy: its language, how it works, and its varieties. To dub or not to dub Before going into a discussion of factors in dubbing in any more detail, it seems necessary to dwell for a minute on whether there is any real justification for dubbing as a method for screen translation especially since so many people have spoken against it. One line of argument says that there should be no screen translation at all, that the cinema-goer is expected to know foreign languages, that dubbing ruins the audience's enjoyment of hearing the actors' original voices and that there are too few dubbing voices anyway, which also spoils the illusion that each character has a unique voice. Counter-arguments come quite easily to mind. No-one can be expected to know more than a limited number of foreign languages out of the vast number of existing languages. Besides, an imperfect knowledge of the original language is in itself also a considerable obstacle to full enjoyment One must also consider that the need for screen translation is part of the general debate on the benefits and evils of translation in general. If we accept that there are some benefits in translating audiovisual material in the right circumstances, the question then arises as to which is the best way to go about this. The two dominant techniques used nowadays are dubbing and subtitling. In a few cases, especially for American audiences, films are not translated but remade all over again, in the foreign language, with new actors and actresses and new sets and props. But when we talk about screen translation we are usually referring to either subtitling or dubbing. Which is best? A descriptive approach to translation should not attempt to answer this question in simplistic, universal terms, but investigate strong and weak points of each technique in order to discover whether some forms of film, television or video material lend themselves better to dubbing and others to subtitling. There are even audiovisual texts where the best results are achieved by a mixture of dubbing and subtitling.

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It is argued in favour of subtitling that it does not sacrifice the enjoyment of hearing the actors' original voices. However, especially in countries where dubbing is the habitual form of screen translation, a lot of people find subtitles distracting, just as people who are not used to dubbing find dubbing unrealistic. The general quality of subtitles in Spain is very poor, or, at least has been until very recently. Subtitling has always been considered cheaper and faster, and therefore subtitled versions were always produced cheaply and fast, almost exclusively for intellectuals and film festivals. Other more marginal considerations, which help to prove that we need to define all of the contextual parameters before passing judgement as to which is best, concern the specific requirements of certain audiences. No doubt subtitling is better for the deaf, and dubbing is better for the poor-sighted or illiterate. For example dubbing would be the only plausible mode of translation into a language that did not have a written form. A final advantage of dubbing over subtitling is that because we can listen to words at a faster rate than we can read them, subtitling of semantically rather dense films always results in a translation summary, or gist translation, whereas a dubbed version does not need to cut down on the number of words so drastically. Nowadays certain technological advances make some of the above dichotomies somewhat obsolete since stereo sound systems enable television programmes to be broadcast in two different languages simultaneously. Teletext also enables viewers to choose whether or not to view a programme with subtitles. Moreover, it is technologically viable for viewers to combine dual sound output with teletext possibilities. Formerly, before stereo television, Spanish State television used to broadcast the original version on the radio. Finally, another option would be not to broadcast any foreign language programmes at all. But only a handful of countries have film and television industries which are so large that is a realistic option in the event that they really wanted to. Factors in dubbing We have already seen above that one of the first factors involved in dubbing is the social perception, tolerance and acceptance of dubbing versus other alternatives. It is interesting to see how people's opinions of dubbing and subtitling are determined by habit and social conventions and prejudice. Regarding the textual context the translator must search for audiovisual cone-

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sion and coherence. Dubbing is quite unique in relation to mainstream translation since the translation of the words is only one part of the dubbing process. It therefore calls into question Nida's (1969) division of intralinguistic, interlinguistic and intersemiotic types of translation. Dubbing forces us to think of the possibility that all translations are potentially intersemiotic, some much more than others (see the text-type classifications for translation at the end of this article). The dubbing process is something like this: (1) a programme is chosen and purchased; (2) a decision is made as to whether the programme should be dubbed, subtitled or not touched; (3) a copy of the original version on tape is given to a freelance translator or to a number of translators, sometimes with the script; (4) the translation is adjusted for timing and lip movement and acted out by dubbing actors under the directions of the dubbing director. Then the new soundtrack is dubbed onto the film or tape. The words of the script are part of the sound, but there are other sounds on the soundtrack. There are 'oral* sounds (including interjections, intonation, voice quality) and other sounds (special effects which can be either directly related to the words or not). The words and the picture combine in different ways. As in the case of the soundtrack some images are directly related to the words others are not. Timing of delivery is an important factor in dubbing for lip movement and certain situations that call for special responses with a special timing, e.g. a joke. A generalized concept of a constant and unchangeable unit of translation has no real practical use. At least no-one has been able to prove that it has yet. This is also true in the case of dubbing. One obvious reason for this is that there is no stability in the length or nature of the segment of text that is translated. Another is the fact that even if the length of the 'piece' of text to be translated were constant it cannot be interpreted independently of the context: the text and its setting. However, it might be an interesting exercise, in order to better describe the specific nature of translating for dubbed versions, to outline the 'units' or chunks of text that are frequently dealt with in dubbing television comedy series as follows: lip movement; utterance (relevant when either the speaker is in clear view at a reasonably close distance or timing of other sounds is important); pause (the pause may be reproduced or may have to be compensated for); exchange (a group of utterances, e.g. a take); a scene or sequence (as defined by the script or director of the original); chapter (e.g. a chapter of Dallas or Black Adder); a


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whole series {Black Adder) or an entire serial (Dallas). Another important aspect of dubbing concerns its professional considerations. No-one can earn a living translating poetry, at least it is an extremely rare profession in Western Europe. Conversely, no-one translates films and dubs them vocationally. So we must consider the translation of audiovisual texts as a profession, subject to professional restrictions and interests. One obvious feature is that actors and directors are required. Therefore dubbing must be regarded as a joint effort of a team of professionals, where the translator cannot be oblivious of the rest of team, nor is he or she entirely accountable for some of the shortcomings of the final result. Factors in translating television comedy Before we judge the translator of television material too harshly it is necessary to stop for a minute to think about the restricted environment in which the work is done. Here is a list of some of the most salient factors involved in translating television programmes: (a) Political restrictions, censorship and management policies, (b) Speed and depth of assimilation by the audience, (c) Associations and allusions between one programme and another, either implicit or explicit, this being part of the required 'shared knowledge', (d) Market economy and popularity ratings, (e) Advertising, either in the form of interruptions or incorporated into the programme (sponsorship). In the translation of any text it is important to be aware of the precise role of humour in a text: (1) Top: TV comedy, a joke-story, one-liners, etc. (2) Middle: happy-ending love/adventure stories, TV quiz shows. (3) Marginal: as a pedagogical device, Shakespeare's tragedies. (4) To be avoided: in certain moments of drama, tragedy, horror texts; or in other inappropriate situations. One must also consider what I have found fit to call the direction of humour; whether it can be regarded as 'light entertainment' or 'morbid' or 'caustic' (cynical, bitter, etc.), 'harmless', or even 'pedagogical'. We understand translation as the outcome of a process of choosing one of various possible strategies in the light of all the operative factors of the situation. The chosen strategy can be expressed in terms of a hierarchy of priorities and justified by a list of all the context-sensitive restrictions that must be taken into

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account. The Global Priorities of translating television comedy are the following: be popular, be funny, aim for immediate response (laughter), integrate the words of the translation with the other constituent parts of the audiovisual text, use language and structures appropriate to the channel of communication. Recurrent restrictions are: differences in background knowledge of. the two audiences, differences in moral values, cultural values, habits and traditions, differences in traditional joke-themes, the translator's professional context, timing and lip-synchronization, humour that depends on features of the source language, the visualization of metaphor and other aspects of the visual support of the text that are not allowed to be manipulated. Translating techniques and procedures may be regarded as universal or texttype sensitive. First, we need to study the potential usefulness of traditionally described translating techniques; second, scholars must explore the adequacy of specific techniques for specific types of texts, in our case television comedy. We have already claimed that the main purpose of translator training should be awareness-rousing. On this point courses designed for training translators of audiovisual texts need to show future professionals what kinds of techniques are effective, appropriate or inappropriate and in what types of texts and contexts. This also shows how translators and audiences can benefit from specialization. In the case of comedy, specialized translators would become familiar with the mechanics and features of joke-production and discover specific translation techniques for translating jokes or substituting them or some other form of source text compensation. Equivalence is a variable that needs to be redefined for each kind of priority in the process. For comedies the translator will place 'comic equivalence' at the top of the hierarchy. Compensation is a variable, too: we need to describe what kinds of compensation are possible and/or permissible in each context. Another variable is the unit of translation: each kind of text has its own meaningful units and sub-units. The basic pervading unit in the translation of comedy is always the text as utterance in a communication act. Certain forms of compensation or translation techniques that are specific for dubbing television comedy could be found in different forms of audiovisual compensation of words through, for example, funny voices or intonations, or even joke-substitution with the only restrictions of timing, lip-sync and textual coher-

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ence and cohesion. Translating Jokes A new classification of jokes could be made according to the way jokes lend themselves to translation and the sorts of translation techniques required to translate each one of them. So far I have identified six types of jokes: The international joke: a funny story or one-liner that can be readily translated because the effect does not depend on any word-play or some familiarity with the source culture. The national-culture-and-institutions joke: in this kind of joke there is a need to adapt national, cultural or institutional references of the original to retain the humorous effect for a foreign audience. The national-sense-of-humour joke: certain joke-types and joke-themes are more popular in some communities than in others. For example some communities like to make fun of themselves, others do not and prefer to laugh at somebody else's expense. This group might also include those jokes that show a considerable dependence on intertextuality since they are variations of well-known jokes or joke-forms . The language-dependent joke: jokes that depend on polysemy, homophony and other features of natural language for their effect, but are otherwise fairly "international", and might even be fairly easily translated when the two languages are closely related. The visual joke: this group includes both the entirely 'visual' type, in which the humour is derived solely from what one sees on the screen, and the joke which depends on a combination of words and picture and where the translator can only hope to find some form of compensation in words that will cover the same images, which cannot be altered by convention. The complex joke: a combination of any two or three of the above mentioned joke-types. Finally, here are two alternative classifications to help locate dubbing and subtitling on the 'map' of translation activities and specializations. The column on the left is a classification of texts according to mode of perception, and the column on the right is one of many possible arrangements of texts that are translations or are to act as source texts, based on the left column.

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A CLASSIFICATION OF TEXTS BY MODE OF PERCEPTION Source text types 1) Read only; e.g. a novel. 2) Read and seen (verbal and non-verbal visual signs); e.g. a comic book, or an entirely verbal text where layout, formatting and/or colours are highly relevant or meaningful. 3) Heard only (verbal and non-verbal sounds); e.g. radio programme. 4) Heard and seen (including verbal and non-verbal signs); e.g. a play performed on stage. 5) Heard and seen and read; e.g a film with subtitles or with writing in the original picture. 6) Seen and/or heard only (including only non-verbal images and sounds); a comic strip with no words.

Types of target renditions A) Written texts to be read silently by target text readership, including summary translations. This type includes the translation of text-types 1 & 2 from the column on the left. B) Written texts to be perceived aurally, drawn from the nonspontaneous texts of text-type 3. C) Spontaneous speech (not written beforehand), (text-type 3 in the case of simultaneous interpreting; text-type 4 in the case of liaison interpreting). D) Written texts to be perceived 'audiovisually" (the scripts for text-types 4 & 5). In subtitling, the source text belongs to texttype 4, but the target text to text-type 5.

Another interesting distinction is found between: (i) texts where the translator is, in principle and by convention, free to manipulate any feature or component of the source text as much as necessary. This goes for many of the texts belonging to text-types 1 and 3; and (ii) those texts where the translator can influence or manipulate only a part of what might be considered the entirety of a text. Convention has it that dubbing and subtitling may not alter the picture of a film or freeze a frame for a split second. Accordingly audiovisual texts for translation can only be manipulated or 'translated' in their verbal components. Concluding remarks In this discussion, the focus has been on dubbing in situation comedies. However, it is my hope that the above discussion has shown that studies of dubbing are also a part of translation studies, capable of influencing general theories and models of the translating process. We have had a very brief glimpse here of the author's own general model of Priorities and Restrictions as factors that vary in general terms according to each type of translation and in many other ways for individual translations. Studies of dubbing may also contribute to a better understanding of the complex societal and mass media contexts in which practical translation work is done, especially the prescriptive restrictions involved, which ultimately has repercussions on the theories and the teaching of translation. Dub-


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bing deserves much more objective, empirical research and for fewer anecdotes and examples that are very amusing but do little to further our understanding of the true facts of both dubbing and translation in general. Works cited Nida, E. 1969. Towards a Science of Translating. Brill, Leiden.