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Gentle Obsessions
This volume is a collection of original essays written in dedication to John Morley, who founded the Centro Linguistico of the University of Siena at the end of the 1980s. The range of topics embraced, which include grammar, lexicology, semiotics, corpus-assisted discourse studies, stylistics, cross-language studies, and political, social and media linguistics, is a testament to the very wide variety of intellectual interests, curiosities and pursuits of its dedicatee.
Literature, Linguistics and Learning In Honour of John Morley
90
ISBN 978-88-7575-223-1
Euro 25,00
Gentle Obsessions Literature, Linguistics and Learning In Honour of John Morley edited by Alison Duguid, Anna Marchi, Alan Partington and Charlotte Taylor
Proteo 90
www.artemide-edizioni.it
Collana Proteo diretta da Roberto Venuti Comitato scientifico Francesca Balestra, Giuseppe Dolei, Roberto Venuti
InALTO
Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching Online Quaderni del Centro Linguistico di Ateneo Università degli Studi di Siena
Gentle obsessions Literature, Linguistics and Learning In Honour of John Morley edited by
Alison Duguid, Anna Marchi, Alan Partington and Charlotte Taylor
© Copyright 2015 Editoriale Artemide s.r.l. Via Angelo Bargoni, 8 - 00153 Roma Tel. 06.45493446 - Tel./Fax 06.45441995
[email protected] www.artemide-edizioni.it Segreteria di redazione Antonella Iolandi Impaginazione Monica Savelli Copertina Lucio Barbazza In copertina Veduta di Siena
ISBN 978-88-7575-223-1
Finito di stampare nel mese di gennaio 2015
Volume stampato con il contributo del Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali Politiche e Cognitive (DISPOC) e del Centro Linguistico di Ateneo (CLA) Università degli Studi di Siena
Contents
7
Dedications
Language: form and function
15
Towards a solution to adjective-noun ‘fused-head’ constructions in a systemic functional grammar Gordon Tucker
33 English evaluative suffixes: a preference for pragmatics over semantics Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi
Discourse and rhetoric
51
‘Don’t dream it. Drive it’: Linguistic creativity in English adverts Veronica Bonsignori
59 81 99
Two centuries of ‘security’: Semantic variation in the State of the Union Address (1790-2014) Paul Bayley & Cinzia Bevitori Class distinctions: a fringe pursuit for Guardian-reading classes? A corpus-assisted study Alison Duguid A corpus-assisted analysis of reported speech in news discourse. The case of civil liberties and the Patriot Act in the American quality press Anna Marchi
6
121
Irony and sarcasm: British behaviours? Charlotte Taylor
145
A brief note on some primings in spoken Morleyese Guy Aston
Language of Art and Literature
159
Reflections on the theme of Veronica Amanda Murphy
171
Persuasion in Poetry: a linguistic analysis of To His Coy Mistress Alan Partington
187 219 235
The Hidden Narrative Skills of George Crabbe: a literary stylistic analysis revisited Michael Hoey The unwinding of time: some stylistic techniques in Nabokov’s ‘First Love’ Louann Haarman
Social Semiotic Stylistics and the corpus: How do-able is an automated analysis of verbal art? Donna R. Miller & Antonella Luporini
251
Dubbing into English Christopher Taylor
A Toast
267
Bill Dodd: Ode to Red Wine
Dedications
John Morley at the Centro Linguistico di Ateneo (CLA), University of Siena. It is a great pleasure to present the second volume in the Siena University’s Centro Linguistico ‘inAlto’ series. This issue is dedicated entirely to our friend and colleague John Morley with whom, over many years, we shared a commitment to the development of the Centro. He created it and founded it at the end of the 1980s and it was one of the first on the Italian university scene. Under his direction, for over ten years the Centre grew to become a well-grounded and innovative structure. Our University was indeed ahead of the times in introducing an obligatory English language level for all students from 2000/2001. The test was administered by the Centre which adopted the Council of Europe Framework and Cambridge UCLES examinations as a guarantee of high quality of testing. It is thanks to John that Siena University became an authorised Cambridge exam centre. This was a particular political decision aimed at developing a process of internationalisation, building on the relationships he had created with universities in other countries in the field of language teaching and research. This choice which he promoted and managed to push through with conviction and great dedication became a key element in the evaluation of Siena University at the top of the national classification. Thanks to John and the priority he put on teaching, today the Centre is also involved in the training and updating of its language teachers and is a promoter of applied research in the sector of language teaching, materials production and autonomous learning materials.
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All of us who had the pleasure of working with John will emphasise, beyond his professional skills which have been recognised by all the experts in his field, also his fine human qualities and the respect which he always showed for everyone’s work, recognising that for a structure as complex as the CLA everyone’s contribution is necessary. We owe it to John if the CLA is today one of the University’s centres of excellence where students can find all they need, including the latest technology for foreign language learning, and can practice with the support of highly qualified mother-tongue language teachers. Maria Letizia Bologni and Anne Schoysman CLA, University of Siena. John Morley in Political Sciences Cultures. Gentle obsessions.
in
Siena: English. Languages.
I am particularly happy to have this short space to talk about the role John Morley played in the Political Sciences Faculty and degree course in Siena, his role in teaching in general and in that particular cultural undertaking represented by the teaching of a language. My only qualification for this is simply as John’s ‘last Dean’ in the Faculty in which he came to work in Siena in 1989, first Law and then Political Sciences, and where he became a full professor. Another Dean, the late Antonio Cardini, would have been able to say more and provide greater detail about John’s presence in faculty and about his determination in setting up a language lab which fitted in so well with that other institution which he directed for many years, the Centro Linguistico di Ateneo. I worked side by side with John from 2003. He would labour tirelessly on behalf of the students. He was delegate for languages and I was delegate for professionalising experiences and these two roles often coincided, as did our points of view. I supported his work and it was a pleasure to be able to construct stories, experiences, syllabi together – always with that gentle obsession of his, focusing on our problems and on our faults. I remember one passionate speech he made at one of the faculty days in Pontignano in 2003 – an informal talk in which he asked us to try to capture the attention of our stu-
Dedications
9
dents and to stimulate their creativity before assessing their talents. But the students knew that this attention was not a sign of a gratuitous generosity: even when faced with hundreds of exams, which he usually was, he was always rigorous, energetic and refused to compromise on quality of work. I wasn’t always able to support him – not because I didn’t share his objectives – but because when I became Dean in 2009 Siena University had already entered its period of retrenchment and it was a case of having to say no to so many things. We lost English language contracts, research grants, hours of language teaching. We dismantled the language lab, saving only its basic functions. John’s visits to my office became more and more frequent, together we worked on ways round the various situations. It was in that phase that I learnt that John’s gentle obsession was in fact pure love, a taste for doing things well, for leaving a positive message. His appearance in my office, signalled by the presence of his hat in the secretary’s office, was never an annoyance and it was never a banal experience. Even when times are hard one can learn and do one’s work well. That is something I learnt from Prof. Morley. Luca Verzichelli, DISPOC, ex-President of the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Siena. John Morley in Italy In 1972, John was invited to Camerino in Italy to set up, manage and equip a Centro Linguistico di Ateneo (CLA), an inter-Faculty language teaching centre, at the town’s university. He went well beyond the original remit by making it not only a teaching unit but a centre of research into theoretical and applied linguistics, one of the very first and most influential in Italy in that period. He stocked the Centre’s library with both literary and linguistics texts in several European languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian); the latter in particular formed a resource to be used by local researchers, including one of the present editors, as a grounding in modern linguistic theory. He organised regular seminars on linguistic topics which were invariably well-attended
10
Dedications
by scholars from all over Italy. It was during this period that he forged lasting and productive friendships and acquaintanceships with many of the pioneers of English linguistics in Italy, Guy Aston, Rosa Maria Bosinelli-Bollettieri, Louann (Trudy) Haarman, Gillian Mansfield, Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi, Gordon Tucker, along with younger scholars who were later to their mark, including Paul Bayley, Donna Miller and Christopher Taylor, and with the highly respected English literature expert Bill Dodd. He conceived and organised an innovative and influential series of intensive Summer Schools in linguistics in collaboration with the University of Leeds and, latterly, Birmingham, as well as the British Council. Each edition of the school lasted for two weeks in August, was limited to thirty subscribers and was taught both by local lecturers but also renowned international figures including David Barber, Guy Cook, Gill Francis, Michael Hoey, Shelagh Rixon, Peter Roach, Ted Rogers and John Wells. The Summer School, by kindling an enthusiasm for linguistics, was to make an enduring impression on very many of its students and provide many fond memories for both students and teachers. Last, and certainly not least for the individuals involved, he encouraged members of the teaching staff to take up an interest in linguistics as a means of improving their teaching skills. The forms of encouragement were characteristically wise and varied: by personal example, through advice and stimulating discussion on linguistic topics, by helping provide essential finance for attending conferences and, crucially, by encouraging them to prepare and teach modules on the Camerino Summer Schools. He also founded the Camerino University CLA’s own biannual journal, the Laboratorio degli Studi Linguistici, which provided a much-needed forum where young linguistics scholars could publish their research. At the same time he allowed the greatest freedom to individuals to pursue the lines of research of their own choice though, where relevant, with a suggestion to consider incorporating into their research the – at the time – highly experimental methodologies of corpus linguistics and computer-assisted learning. This encouragement of language teaching staff was a hallmark of John’s management career. It was not only highly unusual but professionally hazardous given that not only the Italian Ministry for Universities but also many among the professorial ranks in Italy were loath to give any legal recogni-
Dedications
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tion of the value and the efforts of foreign-language teaching staff. He was, in fact, also an active member of the Associazione Italiana di Anglistica (the Italian Association for English language teaching and research) and served on its organising committee, in which role he frequently advertised and championed the work and rights of the under-recognised foreign-language teachers. Having made such a remarkable success of Camerino University’s Language Centre, he was invited in the late 1980s to direct the Cen tro Linguistico of the much larger University in Siena. This was both an immense task which had to be combined with normal teaching duties and a considerable challenge given that by no means all of the professorial staff were convinced of the value of foreign languages and certainly not of that of pooling ‘their’ language teachers as a common resource in the Language Centre. It was only through a combination of astute reasoning, cajoling and personal charm that he was able to win the political support of a succession of vice-Chancellors and succeed in reforming and improving the university’s language teaching and in making Siena’s Centro Lin guistico a model for the rest of Italy. He initiated the Idoneità Inter nazionale (International Qualification) project in an attempt to ensure validity and reliability in the university language testing and managed to get the university to pay for Cambridge ESOL exams, making the B1 exam obligatory as the basic language requirement. He also took part in the CERCLU project which involved Italian Centri Linguistici in writing tests for use at a national level. These projects involved a considerable amount of networking and persuasion which he carried out tirelessly. He was also an initiator and collaborator in a number of research projects funded by the national University Ministry or by the European Union. Always encouraging, he ensured both collaboration and a friendly atmosphere and gave many young researchers a chance to join national and international projects. Indeed, several of the contributors to this volume began research in linguistics thanks to John’s encouragement at Siena, among them Veronica Bonsignori, Alison Duguid, Anna Marchi, Charlotte Taylor and Cesare Zanca. His interest in the language of the news brought about the Newspool project and the skills learned and the collaboration involved therein led to the CORDIS (corpora and discourse) project
12
Dedications
on the Iraq war. This in turn led to the work on INTUNE, a European-wide, EU-funded project on European identity in which he was the coordinator of the Media Linguistics group. These projects involved him in many arduous and unrewarding aspects of project management and much juggling of resources and a great deal of diplomacy, but he always managed to make the process an interesting and enjoyable one for the participants as well as to provide a springboard for publication and the development of research skills. John’s own research, as befits a man of so many parts and arts, has been as stimulating as it has been eclectic. He has published in the areas of experimental grammar, textual cohesion and its role in structuring writers’ arguments, political discourse, newspaper discourse, theory and applications of corpus linguistics, and stylistics, the latter a testimony to his passionate attachment to literature, both as practising writer, especially poet, and as avid consumer. Many of these areas of interest are reflected in the topics chosen by the contributors to the current collection. In gratitude, the editors.
Dubbing into English Chris Taylor
Introduction Dubbing is the term used to describe the technique through which the original dialogues of feature films or television programmes are replaced by new dialogues, translated and adapted for the purpose of enabling viewers to understand audiovisual material produced in foreign languages. Attempts are made to reproduce not only the sense of the dialogues but also the rhythms, cadences and lip movements of the original actors. Dubbing actors are employed to perform this task and to create the illusion that the players on the screen are speaking the language of the audience (cf. Paolinelli e Di Fortunato, 2005). It is therefore an interlingual translation of dialogue designed to enable viewers of different cultures and languages to follow foreign language products. However the creation of a dubbed product requires the services of not just translators and actors. The translator represents the first stage, but his/her work needs to be adjusted by the adaptor, who makes the necessary modifications required by time factors, lip synchronization considerations, and so on. The work then passes to the dubbing director and his/her assistants in the synch and sound departments and finally to the actors, who may themselves suggest or demand further changes. The dubbing process can be divided into three basic phases. Firstly, during the pre-production stage, an original script of a film or other audiovisual product that has been commissioned by a film distributor, is viewed, analysed, translated and adapted before any actual dubbing activity starts (Martinez, 2004). The above activities are often, but not always, performed by the same person. Then, in the production phase, the director and the actors work on the various loops (sections of film) and prepare a first dubbed version. Finally,
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in post-production, the work of editing, synchronizing and mixing is carried out. Returning to the professional figure identified as translator/adaptor, the Italian organization that represents the ‘dialoghisti’, as they are known in Italian (AIDAC), describes how arduous the task of dubbing is and describes the ‘dubber’ as: the person who, in front of a screen or monitor, translates, transposes, writes, rewrites and synchronises, frame after frame, word after word, line after line, the original dialogue, transforming it, with the utmost care and in total respect of the spirit of the work, into a completely new text called an ‘adaptation’. This is an extremely complex operation, almost always painstaking as well as misunderstood (my translation). (www.aidac.it)
The need for dubbing first arose with the advent of talking films and the need to make these products accessible to foreign audiences. This was valid for all languages and translation directions but initially, and even to this day, the major concern was to have American Hollywood productions made available in Europe, with its many languages and cultures, and elsewhere. While this consideration would interest all foreign language communities it is also true that the period of the rise of the ‘talkies’ coincided to a certain extent with the rise to power in some European countries of nationalist governments intent on protecting their home cultures and languages. This was the case in Germany, in Spain and in Italy. It was a logical consequence of this situation, where foreign languages were not allowed to be heard at the cinema, that dubbing was encouraged and became the established method of film translation in those countries. Other factors were involved such as cost, for example smaller countries could not afford the much higher costs of dubbing and opted for subtitling, but the end result has been that Germany, Spain and Italy have remained ‘dubbing countries’.
Dubbing in Italy As mentioned above, the nationalist fervour of the Fascist regime resulted in censorial measures such as the following communication of 22nd October 1930, which effectively banned the projecting
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of films featuring foreign language dialogue and therefore the use of subtitles as a translation strategy: Il Ministero dell’Interno ha disposto che da oggi non venga accordato il nulla osta alla rappresentazione di pellicole cinematografiche che contengono del parlato in lingua straniera sia pure in qualche parte e in misura minima. Di conseguenza tutti e indistintamente i film sonori, ad approvazione ottenuta, porteranno sul visto la condizione della soppressione di ogni scena dialogata o comunque parlata in lingua straniera. [The Ministry of Internal Affairs has declared that as of today permission will not be granted for the showing of cinema film containing any degree of foreign language dialogue. Consequently all approved sound films will be obliged to suppress any dialogue or spoken component in a foreign language (my translation)]
The first response to this constraint was to show foreign films with only non-verbal audio (music and sounds), replacing the spoken dialogue with intertitles, a throwback to the silent era. This unsuccessful strategy made a mockery of the in vogue slogan of the ‘talkie’ era in Italy “film parlato al 100%”, which became a sarcastic “film letto al 100%” (Paolinelli e Di Fortunato, 2005: 7). At this point dubbing came to the rescue. American film-makers, seeing the need to intervene in order to be able to sell their products, produced the first dubbed versions. MGM, for example, dubbed The Big House already in 1930 calling it Carcere in Italian. However by 1932 it was decided to move the dubbing operation from America to the foreign countries involved. But this did not satisfy the regime as the producers were still foreigners. Consequently the Italian film industry moved in and dubbing studies such as Fotovox and Fono Roma were born, and dubbing entered into Italian cinematographic culture, where it was to stay. This system was popular, in spite of the poor quality and primitive technology of the earliest attempts. There were, however, staunch critics of the method. The Frenchman Jacques Becker called it an act against nature, Jean Renoir ‘a monstrosity’ and even Michelangelo Antonioni was to describe it as artistically void. On the other hand Federico Fellini was in favour.
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In the 1930s original versions of films were censored or self-censored in the sense that certain linguistic taboos prevented a realistic portrayal of people and events. This also applied to the linguistic register adopted. In British films, even in the 1950s and 60s, it was common to hear hardened criminals speak like Church of England vicars or with farcically false ‘Cockney’ accents – “Crikey chaps, it’s the law!” In Italian dubbed films the standard neutral Roman-Florentine speech that was imposed in 1930s productions remained until relatively recently. Strict grammar rules, decorous and understandable lexis and the avoidance of any vestige of dialect resulted in a false portrayal of reality. By the 1970s, however, things began to change when a new generation of ‘dialoghisti’ and dubbing actors introduced dialectal elements and non-standard speech for characters that required it. The success of the film The Godfather and its dubbed version marked a watershed in this respect. Indeed, the Italian film dubbing industry has now gained an excellent reputation. A counter-tendency began to emerge, however, in the 1980s with the rapid increase in television channels offering twenty-four hour coverage of largely American products (crime series, soap operas, comedies). The TV companies were suddenly required to instigate a massive and constant dubbing exercise at sustainable costs. The result of this phenomenon was a widespread deterioration of quality, due to the hiring of inexperienced dubbing staff and time constraints that worked against professional work standards. It also resulted in the coining of the term ‘doppiaggese’ (dubbese) to describe that form of film translation that appears to be a text-type unto itself. Easy translation solutions are used and reiterated even though they are words and expressions that are never used in real life Italian. The ubiquitous use of ‘già’ to translate ‘yes’, the use of the vocative ‘figliolo’/’son’, and the use of various forms of ‘fottere’ to cover the various forms of ‘fuck’, are common examples. These are also examples of the search for a term that provides lip synchronization, a key factor in good dubbing, but they have become a rather lazy option. So the current scene is a mixed bag. Film dubbing remains almost a gold standard, in many cases television dubbing has improved, but
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there are still mediocre versions on the air. But even with the introduction of subtitled versions of films, particularly on satellite TV channels and dvds, Italian movie distributors will continue, with the support of the dubbers’ association AIDAC, to dub foreign films and maintain the standard achieved over more than eighty years of best practice.
Dubbing in Britain While the other larger countries in Europe (Spain, Germany, Italy and to a certain extent France) were honing their audiovisual translation skills in dubbing, Britain and the other English-speaking nations sat back and let other countries translate English language products. The few films that were translated, usually serious arthouse movies by directors such as Fellini, Bunuel, Fassbinder, etc., were subtitled for English audiences. This continues to be the case even following the dvd revolution that has resulted in the production of multilingual versions of films. Nonetheless, forays into the world of dubbing into English are not completely unknown. For example a dubbed version of Vittorio de Sica’s classic Ladri di biciclette exists. This example of translation for dubbing (there is also a subtitled version) is not a good example of the practice, probably attributable to the lack of tradition in this sector. At the same time it must be noted that de Sica’s film, shot in Roman dialect, presents numerous difficulties of a diatopical nature. Two solutions were sought, first to attempt an imitation of the Italian accent and secondly not to translate at all. The use of ‘Italianese’ can be justified in some circumstances: one is reminded of Marlon Brando’s Godfather. But the generalized use of an Italian-type accent for all characters can lead to an unnecessary lack of comprehension and at times to a lack of credibility even bordering on the ridiculous. Maintaining the original Italian for names, places and cultural artefacts proved a more successful strategy adding some local colour to the production. For example the main character Antonio orders “du’ mozzarelle in carrozza e vino subito” in a restaurant. In the dubbed version he orders “two mozzarelle in carrozza and a full bottle”. However, when the ‘nontranslation’ option extends to allocutions, acknowledgements and exclamations, the artificiality is noticeable and the viewer is made constantly aware of watching a dubbed film.
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When translation is used, there is a general flattening or normalization of the language. This is common across all dubbed products but particularly evident in examples such as The Bicycle Thief. The effect of the use of dialect is largely lost in a film in which the sociolinguistic aspect, both in terms of geographical location and social class, was an essential ingredient. In this way the particular nature of a number of the characters is distorted. Resort to stereotypes of Italian life and people, from pasta and pizza to la Mamma, are common and again distort the picture that de Sica had created.
A case study Bbobbolone is the name of a short film produced in Italy by Cosmopoloop and dubbed into English by Gregory Snegoff, a professional dubbing director and actor living in Rome. This short film, together with another dubbed short Tutto Brilla formed part of an experiment conducted in Rome to see whether the idea of dubbing films into English could work (see Taylor forthcoming). For the purposes of this paper, it is interesting to compare the original Italian with the dubbed version and with a subtitled version of the same film. The film recounts the story of two woefully inadequate gangsters, one old, one younger, who attempt to rob a post office with the help of a brighter young man called Bbobbolone. The latter gets involved in a game of football with some boys in the square where the post office is situated, and misses the botched robbery (and subsequent arrest). However, while gloating over the fact that the other two have been arrested, he realises that while playing football, his gun slipped from his pocket. He returns to the square to find an old man, who had been hanging around the whole time, leaving the post office with the gun and the loot. This, in a nutshell, is the story. It is done in a thick southern accent (the place in question appears to be Sicilian), at times indecipherable, as will transpire in the translated text. The chart below gives the three versions of the dialogue.
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Dubbing into English
1
Character
Original Italian
Subtitled version
Dubbed version
2
Older gangster
Bbobbolone!
Bbobbolone!
Bbobbolone!
Bbobbolone!
Bbobbolone!
Bbobbolone!
3 4
Younger gangster
Buon giorno
Morning
What are you doin?
5
OG
Bbobbolone sei pronto?
You ready?
Ready ain’t ya?
6
Bbobbolone Sono pronto
Ready
Yeah, I’m on it
7
YG
E’ pronto
He’s ready
He’ll be there
8
OG
????????
You shit yourself?
You’re afraieeed?
9
B
Che ha detto?
What did he say?
What’d he say?
10
YG
Ti sei cagato sotto? You shittin yourself?
He’s shit scared
11
OG
????????
If this fucks up, I’ll kill you
??????? you arsehole
12
Bbobbolone Cosa?
What was that?
What’d he say?
13
YG
Non l’ho capito neanch’io
Didn’t get that myself
You got me, pal
14
B
Civedremo là
See you there
See you in the piazza
15
YG
Civedremo
See you round
We’ll be there
16
Old man
€500! Ma come faccio
€500! How am I going to get by?
How the hell can I make it on €500 for Christ’s sake
17
YG
----
----
Let’s finish it
18
YG
La scarpa! Con questo spazio!
My shoe! All this space and you spit on my shoe
Hey, that’s my shoe! All this fucking space and he’s gotta spit on my shoe
19
Small boy 1
Va in porta
Get back in goal, idiot
Get back to the goal
20
Small boy 2
Signore, mi può dare la palla, per favore?
Mister, can you give us the ball, please?
Hey mister, Could you give us back our ball, mister?
21
YG (on phone)
Bbobbolone, sei pronto?
Bbobbolone, are you ready?
Bbobbolone, are you ready for action?
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22
YG
E’ pronto
He’s ready
-------
23
OG
Dallo a me!
Give me the phone!
Gimme the phone!
24
YG
E’ pronto
I said he’s ready
He says he’s waiting and ready
25
(girl walks by) YG
????????
Shit, get a load of that
I’m ready for a little of that
26
OG (to old man)
????????
Fuck off, you prick
-----
27
Girl
????????
--------
Go stick it where the sun don’t shine
28
YG & OG
????????
You stroppy cow!
-------
29
Boys
Rigore!
Penalty!
Penalty!
30
Fat boy
Signore, Signore, Mister, can you be mi viene a parare il goalie for me? rigore?
Mister, could you come in goal for the penalty kick for me?
31
B
Sto lavorando
I’m busy
Who do you think you’re talking to here, kid? Beat it!
32
Fat boy
Solo un rigore. Sono troppo forti per me.
It’s only a penalty. They’re too good for me.
Just one. The other guys are too big and fast for me.
33
B
Cicciobello sparisci!
Get lost, Fatty!
Listen Fatso, get the hell out of here!
34
Fat boy
Cicciobello?
Fatty?
What did you call me?
35
B
Vattene!
---
I said, I’m through fuckin around
36
Fat boy
Stronzo, come mio Bastard, you’re just You’re an arsehole, padre! like my dad just like my Dad
37
Boy’s father
Tira! Tira!
Come over here to Come on, kick it to your dad, Aurelio me. Give me your best shot, Aurelio. Let’s go
38
Boy’s father
Vieni qui Cagasotto
Come here you little shit
That’s it. Come here you… bastard
39
Fat Boy
No, Papà
No Dad No
---
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Dubbing into English
40
Tutto a posto
Everything’s alright Yeah, yeah everything’s cool Fatty!
41
B
Cicciobello!
Hey Fatso, come here
42
B
Va bene, dai. Siste- Alright, get the ma la palla. bloody ball ready.
Alright get the ball. Let’s play it.
43
Boy
Che c’è?
What’s wrong?
What now?
44
B
Fin dove arriva la porta? Qua?
How high is the crossbar?
The friggin goal post goes where?
45
Boy
Dove hai la mano
Where your hand is
There or higher. It’s the one where your hand is.
46
B
Va buono
Okay then
Go for the ball
47
Younger gangster
Non l’hai chiamato You were the one tu? who called him
Remember you were the one who called him
48
Older gangster
---
It was me? I was the one?
Me?
49
Older gangster
Che?
What you saying?
I suppose you’re gonna tell me…
50
Older gangster
---
Piss off.
51
Younger gangster
---
---
I suppose you’re gonna come out with all that Bbobbolone crap again.
52
Older gangster
---
Leave it out.
Where the fuck is he?
53
Younger gangster
---
---
I dunno
54
Boy
Adesso arrivo
This time I’m taking it
I’m kicking it now.
55
Other boy
---
Let him do it
56
Boy
---
No
57
Older gangster
---
---
Get your hands off me!
58
Younger gangster
Bbobbolone?
---
Bbobbolone?
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59
Older gangster
Bbobbolone?
---
Bobobbolone?
60
Younger gangster
---
---
Where the fuck are ya?
61
Older gangster
---
---
If I ever get my hands on you, I’ll kill ya.
62
B
Ciao Cicciobello
Bye, Fatty
So long, kid.
63
Younger gangster
---
Bbobbolone. Where are you?
64
Old man
Molte grazie Bbbobbolone!
Thanks a lot Bbob- Bbobbolone. Thanbolone. Thanks a ks a million. million
Comment Differences between the subtitled and dubbed versions of this short film can be attributed to a number of reasons. Firstly, of course, the relative levels of skill and experience of the translators themselves must be taken into consideration. But, all other things being equal, subtitling is an engrained method of film translation in Englishspeaking countries and tradition and experience can be expected to play their part in the process. Dubbing, on the other hand, being practically unknown, is still trying to find its feet and this dubbed version may betray some uncertainty. The first thing to note is that the dubbed lines are often much longer than the subtitles (lines 16, 18, 30, 37, 45). This is not particularly surprising as among the first strategies outlined for subtitlers (cf. Gottlieb, 1991; Ivarsson, 1992) are those of condensation, decimation and elimination. These strategies refer respectively to saying the same thing in fewer words (line 44), leaving some parts out (line 39) and total omission (line 35). Dubbers need to pay more attention to synchrony and timing, in that the dubbed voices must fit the time of the original utterance and, especially in close-ups, should attempt to synchronise the lip movements. However, in this experimental case, the length of the lines is often exaggerated (lines 18, 37). In line 18 the timing of the word ‘space’ locks in with the original ‘spazio’
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but the rest of the line is not matched by any speaking on the part of the gangster. In line 37 both the subtitler, and particularly the dubber, take advantage of the lull in activity and dialogue to give more information than is carried in the original text. Line 16 is interesting in that the utterance grows in length as it passes from the original to the subtitled to the dubbed version, flouting many of the reduction strategies recommended for screen translation. An extreme case of this phenomenon of exceeding the original script can be seen in line 51 where the totally incomprehensible muffled background speech is left blank by the subtitler, while the dubber has invented something credible but not present in the original. This tactic is repeated in lines 53, 57, 60 and 61. One reason for this is that with subtitling the original soundtrack can be heard and, apart from the words in the dialogue, suprasegmental elements such as intonation and volume carry part of the meaning. This is clear in lines 58 and 59 where there is no need to subtitle the name ‘Bbobbolone’. The opposite phenomenon of subtitles appearing and nothing said in the dubbed version is also present (lines 22, 26, 28, 55/56). This is more difficult to explain. One can only speculate on certain individual translation choices. For instance in line 4, at the beginning of the film, the younger gangster’s ‘Buon giorno’ is subtitled almost literally with ‘(Good) Morning’. Dubber Snegoff’s gangster says ‘What are you doin?’ presumably in an attempt to capture the rather threatening air of the exchange. In the next line the older gangster asks ‘Bbobbolone sei pronto?’, subtitled as ‘You ready?’. The dubbed ‘Ready, ain’t ya?’ reveals Snegoff’s American slant, credibly shifting the southern Italian Mafioso to Chicago. This can be seen in many other lines (6, 11, 13, 18, 20, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36, etc.) with the use of expressions such as ‘I’m on it’ and ‘You got me, pal’ and terms such as ‘arsehole’, ‘mister’ and ‘guys’. The many muffled lines or lines made incomprehensible by the older gangster’s thick accent and speech impediment, are dealt with in different ways. In line 8 the subtitler gets the gist from the co-text and the body language, as does the dubber who also tries to ape the mangled words of the gangster. In line 11, the subtitler again gets the drift of the conversation while the dubber resorts only to an expletive.
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These few comments are not enough to make a reasoned judgement on how good or how effective the subtitling or dubbing are. Certainly there are grounds for some reservations as to the translation choices made, but no reception study has yet been carried out to find out what the end user might think. Bbobbolone will however feature in the 2015 audiovisual translation course at the University of Trieste where it will be subjected to a more rigorous analysis. On the other hand, the other short film produced and dubbed at the same time as Bbobbolone, namely Tutto brilla, has been subjected to a reception study (see Taylor, forthcoming). This product was shown to an audience of about ninety English-speaking film enthusiasts at the University of Southampton. In a nutshell Tutto brilla illustrates the empty lives of three middle-class, middle-aged women in northern Italy, who attempt to humiliate a vacuum cleaner salesman as he does his demonstration. The latter gets his revenge by getting them to try what they believe is cocaine. In fact it is only crushed aspirin but our man pretends to collapse after sniffing and the women suddenly become sympathetic towards him. He sells three vacuum cleaners. The viewers were asked to fill in a questionnaire to gauge their appreciation of this dubbed film in English. The following questions were asked with answers provided on a 5-point Lickert scale. • • • • • • • •
Did you like the film in itself? Did you find the film boring/captivating? Did you like the characters’ voices? Did you find the voices matched the characters? Do the characters seem realistic’? Following the film was easy/difficult? Would you have realised that the film was dubbed? What was the effect of the dubbing on your enjoyment (or otherwise) of the film? • In your opinion could the setting have been in England or America? • Which would you prefer, dubbing or subtitling, for a foreign film? • Did you think at times that the characters were actually speaking English?
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• Would you like to see other dubbed productions? • Do you think dubbing could take off in English-speaking countries? The overall picture to emerge from analyzing the views expressed for each question was not encouraging for those wishing to promote the idea of dubbing into English. Attitudes were not openly hostile but enthusiasm was certainly lacking. However, a major factor influencing the overall result was that the majority of the sample audience were middle aged or elderly, and it was they who almost totally showed a negative reaction. In fact, the minority of youngsters were much more inclined to accept dubbing and showed interest in seeing more dubbed products. All of these respondents were young females, some of them claimed ‘I loved it’ and others said they would prefer to see foreign films dubbed. And in answer to the question ‘Could dubbing take off in English-speaking countries?’ several said ‘Yes’, and one ‘Most definitely’. These fringe opinions should give a flicker of hope to the ‘dubbing into English’ lobby, as one is led to hypothesise what the reaction to the film might have been from a majority of young people. But this merely begs the fundamental question as to which audiences would more readily welcome dubbing. The net needs to be spread much wider to include much larger numbers of old people, young people, children, homeworkers, factory workers, etc. The experiment presented here is at least an attempt to get the ball rolling. Views on Bbobbolone remain to be heard. Certainly the following cliché has never been more relevant …. more research is required.
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References
Gottlieb, H. (1992) ‘Subtitling: A new university discipline’, in C Dollerup, et al. Teaching translation and interpreting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 161-70. Ivarsson, J. (1992) Subtitling for the Media. A Handbook of an Art. Stockholm: Transedit.
(2005) Tradurre per il doppiaggio. Milan: Hoepli. Taylor, C. (forthcoming) Dubbing into English, Proceedings of AIA conference (University of Parma), 2013. Filmography
Martinez, X. (2004) ‘Film Dubbing. Its process and translation’, in P. Orero (ed.) Topics in Audiovisual Translation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 3-7.
The Big House (Carcere), 1930. G.W. Hill.
Paolinelli, M. & Di Fortunato, E.
Tutto brilla, 2005. M. Cappelli.
Bbobbolone, 2002. D. Cascella.
The Godfather, 1972. F.F. Coppola.
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Gentle Obsessions
This volume is a collection of original essays written in dedication to John Morley, who founded the Centro Linguistico of the University of Siena at the end of the 1980s. The range of topics embraced, which include grammar, lexicology, semiotics, corpus-assisted discourse studies, stylistics, cross-language studies, and political, social and media linguistics, is a testament to the very wide variety of intellectual interests, curiosities and pursuits of its dedicatee.
Literature, Linguistics and Learning In Honour of John Morley
90
ISBN 978-88-7575-223-1
Euro 25,00
Gentle Obsessions Literature, Linguistics and Learning In Honour of John Morley edited by Alison Duguid, Anna Marchi, Alan Partington and Charlotte Taylor
