The T/V dilemma: Forms of address as a stylistic resource in English-Swedish subtitling

ABSTRACT

The present paper sets out to explore how forms of address are translated from English to Swedish in the specific context of subtitling. The language pair selected for the study presents a distinct translation dilemma as an explicit choice has to be made in Swedish between the familiar T pronoun (du) and the polite V pronoun (ni), whereas there is no longer a T/V distinction in pronominal address (you) in English. There are also differences at the sociocultural level as polite address (title and last name) is still in use in English, whereas familiar address (first name) is the contemporary norm in Swedish. The main focus of this study is the relation between forms of address, as manifestations of sociolinguistic code, and diegetic and extradiegetic function. Forms of address were consequently extracted from the empirical material and correlated with temporal, situational and interpersonal parameters. The results indicate that forms of address, as a stylistic device expressing sociolinguistic code, is closely intertwined with diegetic as well as extradiegetic functions. It is therefore suggested that the translation of forms of address can be seen, not only as a translation dilemma, but also as a powerful stylistic resource in subtitling.

KEYWORDS:

• Screen translation
• subtitling
• style
• forms of address

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the subtitling companies, who willingly agreed to supply material for the study, the informants (Peter Forssell, BTI; Ann Högman, SMT; Patrik Nilsson, SDI; and Anders Simonsson, SVT) for swiftly answering questions on subtitling practice and audience response, SVT for access to audiovisual files and last, but certainly not least, the subtitlers for agreeing to have their work released for research purposes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Bror Rexed, director of the Swedish Health Department, encouraged all staff at his department to adopt T address in 1967. He was not alone in switching to T address at this point in time, but the event has nevertheless been seen as a symbol for the start of the Swedish ‘du-reform’ (Nationalencyklopedin).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lova Meister

Lova Meister is a PhD student at the Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies at Stockholm University, where her main research interest is audiovisual translation. She holds a MA in History and Czech from Stockholm University, a European Master in conference interpreting and is a qualified literary translator. Her professional experience spans the fields of translation, subtitling and interpreting, as well as teaching at the Department of Slavic Languages and at the Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies at Stockholm University.