Assessing the quality of subtitles using FAR model: a case of the English subtitles of five Persian films

ABSTRACT

Subtitles, as the most common form of audiovisual translation, allow international viewers from all backgrounds to access, comprehend, enjoy, interpret, and remember audiovisual products. However, if not performed properly, they may occasionally restrict the viewer’s interpretive options, resulting in the loss of many literary or dramatic features of the original films. Focusing on the emotion words/expressions as a distinctive feature of drama, the current study evaluated the quality of the English subtitles of five top Persian drama films. Johnson-Laird [Johnson-Laird, Philip Nicholas, and Keith Oatley. 1989. “The Language of Emotions: An Analysis of a Semantic Field.” Cognition & Emotion 3 (2): 81–123. doi:10.1080/02699938908408075] list was used to identify the emotion words/expressions in the corpus. Pedersen’s [Pedersen, Jan. 2017. “The FAR Model: Assessing Quality in Interlingual Subtitling.” Journal of Specialised Translation 28: 210–229] FAR model was employed to evaluate the emotion words/expressions as used in the English subtitles. The results of the study showed that, although the films were subtitled for international film festivals, about four-fifth of subtitles were erroneous of a serious type. The findings reveal that a crucial aspect of maintaining the emotional burden of the genre of drama in translation, particularly subtitling, is conveying equivalently the emotion words/expressions. The findings will be of use not only to researchers and students but also to future audiovisual translators/subtitlers seeking further knowledge in the transfer of emotive language.

KEYWORDS:

• Audiovisual translation
• emotion words
• FAR model
• subtitle
• drama
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The nominee films are not necessarily released to the international public with the initial subtitles inserted for the evaluation process. The producers may like to insert more user-friendly subtitles to boost the international reception.

2 While equivalence errors are concerned with the loss of meaning, accuracy errors deal with structural correctness of subtitles.

3 Stylistic errors were not taken into account in this study because they were not as critical as the semantic errors, and caused nuisance rather than misunderstandings (e.g. erroneous terms of address, using the wrong register, or any other use of language that is out of tuning with the style of the ST).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saleh Sanatifar

Saleh Sanatifar has Ph.D. in Translation and Interpreting Studies. He is currently a freelance translator while academically he is a researcher, lecturer and thesis supervisor in translation. The author has taught several courses in translation at the tertiary level. He has published several papers in well-known journals and has presented many others at international conferences. His research mainly focuses on audiovisual translation, cross-cultural studies, and translation theory and practice.

Ziba Ghamsarian

Ziba Ghamsarian has an MA in Translation Studies. She is currently a translator and researcher. Her research currently focuses on audiovisual translation and the translation of emotion words and expressions. She can be reached at [email protected]