AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Although the field of translation is new and especially after it is

included in science, before it was treated as art subject but with the
passage of time and everyday revolutionary changes with development
in every field, translation is no exception. With globalization of the
world and rapid development in different modes of communication
there has been addition in translation strategies and methods.
Audiovisual translation is one of the most advance field of translation.
We are all aware of this field and have observed it in our daily life as we
all are found of shows, dramas, movies from other cultures and
countries. It is one of the most important branches for future
translators as well.
What is AVT: Also known as AVT as abbreviation audiovisual
translation is:
translation of verbal components of an audiovisual work from one
language to another.
In the revised addition of Munday he added a new chapter “New
Directions from New Media” of which the opening statement is,
Although they do not represent new theoretical model, the emergence
and proliferation of new technologies have transformed translation
practice and now are exerting impact on research and, as consequence,
on the theorization of translation.
It is also known as screen translation and film translation. Screen
translation includes all the translations products appearing on tv,
computer etc. such as documentaries, sports, dramas, websites, and
games. Whereas fil, translation is restricted to translation of full-length
films also known as movies shown in cinemas. Unlike the translation of
books, radios, or sign languages AVT focuses on angle of audio and
visual communication. As far as information channels are considered G.
Gotleib classified them into four, which are:
 Verbal audio channel: it includes dialogues, monologues, sounds
in the background and songs.
 Nonverbal audio channel: it includes sound effect like in slow
motion sound of breeze usually played to give a little sweet
intense effect, or howling of wind and rattling of leaves in jungle
for frightening effect, musical score etc.
 Verbal and visual channel: it includes subtitles, notes for
important information necessary to understand situation,
banners, headlines on newspaper, messages on computer screen
etc.
 Nonverbal visual channel: these are pictures that are shown on
screen, gestures, photography etc.
Equality of translation in audiovisual is not only translating the dialogue
from linguistic point of view but also there must be similarity between
all verbal and nonverbal elements between both original and translated
one. Germen scientist gave three level of equivalence in his theory of
synchronization:
 Level of text meaning
 Level of synchronicity
 Level of text function.
Level of text meaning: it represents the general and complete meaning
covering syntax, grammar, context and pragmatics. In it the meaning is
especially view from the cultural angle especially if the source language
words are related to some cultural aspects.
Level of synchronicity: it covers all the aspects from the synchronicity
of picture to dialogue to the lip-sing synchronicity of actor. If even one
of is not in synchronist it may destroy whole fun. Synchrony is not
limited to one field of audiovisual such as dubbing, there must be
synchronists between scene dialogue of actor and subtitle if not
sometime it is disastrous and sometime hilarious. examples are given
below
 Text function: it is concern that what the whole text or whole
translation has effect on the audience. It is of course addressee specific
component. If the audience of translated text show same reaction it
means they had same effect if not, then equivalence of text function is
not achieved.

There are different fields in audiovisual translation and many more are
expected in the future. Some are given below.
 Dubbing: also known as “lip-synchronicity” is one of the most
important mode in AVT. It not only requires proper translation but
timing, lip movement of original dialogue and same emotion as closely
 as possible. Not only this voice need to be selected carefully which can
go with the face of actor.it is one of the revoicing technique and involve
translator, voice actor, adaptors, dubbing director and sound engineer.
It has many advantages like we focus only on picture rather than
dividing the attention to reading subtitle, helpful in removing dialectal
problems, ensure the continuity of movie across the globe, is especially
helpful for language learners, movie or message needed to be transfer
wide range of audience. Shows like Dora the explore help children
learn new languages and be familiar with other cultures.
as far as cons are consider then it has very limited number. Main
problem in dubbing is lip-synchronicity, if lip movement of actor and
voice of dubbing actor does not match then it causes huge failure.
Other factor which I have observe is negative for dubbing is having a
perfect match of voice, may be the dubbed voice does not go along
with actor face. I have seen few movies in which one can really tell that
the movie is dubbed as voice was totally no match with face which of
course made me quite uncomfortable. Another major problem is
performance of dubbing actor. As work of dubbing actor is much more
difficult then visual actor, many times actors performs brilliantly but
dubbed voice is not able to transfer those emotion to that extend.
 Subtitles: these are the lines of that are being spoken by actor,
appearing on screen in translated text. It helps in learning the language
and is really effective as many migrants now a days learn their new
language by watching the shows in subtitles. Subtitles make a reading
very entertaining especially for children it is educational. In India
Kothari, pandori and chudgar designed a website where books with
same language subtitles and it was well received all around the world,
its aims was to promote the education in fun way by synchronization of
written text, audio and visual media. Same concept is used in about 18
languages. It has boosted the confidence of illiterate people, motivating
them for studies by making studies easy. It helps the people with less
listening potential to understand. It is one of very effective way for
entertainment for deaf children and people to experience
entertainment. Around the world many theatres provide the subtitle
either somewhere on stage in large size letters or on the back of seats,
this method is effective for both deaf people and one sitting away from
stage. Subtitles are as audience center so they may be bit tricky may be
character is saying something else but written one is different, only
after the complete dialogue we make sense and in-between it may
cause confusion for example following are dialogues from a Chinese
drama:
In above pictures in the first picture if we translate Chinese it is girl in
the middle of the night and in second it is just for Shang guang gong
zi( name of male lead) in third pic it is burning paper money. In these
picture there is inter language and intra language both translations, so
if we compare both subtitles they give different meaning but at the
completion of dialogue we understood that it is due to difference
structures and way of speaking. Other is in Chinese addressing a girl
with gu Naing(姑娘) which means girl is respectable in addressing but
 in English we you to address. These all show the conversions that a
translator has to make during subtitling.
As subtitling has so many advantages there are some disadvantages as
well. First of all, it is distraction. While reading the subtitles you can
hardly focus on the context and you might miss the thing which were
shown in context. Second there is limited no of words at a time for
subtitling which limit the transfer of message because the viewer needs
to have enough time to read message before going to next one.
There are three types of subtitles:
Language-based subtitles: these are divided into intralingual subtitles
for the deaf and hard of hearing, and interlingual subtitles – condensed
translations of what is being said on the audio.
Time-based subtitles: these are divided into live subtitles – used for live
events and the news – and pre-recorded subtitles, made after the
production stage, with more time for subtitles to work on them.
Set-up-based subtitles: these can be open – which means that they are
always on the screen – or closed – when the viewer can choose to see
them or not.
Surtitling: this indicates subtitles used in theatres, especially in operas.

 Voice Over: in it translated voice and original voice are being played
simultaneously but firstly the original voice is clear but gradually it is
lowered and translated voice takes over till the end but we can hear
both with translated voice dominating. Hearing two different sounds at
the same time may be little troublesome but it is not to that extend and
is comprisable.
 Free commentary: It is for new audience without any educational
purpose with omissions, clarification, additions and comments. There is
no translation of dialogues or sound and lip synchronization but
synchronization with images. It is used for promotional videos,
 advertisements, children programs and mostly in documentaries. For
example, natural documentaries about life of wild animal mostly use
free commentary.
 Narration: it is similar to that of free commentary in which we n
advance prepare, translate and condense then it is read. There is no
performance or emotions but plain reading. It may be live or recorded.
Its purpose is to provide faithful summary of original words.
 Live subtitling: also known as real-time subtitling, it is quiet difficult
form of translation done on the point, most of the time it is done on
live broadcasts., now a days we may see in no of news channels where
a person is translating anchor into sign language, it is example of live
subtitling. In it we have to reduce the time between speaker and
translator as much as possible. There is always chance of mistake in this
process which cannot be undo so it requires high level of translators to
perform this job.
 Audio description (AD): This program is especially for the people
who are unable to use their sense of sight. It explains the visual aspects
of movies, it does not interfere with dialogues as they can be heard by
person. The audio describer has to make to not provide the excessive
information but to maintain balance giving only necessary information.
These descriptions can be in both recorded form and live.
 Remake: in the remake a film in contextualize according the culture of
the audience, it focuses more on the culture aspects rather than
linguistic ones.