MAIN LINGUISTIC TRANSFER TECHNIQUES

-VOICE-OVER
Voice-over is one of the methods of language transfer. The few seconds of non-synchronization between
the original audio and the recorded translation, which are usually left before and after, give authenticity to
the voice-over.
Instead, a modality such as dubbing, in which the original speech tends to be camouflaged, is applied to
fiction.

-VOICE-OVER IN FILM TRANSLATION

Voice-over is a technique which consists in superimposing one or more voices on the original soundtrack.
The voice of a speaker is superimposed on the soundtrack who simply read the lines of the dialogue,
without trying to imitate or reproduce the timbre and expressiveness of the original voice.
Furthermore, a good combination of words and images is essential in the voice-over.

-NARRATION
Narration consists in subjecting a foreign text to a process of selection, reduction and adaptation of
linguistic materials.
So, narrative is the form of revoicing usually applied to fiction, while commentary is usually used in other
non-fiction genres.
Instead, the most important difference between narration and voice-over is linguistics, because the
narration is able to detach itself from the audiovisual source text.

-COMMENTARY
Commentary is a language transfer procedure free from translation constraints, as its main goal is to satisfy
the cultural demands of the audience to which it is addressed. It is particularly effective especially when
there is a lot of cultural distance between the country of origin of the audiovisual product and the one of
arrival. The language of the commentary is based on elements such as simplicity and fluency.

-AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION FOR VISUALLY-IMPAIRED AND HEARING-IMPAIRED

The key word of the third millennium in the audiovisual sector is “accessibility”. It is measured on some
parameters of evaluation of an audiovisual product.
-acceptability, so the greater or lesser adherence of the audiovisual text to the linguistic norm of reference;
-synchronicity, parameter used to evaluate the congruence between the lip movements of the actors and
the dialogues created;
-relevance, referring to the choice of which information to omit, add or leave unchanged.
Besides, accessibility also refers to minority audiences in numerical terms, that are the categories of
hearing and visually impaired people who want to use the new tools offered by multimedia technology;
therefore, to meet the needs of these viewers, audiovisual translation techniques have been created = such
as audiovisual description, interlingual subtitling and real-time subtitling.

-THE AUDIOVISUAL DESCRIPTION

Audiovisual description is a language transfer modality created for users with a visual impairment. His goal
is to describe what you see on the screen through a voiceover; so, the blind or partially sighted spectator is
able to integrate the sound information with other information.
The difficulty is the fact that you have to understand the right amount of missing information to transfer.

-INTRALINGUISTIC SUBTITLING FOR THE DEAF

The birth of subtitles is linked to the needs of the film industry.
In intralinguistic subtitling, the subtitles are made in the same language of the original film: therefore, a
total or partial transcription of the entire original soundtrack of the film is obtained.
This allows to intralinguistic subtitling to reach a target audience made up of people with hearing
impairments, so, in this way, they can access to television or film information.
An intralingual subtitle for the deaf is different from an intralinguistic subtitle for the normal hearing. The
first one is characterized by the simplification of the original dialogues and it is necessary to restore the
missing sound elements which are necessary for a correct interpretation of the film, for example "laughs",
"scream".

-REAL-TIME SUBTITLING
STENOTYPY
Real-time intralinguistic subtitling occurs during the broadcast of a program itself and is also known as
simultaneous subtitling.
This audiovisual translation method is characterized by very short production times, as it is based on the
collaboration between a subtitler and a technician who writes the subtitle that the viewer sees appear in
real time on the screen, on a device with a keyboard.
Despite this, stenotypy offers many possibilities for subtitling, allowing the deaf to access training and
information.

-THE RESPAKERAGE
Respeakerage is a branch of audiovisual translation which consists in the transformation of an oral text into
a written text; during the listening of a source text, a respeaker repeats, reformulates or translates this text,
dictating it to a speech recognition software.
The fields of application of subtitling in real time through respeakeraggio are so many, from the medical
sector to the legal one, for example.

-THE LINGUISTIC TRANSFER IN THE WORLD OF OPERA

NEW FORMS OF ACCESSIBILITY FOR A BLIND PUBLIC
Therefore, translating for visually impaired users means to use communication tools capable of reproducing
the visual codes of opera by stimulating other senses, such as touch and hearing.
The challenge for a translator is to facilitate a smooth transition, from the visual code to the auditory one,
trying to combine the visual elements that distinguish the opera - scenography, objects, lights, make-up,
hairdresser, facial expressions, to create at the same time a vivid description.

-NEW FORMS OF ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE HEARING AUDIENCE

It is necessary to ensure full accessibility of the opera also to a deaf audience by transmitting all the
information and emotions related to the acoustic elements of the opera, through an alternative channel,
the visual one.
So, sign interpretation is really used and therefore the "translation" of the opera into sign language is
entrusted to an interpreter.

-SUBTITLING AND LANGUAGE TEACHING

As we all know, multimodal tools allow teachers to diversify their programming and they allow students to
be exposed to both authentic materials and many foreign language communicative situations. Therefore,
audiovisual materials are privileged tools for developing intercultural competence among students.

-INTRALINGUISTIC SUBTITLING FOR LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Intralinguistic subtitles are a useful tool for teaching the vocabulary of a foreign language, being able to
facilitate the acquisition of new words and to facilitate their graphic recognition.
In addition, the memorization of foreign linguistic contents is also favored for both pronunciation and
writing.

-INTERLINGUISTIC SUBTITLING FOR LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE:

REVERSED SUBTITLING
A particular example of interlingual subtitling is the “reversed subtitling” which allows students to listen to
the original dialogues of the film dubbed in his native language, while the foreign language subtitles scroll
on the screen.
Furthermore, it has been shown that this technique facilitates the assimilation and memorization of the
foreign vocabulary.

-THE SURTITLING
"Surtitling" is a specialized branch of audiovisual translation and this technique consists in creating special
captions in order to facilitate the understanding of the libretto of operas. Furthermore, surtitles must
integrate perfectly with singing, acting and above all with music.

-THE FUNSUBBING
Funsubbing is a web phenomenon and it consists of an amateur translation of dialogues (unauthorized) and
then the synchronization of the subtitles takes place. It is usually done by translators who are passionate
about an opera, and their goal is to put this translation on the Internet for the benefit of other passionate
people who don’t know the language of the original one.

-THE LOCALIZATION OF VIDEO GAMES

The so-called Video Games Studies are an important research branch; in fact, video games have an
audiovisual and multimedia nature. They are able to create a multimodal and polysemiotic environment in
which the player need to interact with the system through various communication channels.
Furthermore, talking about the subtitling of video games, the scrolling of subtitles is very fast compared to
what happens in the cinema.