Journal of Pragmatics 217 (2023) 188e198

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Pragmatics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma

Article in translation

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Analysis of dubbed and

subtitled insults into European Spanish



Javier Avila-Cabrera
Jose

n a Distancia, Spain
Universidad Nacional de Educacio

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The treatment of insults eunderstood as words within offensive language whose function
Available online 19 October 2023

is hurting the addressee's feelings (Avila-Cabrera, 2016)e in audiovisual translation (AVT)
always poses a challenge to audiovisual translators: because of the semantic/pragmatic
Keywords: load these terms have in the source text (ST), the effect caused in the target text (TT) and
Subtitling culture, and because of the difficulty in transferring them in an idiomatic way. Certain
Dubbing
formulas do not always maintain the effect that some words have in the ST. In addition, the
Offensive language
translation techniques used may not even be faithful to the original dialogue exchanges.
Insults
Translation techniques
This paper aims to analyse all the insults uttered in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Tar-
Pragmatics antino, 2019), and in its dubbed and subtitled versions into European Spanish. In order to
Descriptive translation studies do so, I will pay particular attention to the speaker's intention (Grice, 1969), whether the
insults found in the ST can be viewed as examples of friendly banter or whether, by


contrast, the speaker's intention was offending. Avila-Cabrera's (2023) taxonomy of
translation techniques will be used to delve into the manner in which insults were
translated to the TT to determine whether or not the semantic/pragmatic load of these
terms is transferred (being toned up, maintained or toned down) or not (being neutralised
or omitted).
The point of departure of this case study resorts to the initial hypothesis that dubbing
transfers more insults into European Spanish than subtitling due to the technical features
of the former. The aims of the study are: to determine (1) how faithful the dubbed and
subtitled version insults were towards the ST, that is, whether or not the load of the insults
is transferred to the TT and to what degree; (2) which AVT mode transfers the greatest
number of insults to the TT; (3) if the insults transferred had the intention of offending or
not; and (4) if the insults tend to foreignisation or domestication. In order to do so, a
multidisciplinary methodology will be used based on a descriptive translation studies
(DTS) and pragmatics approach.
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

Research on swear words, vulgar, offensive and taboo language in audiovisual translation (AVT) is a field that had not
always received much attention in academia, but this trend seems to be changing due to the studies and publications in this
field in the last few decades (Azzaro, 2005, 2019; Greenall, 2011; Bucaria, 2017; Allan, 2019; Pavesi and Formentelli, 2019;


Avila-Cabrera,
n, 2020). As regards pragmatics, this field concerns how language is utilised in certain contexts as
2020; Valdeo

E-mail address: jjavilacabrera@flog.uned.es.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.019
0378-2166/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


J.J. Avila-Cabrera Journal of Pragmatics 217 (2023) 188e198

well as the way speakers create meaning in communicative acts (Guillot, 2017). Thus, the combination of pragmatics and AVT
research can shed light on the way fictional exchanges are presented on the screen and the information processed by viewers
(considering the acoustic and visual dimensions) of the audiovisual product (Chaume, 2012). This paper aims to explore the
treatment of insults in both dubbing and subtitling into European Spanish. By insults I mean words that “are generally
conceived as face-threatening acts that most times somehow endanger the addressee's face” (Bruti, 2009:7). For the purposes
of this case study, insults may appear in the form of a swear word or utterance, and also as a less explicit word/expression, as


is the case with invectives (Avila-Cabrera, 2023), which are words that are not insulting when used literally, such as ‘clever’,
but that can be used as an insult depending on the context. The term insult will therefore encompass both of these
subcategories.
This paper intends to show the main differences in the treatment of insults into European Spanish in the dubbed and
subtitled versions, as a multidisciplinary case study based on Descriptive translation studies (DTS) and pragmatics. It has been
organised in the following sections: theoretical framework on pragmatic considerations of swearing and its translation
(Section 2), audiovisual translation (Section 3), methodology (Section 4), results and data analysis (Section 5), and concluding
discussion (Section 6).

2. Pragmatic considerations of swearing and its translation

This section will describe insults as a subcategory within offensive language, along with a taxonomy of translation
techniques used to describe the way in which the insults were both dubbed and subtitled into European Spanish.

2.1. Offensive words

Offensive language has the function of insulting, offending or simply making use of swear words and phrases with


different functions that need to be considered (Avila-Cabrera, 2016, 2023). When the speaker wants to cause offence to the
addressee openly, the word used can appear in the form of an insult, but also of an invective, that is, a subtler formula that at
first sight does not reveal its implicit intensity. However, it must be mentioned that the function of insults can have a positive
effect when they function as discourse markers of solidarity (Culpeper et al., 2017). For example, an insult can have the
function of offending or showing friendly banter as further discussed in this paper. For this reason, beyond the linguistic
component, the sociopragmatic and context of the insult are of great importance to understand the speaker's intention.
McEnery's (2006:30) categorisation of the degree of offence that these words can cause is of great interest. The author
distinguishes the hierarchy of bad language in the following terms: “very mild (crap…)”, “mild (arse…)”, “moderate
(bastard…)”, “strong (fuck…)”, and “very strong (cunt…)”. However, in this paper, insults (as a remark addressed to someone
with the aim of offending) are the object of study, for which reason I am focusing on this exclusive subcategory of offensive
terms, and the degree of insults is not literally considered as it is beyond the scope of the study. The focus will be exclusively
on both the transfer of insults and on whether their function is offending or are just being used as friendly banter.

2.2. Translation techniques

I have resorted to Molina and Hurtado Albir's (2002) proposal of techniques. According to these authors, the way the
translation solution has materialised in the TT is what is known as a translation technique. In the research analysis conducted


here and based on DTS, I have made use of the translation techniques elaborated by Avila-Cabrera (2023:78), which are
shown in Table 1, in order to observe to what extent the semantic/pragmatic load of the insult was transferred or not to the
dubbed and subtitled TT.

Table 1


Translation techniques (Avila-Cabrera, 2023:78).

Translation techniques

Transfer
Load toned up

Load maintained

Load toned down
Non-transfer
Load neutralised

Load omitted

Table 1 shows the two main categories which define the way the semantic/pragmatic load of the ST, in this case insults, is
transferred to the TT:

1) When the load of the ST is visible in the TT, the transfer has taken place. This, in turn, can be further categorised thus:
- If the load in the TT has been strengthened, it can be stated that it has been “toned up”. Dysphemisms (Allan and
Burridge, 2006; Díaz Pe
rez, 2012) are cases that fit in with this technique as they appear in the form of a more
intense term.

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- If the semantic load in the TT is balanced with regard to the ST, it means that it has been “maintained”. Even though it is
not always possible to find a direct equivalent, likely semantic loads can be achieved in both the ST and TT.
- If the semantic load has been softened because of linguistic or spatio-temporal reasons of the AVT mode, the load has
been “toned down”. For example, in subtitling, subtitles have to appear on the screen for 1 or 6 s, so that the human eye
can see images and read and understand subtitles at the same time. Euphemisms (Allan and Burridge, 2006; Díaz Pe
rez,
2012) can sometimes be cases treated with this technique considering that there can be some effort made by the
translator to render the load of the original.
2) By contrast, on other occasions the semantic/pragmatic load of the ST is not transferred to the TT, which can be further
divided into two categories:
- If the word or utterance chosen does not contain any offensive load as the original does because the solution chosen
eliminates its intensity completely, in which case the load is “neutralised”.
- If the ST load is not maintained in the TT, it is “omitted”.

The aforementioned translation techniques are the tools used for the analysis of insults dubbed and subtitled into Spanish.
In this manner, the treatment of insults can be first described and then quantified for the purposes of this case study (see
section 4.3, RQ1, RQ2, RQ3, and RQ4).

2.3. Pragmatic considerations

The important pragmatic aspect of interest here is the fact that the viewer needs to decode the speaker's intention when
uttering certain words. When speakers communicate, they aim to exchange information and in order to achieve successful
communication, participants need to cooperate so that understanding can take place.
The distinction between the implicit and explicit in messages uttered by speakers during communication is discussed by
Blakemore (2014). As put by this author, these two concepts coexist. This idea goes in line with Grice's (1967) distinction
between what is said by speakers and what is implied by them. Therefore, in the translation context and when dealing with
insults, categorised by Hickey (2014) as informal language, the audiovisual translator needs to consider the implicit sense of
the utterance to be able to transmit what the character actually aims to communicate through his/her utterances.
In order to understand the context of offensive utterances, it must be said that they fall under the umbrella of impoliteness,
defined by Culpeper (2010:3233) as “a negative attitude towards specific behaviours occurring in specific contexts. It is
sustained by expectations, desires and/or beliefs about social organisation, including, in particular, how one person's or
group's identities are mediated by others in interaction. […] Various factors can exacerbate how offensive an impolite
behaviour is taken to be, including for example whether one understands a behaviour to be strongly intentional or not.”
Accordingly, when an insult uttered by a speaker does not have the function of insulting, the speaker is therefore not being
cooperative based on Grice's (1975) maxims. I have used this concept to further one of the goals of this study (see section 4.3,
RQ3), which refers to those cases in which the character on the screen utters an insult whose function is far from vilifying but
is simply being used as friendly chat or banter. Here we are dealing with cases in which characters decide to violate the maxim
of quality considering that this accounts for contributions that are true. In this case, the character uses the insult as an
emphatic element in his/her discourse to show friendly banter, instead of intending to actually insult the addressee. Thus,
following Culpeper, it is important that the addressee fully understands the speaker's intention in order to decipher whether
or not he/she is being insulted.

3. Audiovisual translation

AVT encompasses diverse disciplines, which makes audiovisual translators' work within a multidisciplinary and multi-
modal field in which they need to have a good command of both the languages and cultures involved. This section discusses
some studies which have considered the pragmatics of offensive and taboo language in AVT.

3.1. Pragmatic approaches in AVT

Guillot (2010, 2016) has extensively published in the field of AVT, cross-cultural representation and pragmatics. Guillot
(2020) analyses interlingual subtitling from a cross-cultural pragmatic approach highlighting the multiple ways in which
subtitling can take place for creating alternatives for representation, generating signifiers and input within a multisemiotic
domain. Drawing on pragmatics and semiotics, Sidiropoulou (2012) has developed an approach to stage and screen trans-
lation. In her work, Sidiropoulou examines how diverse English literary phenomena have been adapted for the Greek stage
and screen. She also explores aspects of animation films for the young considering the dubbing and subtitling industries, as
well as the similarities of the translation of classics and their cinematic versions. Guillot and Pavesi (2019:497) discuss the
existing relationship between AVT, in the form of subtitling and dubbing, pragmatics, cross-cultural pragmatics, and film
studies. They describe two main approaches, which look into “communicative practices cross-culturally” (such as pragmatics,
sociopragmatics, speech acts like swearing and insults), and incidental research dealing with “translation issues and stra-
tegies” present in AVT (such as culture, humour, language variation, etc.). Locher and Sidiropoulou (2021) highlight the

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potential of combining the disciplines of translation studies and pragmatics to understand the transfer of languages among
cultures. This multidisciplinary interaction can open insightful avenues from theoretical, methodological and human
communication via translation approaches.

3.2. Offensive and taboo language in audiovisual translation

Swear words and phrases, taboo words and insults can be difficult for audiovisual translators to deal with because of the
effect these may have on the audience. Also, depending on the target viewers, these words or utterances from the source text
(ST) tend to be toned down in the target text (TT) as is the case with Latin America, where Spanish versions do not usually
include offensive or taboo terms, but instead use euphemistic ones (Fuentes-Luque, 2015, 2020).

3.2.1. The case of dubbing and subtitling

Filmer (2012) explores the racist slurs in Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008) subtitled and dubbed into Italian. Her
conclusion states that racist insults are disposed of with little variety in the TT in both AVT modes, and this leads to the
substitution of racist insults for homophobic ones in a way of domesticating the TT. In some occasions neutral terms are used
to translate racist slurs. Pavesi and Formentelli (2019) study insults in films in English and Italian, and in English films dubbed
into Italian. They state that while films made in Italian exhibit more frequency of insults, films made in English are char-
acterised by a wider variety of forms and mock impoliteness. As regards dubbed films into Italian, they stay more in between
the ST and TT, that is, some patterns from the source language (SL) are kept, while lexical and grammatical features of the
target language (TL) prevail. The results of their study illustrate that dubbing works as a cross-cultural mediation instrument
that can enrich the target audience's experience with the audiovisual product. Cavaliere's (2019) study examines Neapolitan
dialect items and swearing of both Italian TV series (Roberto Saviano et al., 2014e2021) and the film Gomorra (Matteo
Garrone, 2008) subtitled into American English. The author highlights the difficulties of translating Neapolitan dialect words
into English, which in many cases are domesticated or become opaque.
Soler Pardo (2015) analyses the translation of swear words and insults in some of the most popular films directed by
Quentin Tarantino. The treatment of the word “nigger” in translation for dubbing and subtitling into Spanish of Django
Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) was discussed by Martínez Sierra (2017). The author triangulates quantitative data with
a thorough analysis of the translation of “nigger” in these two AVT modes, along with an interview with Quico Rovira-Veleta,
the translator who worked on the dubbed version into Spanish. The conclusions are that negro [black man] was the word used
for subtitling, while for dubbing some others such as mono [monkey], gorilla [gorilla], and mandingo [a black African from the
coast of Mali, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast] were used. Martínez Sierra invites the reader to reflect on the fact that certain
words in translation may lead to self-censorship or the toning down of the strong word when influenced by ideology.
With regard to multidisciplinary studies on taboo issues, AVT and fansubbing (subtitles produced by fans or amateur
subtitles), Beseghi (2016) analyses the translation from American English into Italian of Girls (Lena Dunham, 2012e2017) and
Orange is the New Black (OITNB; Jenji Kohan, 2013e2019), both its professional Italian dubbed version and its Italian fansubs.
She concludes that in the case of dubbing, Italian audiences are exposed to toned down insults and tabooed translations.
While the dubbing of Girls omitted insults or strong terms and opted for softer utterances, the strong language and swear-
words in the ST of OITNB were translated more closely. By contrast, the fansubbing of both series exhibited more uncensored
words.
Little has been researched on swearing and audiences' reception in AVT. Pavesi and Zamora (2021) study the way Italian
and Spanish university participants react to swearing and insults in domestic and dubbed films into their languages. The
results bring to the fore that both groups are highly broad-minded with swearing. Spanish participants are more welcoming
to insults on the screen with home products, while their view when dealing with dubbed clips is more censoring.

4. Methodology

In order to conduct this study, I will use a DTS approach (Toury, 2012), that is, I will look into the way in which the
translations for dubbing and subtitling were done in terms of closeness to the original. Secondly, from a pragmatic point of
view, I will delve into the fictional characters' (Grice, 1969) intention. In this sense, it could be stated that the language under
analysis is not authentic and the focus is based on the written script and the way in which the characters interact on screen in
order to analyse the function of their exchanges. In the case of the audiovisual programme, the unidirectional communication
act takes place from what is shown via the audio and visual channel and its semiotic meaning (Chaume, 2004) and the
addressee, in this case, the viewers. Thus, considering that the audiovisual text has very specific features, for instance the lack
of hesitations and false starts, that differentiate it from authentic conversations, the function of the insults found will be
analysed taking into account that they might be used to offend the addressee or simply as friendly banter. In order to do so, I
focused not only on the insults in the form of oral utterances, but also on the way the characters interacted on the screen to
elucidate whether their exchanges had the function of insulting the addressee or of being used as friendly banter or chat.
This section presents the manner in which the experimental study was conducted. The corpus is presented along with the
initial hypothesis and the research questions, which define the research design of this study.

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4.1. The corpus

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is well known for presenting controversial stories in which violence, gore and swearing are
paramount ingredients in his scripts. The corpus used for this paper is his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), a story
set in 1969 Los Angeles, in which Hollywood industry's golden age was coming to an end. Both the translations for dubbing
and subtitling were carried out by professional translator María Jose
Aguirre de Ca
rcer.1 After viewing the film, broadcast by
Netflix Espan ~ a [Spain], in its original version in American English, all the insults in the ST were collected. Then, they were
compared with both their dubbed and subtitled official versions in Spanish for the audience in Spain to determine their mode
of transfer to the TT.

4.2. Initial hypothesis

In order to conduct this multidisciplinary study, I have followed the DTS paradigm (Toury, 2012) for the description of the
translation techniques. My initial hypothesis is that a greater number of insults are transferred into the dubbed version than
into the subtitled one, considering the technical restrictions of the latter. This initial hypothesis will be corroborated or
refuted after considering the research questions presented in the following section.

4.3. Research questions

Four research questions establish the core of this experimental study, whose goals are presented as follows:

RQ1. How faithful are the insults in the dubbed and subtitled versions in regards to the ST? To what degree?

The analysis focuses on the way insults were dubbed and subtitled into their corresponding TT in Spanish, that is, if the
load of the insults found is transferred or not to the TT. In addition, the different degrees of the transfer or non-transfer of


insults is explored in accordance with the translation techniques established by Avila-Cabrera (2023): if the load was toned
up, maintained or toned down; or by contrast, in the non-transfer cases, if the load was neutralised or omitted.

RQ2. Which AVT mode transferred more insults to the TT?

The quantitative data obtained in the transfer of both AVT modes will be compared to answer this question, that is, the
dubbed and subtitled insults in the TT in Spanish. To this end, the translation techniques used for RS1 will be employed here
as well as the percentage of insults transferred in each of the AVT modes. I will analyse them independently in the first place
and compare them in the second place. The initial hypothesis will be addressed here once the results are found.

RQ3. Were the insults transferred with the intention of offending or as friendly banter?

Following Grice's (1969) postulates on the speaker's intention, the insults found will respond to two possible objectives:
offending the addressee or just being used as friendly banter, therefore flouting the maxim of quality. As an AVT study, both
the audio and visual channels are sources of information needed to decipher whether the character(s) had the intention of
insulting the addressee, or to corroborate if the insults are simply cases of friendly banter.

RQ4. Does the translation of insults tend to foreignisation or domestication?

Venuti (2017) argues that when in the TT the norms of the ST prevail, we can talk of foreignisation, while if the norms of
the TT are present in the final result, domestication takes place. I will evaluate whether the insults in the TT tend to one or the
other pole by focusing on the analysis of all the insults.

5. Results and data analysis

The number of insults found in the script of the film were 59. It must be mentioned that although the offensive exchanges
which include expressions such as “fuck you”, “fuck off!” and its derivatives could be considered insulting, they were excluded
as the focus was on words or utterances whose function was to insult addressees.

1
Information obtained from: https://www.eldoblaje.com/datos/FichaPelicula.asp?id¼56074.

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5.1. Results

This section presents the results obtained after scrutinising the insults in the film. The analysis is organised in accordance
with the AVT modes that were analysed.

5.1.1. Dubbing
The data obtained after the analysis of the insults dubbed into Spanish are shown in Table 2.

Table 2
Cases of (non-)transfer of insults in the dubbed version into Spanish.

Dubbing Instances Percentage

Transferred 54 91.54%
Non-transferred 5 8.46%
Instances 59 100%

The percentage of transferred cases reaches slightly more than 90%, with a percentage lower than 10% of non-transfer
cases. Thus, the number of insults in this AVT mode were very close to the TT. In order to have more specific details, Table
3 develops the degrees related with the transfer and non-transfer of insults.

Table 3
Degrees of (non-)transfer of insults in the dubbed version into Spanish.

Dubbing

Transfer 54 91.54%

Toned up 4 6.77%
Maintained 39 66.13%
Toned down 11 18.64%
Non-transfer 5 8.46%

Neutralised 1 1.69%
Omitted 4 6.77%

As far as the transfer cases are concerned, the insults that were maintained prevail in 66.13% of the cases (see examples 2
and 4), followed by those toned down in 18.64% of the cases (see examples 1, 3, and 5) and, finally, 6.77% were toned up. As for
the non-transfer cases, omission has been the most recurrent technique with 6.77%, followed by neutralisation with 1.69%. It
can therefore be pinpointed that dubbing has transferred insults in this study very closely to the ST.
Focusing on the speaker's intention, Table 4 shows the results found.

Table 4
Speaker's intention in the dubbed version into Spanish.

Dubbing Intention Percentage

Insulting 51 86.45%
Friendly banter 3 5.08%
Non-transfer 5 8.47%
Instances 59 100%

Out of the 59 insults found in the original version, 86.45% of them in the TT had the intention of insulting the other
speakers or addressee (see examples 1, 2, 4 and 5), while only 5.08% were cases in which the speaker was making use of
friendly banter (see example 3). In addition, the cases of non-transfer account for 8.47%, in which the speakers' intention was
not visible in the TT. Thus, the speaker's intention was insulting the addressee, but this is a fact conditioned by the script. In
addition, we can still highlight faithfulness to the ST in a different way as out of four friendly-banter cases found in this
original script, three were transferred via friendly-banter exchanges in the dubbed version.

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5.1.2. Subtitling
The analysis of the insults transferred to the TT in the form of Spanish subtitles is presented in Table 5.

Table 5
Cases of (non-)transfer of insults in the subtitled version into Spanish.

Subtitling Instances Percentage

Transferred 53 89.83%
Non-transferred 6 10.17%
Instances 59 100%

The transferred cases prevail over the non-transfer cases, as proven quantitatively, with a percentage close to 90%.
However, a slightly higher than 10% percentage has accounted for non-transfer cases. The different degrees of the translation
techniques employed in the subtitling of insults into Spanish can be observed in Table 6.

Table 6
Degrees of (non-)transfer of insults in the subtitled version into Spanish.

Subtitling

Transfer 53 89.83%

Toned up 5 8.47%
Maintained 36 61.03%
Toned down 12 20.33%
Non-transfer 6 10.17%

Neutralised 1 1.69%
Omitted 5 8.47%

With regard to the transferred cases, it can be observed that the predominant technique is maintaining the load of the
insults with 61.03% (see examples 1e2 and 4e5), followed by toned down cases, and then toned up cases. This scale of
recurrence can be said to be similar to the case of dubbing, which also shows similarity with non-transfer cases, as 8.47% of
omitted cases and 1.69% of neutralised cases were found.
The speaker's intention results are presented in Table 7.

Table 7
Speaker's intention in the subtitled version into Spanish.

Subtitling Intention Percentage

Insulting 49 83.10%
Friendly banter 4 6.80%
Non-transfer 6 10.1%
Instances 59 100%

As can be seen in Table 7, 83.1% of all insults were subtitled with the aim of showing the intention of insulting (see ex-
amples 1, 2 and 4), while only 6.8% of cases indicated friendly banter (see examples 3 and 5). In 10.1% of cases, the insults were
not transferred to the TT. As is the case with dubbing, the quantitative data show that the tendency has been showing the
speaker's intention of insulting in subtitling. In very similar terms, the four cases of friendly-banter found in the original were
all faithfully transferred to the ST, that is, both the script and the subtitled version showed the same speaker's intention.

5.2. Analysis of examples

In this subsection, I have selected a number of examples to show the rendering of insults in the film dubbed and subtitled
into Spanish. The examples below include the ST along with the dubbed and subtitled versions, and every insult appears in
bold type. The Spanish versions are followed by a back translation (a pragmatic equivalent which does not always sound
idiomatic). In addition, a label shows the speaker's intention in an attempt to describe how it impacted the translation
technique used, shown along with its load (toned up, maintained, and toned down).

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Example 1

ST: Dubbed version:

-Oh, come get them, fucker. Come. Ven a por ellas, cabrito.
[Come for them, contemptible guy/little goat.]
Subtitled version:

n.
Ven a por ellas, cabro
[Come for them, fucker/cuckold.]
Dubbed version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (toned down)
Subtitled version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)

In example 1, the speaker employs the insult “fucker” to insult the addressee. In the dubbed version it is translated by a
milder term, cabrito [contemptible guy/little goat], a euphemism of the Spanish term cabro
n [fucker/cuckold]. Therefore, the
pragmatic load has been toned down. In the subtitled version, a stronger term, cabro
n, was used, and its pragmatic load
maintained. Thus, both the dubbed and subtitled versions reproduce the original speaker's intention.

Example 2

ST: Dubbed version:

and, man, she's a fucking bitch. y, tío, es una cabrona de la leche.
I just don't. -Please, I… [and, man, she's a bloody bitch.]
Subtitled version:
y es una cabrona de la hostia.
No me... por favor.
[and she's a fucking bitch.
Do not… please.]
Dubbed version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)
Subtitled version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)

The utterance “fucking bitch” of the ST has retained its function in both the dubbed and subtitled versions. It has been
dubbed as cabrona de la leche [bloody bitch], where the euphemism de la leche [of the milk] is used, and, therefore, the ut-
terance loses some of its offensive load. The utterance used for subtitling also uses the term cabrona [bitch], but adds de la
hostia, which sounds stronger than the former, especially to believers because its translation concerns “the communion
wafer” in Spanish. This is the reason why it can be stated that the transfer has been made and the load has been
maintained.

Example 3

ST: Dubbed version:

He's a goddamn war hero. Fuck! Es un pun ~ etero he
roe de guerra. Mierda.
[He's an irritating war hero. Shit.]
Subtitled version:
Es un puto he
roe de guerra, joder.
[He's a fucking war hero, fuck.]
Dubbed version. Intention: friendly banter/Translation technique: Transfer (toned down)
Subtitled version. Intention: friendly banter/Translation technique: Transfer (toned up)

The adjective “goddamn” can be categorised as an insult as it is used as a mild intensifier to modify the noun “war hero”.
The speaker's intention in the original utterance is that of friendly banter because, far from insulting the addressee, it is
praising the addressee as the visual channel shows. It has been dubbed via a euphemistic term in the dubbed version as
~ etero [irritating]. The transfer has therefore been made via the toning down of the term. By contrast, in the subtitled
pun
version, the term has been transferred with the term puto [fucking], toning up its effect in the TT.

Example 4

ST: Dubbed version:

You're sitting like a fucking baboon! Como si fueras un puto oranguta
n.
[As if you were a fucking orangutan.]
Subtitled version:
Ahí sentado como un puto mono.
[Sitting there like a fucking monkey.]
Dubbed version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)
Subtitled version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)

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In example 4, actor Rick Dalton is talking to himself in anger because he has forgotten some lines while he was acting
during a film shooting. He starts criticising and insulting himself for having consumed a large amount of alcohol the previous
night. As revealed by the audio and visual channels, the intention of insulting is also visible in the translations for dubbing and
subtitling. The utterance used in the ST is “fucking baboon” which is dubbed as puto oranguta
n [fucking orangutan] and
subtitled as puto mono [fucking monkey]. Both translation techniques transfer the load, which has been maintained. In the
case of the subtitled version, mono [monkey] has been probably used to use fewer characters in the subtitle, while oranguta
n
[orangutan] may have been employed in dubbing because of the duration of the words used in the script and the character's
lip-sync; this is a challenge present in dubbing which forces dubbing translators to choose terms that fit in with the char-
acter's lip movements when visible.

Example 5

ST: Dubbed version:

Wait a minute. That was fucking Jake Cahill that just yelled at me? Un momento. ¿El idiota era Jake Cahill,
el que me ha gritado?
[One moment. Was the idiot Jake Cahill,
the one who has yelled at me?]
Subtitled version:
Un memento. ¿Era el puto Jake Cahill
el que me ha gritado?
[One moment. Was fucking Jake Cahill,
the one who has yelled at me?]
Dubbed version. Intention: insulting/Translation technique: Transfer (toned down)
Subtitled version. Intention: friendly banter/Translation technique: Transfer (maintained)

Example 5 concerns a scene in which a group of young hippies are in a car by Rick Dalton's house. One of the girls refers to
him as “Jake Cahill”, a famous character in the fictional series Bounty Law, played by himself. The term “fucking” in the original
is used praising the addressee. As for its dubbed version, it has been treated with the aim of insulting, so it has been toned
down with its translation as idiota [idiot]. However, in the case of the subtitled version, it has been treated as friendly banter. It
has been faithfully transferred as puto [fucking], the load is therefore maintained. This is the only case of the corpus in which
an insult used as friendly banter in the ST is not transferred with the same intention in the different AVT modes, so the maxim
of quality is flouted in the case of the dubbed version.

6. Concluding discussion

The results obtained from the analysis have revealed different data that can address the research questions elaborated for
the research design core and that are discussed as follows.

RQ1. How faithful are the insults in the dubbed and subtitled version in regards to the ST? To what degree?

In the case of dubbing, it has been observed that out of the 59 insults found, 54 were transferred to the TT, accounting for
91.54%, while only 5 insults were not transferred, representing 8.46%. It can therefore be pinpointed that the dubbing of
insults into Spanish was notably faithful to the ST.
As for subtitling, out of the 59 insults found, 53 were transferred to the TT, which represents 89.83%, while 6 insults were
not transferred, accounting for 10.17%. Some similarity with respect to the degree found in the dubbing of insults is observed
here. It can therefore be asserted that the subtitling of insults has been notably faithful to the ST.

RQ2. Which AVT mode transferred more insults to the TT?

To answer this question, the focus is on the data discussed in RQ1. The AVT mode that has transferred more insults to the TT
has been dubbing with 91.54%. It must be taken into account that this is a case study and has a very low difference (1.71%),
which reinforces the discussion in RQ1 that confirms that both AVT modes were notably faithful to the ST.
Thus, this has quantitatively confirmed the initial hypothesis that dubbing transfers more insults than subtitling. However,
the difference is not significant enough so as to draw a generalisation from it. While it is true that condensation in subtitling is
a necessary and common practice, the analysis carried out in this study has revealed a minimal difference. Thus, insults in
both dubbing and subtitling have been very similarly transferred to the TT in quantitate terms.

RQ3. Were the insults transferred with the intention of offending or as friendly banter?

The speaker's intention in the case of dubbing has been that of insulting in 86.45% and making use of friendly banter in
5.08%. In the case of subtitling, this intention has been that of insulting in 83.10% and friendly banter also in 6.80%. Grice's

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J.J. Avila-Cabrera Journal of Pragmatics 217 (2023) 188e198

(1969) maxim of quality has been flouted in the friendly banter cases of both dubbing and subtitling. The results obtained in
both AVT modes are quite similar, but it is of note that in dubbing and subtitling every case in which the speaker's intention
was that of insulting, this was shown equally in the TT. In subtitling, the cases of friendly banter found in the ST materialised in
the TT; while in dubbing, three of the four cases were dubbed maintaining the friendly banter. It can be sustained that the
translation of insults in both dubbing and subtitling whose function was friendly banter has been almost fully transferred.
This fact goes in line with the translator's predominant faithfulness to transfer the insults with the aim of offending in both
modes as revealed by the quantitative data.

RQ4. Does the translation of insults tend to foreignisation or domestication?

The data analysis has revealed that in dubbing, domestication is present in 74.6% of the cases, and in 69.5% in subtitling.
These percentages show that the insults have been mainly translated by using a domesticated effect, which makes the text


more familiar and more natural to the target audience by using idiomatic formulas (Avila-Cabrera, 2023).
This multidisciplinary case study has brought to the fore the translation of insults from American English into European


Spanish, drawing on my taxonomy of translation techniques (Avila-Cabrera, 2023), and on Grice's (1969) discussion of the
speaker's intention. This has helped to evaluate whether or not insults were used to offend the addressee or as friendly banter.
The initial hypothesis has been supported, and even though the dubbed version has transferred more insults (91.54%), the
subtitled version comes close (89.83%). An interesting observation is that in both AVT modes, the trend has been to use
domesticated formulas in the TT. In addition, as the corpus has been a fictional filmic text, it can be argued that the audiovisual
translator has attempted to preserve the speaker's intention, which could be inferred from the information provided by the
audio and visual channels. The insults used as friendly banter have flouted Grice's maxim of quality, considering that their
implicit intention was not offending. These cases account for 5.08% in dubbing and 6.80% in subtitling. Thus, the viewers'
source of information to understand the function of insults will depend on the information shown on the screen to be able to
understand it. To summarise, it can be highlighted that the meaning of insults can become semantically empty and prag-
matically loaded in accordance with the speaker's intention.
The limitation of this paper lies in the analysis of insults, excluding other offensive and taboo words that characterise
Tarantino's films, as well as in the fact that the corpus composed of just one film. Extending the scope of this study to a greater
number of categories (see section 2.1) could shed more light on translation phenomena of offensive and taboo terms that
might be in line with Valdeo
n (2020) vulgarisation hypothesis. Another limitation is that both the dubbed and subtitled
versions were translated by the same professional, then the translations could have depended more on the AVT mode because
of its technical constraints. Further research on the dubbing and subtitling of the same film or TV series translated by different
professionals can provide different results.

Declaration of competing interest

None.

Data availability

The data that has been used is confidential.

Acknowledgments

n for his insightful comments as well as the two anonymous reviewers.

I would like to thank Roberto A. Valdeo

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Filmography

Django Unchained, 2012. Quentin Tarantino. The Weinstein Company & Columbia Pictures, USA.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 2019. Quentin Tarantino. Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica, USA, UK and China.

Jose


Javier Avila-Cabrera works as a lecturer at the Department of Languages and Linguistics at the Universidad Nacional de Educacio
n a Distancia (UNED),
Madrid, where he teaches in areas such as the English language, English-Spanish translation, and audiovisual translation (AVT). Among his academic in-
terests are the treatment of offensive and taboo language in AVT, and didactic audiovisual translation (DAT). He has published in international journals and
publishing houses such as Babel, English for Specific Purposes, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Peter Lang, etc. His latest monograph is titled The
Challenge of Subtitling Offensive and Taboo Language into Spanish: A Theoretical and Practical Guide, published in 2023 by Multilingual Matters.

198