Reappraising verbal language in audiovisual translation: from description to application

Introduction

This article aims to investigate the role of verbal language in AVT, placing it within a wider sociolinguistic context. We can talk about sociolinguistic context, since the language of AVT has an important social function: it can be considered as a means to increase and foster first language literacy, as well as second language learning – not only in formal educational situations, but even through naturalistic exposure. For this reason, Pavesi argues that the language of dubbing deserves to be studied on its own, as a variety within the target language, making comparisons with other dubbing languages and cultures (she proposes a comparative study).

Naturalness and register specificity

Dubbed language, also called “dubbese”, has often been connoted negatively, as a sort of fictive orality, defining it as fake, artificial, anti-realistic and stereotyped. But, if we think of “dubbese” as a language between the written and the spoken poles, we can re-consider this language as an autonomous dimension with its own peculiarities, among which even a diachronic evolution.

Naturalness

One of the points Pavesi raises is: does AV dialogue need to be completely faithful to orality? Does it need a total degree of naturalness?

• Naturalness conformity to the spontaneous use of the spoken language → According to Pavesi, just a few features, named privileged carriers of orality, can be enough to make the viewer experience orality.

Among these specific “carriers of orality” that evoke the colloquial register and naturalise the dubbed text, we can find the use of superlatives, of diminutives, the variety and colloquialness of phraseological units, etc.

Register specificity

The language of dubbing can be considered as a → language with its own register, since it has particular features that distinguish it from spontaneous conversation. Intonation is one of these particular features.

Example: an analysis based on a corpus from How I Met Your Mother’s dialogues dubbed in Spanish has shown elongation of sounds, precise articulation and emphasis on certain words, all features that differ from actual spoken language.