Applying Multimodal Transcription to Persian Subtitling

Authors

  • Zahra Abdi Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
  • Masood Khoshsaligheh Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.32.19212

Keywords:

audiovisual translation, multimodal transcription, subtitling reduction, Persian, Amelie (2001)

Abstract

Reduction in subtitling to improve the ease watching foreign movies is always a challenge. Recently multimodal transcription has been recommended as a useful guide (Taylor, 2003, 2013), but its application has been barely empirically tested. This study, therefore, investigated if the framework could serve useful in Persian subtitling of the French language movie Amelie (2001) as a case study. Initially, a reduced version of the available full Persian subtitle based on the results of the multimodal transcription of the film was created. Later, the comprehension of a control group of Iranian viewers of the full subtitle and that of an experimental group of viewers of the reduced version was compared. Although the control group scored slightly higher on the comprehension test, no evidence was revealed for a statistically significant difference. Finally, the reception of the reduced subtitle was qualitatively investigated using retrospective interviews with selected participants from the experiment.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.32.0.19212

Author Biographies

Zahra Abdi, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Zahra Abdi holds a Master of Arts degree in English Language Translation from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. She is a Persian and English freelance translator and teaches English as a foreign language in Iran. Her research interests include audiovisual translation and foreign language teaching.

Masood Khoshsaligheh, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Masood Khoshsaligheh is a faculty member at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad where he is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English. He is on the editorial board of a number of international journals including International Journal of Society, Culture and Language, Iranian Journal of Language and Translation Studies and SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation. He is also the director of the college of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. His research interests include translator education and audiovisual translation.

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Published

2018-05-18

Issue

No. 32 (2018)

Section

TRANSLATION

License

The copyright for the articles in this journal is retained by the author(s) with the first publication right granted to the journal. The journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).