6533b851fe1ef96bd12a8cbd

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A metaphorical map of subtitling

subject

description

Abstract This study explores the metaphorical dimension of idioms in original filmic texts and their translations in subtitles, in order to shed light on strategies used in the translation process. The research focuses on a corpus of 20 films from the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips (LFLFC), at the Berkeley Language Center of the University of California, Berkeley. More specifically, I analyze films in German and Spanish with English subtitles from a cognitive and contrastive perspective. My goal is to explore how translation can affect understanding and reception by an audience with limited or no skills in the original language. Results of the analysis show a tendency towards reduction of metaphorical expressions in translated English subtitles, these varying according to the original language of the film. Contrastive analysis demonstrates that in translation from Spanish, the explicit meaning strategy is far more frequent than in translation from German. The findings of this study can be applied in foreign language teaching as a means of developing learners’ cultural awareness and language comprehension, as well as in the field of audiovisual subtitling translation.