A Corpus-based Analysis of Swearword Translation in DVD Subtitles and Internet Fansubs

Abstract

The present study uses Corpus Linguistics to analyse an ad-hoc, parallel, bilingual, diasemiotic translation corpus consisting of the original English transcript of the dialogue in 5 of the sweariest films of all time (to date), and two Spanish subtitle translations (the Internet fansubs and the official DVD subtitles) of each film, in order to determine the lexical density of swearwords in each version. The quantitative analysis of the proportion of swearwords maintained in each of the Spanish versions will inform a qualitative analysis, centred on the overall effect each type of subtitle might have on the audience. Due to the taboo nature of swearwords, not many studies on translation include this kind of terms in academic research. Even fewer studies exist that address the use of swearwords in subtitling in particular (Chaume, 2004). One of the major changes in the field of audiovisual translation is the recent emergence of fansubs, subtitles made by fans who usually do not have a professional translation background. Many times, this is the first contact the audience has with a subtitle in their language (Ferrer Simó, 2005). As the popularity of this new type of subtitling increases, it is important to include it in academic analysis. The aim of this study is to determine to what extent swearwords tend to be neutralized, and examine normalization phenomena. Due to the absence of formal restrictions, fansubs are hypothesized to retain more swearwords than professional subtitles. 2. Theoretical