Investigating the effects of translation strategies on interlingual subtitle processing: A survey-based study of domestication versus foreignization of idioms

Abstract

When faced with culturally anchored terms, subtitlers can render the translation closer to the foreign language and culture, adopting a strategy of foreignization, or closer to the domestic audience, thus adhering to a strategy of domestication (Venuti, 1995). This dissertation examined how strategies of translation used to render idioms (Gottlieb, 1997) in interlingual subtitles affect viewer’s processing (Ghia, 2012; Perego, 2010; Kruger & Doherty, 2016), focusing on the effects of domestication and foreignization on translation form recognition (Bisson, 2013; Perego et al., 2010), and also exploring translation meaning recognition, audiovisual content processing, and viewer’s self-reported viewing experience. The investigation method was an online survey, answered by 79 native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese based in Australia. During the 25-minute experiment, participants watched an 11-minute movie-clip with scenes extracted from the Australian movie The Dish, with subtitles embedded including idioms translated using domesticated and foreignized strategies. Domestication resulted in statistically significantly higher translation form recognition. No significant difference in translation meaning recognition was verified between both translation conditions. Participants stated usage of audiovisual content for language learning showed significant interaction with translation form and meaning recognition. Participants processed effectively the experiment’s audiovisual content, dense in idioms, scoring high in general comprehension, face–name association, scene recognition, subtitle recognition. The self-reported cognitive and evaluative response of participants signalled satisfaction with subtitles and low difficulty and effort to follow them. The findings expand the evidence-based knowledge in the audiovisual translation field on subtitle processing and the effects of translation strategies on the subtitles as a product. Based upon these findings, it is argued that the domestication of idioms could be used to promote targeted use of translation strategies to accelerate learning using subtitles (Pavesi & Perego, 2008; Ghia, 2012; Ragni, 2018), for purposes that could benefit from higher translation recognition, as language learning, didactic videos or informative material, as public health or community service campaigns. For other uses in which conveying meaning is deemed sufficient, as entertainment, the findings suggest that domestication or foreignization yield similar meaning recognition. The dissertation concludes by presenting the limitations of the experiment and avenues for future research.