Die Hard 3 . ETERNAL (English Teaching Journal) Volume 8, [627551]

Program de studii de licență :
Limbă și literatură engleză – Limbă și
literatură german ă

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

Candidat: [anonimizat] ,

Lect. dr. Raluca Sinu

BRAȘOV
2020B-dul Eroilor 25
500030 – Brașov
tel.: (+40) 268.4 74.059 | fax:
(+40) 268.474.059
[anonimizat] |
www.unitbv.ro /litere

Study programme:
English Language and L iterature – German
Language and Literature

B.A. PROJECT
LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL ISSUES
IN SUBTITLING FRIENDS

Candidat e,
Rotariu Daniela –
Alexandra

Supervisor,
Dr. Raluca Sinu

BRAȘOV
2020

Abstract

The field of translation studies has been investigated and analyzed for a very long time,
having an interesting evolution. The audiovisual translation is one of the newest fields of
research in the domain of translation and due to t his aspect, my interest in this topic was
increased. The present paper covers both theoretical and practical aspects of translation
with reference to subtitling and the complexity of the audiovisual field. Throughout this
paper, I address challenges encoun tered when trying to translate in the most accurate and
relatable way from English into Romanian. The proposed analysis examines linguistic and
cultural issues occurring in subtitling and their potential solutions starting from a series of
existing transla tion strategies. The findings are focused on giving answers to the initial
research questions. Based on the previous considerations, this paper aims at pointing out
some of the main difficulties that arise in the process of subtitling the American sitcom
Friends (1994) and the solutions subtitlers used while translating them.

2

Table of contents

Introduction ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………….. 4
CHAPTER ONE: ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………… 6
Introducing audiovisual translation ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………….. 6
1.1 Theories of translation ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 6
1.2 Translation methods ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .8
1.3 Jeremy Munday and the early days of AVT ………………………….. ………………………. 12
1.4 A closer look at AVT ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 13
1.5 Subtitling ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 16
1.5.1 Technical constraints ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………… 16
1.5.2 Textuality issues and linguistic constraints ………………………….. ………………….. 18
1.6. Conclusions ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……….. 19
CHAPTER TWO: ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 21
Main aspects of subtitling ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. 21
2.1 Cultural issues in translation ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 21
2.1.1 Allusions in translation ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 22
2.1.2 Extraling uistic Cultural References ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 23
2.1.3 Extralinguistic Cultural References in AVT ………………………….. …………………. 25
2.2 Linguistic issues in translation ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 28
2.2.1 Puns/Wordplays ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 29
2.2.2 Idioms and fixed expressions ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 31

3 2.3 Conclusions ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 35
CHAPTER THREE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……… 36
CHALLENGES IN SUBTITLING FRIENDS ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 36
3.1 Corpus and M ethodology ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………… 36
3.2 Subtitling Friends into Romanian: challenges and solutions ………………………….. …. 37
3.2.1 The translation of wordplays ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 37
3.2.2 The translation of idioms ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………… 43
3.2.3 The translation of proverbs ………………………….. ………………………….. …………… 46
3.2.4 The tr anslation of culture terms ………………………….. ………………………….. …….. 50
3.2.5. Findings of the analysis ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 54
Conclusions ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 58
Reference list ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 60

4

Introduction

The topic of my paper covers two main issues: linguistic and cultural challenges in
subtitling, with an emphasis on the former, illustrated with examples from the famous TV
show c alled Friends , starting from the following research questions: 1. What are the main
linguistic and cultural challenges in the subtitling of sitcoms and what are their causes?; 2.
What solutions do translators resort to when dealing with such challenges?
I choose this topic in order to discover and demonstrate how tricky and difficult it is, at so
many levels, to get it right when it comes to subtitling, especially with sitcoms. At the
same time, considering that the items which interest me are so numerous, I want to see how
accurate the translation of Friends into Romanian is, linguistically speaking.
Subtitling is different from other types of translation in many ways. First, it does not only
consist in translating from a source language into a target langu age but it also involves a
shift from oral to written language, which got my attention in the first place. In addition,
the area of audiovisual translation has been attracting a lot of attention in recent years, as
theorists are more and more interested in it.
In the first chapter of this paper ( Introducing audiovisual translation ) I will focus on the
background and evolution in time of translation. Therefore, it will be contain a number of
theories of translation with emphasis on translation methods and so me technical
information regarding the field of audiovisual translation and its distinctive elements.
With the second chapter ( Main aspects of subtitling ), I will move from a general point of
view on translation to a more specific one focusing on culture a nd language in subtitling.
This second chapter will provide the tools needed for the analysis proposed in the third
one, because it will include information about wordplays, idioms, proverbs, allusions and
ECRs. The aim of this chapter will be to identify the issues that occur in translation and to
link them to possible solutions that result from translation strategies.
The third and last chapter ( Challenges in subtitling Friends ) will consist of an analysis of
examples of wordplays, idioms, proverbs, allus ions and ECRs, extracted from the sitcom

5 Friends . Each one of these examples will be analyzed based on the information gathered in
the previous chapters. It will be very interesting to discuss the solutions the subtitler comes
up with in order to solve all the possible problems. I guess this is one of the main reasons
why I wanted to pursue this topic, to have a closer look at what happens behind the scenes
and how flexible language is when there are linguistic and cultural challenges, plus certain
rules th at need to be followed.

6

CHAPTER ONE:
Introducing audiovisual translation

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the theoretical background of the concept and process
of translation. The emphasis will be on audiovisual translation, with a closer look a t its
evolution and its reception among translation studies.

1.1 Theories of translation
The domain of translation is a pretty broad one and it has been discussed for a very long
time, but branches such as audiovisual translation (AVT) are still relativel y new.
Therefore, the beginning of this chapter offers a brief overview of the field of translation
studies. As any other discipline, translation studies has its own evolution in time, so before
I get to one of its newest branches, I think it is important and preferable to provide some
general facts and the opinions of different theorists regarding its theoretical background.
The term translation can have multiple and different meanings, thus, the approaches to this
topic are diverse and include different a ngles.
In time, the discipline of translation has been analyzed and interpreted from several points
of view, meaning that, for example, some theorists approached it from a philosophical
point of view, others from a more linguistic one or perhaps even from a philological one.
Such mentions from the early days of translation studies should be taken into consideration
because they are relevant when writing a paper like this one, even though its main focus is
on AVT studies.
One, out of many examples that I can give is provided by Bassnett (2005) who specifies
that: ‘the distinction between word for word and sense for sense translation, established
within the Roman system, has continued to be a point for debate in one way or another
right up to the present’ ( 2005:59). So, the distinction mentioned above has been around for

7 quite some time, having its beginnings rooted in old historical periods, and they are still
valid while working with a text and its translation nowadays – by text I mean anything that
is commun ication whether it is audio -visual or written and so on.
Jeremy Munday (2008) addresses in the beginning of his study ‘Introducing Translation
Studies’ the way in which the structuralist Roman Jakobson (1959) divided translation into
three categories: intralingual translation, interlingual translation, intersemiotic
translation . Munday further explains that: ‘ Intralingual translation would occur, for
example, when we rephrase an expression or when we summarize or otherwise rewrite a
text in the same languag e. Intersemiotic translation would occur if a written text were
translated, for example, into music, film or painting. It is interlingual translation , between
two different verbal languages, which is the traditional, although by no means exclusive,
focus o f translation studies’ (2008:5). (emphasis added).
This is a general type of classification which of course, among others, refers to the
modality in which the source language (SL) is connected with the target language (TL),
also hinting at what the final p roduct will turn out to be after using one of these three
processes of translation. This paper will concentrate on interlingual translation, because the
analysis part it is going to focus on two languages, i.e. English and Romanian.
For example, an early l inguistic theory of translation, which is still thriving today, is the
one involving the equivalence effect. This is a theory of translation approached by Nida
(1964) and then by Catford (1965), the main idea being that they both focussed on the fact
that ‘the translation is not about achieving equivalence of meaning’ (Saldanha, 2009:149).
In the case of cultural and linguistic translations, they have been seen from early on as
being in a very close relationship or as Saldanha (2009) argues: ‘they should lo gically be
seen as complementary rather than opposing paradigms.’ (2009:148).
Nida (1964) rightly maintains that ‘definitions of proper translating are almost as numerous
and varied as the persons who have undertaken to discuss the subject’ (1964:161).
How ever, I choose Palumbo’s (2009) explanation because it is simpler and on point. He
argues that translation can be defined as ‘a text in one language that represents or stands
for a text in another language’ (2009:122 -123). Also, translation is considered t o be ‘a
phenomenon characterized by variability’ (Palumbo, 2009:123) and modern approaches

8 ‘are interested in what translation does (mainly in the target culture) rather that in what
translation inherently is.’ (Palumbo, 2009:123).

1.2 Translation methods
Translation may be challenging because languages do not work the same across cultures.
Hence, the methods used vary and there is no denying that some of them are more efficient
than others. As Newmark (1988:45) mentions, one of the main decision to take i n
translating is whether to approach the text literally or freely. This is one dilemma which is
most likely faced by any translator as they go through or into the process of translating.
Newmark (1988:45) splits the methods into two big categories dependin g on emphasis,
whether the emphasis is on the SL or TL. Therefore, in the category of SL emphasis fall
the translation methods listed by Newmark as: word -for-word translation, literal
translation, faithful translation and semantic translation , while their correspondents in the
category of TL emphasis are: adaptation, free translation, idiomatic translation,
communicative translation . Each of these methods is going to be presented in what
follows.
The word -for-word translation and the literal translation are explained by Newmark
(1988:45 -46) separately, but they imply basically the same way of approaching a text while
translating it, which is why I am discussing them together. It is not very hard to understand
what these two methods are about and it is also n ot difficult to think of a definition,
because we can tell from their titles. They both deal with a word -for-word translation
meaning that under each word from the SL text there is the translated correspondent in the
TL.
This method is not very efficient, unless it is used ‘to understand the mechanics of the
source language or to construe a difficult text as a pre -translation process’ (Newmark,
1988:46). Because it is not very efficient, it is also not very common among translators and
not only, as in the academic environment students are encouraged to dodge this modality
of working with the text. As a result, the final product would turn out to be
incomprehensible, meaning that even if the words are translated correctly in the TL, as a
whole, the text woul d not make much sense, being of no use to the reader in question.

9 Faithful translation focuses on the contextual meaning of the SL while respecting the
grammatical constraints of the TL. From Newmark (1988:46) we learn that the title of
‘faithful’ refers t o the writer of the text in the SL, regarding his intentions and the
realization of his text.
The semantic translation is considered by Newmark (1988:46) in contrast with the faithful
one, spotting the slight difference between them. The distinction previo usly mentioned
revolves around an aesthetic value, therefore, the semantic translation is more rigid and
strict in the sense that it does not allow much compromise, at the word level, whereas the
faithful one is freer and it permits more empathy towards th e text’s original form .
In adaptation, as its name suggests, the texts translated adapt everything from the SL to the
TL in question, from themes and plots to anything culture related. It is considered to be the
‘freest’ (Newmark, 1988:46) type of translat ion, and is mostly put in practice when it
comes to literary works, such as plays and poems. Giuseppe Palumbo (2009) argues that
using adaptation as a method leads to expansion, omission, and sometimes even entire
parts of texts are re -created (2009:7). Al so, in addition to Newmark, Palumbo adds that this
method is used in AVT as well because, for example, while subtitling a movie or TV show,
taking into consideration the technical constraints which need to be or at least should be
respected, omissions and re-creating lines happen all the time; all of these are also common
in the area of dubbing.
Free translation boils down to manner and matter, lacking the second one while focusing
on and using the first one. In other words, the form of the original text is left behind and
the translator pays attention only to the content. This is also an easy method of working
with a text and it is important to always have in mind the audience to which the text is
addressed, because changes can occur according to the target audience (TA) .
The idiomatic method leans towards an approach which relies on using colloquialisms and
idioms which do not necessarily exist in the source text (ST). Newmark (1988:47) briefly
mentions that the use of this method adds a nuance of naturalne ss to the final product and I
agree with this statement, because sometimes this presumes translating in a manner which
implies a more literary style, so the naturalness of the text is encountered by default.
Communicative translation is one of the methods which focus on the target text (TT), so
one of its main roles is to make sure that the message or text is communicated correctly to

10 the TA. As Newmark (1988) remarks, this method concentrates on keeping the exact
contextual meaning of the original so that the content and the language are comprehensible
to the reader. This is what makes it stand out and also what makes it interesting, namely
how the translator is trying to hit all the marks while keeping in mind two essential
elements in point of comprehensi bility – content and language. However, the text’s level of
quality might not be very high, because ‘in general a communicative translation is written
at the readership’s level’ (Newmark, 1988:47).
Further, I would like to add some of Newmark’s (1988) comm ents about these translation
methods, because it is intriguing to see towards which ones he leans more and which ones
he considers to be the most effective in the process of translating. As we have seen
previously, some methods are more suitable for some p articular texts, but the comments
that he made cover this topic at a more general level.
At first he (1988:47) discusses in contrast the semantic and communicative methods,
stating that only these two are capable, before any others, to fulfill a translatio n’s aim,
which is true considering that it is preferable to possess, at a text level, both accuracy and
economy, the two main aims of a translation fulfilled through the techniques of the these
two methods.
Even though they are most likely used for differe nt types of texts (the semantic one for
more ‘expressive’ texts; the communicative one for ‘informative’ and ‘vocative’ texts, cf.
Newmark (1988:47 -48), they share a lot of similarities in point of the treatment of the
items. For example, similarities are shared with items like: slang, colloquialisms, technical
terms, dead metaphors, standard notices and so on. How these items are translated really
just depends on the type of the text, so naturally: ‘The expressive components of
‘expressive’ texts (unusual syntactic structures, collocations, metaphors, words peculiarly
used, neologisms) are rendered closely, if not literally, but where they appear in
informative and vocative texts, they are normalized or toned down.’(Newmark, 1988:47).
Other distinctions bet ween these two methods arise simply because one of them belongs to
the category of SL emphasis (semantic) while the other one to the TL emphasis
(communicative). Consequently, the communicative method is more social, the translator
is trying to keep everyt hing simple and natural for the TA, while the semantic one ‘follows
the thought process of the author’ (Newmark, 1988:47 -48), which automatically implies
more individuality and less freedom in writing compared to the communicative one.

11 Besides these two me thods, another concept or, as Munday (2008) calls it, ‘key linguistic
issue’ (2008:36) which has been debated by many theorists and is also very popular among
scientists in this field is that of equivalent effect . This is one concept which can cause
diffic ulties for any of the translation methods previously mentioned. If we had to connect it
with a category of translation it would be with the interlingual one, because the equivalent
effect is all about the relation between a SL and a TL; more precisely how similar a
translator can reproduce a text from a SL to the TL.
Nida (1964) is the one who sees the equivalent effect as ‘dynamic equivalence’, and he
considers that ‘the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the
same as that whi ch existed between the original receptors and the message’ (1964:159).
Basically he puts a lot of emphasis on the relation created between the texts and readers,
and how the most important thing is that the TT has the same effect on the TA as the ST
has on the SA.
Newmark’s (1988) opinions about the equivalent effect differ from Nida’s, and I lean more
towards the former’s perspective because they seem more close to reality and even to how
I would interpret the process of translation. As far as he is concer ned, equivalent effect ‘is
the desirable result , rather than the aim of any translation’ (1988:48), and one of the
arguments which stood out for me is the one referring to the big cultural differences: ‘if
there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and the TL text’ (1988:48), the chances
for it to have the same effect on different readers, as Nida claims, is quite unlikely.
In conclusion, it is generally agreed that languages differ in grammar and linguistic
conventions, therefore, a text in its orig inal form cannot be exactly the same in the TL.
Even so, translators can use this procedure and translate from the SL exactly into the TL,
picking the right words and using the same symbols, but the point is that they should not
because at the end of the d ay it will not have the same effect as initially expected. Also,
again this is where the differences between a source culture (SC) and a target culture (TC)
interfere, because some concepts pertaining to cultural aspects may exist in a certain
language and be very popular, but in others they can be non -existent, so if they are
translated exactly, the TL readers will not relate to it nor fully understand it. The only
solution that I see is to try to find a middle way, like finding something similar from the
TL and adding it to the original.

12 1.3 Jeremy Munday and the early days of AVT
The discipline and concept of AVT has been shaped in time and is one of the newest
branches of translation. Early on, theorists did not necessarily know where they were
heading with it, which is probably why Delabastita (1989) referred to it in one of his
articles as ‘a virgin area of research’ (1989, quoted in Munday, 2008:183). Jeremy Munday
(2008) comments in one of his studies on Delabastita’s work, which he uses in order to
guide his readers through the evolution of AVT.
The starting point of AVT, as seen by Munday (2008:183) rests with Titford (1982) and
Mayoral (1988) who brought into discussion the term ‘constrained translation’, which
nowadays is a synonym of AVT, becaus e that is what ‘marked out audiovisual translation’
(2008:183) and it still constantly does .
The best way, or perhaps one of the easy ways, to discover new things about this discipline
and to learn more about it is by trying to put it in contrast with some thing that is already
known. This is why, as Munday (2008:183) says, ‘Delabastita constantly compares film
translation with other forms of translation, such as theatrical performance as a way of
determining its specific, distinctive character’. By using th ese types of comparisons
between different fields where translation/subtitling occurs, Delabastita finally identifies
those ‘particular constraints that govern the translation of film’ (2008:183).
As he moves further, Munday (2008) gives some examples of s uch constraints in order to
enlighten the readers. The two types of constraints mentioned by him, namely semiotic and
technical constraints, which also happen to be the two elements that set apart the AVT
from other forms of translation, are ‘the co -existe nce of the sound channel and the vision
channel’ (2008:183) and the rules which need to be followed and all sorts of technical
constraints, which narrow the translator’s freedom. Also, as argued by Orero (2004) this is
the discipline in which the text suff ers the most changes from the beginning until the end
of the process.
The main forms of AVT are subtitling and dubbing. These two forms are the most
widespread, but there are other types of translations which fall into the category of AVT,
which will also be mentioned later in this chapter.
According to Delabastita (1989, quoted in Munday, 2008:183), ‘the researcher will
obviously have to combine his knowledge of the specific technical and semiotic constraints

13 that each mode involves with what he knows abo ut translation processes in general. The
various descriptive categories that the discipline of translation studies has developed will
thus prove indispensable for his purpose’. This quote is a very good way of wrapping up
this subsection on AVT because, wh ile it gives some explanations, it is also an invitation to
further documentation in order to find out how ‘indispensable’ some of those categories
will turn out to be.

1.4 A closer look at AVT
Being a new field, by default one of the first things that th e theorists tried and had to figure
out was how to name it, because as expected it was not AVT from the beginning. Also,
they carried out a lot of research in order to establish where exactly it fits within the field
of Translation Studies, and how it is r elated to other areas of translation. It seems that, even
from its name, they wanted to be more specific and explicit regarding what this new
discipline is about, which is probably why ‘rather than ‘‘film translation”, Luyken et al.
(1991) speak of ‘‘ audio visual language transfer ’’ (in Munday, 2008:184).
AVT is in a very close relationship with technology and even depends upon it as it would
not really exist without it. So, the persons who were interested in the field of AVT had to
keep up with technology, media and every innovation that resulted from them. Therefore,
other terms surfaced, such as ‘ audiovisual translation , screen translation , multimedia
translation , due to the rapid development of the technology’ (Munday, 2008:184).
Among others, Chaume (201 8) has a very interesting study about AVT, covering some of
the research that had to be done in order for this discipline to take shape. He puts a lot of
emphasis on the relation which exists between descriptive translation and AVT. He gives a
lot of credi t to the development of the AVT field and even refers to it as ‘fertile ground’
(2018:44), which I can totally understand, and it is really suitable considering the new
opportuni ties which appeared due to AVT.
As I mentioned before there is a well -known cl assification of types of AVT from a more
linguistic point of view, as formulated by Gambier (2003, quoted in Munday, 2008:184 –
185), including interlingual subtitling, bilingual subtitling, intralingual subtitling, dubbing,
voice -over, surtitling, audio des cription .

14 From the types mentioned above, the main concern and focus of this work are the ones
which involve the concept of subtitling, which is also the most developed in point of
research, mainly the interlingual subtitling. Still, I will say a few words about each and
every one of them in order to create a larger perspective upon what AVT is about.
Interlingual subtitling refers to subtitling from a SL to a TL. Munday (2008) focuses more
on the forms, so he shares where and under what kind of forms we ca n find interlingual
subtitling, taking into account the relationship that exists with the technological side. He
also takes this opportunity to highlight the distinction between opened and closed subtitles
which fall into the category of technical, therefo re ‘for the cinema and video (where the
subtitles are “open”, meaning that they are an integral part of the version of the film), and
DVD (where they may be “closed”, meaning that the viewer can select whether to see them
or not and in which language).’ (2 008:184).
Regarding the relationship between the SL and the TL a proper explanation is given by
Gottlieb (2009:21) who claims that interlingual subtitling is one way of transferring
language, the best part of it being that the two languages work together i n present
synchrony in the subtitled version, without replacing the original ST. Also, in the same
paragraph Gottlieb (2009:21) points out one of the best qualities that a subtitling can
possess in order to be cataloged as a good one, namely that of passin g unnoticed. Basically,
the point is that the subtitling should not distract the viewer’s attention from the
programme.
Bilingual subtitling is briefly mentioned by Munday (2008:185) who gives as an example
Belgium as a country where this type of subtitlin g is frequently used. As the name
indicates, the ‘subtitles are provided simultaneously in two languages’ (Munday,
2008:185).
Intralingual subtitling – a familiar term used in Roman Jakobson’s (1959) classification,
which appears at the beginning of this s tudy. This form happens within the same language.
Mainly, this category is especially created for ‘the deaf and hard of hearing’ (Bartoll,
2004:53), but the subtitles are also used for ‘people learning languages’ (2004:53).
Dubbing is probably the second m ost popular type of AVT, or as Palumbo (2009:39) calls
it a ‘dominant form’ after or right next to subtitling. Palumbo (2009) goes on to explain
what the process of dubbing is all about, since this is what his study focuses on –

15 explaining terms and concep ts translation related. Thus, dubbing involves the process of
substitution of the original voice from the track with the ones of the actors who were
designated to do it, in the TL. Compared to subtitling, dubbing involves a more complex
process and it allo ws the TA to stay more focused because the viewers have to put in ‘less
processing effort’ (Palumbo, 2009:39) as they only have to listen instead of reading. If I
had to approach dubbing from the perspective of this paper, which is from a linguistic and
cultural point of view, again I would have to agree with Palumbo (2009) and say that I
choose subtitling, because dubbing lacks naturalness and it also ‘involves the neutralization
of socio -linguistic variation portrayed by the SL dialogue.’ (Palumbo, 2009:3 9).
At the same time, as I am a movie and television shows consumer, I think that the impact
on the audience gets lost on the way as well, more so than with subtitling. Besides, to hear
the voice of the actor who plays in the movie is important too, espec ially if it is a very
famous and skillful one. For example, if I paid to see an episode from the famous TV show
called Friends , then I would definitely want to hear Jennifer Aniston’s voice as she plays
Rachel, her character.
Voice over , according to Mund ay (2008), is used more frequently for documentaries and
interviews, or as Palumbo claims for materials where a ‘certain level of realism is required’
(2009:145). The process of voice over ‘consists in superimposing pre -recorded voicing in
the TL on th e original audio’ (Palumbo, 2009 :145), so in some ways is similar to dubbing,
only this would be the cheaper version of dubbing.
Surtitling is used for opera concerts and theater. It was very criticized in the beginning, but
it is highly requested by the publi c. Munday explains that in this case the ‘ subtitles which
are projected above the s tage or on the seatbacks at the opera or theatre. ’ (2008:185).
Audio description is a challenging form of AVT, and requires a lot of preparation. It is
especially made for b lind and visually impaired people. Basically, it is ‘a form of voiced
narration used to make films, TV programmes and theatre performances’ (Palumbo,
2009:12). I would like to add that audio description requires attention to details and natural
narration s kills in order to create for the audience a vision as close as possible to the movie.
Overall, this is the classification of the AVT forms. This also helps us to see how AVT
distinguishes itself from other translation fields and what extra features that i t possesses

16 make that distinction possible. The next subsection will deal with subtitling as a form of
AVT, its features and specific constraints.

1.5 Subtitling
This subchapter is meant to give some further information about ‘one of the most thriving
areas within the wider discipline of Translation Studies’ (Díaz Cintas, 2014:8) which
happens to be the center of this paper .
If I had to give a definition of subtitling I would use the one given by the theorist
mentioned above, Díaz Cintas (2014), because i t explains very well the whole concept. So,
subtitling can be perceived as a practice which consists in producing a written text, which
is usually presented at the bottom of a screen. Its main aim is to render the dialog of the
speakers, but also any other texts which may appear in the image (cf. Díaz Cintas, 2014:8).
As Díaz Cintas (2014) mentions, subtitles are nowadays created through special software.
Subtitling is a combination of the image, the spoken word and the subtitles. A successful
subtitle or o ne that can be designated as a qualitative one must meet the next conditions, as
listed by Díaz Cintas (2014:9), synchronization between the image and the dialogue, to
appear long enough on the screen so that the viewers can go through it completely, and t o
be able to deliver a semantically adequate account of the SL dialogue.
Another important aspect of subtitling relates to linguistic omissions, which happen very
often and it is normal: ‘subtitles entail a change of mode from oral to written and resort
frequently to the omission of lexical items from the original.’(Díaz Cintas, 2014:9).
Therefore, it is preferable to have a much more ‘flexible perspective’ (Díaz Cintas, 2014:9)
regarding this domain even more than in the cases of other types of translation . Theorists
claim that this has already happened, after many years and after many research papers have
been published, so the point that I am trying to get to is that there has been a quite
impressive evolution and growth of this field.
1.5.1 Technical con straints
As mentioned before, the subtitling process is characterized by some technical constraints,
which must be respected by every translator. These constraints are the attributes which
draw a line between subtitling and the other forms of translation. The constraints come, on

17 the one hand, from the technical side of subtitling and, on the other, from the limited time
and space available to the subtitler. Further, I will take all technical constraints one by one
and explain what they are all about.
The first constraint that I will bring into discussion is related to space. These constraints
occur because the screen is a limited space. As mentioned in Gottlieb (2009), usually only
two lines of text are allowed, so there is no room for detailed or long ex planations. As a
side note, long explanations have no place in a movie or TV show and definitely not in a
comedy show. After all, this is what the charm of subtitling is all about – being able to
encompass in few words and a restricted number of characters per line (these depend on
the programme that is being used, but usually revolves around the limit of 40 characters
per line) the main parts of the dialogue or of the lines of text which appear on the screen.
No doubt, the readability of the text is subtit ler’s aim, to quote Gottlieb (2009:22):
‘readability of the text is of paramount importance, it has been suggested that an ideal
subtitle is a sentence long, with the clauses of which it consists placed on separate lines.’
Temporal constraints are connect ed to space constraints. The constraints of time and space
are bound together and usually if you first get the subtitles done and then try to set the
appropriate time, most of the time they might work, but sometimes the translated lines may
be too long com pared to the amount of time that the person is taking to verbalize it. In this
case a translator has to go back to the lines within the space constraints and remake them,
by trying to find more appropriate words, in order for the time constraints to be res pected
as well.
Also, according to Gottlieb (2009), and I stand completely by this idea, there is no point in
working hard on a subtitle and make it perfect in terms of format, if the timing on it is not
good and the viewer does not have the needed time t o fully read it. Everything becomes
more difficult for the viewer if the timing is not ‘satisfactorily done’ (Gottlieb, 2009:23).
For instance, an example given by Díaz Cintas (2009) is when a subtitle is continued over
a shot change. This equates with a s ignificant loss of the viewing time, because the viewer
may think that it is a new subtitle and start re -reading it.
Presentation refers to the font size and how much space on the screen does the subtitle
occupy, which is on average 20%. This is an importa nt factor too because a small font
leads to bad legibility, which results in a bad reaction or feedback from the viewers. So, the
font and the number of character, followed by their position on the screen, are important

18 factors which influence the legibili ty of subtitles. As technology evolved, these problems
had been resolved because the technical equipment got more qualitative (Gottlieb,
2009:22). For example, in the case of DVD subtitling, ‘the choice of any font and font size
supported by Windows is pos sible, unlike teletext subtitling for television, where this is not
the case.’ (Gottlieb, 2009:22). At the same time I think that there is not much that can be
done about the audience’s bad feedback because everything about the presentation can be
subjecti ve, viewers may have some personal preferences regarding the font and its size and
so on.
1.5.2 Textuality issues and linguistic constraints
Other constraints which cannot be rendered as technical are the textual ones. This again
leads back to subtitling being a process which implies shifting from the oral to the written
code, so the loss at a linguistic level is inevitable. Besides the passage from oral or speech
to written, there is also the passage from soundtrack to written subtitles as it is mentioned
by Gottlieb (2009:22), who further argues that: ‘This shift of mode creates a number of
processing and cohesion issues that make it difficult to maintain the filmic illusion in the
target product’ (2009:22).
The textuality issues appear because of omissio ns caused by space restrictions, as it is very
well said by Gottlieb (2009), of certain elements of the soundtrack. The solution proposed
by the author is to remove the redundant elements of speech because ‘redundancy helps
participants in a conversation g rasp its intended meaning more easily and its elimination
from film dialogue may, therefore, weaken cohesion in the subtitled text’ (2009:25).
More challenges for the subtitler come with the change in mode mentioned before. I
thought I should mention some characteristics which may cause problems at a textual level
along with the change in mode. Such characteristics are enumerated by Gottlieb (2009),
and some of them refer to spontaneous speech such as slips of the tongue, pauses, false
starts, unfinished s entences, ungrammatical constructions – all these are pretty hard to
reproduce in writing. In the case of the linguistic constraints, Kovačič’s (quoted in
Gottlieb, 2009:26 -28) ideas and methods got my attention because he proposes a three –
level hierarchy of discourse elements in subtitling. This can help the translator in deciding
what exactly to omit at word level from a subtitle. Thus, according to him we have:

19  The indispensable elements which are plot -carrying elements of a film, therefore
they must be translated. Without them the viewers wouldn’t be able to follow the
action properly because within them there is the experiential meaning. (2009:26 –
27)
 The partly dispensable elements – these are the ones that can be condensed.
(2009:26)
 The dispensable el ements – these are of course the ones which can be omitted.
(2009:26)
As for the elements which the translators would rather condense instead of omit, there are
repetitions, padding expressions or even ungrammatical constructions because they might
‘contr ibute to the textuality of the programme and the character development of the actors.’
(Gottlieb, 2009:28). Apparently, there is a list of such linguistic elements which translators
may omit anyway, even if the spatio -temporal constraints are not an issue. It is not hard to
understand why one may choose to eliminate such linguistic elements as they are
unnecessary. This list is put together by Gottlieb (2009:27) and it includes: repetitions;
names in appellative constructions; false starts and ungrammatical constructions;
internationally known words, such as ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘OK’ ; expressions followed by gestures
to denote salutation, politeness, affirmation, negation, surprise, telephone responses, etc.;
exclamations, such as ‘oh’, ‘ah’, ‘wow’ and the like; in stances of phatic communion often
empty of semantic load such as prepositional phrases, rhetorical flourishes etc.

1.6. Conclusion s
Throughout this chapter I tried to present an overview of some of the research dedicated to
translation in general and to s ubtitling in particular. I tried to emphasis and incorporate
some of the most relevant facts about translation, AVT and subtitling, facts which came
from different theorists who tried in time to approach this discipline.
From what we have seen, there is s till room for more research in order for the AVT
discipline to keep evolving. Even though it was not really popular in the beginning and it
was criticized by many, in time it gained the long awaited and well -deserved recognition.

20 Also, the content of this chapter represents the basis for the second chapter where I will
talk about the cultural and linguistic problems of translation. This is also one of the reasons
why I ended the first chapter with linguistic and textual terms as the next one will expand
the discussion.

21

CHAPTER TWO:
Main aspects of subtitling

The aim of this second chapter is to discuss the challenges created by cultural and
linguistic issues in subtitling. The text will also highlight the relationship between culture
and language, and pay special attention to the linguistic issues that arise in subtitling,
because they are more dominant.

2.1 Cultural issues in translation
One important aspect which got the attention of translation theorists is culture. Having a
decisive role in the pro cess of translating, we shall use this section to indicate and explain
the role of culture in translation.
Interlinguistic translation has always been a means of interaction between different
languages belonging to different nations and cultures. Problems at the cultural level
amplified with the process of globalization which ‘highlighted issues of intercultural
communication.’ (Bassnett, 2005:1).
As for a definition of culture in the context of translation, Palumbo says that ‘scholars
might see it as that dimension which is linked to the knowledge, activities and artefacts
associated with a given language community and which provides added meaning to the
basic linguistic, referential meaning of words.’ (2009:31).
On the same note, Palumbo explains that cul ture-bound terms are items or expressions
which refer to ‘elements or concepts that are closely associated with a certain language or
culture and other terms referring to geography, traditions, institutions and technologies’
(2009:33). The techniques used to translate such elements are various and usually depend
on whether the audience is already familiar with the concept or the possibility of finding
functional equivalents in the TL (Palumbo, 2009:33).

22 When I started to get deeper into the investigation fo r these specific issues of cultural and
linguistic nature, I was drawn by some of Ramière’s (2006) ideas regarding the cultural
transfers in audiovisual translation. Taking into consideration the fact that language and
culture are deeply intertwined, the t ranslator’s task, who is obviously not doing a word for
word translation out of contexts, but translating texts which are culturally embedded in a
community, implies a high degree of difficulty (Ramière, 2006:152).
One fact, which is rightly highlighted by Zojer (2011:400) in one of her articles about
culture in translation is that in subtitling there is no room for footnotes, explanations in the
foreword, asterisks or asides. I choose to add this short remark because, from my point of
view, audiovisual tra nslation is a harder process compared to traditional translation, and
the subtitler’s tasks are characterized by a higher degree of difficulty.

2.1.1 Allusions in translation
With the so -called cultural turn, translation scholars started a more in -depth r esearch
concerning the role of culture in translation with a ‘laid emphasis on extra -textual factors
related to cultural context’ (Palumbo, 2009:30). In essence, as it is mentioned in the
preface of Leppihalme’s (1997) book, it was not as important anymore ‘to work out how
best to render the words of the source text’, instead it was more substantial ‘to work out
what the words mean in a particular situational and cultural context’ (1997:8). This is the
context that favored the emergence of cultural bumps or ‘culture shock’ as they were
initially called, which occur when ‘culture -bound elements hinder communication of the
meaning to readers in another language culture’ (Leppihalme, 1997:8).
The intercultural problems surface even when the cultures in question may not be too
distant and as it has been demonstrated, sometimes, difficulties in translation arise more
often due to the culture -bound concepts rather than to semantic or syntactic ones
(Leppihalme, 1997:2).
A frequent cultural -bound concept is allusion . Even though allusions are more commonly
encountered in literary works or are said to be a ‘literary phenomenon’ (Leppihalme,
1997:6), they are met very often in movies or TV shows as well. Opinions are divided
among theorists, and defining allusions can be problematic, but in general they are said to
be: ‘A reference, usually brief, often casual, occasionally indirect, to a person, event, or

23 condition presumably familiar but sometimes obscure or unknown to the reader.’ (Shaw,
1976, quoted in Leppihalme, 1 997:6).
Other definitions similar to the one mentioned above tend to stress the words ‘literary
works’, but allusions definitely appear in dialogues or simply in lines from TV shows. This
will be demonstrated through concrete examples throughout the next a nd last chapter of
this paper. For now, it is worth mentioning that one of the reasons why theorists are
limiting their definitions to literary works is because this is where cultural bumps are more
common, rather than in a movie or TV show. For example, ‘ a line of dialogue or the brief
appearance of an actor in a film may allude to an earlier film, and audience recognition of
this is expected’ (Leppihalme, 1997:6). Although the recognition from the TA is expected,
this expectation may not be met, even if t he translation is done properly.
Allusions are usually used in order to convey implicit meaning. Leppihalme (1997:3) has
divided allusions into two types: key phrase allusions and proper -name allusions .
According to Leppihalme (1997:10), key phrase allusio ns are the ones containing no
proper names. Meanwhile, in proper -name allusions a proper name is mentioned and it can
be a real -life or fictional person, the international names of entertainers or politicians, the
famous names of past generations, writers, painters and so on (Leppihalme, 1997:66).
Also, those that belong to the first category can be harder to identify and create more
difficulties, compared to the ones containing proper names.
Using allusions in audiovisual materials can have both positive a nd negative outcomes. For
example, if an allusion to a certain person is made and the TA viewers are not familiar with
that person’s name, then the allusion becomes irrelevant and the desired effect is not being
accomplished. Leppihalme (1997:28 -50) narrow s down the functions of allusions to:
indicating themes, creating humor, developing characterization, and demonstrating
interpersonal relationships. Perhaps the most relevant one, for this paper, is the one
involving humor because the analysis will be done on a sitcom, and the allusions in
question usually result in laughter.

2.1.2 Extralinguistic Cultural References
Other theorists, such as Pedersen (2005), talk about similar issues only using different
concepts. Pedersen (2005) brings into discussion the concept of Extralinguistic Cultural

24 Reference (ECR), which he defines as a ‘reference that is attempted by means of any
cultural linguistic expression, which refers to an extralinguistic entity or process. The
referent of the said expression may prototypi cally be assumed to be identifiable to a
relevant audience as this referent is within the encyclopedic knowledge of this audience.’
(Pedersen, 2011:43).
In order to justify why I am also talking about ECRs after I have already talked about
allusions, whic h are similar in many ways, I will use Pedersen’s (2005) explanation, who
says that: ‘even though the object of study is similar and overlapping in many ways, it is
not identical. ECRs are, on the other hand, a wider notion than her [Leppihalme] allusions,
as they refer to anything that is extralinguistic and culture -bound, and not just other texts,
which would be the case of allusions. Intertextuality is thus not a prerequisite for inclusion
in the category of ECRs.’ (2005:2 -3)
Pedersen (2011) explains th at ECRs are references to people, history, places, food,
institutions which may be familiar with the audience belonging to the source culture, but
that does not necessarily mean they will be known by the one belonging to the target
culture. In this way, al lusions resemble ECRs. At the same time, even if ECRs tend to
exclude the intra -linguistic culture -specific references, such as proverbs, idioms, slang, the
connections between them are still there.
Again, the problems in the translation of ECRs arise when an item from a SC does not
have a correspondent in the TC. According to Pedersen (2005), in subtitling, this is one of
the most important challenges that a subtitler has to deal with.
As in any other domain, it is not enough to just find the problems and call them by their
names. Finding solutions to them has to be taken into consideration as well. Thus, in a
short article presented during a conference Pedersen (2005) explains his own taxonomy
through which he tries to offer some potential translation stra tegies. The author divides the
strategies into two big categories: SC oriented, such as Retention , Specification , Direct
Translation, and TC oriented, such as Generalisation , Substitution and Omission , which
are presented and discussed below.
For ECRs whic h remain unchanged in the subtitle, the strategy used is the one of Retention
which is probably more true to the ST (Pedersen, 2005:4). In this case, everything is
transferred from one ST to the TT without any explanation.

25 Specification ‘means leaving the ECR in its untranslated form, but adding information that
is not present in the ST, making the TT ECR more specific than the ST ECR.’ (2005:4).
This strategy can be implemented in two ways, namely through explicitation or addition .
In both these cases the subtitlers have the same purpose which consists in offering
guidance to the TC audience
Direct Translation is also subdivided into calque and shift. The translation from the SL
into the TL is the only change that occurs because ‘nothing else is added, or s ubtracted’
(2005:5), and, as Pedersen (2005:5) states, this one can also be cataloged as literal
translation.
Generalisation is a strategy which involves a process of replacement of the references in
the TT with a more general one, as its name already sugg ests. Hyponymy is the most
common among generalisations and it usually requires the replacement of the source text
ECR with a more general item in the TT (Pedersen, 2005:6).
Substitution ‘involves removing the ST ECR and replacing it with something else, e ither a
different ECR (Cultural substitution) or some sort of paraphrase, which does not
necessarily involve an ECR.’ (Pedersen, 2005:6).
In the case of omissions , they imply the deletion of ST ECR. This is a valid translation
strategy because sometimes c ertain circumstances require it (Toury, 1995, quoted in
Pedersen, 2005:9).

2.1.3 Extralinguistic Cultural References in AVT
As Nedergaard -Larsen (1993) says, one other fascinating aspect of films is that they offer
unique scope for getting acquainted with other cultures and some of them are ‘rather
products of the culture from which they arise, thus providing their audience with a living
insight into these cultures.’ (1993:207). In this respect, problems are encountered if a film
is to be shown in a differ ent cultural framework (Nedergaard -Larsen, 1993:207).
In the process of translating, the subtitler needs to be aware of some specific
considerations. Nedergaard -Larsen (1993) enumerates some specific points to consider
when dealing with the translation of cultural elements, such as their function, their

26 connotations, the audience’s familiarity with it, the audiovisual context in which they are
used.
The first point to consider is the function of an element; deducing whether it describes a
character, creates ambiance or it is directly relevant to the plot. For example, if the culture
bound element is important for the plot structure, ‘it should obviously not be omitted, and
it may be necessary to explicitate.’ (Nedergaard -Larsen, 1993:223).
Connotations are u sually specific to one culture whether it involves names or events which
add secondary meanings. Nedergaard -Larsen (1993:223) argues that such connotations are,
in many cases, vital for comprehension, but it is often difficult to include them in a subtitle .
The audience is another specific point; certain culture -bound elements will be generally
known abroad and can be transferred directly, while others will presumably be unknown
and made explicit or paraphrased, as they may otherwise confuse the audience
(Nedergaard -Larsen, 1993:223).
The media -specific aspect should be taken into consideration as well; cases of redundancy
may arise and even if the culture -bound element cannot be understood in isolation, the
meaning of it may be inferred from the context (Ne dergaard -Larsen, 1993:223).
The strategies listed in the previous subsection can be used or perhaps are of more use in
traditional translation, but they can also be helpful in the case of subtitles, and are used
more or less. I share Ramière’s idea that tr anslation for the audiovisual world ‘raises
considerable cross cultural issues’ because ‘it brings cultures in contact with one another’
(2006:152 -153). She further argues that ‘disregarding them may lead to a translated
programme which is unintelligible f or the target viewers’ (2006:153). Hence, this is where
the strategies for translating ECRs and the translator itself are recognized as having an
important role.
As it has been highlighted before, one of the primary issues in selecting a translation
strate gy is how it will affect the audiences’ opinion and perception of the SC (Ramière,
2006:153). Ramière (2006) tries to figure out how relevant and useful are the existing
translation strategies to the domain of AVT. She chooses to analyze a very interesting
theory belonging to Venuti (1998), which focuses on two specific notions: foreignisation
and domestication . This is one model which has been quite famous among translation
theorists and has been very well received. Ramière considers this model ‘a very pow erful

27 tool to conceptualize the interface between the source culture (SC) – seen as the ‘Self’ –
and the target culture (TC) – seen as the ‘Other’ – but has also sparked wide debate in the
field.’ (2006:153).
Venuti (1992, quoted in Ramière, 2006:153) beli eves that the concept of domestication is a
‘natural tendency of translation and consists in translating in a fluent, idiomatic, and
transparent way which tends to erase the foreignness of the source text and to conform to
the needs and values of the domes tic/target culture.’ On the other hand, the process of
foreignisation ‘takes the target reader towards the source text with a defamiliarising effect,
and consists in preserving linguistic and cultural differences by deviating from prevailing
domestic value s’ (Venuti, 1992, as quoted in Ramière, 2006:153).
As it has already been established, the subtitling process is different and subtitles differ
from the common notion of TT. Gottlieb (1997, quoted in Pedersen, 2005:13) reckons that
there are four distinct semiotic channels in polysemiotic texts (movies, TV shows): the
non-verbal visual channel (i.e. the picture), the non -verbal audio channels (i.e. music and
sound effects), the verbal audio channel (i.e. the dialogue) and the verbal visual channels
(signs a nd captions). They all carry semiotic information which is why overlaps happen
quite often, and the result is an intersemiotic redundancy. This is the moment when the
translation strategies mentioned in the previous subsection are used by the subtitlers. F or
example, ‘if something is referred to in the dialogue and at the same time clearly visible in
the picture, it may be enough to refer to it by using a pronoun in the subtitles
(Generalization)’ (Pedersen, 2005:13).
The technical constraints or, as Gottli eb (2004:219) calls them, ‘the famous and infamous
time and space restrictions of subtitling’ together with the switch from the spoken to the
written word are reducing the subtitler’s freedom in the case of translation strategies of
ECRs as well. Thus, in a rapid conversation condensation will be applied to the dialogue.
Because of these condensations subtitlers are left, in various cases, only with the strategy
of omission for the translation of ECRs. (Pedersen, 2005:14).
On the other hand, there can be ex ceptions, therefore, if the media -specific constraints are
low, then ‘the subtitler may have ample time and space to use space -consuming strategies
like addition or paraphrase.’ (Pedersen, 2005:14).

28 Ramière’s (2006) attempt of applying Venuti’s notions to a concrete corpus did not have a
very clear outcome as far as the strategies for ECRs translation go. She ended her study
with some ideas she drew from an interview with subtitlers because to some extent that is
how she could get some real answers, namely by going directly to the source. One of the
subtitlers in her data claimed ‘to systematically select strategies on a case -by-case basis,
and not to have any form of ideological, aesthetic or didactic agenda’ (2006:161), nor
having a particular guideline fo r the translation of culturally specific references. I wanted
to mention these notes from Ramière (2006) which came directly from subtitlers because
they are the closest ones to reality, they are facts and not just theories.
Pedersen’s (2005) strategies on ECRs translation were worth mentioning throughout this
section because they can be used in any kind of translation and some of them even in
subtitles, as much as it is possible. As Pedersen concludes, any analyst should be able to
describe how ECRs have b een rendered in a TT and also explain why they have been
rendered in this way (2005:15 -16).
I would like to mention here that, the close relation which exists between culture and
language is widely known. Also, they both complete each other and are in many ways
codependent. As it will be shown in the next section linguistic issues or challenges can be
categorized as cultural ones, as many scholars have already demonstrated.

2.2 Linguistic issues in translation
One of the functions of translation is to tra nsfer meaning from one language to another.
Thereby, the scope of the second part of this chapter is to gather as many opinions and
theories from several translation scholars or theorists, in order to establish which are some
of the most challenging issues encountered at a linguistic level. Translators are sometimes
faced with difficulties when they have to find the proper equivalent of some SL items,
which is totally underst andable because, as Culler (1988 ) claims, languages contain
concepts which differ i n many ways from one another.
From a linguistic point of view, issues in translating usually arise in the cases of
wordplays/puns, idioms, proverbs and other fixed expressions. Each of them is going to be
presented in what follows.

29
2.2.1 Puns/Wordplays
Most theorists do not make a distinction between puns and wordplays, therefore I will
analyze them as interchangeable in this subsection. The analysis of puns goes way back as
they used to be seen as the only legitimate field for the interdisciplinary contac ts between
linguistics and humor studies, for quite a long time (Attardo, 1994:108).
Definitions can vary, but from a linguistic and semiotic point of view, puns can be defined
as ‘a phenomena which involve the "signifiant" facet of the sign of which they are part in a
relevant sense, to be defined later.’ (Attardo, 1994:109). On a more general note, Attardo
(1994:109) argues that puns are spoken or written jokes signed or conveyed in any
semiotic system.
Ducháček (1970, quoted in Attardo, 1994:109) suggests a taxonomy through which he
claims that puns are inspired by ‘different linguistic phenomena such as homonymy,
paronymy, polysemy, antonymy, association of ideas, etymological consciousness (popular
etymology), tendency to motivation, lexical attraction (morphematic and semantic).’, but at
the same time differ from these phenomena because puns are also intentional.
Delabastita (1996) gives a general definition of wordplay: ‘the general name for the
vario us textual phenomena in which structural features of the language(s) used are
exploited in order to bring about a communicatively significant confrontation of two (or
more) linguistic structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different
meanings.’ (1996:128). As we can see, the definitions of wordplays and puns share
similarities.
One of the main purposes of using such constructions, wordplays or puns, whether we are
talking about TV shows, movies, written texts, is to amuse, so they are ex pected to create
the side effect of humor. Vierrether (2017) states that play on the structural characteristics
of a language, usually a combination of linguistic forms that look or sound the same, but
are different in meaning, tends to cause certain seman tic and pragmatic effects.
Delabastita (1996) analyzes the four types of wordplays which were previously mentioned
in Ducháček’s (1970) definition of puns, which demonstrates again that puns and
wordplays can be seen as one and the same thing. The four typ es of wordplays that I was

30 referring to before are: wordplay based on homonymy, homophony, homography, and
paronymy. They may not be as numerous in TV shows as they are in written texts, but they
may occur especially in comedy shows.
Homonyms are words tha t are spelled and pronounced the exact same way, but have two
different meanings, while homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled
differently and therefore have different meanings. Alexander (1997, quoted in Vierrether,
2017:46) argues that due to the language’s structure ‘homophones are the source of by far
the most widespread puns in English’. Homographs are words that are spelled the same
way but pronounced differently. (Vierrether, 2017:46). Paronyms are words that differ
slightly in both pronunciation and spelling and can, therefore, easily be mixed up
(2017:46).
Another type of wordplay which is worth mentioning is the rhyme, which is ‘a
combination of two words that are similar in sound, usually because they end in the same
syllable’ (V ierrether, 2017:46 -47). This type of wordplay is very present in the sitcom
Friends, because there are many scenes which involve written songs by one of the
characters.
Delabastita analyzed closely the translation of wordplays and proposed nine translation
strategies, stating that ‘it is possible in many cases to combine two or more techniques, that
there are particular circumstances in which the application of particular techniques is not
possible’ (1993:191). The nine techniques will be discussed as it fo llows:
1. Pun → pun is a strategy which can be used when ‘The TT contains a pun that can be
identified as a translational solution to the ST pun in question’ (1993:192). In other words,
the wordplay from the SL is replaced by a wordplay in the TL.
2. Pun → non -pun strategy is used when ‘There is no word or group of words in the TT
fragment corresponding with the relevant ST passage that shows the specific kind of
confrontation of different linguistic meanings within similar forms.’ (1993:202). This
technique impli es three more relevant possibilities:
 Non-selective non -pun – both original meanings are rendered;

31  Selective non -pun – only ‘one of the two linguistic meanings of the ST pun has
been selected and translated more or less equivalently, while the other has b een
deleted’ (1993:204);
 Diffuse paraphrase – both meanings are rendered ‘beyond recognition’ (1993:206).
3. Pun → punoid strategy attempts to recreate the effect of the pun by replacement with a
related rhetorical device, such as rhyme, irony.
4. Pun → ze ro strategy occurs when ‘the ST stretch of text containing the pun is simply
omitted, with or without the deletion being signaled.’ (1993:209).
5. Direct copy: pun ST = pun TT is used by translators to rather reproduce the ST pun than
actually translating it (1993:210).
6. Transference: pun ST = pun TT – shares similarities with the direct copy, the difference
consisting in the semantic consequences which are taken into consideration.
7. Addition: non -pun → pun: in this case, a pun is used in the TL even though it does not
exist one in the SL.
8. Zero → pun strategy is used when new material is used.
9. Editorial techniques such as footnotes, comments used as explanations.

2.2.2 Idioms and fixed expressions
Larson (1984:20) defines an idiom as ‘a string of words whose meaning is different from
the meaning conveyed by the individual words’; he further argues that an idiom ‘carries
certain emotive connotations not expressed in the other l exical items’ (1984:142). Another
definition is given in the Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979) where they are
referred to as ‘a fixed group of words with a special different meaning from the meaning of
the separate words’. In other words, idioms are linguistic expressions or lexical items
representing objects, concepts or phenomena of material life particular to a given culture
(Adelnia, 2011). From these definitions the first thing that we can say about idioms is that
they cannot be translated li terally, this being one of the reasons why they are similar with
items which are known as fixed expressions.

32 Baker (1992) also has some interesting things to say about idioms and she starts by calling
them ‘frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry
meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components’ (1992:63). Baker
(1992:63) comes up with five rules or conditions for idioms, with examples, which come
as follow: idioms cannot change the order of th e words in it (e.g. ‘the short and the long of
it’); word from an idiom it cannot be deleted (e.g. ‘spill beans’); we cannot add a word to it
(e.g. ‘face the classical music’); no words can be replaced by others in an idiom (e.g. ‘the
tall and the short of it’, ‘bury a hatchet’); the grammatical structure of an idiom can also
not be changed (e.g. ‘the music was faced’).
Fixed expressions, as their name already suggests, allow little or no variation in form. Even
though they share similarities, unlike idioms , fixed expressions ‘often have fairly
transparent meanings’ (Baker, 1992:64); it means that through the words which constitute
it the meaning can be easily deduced. There is a valid reason why fixed expressions are so
frequently used and widespread in any languages and that is because the encountering of
any of them ‘conjures up in the mind of the reader or hearer all the aspects of experience
which are associated with the typical contexts in which the expression is used’ (Baker,
1992:64). Baker goes on an d adds one more idea, which says that fixed expressions
‘encapsulate all the stereotyped aspects of experience and therefore perform a stabilizing
function in communication.’ (1992:64).
In translation one of the first problems that the translator encounter s are actually being able
to recognize that he is dealing with an idiomatic expression, because they are not always
very obvious (Baker, 1992:65). The types of idioms can vary, some are easier to recognize
than others, hence, the ones which are easier to r ecognize usually include expressions that
‘violate truth conditions, such as throw cautions to the winds ’ (Baker, 1992:65).
The ones who are considered to be more problematic, it is generally said that ‘the more
difficult an expression is to understand and the less sense it makes in a given context the
more likely a translator will recognize it as an idiom’ (Baker, 1992:65). One of the
translator’s tasks, which is important when it comes to idioms and fixed expressions, is not
to forget to take into conside ration the collocational environment, especially in the case of
those that are not readily accessible. This one is said to be a hard one for a translator
working from a foreign language (Baker, 1992:67).

33 In order for the previous idea to be properly unders tood I will add some essential details.
As Baker (1992) says, idioms and fixed expressions have individual collocational patterns,
which consequently form collocations with other items in the text as single units and enter
into lexical sets which are diffe rent from those of their individual words (1992:67).
Following this pattern can be helpful for the translator or subtitler while working on a
translation.
The biggest dilemma or the most asked question is the one concerning the translatability of
these idi oms from a SL to a TL. Baker (1992) has a very detailed and explicit list of
difficulties which may be met by the translator, but in what follows I will try to give a brief
view of each and every one of them.
The first issue might appear due to the lack o f equivalent in the TL, in most of the cases. It
is well known that every language has the freedom to express meanings in various manners
but, expecting to find equivalent idioms and expressions in the TL is, as Baker argues,
unrealistic (1992:68). As I me ntioned previously in this chapter, the presence of culture is
strongly felt at language level as well. Thus, some idioms or fixed expressions may be
culture -specific and in most of the cases they are of social or religious degree (Baker,
1992:68). On the same note, it is not the specific items an expression contains but rather
the meaning it conveys and the association with culture -specific contexts which can make
idioms and fixed expressions untranslatable or difficult to translate (Baker, 1992:68).
The s econd difficulty refers to the situations when ‘an idiom or fixed expression may have
a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of use may be different; the two
expressions may have different connotations, for instance, or they might no t be
pragmatically transferable.’ (Baker, 1992:69).
The third issue concerns the use of an idiom in the ST, because there are situations in
which it can have both the literal and idiomatic senses. In consequence, ‘unless the target
language idiom correspon ds to the source language idiom both in form and in meaning, the
play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target text.’ (Baker, 1992:69).
Now that I identified and pointed out the manner in which idioms and fixed expressions
can create challe nges or difficulties for the translator, it is necessary to bring into
discussion some translation strategies because these are, in general, the only solutions. The
following classification belongs to Baker (1992) and includes the following five strategies .

34 1. Using an idiom of similar meaning and form – ‘this strategy assumes using an idiom in
the TL which conveys the same meaning as that of the SL idiom and in addition consists of
equivalent lexical meaning’ (Baker, 1992:72). This kind of match is rare an d it can be only
occasionally made.
2. Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form is possible because sometimes
‘idiomatic or fixed expressions can be found in the TL, which share a similar meaning to
that of the source idiom, but which consist of different lexical items in order to express
more or less the same idea’ (Baker, 1992:74).
3. Translation by paraphrase is ‘considered to be by far the most common way of
translating idioms when there is no match in the TL’ (Baker, 1992:74). Even if it i s the
most common one, that does not mean that is easy or that the outcomes are always of high
quality. There are situations when the paraphrase may not be as accurate as one may hope.
4. Translation by omission ‘ occurs most of the time if the idiom consis ts of single words
and as a result is omitted altogether in the TT. The reasons can be multiple: this may
happen if it has no close match in the TL, the paraphrasing of its meaning cannot be easily
done, or sometimes from stylistic reasons’ (Baker, 1992:77 ).
5. One last strategy is the one of compensation . Briefly, the process of compensation
‘consists in either omitting or playing down a feature such as idiomaticity at point where it
occurs in the ST and is introduced elsewhere in the TT’ (Baker, 1992:78).
One other intralinguistic culture element is the proverb. Baker (1992) sees her analysis of
fixed expressions relevant for proverbs as well, considering that the proverb is defined as
‘a short generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, tr uth, morals and
traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form, handed down from
generation to generation. ’ (Mieder, 1993, quoted in Adelnia and Dastjerdi, 2011:880)
(emphas is added). I resonate with Adelnia and Dastjerdi’s (2011) opinion about proverbs
being a simple way of speaking and with their purpose as sometimes being useful when
trying to make the speech more understandable and perhaps concrete.
Other theorists claim that proverbs are crucial components of people’s speech because t hey
are fixed expressions that have meanings which cover all aspects of life. Thus, proverbs
can carry themes related to family, friendship, animals, money, wisdom and so on (Dweik
and Thalji, 2016:120). Translating proverbs requires knowledge in both lang uages, their

35 cultures and knowledge in strategies that are suitable for rendering the intended meaning as
well (Dweik and Thalji, 2016:120).
Slang expressions are seen as language variations which are created and used by groups of
people who share the same situations or interests. Since some movies or TV shows are
trying to capture an image as close as possible to reality, slang is sometimes used
(Rahmawati and Ajeng , 2017:42). Slang can cause many issues in translation because it is
both linguistic and cul tural bound and never occurs in simple or denotative meanings
(Eriksen, 2010, quoted in Zavari et al. , 2013). In this case, the translation difficulties and
solutions are the same as the ones discussed by Baker (1992).

2.3 Conclusions
With this second ch apter I attempted to go deeper into the world of Translation Studies, in
order to provide specific information about linguistic and cultural issues that translators
have to face in their everyday tasks. The connection that exists between culture and
langua ge is undeniable and the fact that they constantly complement each other has been
one of the main ideas which were emphasized throughout this chapter.
AVT, as Zojer (2011) argues, has been a latecomer when it comes to academically
acknowledged subject are as, and research on it has therefore been, until quite recently, a
rare academic commodity. So, even if the ideas of the theorists that I used were most likely
aimed at written texts, they can be just as relevant for the audiovisual translations.

36

CHAPT ER THREE
CHALLENGES IN SUBTITLING FRIENDS

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of possible challenges in subtitling TV
sitcoms from English into Romanian. The examples used to illustrate them are extracted
from the TV show Friends .

3.1 Corp us and Methodology
This chapter will focus on subtitling challenges in sitcoms based on examples collected
from the TV series Friends , which ran from 1994 -2004 and was one of the most popular
sitcoms of all times, very well -known at a global level. It is considered a masterpiece in its
area, and to some extent that is due to the impressive and qualitative scripts, they had
throughout ten seasons.
I have chosen this genre for the practical part because it is humorous and the language that
is being used pose s challenges for the translator. There are numerous plays on idiomatic
expressions from episodes to episodes, but I focused on the first and the fourth seasons.
In this chapter, I will analyze fifteen examples extracted from the seasons one and four of
the sitcom Friends and their Romanian translations provided by Netflix, made by
professionals in the field, according to the platform, although their names are not provided.
The examples are divided as follows:
 four examples of wordplays – one through homoph ones (season four, episode one),
one through rhyme (season 4, episode 10) and two examples through paronyms
(season 4, episode 10; season 1, episode 11);
 four examples of idioms of which three of them are from season 4, episodes 3, 16,
17, and one more fro m 4, episode 4;

37  two proverbs both extracted from season 1, episodes 18 and 16;
 five cultural allusions/ECRs – one from season 4, episode 8, and four of them from
season 1, episodes 3, 6 and 21.
The contrastive analysis of these examples will involve a dee per look into their meanings,
both from a sematic and pragmatic point of view, both in English and in Romanian, and an
investigation into the method and strategy of translation which has been used. Given the
very small scale of the corpus of examples, the analysis conducted here will not include a
quantitative dimension; my observations will be strictly qualitative and will attempt to
answer the following research questions:
1. What are the main linguistic and cultural challenges in the subtitling of sitcom s and what
are their causes?
2. What solutions do translators resort to when dealing with such challenges?

3.2 Subtitling Friends into Romanian: challenges and solutions
In the following subsections, we will take a closer look at some particular linguist ic
elements and the issues they raise in translation, grouped as follows: the translation of
wordplays (3.2.1), the translation of idioms (3.2.2), the translation of proverbs (3.2.3), the
translation of cultural terms (3.2.4).

3.2.1 The translation of wor dplays
The translation of wordplays can be a difficult task for subtitlers and it is one of the
reasons why this section is dedicated to them. In sitcoms the play on the language is
important because in combination with other elements, it leads to the ful filment of the
desired effect. The translation strategies used in this part were proposed by Delabastita
(1993), namely pun → non -pun (diffuse paraphrase), pun→ zero, pun → punoid and pun
→ pun, discussed in Chapter 2.
The first example is a wordplay based on homophones, extracted from S04E01
Example 1

38
Context: In the previous episode, Rachel wrote a letter to Ross. It was late; the letter
was 18 pages and Ross fell asleep while reading it. In this episode, Rachel finds out
that he has not finished reading her letter, which results into a fight, and Ross corrects
her writing mistakes from the letter in a sarcastic way.
SL TL
Ross: Oh oh oh and by the way: Y-O-U
apostrophe R -E means ‘you are’, Y -O-U-
R means ‘your.’ Ross: Și, apropo, „mi -e” înseamnă „îmi
e”! „Mie” înseamnă „mie”!

In English, ‘you’re’ and ‘your’ fall into the category of homophones, which in this
particular scene create a wordplay. Their missuse in writing is common for both native and
foreign Englis h speakers, which is probably one of the reasons why the writers of the show
decided to use it in the context of this scene. In the Romanian translation we are no longer
dealing with a case of wordplay through homophones becasuse there is not a corresponde nt
in the TL able to fulfill this function. However, we do enounter in the translated version an
example of wordplay through homonyms (‘Mie/mie’).
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , ‘your’ is an
adjective which can be us ed as a modifier or it can have an informal use with little or no
sense of possession to indicate a type familiar to the listener, meanwhile ‘you’re’ is defined
as a contraction of ‘you are’. From a linguistic point of view, the structure of the two
words is similar, the difference consisting in meaning.
The Romanian version does not correspond completely with the original one. The proper
translation of ‘you’re’ into Romanian is ‘tu ești’, and ‘your’ means ‘al t ău’. Thus, this is a
case of pun → non -pun translation, more specifically the third possibility of diffuse
praphrase because even though the TT does not contain a wordplay it is a translational
solution for the SL pun. The explanation regarding the subtitler’s choice of using ‘mi -e’
respectively ‘mie’, instead of the proper translation, would be that they were more suitable
and helped the viewer understand better Ross’s point, in other words they fit better into the
context.

39 The subtitler avoided a word for word translation and focused on a TL oriented translation
by adapting the line to something that is specific to the Romanian language, in this context.
I think that this translation matches the context well an d it is somehow the best
correspondent, because in the Romanian language the most common mistakes which occur
in writing are the ones involving the use of the hyphen in various contracted forms. Thus,
the irony and the humor, which are the puropse of this line, are felt and transposed in the
TL language as well.
However, I do believe the subtitler could have used at least ‘ție/ ți -e’ instead of ‘mie/mi -e’
in order to obtain a subtitle, which from a linguistic point of view would have been closer
to the meaning of the original form. In this way, the subtitle would have been both SL and
TL oriented to some extent, and the eff ect on the viewer would still have been the same.
The second example would be a wordplay through paronyms from S04E10.
Example 2
Context: In this scene, Monica is upset because people at work still hate her. In order
to cheer her up Phoebe assumes that a spelling error had been made.
SL TL
Written on Monica’s hat: ‘ QUIT BITCH’
Phoebe: Hey maybe they meant ‘ quiet
bitch!’ Pe pălăria de bucătar: DĂ -ȚI DEMISIA,
CĂȚEA
Phoebe : Poate au vrut să scrie: „Ca
lumea, cățea!”

In the English language ‘quit’ and ‘quiet’ are paronyms because they are distinguishable
by one letter, namely the letter ‘e’. ‘Quit’ and ‘quiet’ are commonly conf used in writing
because they look quite similar.
In the TL version the wordplay gets lost because the polysemy of the words is not
preserved. This example supports very well an argument made in the previous chapters,
namely that languages are distinct fro m one another. As a result, we can see in the
provided example that the Romanian correspondents do not fulfill the same function
because a suitable pair of polysemantic words was not identified by the translator.

40 In this case we are dealing with an omissi on of the wordplay into Romanian because this is
the easiest strategy when a counterpart does not exist. In other words the subtitler used a
pun → zero strategy, which led to the omission previously mentioned. The interesting part,
aside from not maintaing the wordplay in the TL, is that the translation of the word ‘quiet’
is completely changed.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary (online), ‘quiet’ means the state of being
calm or hushed, which into Romanian translates as ‘liniște/tăcere’, and in t his context the
imperative “be quiet” could be translated as ‘taci/lini ște!’. However, as we can see, the
subtitler translated it as ‘Ca lumea’. At first sight, it seemed like an improper translation
and, as I tried to find an explanation, the only one tha t seemed relevant was the one
regarding the importance of the context. Phoebe is trying to make Monica feel better about
herself, hence the subtitler decided to use ‘Ca lumea’ because it has a positive connotation,
namely that Monica is a cool person and i t makes it sound less insulting. Using
‘taci/lini ște’ would not have made sense taking into consideration the intended purpose.
This example also gives me the opportunity to bring into discussion one of the features
which sets apart the AVT from other types of translations, namely the visual channel. The
first line is written on Monica’s chef hat without being verbalized by anyone. In other
words, the subtitler had to work with the non -verbal visual channel. Thus, the entire scene
revolves around working with the image, so it depends on the subtitler to m ake the scene
as comprehendible as possible for the viewers, while synchronizing the subtitle in the best
possible way with the image, which he managed to do.
In the light of the previous idea, I would add that, taking into consideration the role of the
visual channel in this scene, I would have chosen a different translation for ‘QUIT BITCH’
because the text is written on the hat and I find it hard to believe that ‘DĂ -ȚI DEMISIA,
CĂȚEA’ would have fit on a hat as the text from the SL. For example, I would have said
just ‘RENUN ȚĂ CĂȚEA ’ because it is shorter and there are fewer characters.
The third example is based on rhyme, as wordplays can be built on them as well, from
S04E10
Example 3
Context: Phoebe wants to give her friends as a gift for Christmas a s ong which includes

41 all of their names.
SL TL
Phoebe:
Went to the store, sat on Santa's lap.
Asked him to bring my friends all kind of
crap.
Said all you need is to write them a song .
They haven't heard it, so don't try and sing
along .
No, don't sing along.
Monica, Moncia , have a happy Hanukkah .
Saw Santa Clause , he said hello to Ross .
And plese tell Joey, Christmas will be
snowy !
And Rachel and Chandler , have err-umm –
glander !!" Phoebe:
M-am dus la un magazin si am stat pe
genunchii lui Moș Crăciun.
L-am rugat să le aducă prietenilor dragi
Numai prostii în desagi .
Mi-a zis că destul ar fi să fie
De le -aș compune o melodie .
Dar melodia abia acum vine,
Deci să nu cântați cu mine .
Să nu cânt ați cu mine !
Monica, Monica ,
Fericită să fii de Hanukkah !
Moș Crăciun cel voios
L-a Salutat pe Ross .
Vă rog să -i spuneți lui Joey
Că de Crăciun va ninge .

This example consists of a song written by one of the characters from the show and it is a
very pert inent illustration of wordplay through rhyme. The whole point of the ST was for
the words to rhyme and, as a result, the subtitler managed, to some extent, to maintain that
in the TL version, which makes this a partially successful subtitle at last.

42 From m y perspective, in this example we are dealing with a case of p un → punoid
strategy. However, there is a slight deviation from the strategy’s enunciation because while
it does involve rhyme nothing is replaced; rhyme exists in both ST and TT. Therefore, the
subtitler used it to recreate the same effect in the TL and a s we can see everything is
adapted to the Romanian language, with a few exceptions such as the holiday Hanukkah
which does not exist in Romania, this being the reason why it is transferred in its original
form. The last verse of the song is the other excep tion where again we are dealing with
retention, the motif being that Phoebe could not find any words to rhyme with Rachel and
Chandler’s names, hence she mumbles something.
Considering that, the focus was on using words which rhyme some of the verses lose the
naturalness they have in the ST. For example, ‘Dar melodia abia acum vine’ it sounds
unnatural and the word order is not a common one in Romanian, but it works in the context
of the song.
The fourth example of wordplay is from S01E11.
Example 4
Contex t: Rachel was encouraged by Mrs. Bing to start writing a novel. She wrote the
first chapter of it and gave it to her friends to read it for feedback.
SL TL
Rachel: Okay. Now this is just the first
chapter, and I want your absolute honest
opinion. Oh, oh, and on page two, he’s
not ‘reaching for her heaving beasts’ .
Monica: What’s a ‘ niffle’ ?
Joey: You usually find them on the
‘heaving beasts’.
Rachel: Alright, alright, so I’m not a
great typist. Rachel: E doar primul capitol și vreau
părerea voastră abso lut sinceră. La pagina
doi, nu -i atinge „ săniile semețe”.
Monica : Ce e „ sfârg”?
Joey: De obicei, stă pe „ săniile semețe”.
Rachel: Bine. Nu sunt o dactilografă
extraordinară.

43 In this example we are dealing with a wordplay through paronyms resulted from
misspellings: Rachel misspells ‘breasts’ the female organ by writing ‘beasts’ and ‘niffle’
which is not a real word instead of ‘nipple’. The actual words are easy to identify due to
the context: Rachel is trying to write in the same style as Mrs. Bing and is not a secret that
she is not the brightest of the six of main characters.
The subtitler used a p un → pun strategy by replacing the paronyms from the SL with an
example from Romanian. Consequently, in the TT the meaning of some of the words is
completely replaced. For example, according to the dictionary ‘beasts’ translates into
Romanian as ‘fiare/ani male’ not as ‘sanie’ whose equivalent in English is ‘sled’.
As previously mentioned, the subtitler adapted the lexical components to the TL in order to
obtain the almost same effect of paronyms: ‘sănii’ and ‘sânii’ are paronyms because they
differ by one letter; ‘sfârc’ and ‘sfârg’ are paronyms due to the misspelling error because
‘sfârg’ is not a real word. The second pair of lexical items can be taken into account as
wordplay through paronyms because they are built on the base of the context and that is the
role they were meant to fulfill.
As a result, the desired effect, which in this case is obviously to obtain laughter, has been
met both in the SL and TL, therefore, the translation can be considered a successful one.

3.2.2 The translation of idioms
In the TV show Friends, idioms are quite frequent. They usually add to the humorous
effect. This is also a very common occurrence for sitcoms, namely playing as much as
possible with the language in order to obtain the desired effect. The translation method s
and strategies used in this part were proposed by Baker (1992), namely translation by
omission, using an idiom of similar meaning and form, translation through paraphrase,
discussed in Chapter 2.
The fifth example is an idiom from S04E16
Example 5
Contex t: Phoebe is having breakfast with Monica and Chandler, but she is upset

44 because everything she eats makes her sick because of the pregnancy.
SL TL
Phoebe: I can’t find anything that I
wanna eat. Everything makes me
nauseous. I am telling you being pregn ant
is no piece of cake . Uh cake! Nu g ăsesc nimic de mâncare care să -mi
placă. Toate îmi provoacă greață. Îți
spun, sarcina nu e deloc ca o prăjitură .
Prăjitură!

The idiom used in this example by Phoebe is ‘no piece of cake’. The Cambridge
Dictionary (online) defines ‘a piece of cake’ as an idiom, which it is being used when
trying to say that something is easy to do or as in Phoebe’s case when something is not
easy to do. According to Vocabulary.com , other ways to say ‘piece of cake’ are ‘no
problem’ or ‘it’s a breeze’. In addition, before t his expression came along, Americans used
‘cakewalk’ for things, which are as easy as eating a piece of cake would be.
Idioms are usually harder to translate because they do not always have a correspondent in
the TL. Regarding the subtitle, we can see tha t the subtitler used a translation by omission:
the idiom is omitted in the TT and the words are translated individually without taking into
account the meaning of the idiom as a whole. This is not the best strategy considering that
there is a similar coun terpart in the Romanian language like ‘floare la ureche’ or by simply
saying that it is ‘foarte ușor’. In other words, the subtitler could have used another strategy,
namely using an idiom of similar meaning and form.
However, the subtitler did not use another strategy for this paricular scene because
Phoebe’s lines are connected: after saying that her pragnancy is no piece of cake, she
realizes cake might be one of the things she could try to eat. With that being said, the word
‘prăjitură ’ had to be used in order for the last part of the line to make sense. If the subtitler
had chosen, for example ‘ floare la ureche’, the ‘Uh cake!’ part would most likely have
been omitted.
Considering the context of the scene, this variant is the most suitable, although Romanian
language speakers do not really use the phrase ‘ca o prăjitură’; even so, the reasons of this
subtitle are fully justified.
The sixth example is a play on the idiomatic expression ‘brown noser’ from S04E03.

45 Example 6
Context: Rachel’s colleague walks into the office with a macaroon for her boss.
Their boss does not like her very much and res ponds in a rude manner.
SL TL
Assistant: I brought you a macaroon.
Joanna: Oh, great I’ll keep it in my butt
with your nose. Assistant: Bună! Ți -am adus o
pricomigdală.
Joanna: Tare! Mi -o pun în dos, lângă
nasul tău.

In the case of this example, the idiom derives from Joanna’s line: ‘I’ll keep it in my butt
with your nose’ is a play on the idiomatic expression ‘brown -noser/bro wnnose’, which the
Merriam Webster Dictionary (online) defines as an informal way of trying to get the
approval (of an important or powerful person) by praise or flattery, etc. The writers of the
show probably decided to go with an extended version, which is more explicit than just
calling her a ‘brown -noser’. This way the viewers can understand better Joanna’s point.
In Romanian there is not an equivalent expression for this idiom; the most common word
used when referring to such persons being ‘lingu șitor/oare’. The subtitle provided for this
line is a neat one and, because of that, it sounds a little bit more polite in the TL version
than it does in the SL. Joanna seems more inssenitive or rude in the SL than she does in the
TL through the subtitle.
The subtitler went for a strategy which implies translation by paraphrasing which is one of
the most common strategies when dealing with idioms and one of the best ones because
both the meaning and the form are being transferred , to some extent, in the TL. The
context is not as important because the idiom speaks for itself.
The seventh example is an idiom from S04E17.
Example 7
Context: Ross tells the others that he told Emily ‘I love you’, but she did not say it

46 back.
SL TL
Ross: What do I do now?
Joey: You play hard to get. Ross: Acum ce s ă fac?
Joey: Să faci pe inaccesibilul.

The idiom from this example is ‘play hard to get’, which according to the Merriam –
Webster Dictionary (online) means to pretend that one is not interested in having a
romantic rel ationship with someone in order to make that person more attracted to one.
Even though Romanian native speakers sometimes use the saying ‘faci pe
inabordabilul/inaccesibilul’, it is not recorded as an idiom in dictionaries. Therefore, the
strategy used in this example is translation through paraphrase and, fortunately, the
translation turned out accurate enough, even though the lexical components from the TL do
not correspond completely with ones from the SL. ‘S ă faci pe inaccesibilul ’ can be
ambiguous from a lexical point of view, hence the context of the scene turns out to be
relevant and an indicator of what the word ‘inaccesibilul’ refers to, namely that Ross
would no longer be available in terms of his relat ionship with Emily.
This line reflects very well Joey’s way of being and it is a typical answer from this
character. It is important that the subtitler thorough his translation managed to capture that
as well by keeping the TL version close to the SL one.

3.2.3 The translation of proverbs
The following examples are either sayings, proverbs or proverbial idioms. The translation
strategies used in this section were formulated by Baker (1992), namely translation through
paraphrase, translation through omissi on and using an idiom of similar meaning but
dissimilar form, discussed in Chapter 2.
The eighth example is an idiom from S01E04
Example 8

47 Context: Ross is in the hospital after he was hit with a puck in the face at a game.
While he is being checked out, h is puck ends up in the hands of a child and he tries to
take it back.
SL TL
Ross: The kid…? (To the kid) Excuse me,
uh, that's, that's my puck.
Kid: I found it. Finders keepers, losers
weepers . Ross: Scuză -mă, ala e pucul meu.
Kid: L -am găsit. Cine găsește păstrează,
cine pierde lăcrimează.

The saying ‘Finders keepers, losers weepers’, according to the Merriam Webster
Dictionary (online), is used especially in children’s speech to say that a p erson can keep
what he or she has found and does not need to give it back to the person who has lost it.
As method of translation, the paraphrasing is the one which stands out, but the quality of
the subtitle is not at its highest. Even though the message of the idiom is communicated to
the TA to some extent, I think a better translation version could have been used.
In the Romanian language there is a correspondent, but only for the first part of the idiom,
namely ‘finders keepers’ whose equivalent in Roma nian is the colloquial saying ‘Ce -am
găsit al meu să fie’ (En. What I found is mine.). The subtitler went with a strategy
involving paraphrase, thus neither the structure nor the meaning is the same in the TL, and
also the entire line is redundant to some extent. Even though, consequently, the use of the
proposed subtitle would not have been as faithful to the original, because the second part of
the idiom would have been omitted, the TA would have still understood the kid’s point,
perhaps even better becau se ‘Ce -am găsit al meu să fie’ is frequently used by native
Romanian speakers.
The ninth example is a proverb from S01E18
Example 9
Context: Monica, Rachel and Phoebe are talking about Ross’s behavior during the
poker game saying how bitter he was. Monica agrees by saying that Ross can get

48 competitive and the line below is Phoebe’s reaction to Monica.
SL TL
Phoebe: Oh, hello, kettle? This is
Monica. You’re black .
Monica: Please! I am not as bad as Ross. Phoebe: „ Ceainicule! Sunt Monica. Tu
ești negru. ”
Monica: Te rog! Nu sunt la fel de rea ca
Ross.

In this example, Phoebe is playing with the proverb ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ which
means ‘something you say that means people should not criticize someone else for a fault
that they have themselves’ ( Cambrid ge Dictionary online). Hence, it is a proverb because
it fits the pattern and, as any proverb, it has a moral.
The proverb is not used in its original or canonical form in the sitcom, but a native speaker
of English would still not have a problem recognizi ng it, which I think it might not be the
case of the subtitler, who translated this line. One fact that is known about proverbs is that
they express a meaning as a whole, with few exceptions; therefore, there is no point in
trying to make sense out of them word by word.
The strategy used here is translation by omission as the proverb is omitted in the Romanian
version and the words are translated individually. At the same time, we encounter the
omission of the unnecessary linguistic elements, namely ‘Oh’ an d ‘hello’. The fact that the
proverb was not used in its canonical form made the subtitler’s job more difficult. In the
case of this example, the use of omission as a translation strategy comes with
consequences: the meaning is not transferred in the TL an d the effect on the TA gets lost,
especially if it is not familiar at all with the proverb from the SL.
If we take a closer look the Romanian language dictionaries, we will find an equivalent
proverb which serves the same meaning as ‘the pot calling the ke ttle black’ which is ‘R âde
ciob/hârb de oală spartă’. The DEX dictionary (online) explains that this proverb is said by
persons who laugh at someone else’s flaws without seeing their own. This would have fit
perfectly into the context of the scene and woul d have reflected the two sibling’s (Ross and
Monica) personalities as well.

49 This turn of phrase does not appear very often in subtitles partly because of its lexical
components and conventional language, but at the same time this is a real form of
expressi on used by many Romanian native speakers. Therefore, if the subtitler had chosen
the suggested solution, which is using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form, this
would have been the outcome. At the same time, the use of the Romanian proverb wou ld
have fulfilled better the aim of obtaining the laughter effect than the subtitler’s choice.
The tenth example is also a proverb from S01E16.
Example 10
Context: Chandler’s company has some financial issues and they have to make some
layoffs; Chandler is struggling with firing a beautiful girl from his department and
instead of firing her he asks her out.
SL TL
Chandler: It’s not just that she’s cute,
okay. It’s just that… she’s really really
cute.
Ross: It doesn’t matter. You don’t dip
your pen in th e company ink . Chandler: Nu e numai dr ăguță. E foarte…
foarte drăguță.
Ross : Nu contează. Nu-ți vârî penița în
cerneala companiei .

In this example, we are dealing with the proverb ‘don’t dip your pen into the company ink’
which, according to the synony ms.com, is used when a man is advised against having a
relationship with any woman in his workplace, because doing so can have very negative
consequences that affect many aspects of his life. For the comprehension of this example,
the context of the entire episode is important. I shall mention from the beginning that there
is no equivalent for this proverb in the Romanian language, thus the translation method
used by the subtitler is the proper one.
The translation method is the one through paraphrase and i t is safe to say that the
translation remains true to the SL, while making sure that the TA understands the message
correctly. This example is one of the few cases which demonstrates that a SL oriented
translation with a very close reproduction of the lexi cal items from the ST into the TT is

50 still comprehensible by the TA; in this particular case, it is all due to the context of the
episode.

3.2.4 The translation of culture terms
As I mentioned in the previous chapters culture has an important role to pla y in the
translation field because culture is one of the main factors which sets nations apart. The
translation strategies used in this part were proposed by Pedersen (2005), namely direct
translation, translation through omission, specification and retent ion, discussed in Chapter
2.
In Friends the most common cultural elements refer to holidays, allusions to famous
names, songs or movies, types of foods, streets or buildings. The general problem revolves
around finding a proper equivalent in order to make the cultural references relatable to the
TA, as we will see in the following examples.
The eleventh example is from S04E08 .
Example 11
Context: Everyone is contributing to the Thanksgiving’s dinner preparation in
Monica’s kitchen. Chandler walks in and is in a bad mood because he kissed Joey’s
girlfriend and he will not forgive him.
SL TL
Chandler: Urgh, turkey! Urgh, giving
thanks! Urgh!
Phoebe: Look everyone, it’s the spirit of
Thanksgiving ! Chandler: Curcan! Să fim recunoscători!
Phoebe : E spiritual Zilei Recuno știnței !

In this example, we are dealing with an ECR, the name of an American holiday, namely
Thanksgiving, which implies spending one day being thankful for basically anything. As a
testament to the importance of this holiday to the Americans, it features in one episode of
every season of Friends.

51 In Romania we do not have a holiday which resembles this one, thus the subtitler did not
have to try to replace Thanksgiving with a Romanian holiday in ord er to make it more
relevant to the TA. However, I do not think that would have been absolutely necessary
because Romanian native speakers are familiar with the concept and name of this holiday,
as it is very famous. The subtitler’s task was not very diffic ult as he used a strategy which
kept the line true to the SL, so this is a case of direct translation because the name of the
holiday was translated word -for-word.
In this scene and in general those involving this holiday the semiotic channels are in the
foreground. Thus, the visual and the audio channels help the viewers understand better the
rituals or what Thanksgiving is all about: images showing traditional dishes (turkey as
Chandler mentions), decorations, and the parade with the fanfare playing in t he
background, etc.
The twelfth example is from S01E13.
Example 12
Context: Joey found out about his father’s affair. He told his father he had to make
things right with his mum who turns out to know about it. Joey’s mum is happy with
the way things are b ecause his father became more caring. Chandler has a response to
the whole story.
SL TL
Chandler: Things sure have changed here
on Waltons Mountain. Chandler: Povestea noastr ă s-a schimbat.

In this example, we have an allusion to a name Walton Mountain which apparently is a
fictional place which was the setting of an American show called ‘The Waltons’. Chandler
associates Joey’s story about his father with the story of the W alton family from the TV
show.
I chose this example because it highlights those circumstances when omission as a strategy
of translation is required, especially in the case of allusions. My point is that I had the time
to stop and find information about C handler’s reference to this famous American show, but

52 a viewer of the episode would not have time for such a thing. Therefore, the use of this
allusion to a name in the Romanian version would have meant nothing to the TA because
the series the character al ludes to is not known in Romania. Even though, omission is
effectively qualified as the right translation strategy as there is no proper equivalent to
replace the allusion with a Romanian reference, the desired effect is lost.
The thirteenth example is fr om S01E6.
Example 13
Context: Joey is talking on the phone with his agent who gives him the wonderful
news that he got the part in an Al Pacino movie.
SL TL
Joey: (on phone) Uh huh.. uh huh… oh
my God! Okay! Okay, I'll be there! That
was my agent. My a gent has just gotten
me a job…in the new Al Pacino movie! Joey: Doamne! Bine. Am să vin. Era
agentul meu. Tocmai mi -a obținut un rol
în noul film al lui Al Pacino .

In this example, we are dealing again with a cultural reference, this time to a proper n ame,
Al Pacino. I wanted this one to be right after the previous example so that the difference is
more obvious. Al Pacino is a very famous actor and his name is very well known at an
international level. The fact that he is very famous allows the subtitle r to use his name in
the translated version and not try to replace it in any way. Therefore, the subtitles’s task
was easier for this particular scene because he easily applied the direct translation strategy
which works perfectly.
At the same time, the n ame is very important for the context of the scene and for the
character Joey who is still at the beginning of his acting career, which makes this a great
opportunity for him. Trying to replace the name with an equivalent from Romania would
have been unnec essary. In contrast with the previous example, this one proves that well
known cultural elements can be transferred as they are in the TL and have a good outcome.
The fourteenth example is from S01E03.
Example 14

53 Context: Monica has invited her new boyfrie nd, Allan, to her apartment so that he
could meet the rest of the group. They usually make fun and criticize all of the men
Monica dates, but this one turns out to be an exception because they adore the guy.
SL TL
Chandler: Oh, yeah. I'd marry him just
for his David Hasselhoff impression
alone. You know I'm gonna be doing that
at parties, right? Chandler: M -aș căsători cu el doar pentru
cum îl imită pe David Hasselhoff, din
Baywatch . O să îl imit și eu la o
petrecere.

In this example we have again a cultural element, i.e.a proper name which is David
Hasselhoff, an actor from the famous American TV show Bay watch, which appears very
often on Friends because it is Joey’s and Chandler’s favourite show .
The reason I chose to add to the analysis another reference to a proper name is because it is
one of the few examples of specification through addition which is a common translation
strategy for both ECRs and allusions. The Romanian viewers may not be as familiar with
the name David Hasselhoff as the Americans are, but they are familiar with the title of the
show, especially because its name appears so many times in different scenes from Friends .
This strategy is meant to help the viewers and provide them some guidance, which the
subtitler managed to do.
The context and the visual channel are not very helpful in this case because it is irrelevant
if Alan has a simi lar physical appearance to David Hasselhoff, if the audience never saw
Baywatch . Therefore, the subtitler’s intervention was a more suitable option than the
omission of the cultural allusion.
The fifteenth example is from S01E21.
Example 15
Context: Monic a has been acting reckless and doing things she never did before in
her life with a woman having the same name. This other Monica stole her credit card

54 and that is how they met and became close.
SL TL
Monica: No, thank you! You have given
me so much! I m ean, if it wasn't for you,
I would never have gotten to sing
Memories on the stage at the Winter
Garden Theater ! Monica: Nu, eu îți mulțumesc. Ai făcut
atâtea pentru mine! Dacă nu erai tu nu
mai cântam „Memories” la teatrul Winter
Garden .

In this example we are dealing with two ECRs: one is a song from the musical ‘Cats’ (as
mentioned in a previous scene), which is called ‘Memori es’, and the second one is the
name of the theater which is the location of the auditioning process, Winter Garden
Theater . The subtitler’s focus seems to be on keeping the translation close and true to the
SC by keeping the same lexical components in the Romanian version. The highlighted
strategy is the one of retention because the subtitler only transferred the words in their
origin form in the TT.
While it is important for the American culture to be present in the eyes of the viewers
through these refere nces, I do not agree with this translation. The name of the song could
have been translated through a direct translation as ‘Amintiri’ in order for the TA to at least
know what the word means. This way, in point of comprehension the line would have
reached a wider audience. The second ECR could have been translated through adaptation,
meaning replacing the theater’s name with the name of a significant Romanian theater.
Therefore, the subtitle would have been closer to the TC and more relatable to the TA.
However, considering that both the musical show and the place are very specific to the
American culture, and very few Romanians would recognize them, the translator’s
approach seems justified.

3.2.5. Findings of the analysis
The purpose of this last subsec tion is to draw some systematic conclusions from the
provided analysis by answering the research questions formulated above. In terms of the
main linguistic and cultural challenges in the subtitling of sitcoms the analysis focused on

55 wordplays, idioms, pro verbs, allusions and ECRs. The investigation revealed that the
solutions adopted by the subtitlers differ from one category of challenges to the next.
Through my first research question, I intended to find out why these particular linguistic
and cultural e lements are difficult to translate. The cause is rather common than particular
to each category. In the case of two very different languages, as Romanian and English, it
is more challenging to reach a valid final translation version. Lexical items rarely
correspond and cultural references result in omission most of the time in the TT.
The first challenge referred to wordplay. Compared to idioms or cultural references, I
believe that there are fewer instances of wordplay. I was able to identify four types of
wordplays all expressed in different manners from paronyms to rhymes which made each
of them unique. The conclusion that I reached after analyzing all of them was that
subtitlers will use different strategies or translation methods from wordplay to wordpl ay.
They adapt the strategies to the needs of each particular example, in order to find the best
version in the TL which regarding this paper was Romanian. Thus, the translation methods
used for wordplays are pun → non -pun (example 1), pun → zero (example 2), pun →
punoid (example 3), pun → pun (example 4). There was not one strategy which was used
the most because each example is different in structure and lexical meaning, therefore each
one of them required a different technique.
Idioms are very frequent in Friends because they are connected to the colloquial nature of
the dialogues and scenes. I selected three examples presented in section 3.2.2 to which I
added three examples of proverbs in section 3.2.3, some of them functioning as idiomatic
proverbs.
In the case of the idioms, I have concluded that the most challenging part for the subtitlers
is to translate the idiom’s meaning as whole as it is supposed to be done, not translating
every single word from it individually (example 5). The lack of equival ent idioms in the
Romanian language made the subtitlers’ tasks more difficult. Thus, the translation strategy,
which was mostly used by subtitlers was paraphrase (examples 6 and 7), because that is
one of the best ways to deal with an idiom which does not have an equivalent in the TL.
In the case of the examples that I chose for idioms, the used translation methods and
strategies are the ones that are in general the most frequent, even though the outcome
might not have a high quality level (example 5). Howe ver, in most of the cases their use is

56 justified by the context of the scene. The context and the lines following the idioms plays a
major role in their translation into Romanian as it was demonstrated in the analysis of
example 5. Therefore, the subtitler choses the strategies depending on the context. The
same rules regarding the importance of the context apply to the translation of cultural
references as well, as it was illustrated in the last subsection of the analysis.
The translation of proverbs turne d out to be very similar with the one of the idioms. The
strategies which were used were paraphrase (examples 8 and 10) and omission (example
9). Not having an equivalent in the TL turned out to be the biggest challenge.
Consequently, the TA might understa nd the message, but the meaning as a whole for both
proverbs and idioms got lost.
As far as the translation of ECRs are concerned, the subtitlers tend to use the strategy of
retention (example 15), which means transferring the name of a person, institution , title of
a movie or song, in its original form in the TT. The second most used strategy in these
cases is the omission one (example 12) that leads to ambiguous subtitles which in the end
do not fulfil the desired effect.
The most common cultural referenc es, as we have seen, are proper names. There are cases,
as I argued in Example 15, when the ECRs can be replaced with relevant elements from
the TC, in order for them to be more relatable to the TA. However, an important factor in
deciding which strategy t o adopt is by taking into consideration the accessibility of the SL
reference for the TL speakers. We have seen that sometimes the subtitler tries to increase
this accessibility by providing additional information (see Example 14), but in most cases
the re ference is transferred as such in the absence of a TL equivalent.
All in all, the linguistic and cultural elements extracted from Friends are meant to
showcase the character’s personalities like Ross’s need to correct everyone’s grammar and
spelling (exam ple 1), Rachel not being very bright -minded (examples 1 and 4) and Joey’s
advice when it comes to relationships (example 7). This is one of the reasons why they
have to be transferred properly to the TL.
Through this last chapter, I tried to capture as muc h as possible the main ideas from the
theoretical chapters, and illustrate them with examples from the sitcom Friends . The task
turned out not to be a very easy one, but throughout the analysis I managed to find the

57 strategies which were used by the subtit lers and where it was possible to add notes or even
alternative translations.

58

Conclusions

The purpose of this paper was to bring to the foreground some of the biggest challenges a
subtitler may face in the process of translating from English into Rom anian.
I structured this paper in three chapters each consisting of several subchapters. The first
chapter ( Introducing audiovisual translation ) brought into discussion the theoretical
background of the concept and the process of translation. It also focus ed on audiovisual
translation, with a closer look at its evolution and its reception in the field of translation
studies. Even though many opinions of different theorists were presented, one conclusion
was that there is still room for development, particul arly in the audiovisual field. The aim
of this chapter was to provide a more general view on the translation field in relation with
the audiovisual area, in order to provide a basis for the second chapter.
The second chapter ( Main aspects of subtitling ) aimed at discussing some particular issues
related to subtitling, namely the challenges posed by cultural and linguistic issues. It was
also highlighted how strong the relation between language and culture is and how they
work together. The linguistic issue s which were discussed referred to wordplays, idioms
and proverbs, and cultural elements. This chapter brought into foreground some of the
most used translation strategies for the categories previously mentioned
The third chapter ( Challenges in subtitling Friends ) consisted of an analysis of fifteen
examples containing linguistic or cultural issues. The main idea of this chapter was to
include examples that can create problems in translation and to discuss the solutions used
in order to obtain successful o utcomes. It started with examples of wordplays, than idioms,
proverbs and concluded with cultural -references. The sitcom Friends was a reliable source
for the needed examples because the examples previously mentioned were frequent in the
dialog lines.
The scope of this paper was to show how examples from the sitcom Friends , that can be
seen as challenging, prompted the subtitler to react in terms of strategies and solutions, in
order to obtain a successful result, while working with the constraints specific for AVT. At

59 the same time, I was able to give some suggestions in the case of some examples. Findings
such as the major importance of the context or the importance of working with AVT
specific constraints, such as the visual channel, have been illustrated through the given
examples.

60

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Dictionaries :
https://dexonline.ro/
Longman Dict ionary of Contemporary English Idioms (online )
Merriam -Webster Dictionary (online)
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online)
The Cambridge Dict ionary (online)
Vocabulary.com (online)