Abstract:
This study is a descriptive piece of research attempting to compare
and contrast the use of two types of cohesive devices (i.e., lexical
cohesion and ellipsis) in the original dialogues of a television
series with the Persian subtitled and dubbed versions of the same
dialogues. The data used in the study comprises the dialogues of 10
scenes randomly selected by the researcher from the television
series Prison Break as well as the dubbed and subtitled
counterparts of the dialogues of the same scenes. The study seeks
two objectives: First, it attempts to investigate the original
dialogues of the film in terms of the frequency of the use of the
two mentioned types of cohesive devices and to compare them
with the dubbed and subtitled versions; second, it aims to compare
the two types of audio-visual translations (i.e., dubbing and
subtitling) to find out how they have dealt with these cohesive
devices and what difference exist between these two types of
translation in terms of their handling lexical cohesion and ellipsis.
For this purpose, the study employs the model proposed by
Halliday and Hasan (1976). Also, in order to determine the interrater
reliability of the analyses, Chi Square test is conducted. The
findings reveal that repetition has the greatest frequency of use
among lexical cohesion elements and clausal ellipsis has the
greatest frequency among ellipsis types in the original dialogues.
The findings also demonstrate that the two translated versions are
relatively similar in their handling lexical cohesion but the dubbed
version contains a substantially greater number of cases of ellipsis
than the subtitled version does. The findings of this paper could
provide audiovisual translators with information as to how the
cohesive elements are differently used in the English dialogues and
their Persian translations (subtitled and dubbed dialogues).
Machine summary:
The study seeks two objectives: First, it attempts to investigate the original dialogues of the film in terms of the frequency of the use of the two mentioned types of cohesive devices and to compare them with the dubbed and subtitled versions; second, it aims to compare the two types of audio-visual translations (i.
e. , dubbing and subtitling) to find out how they have dealt with these cohesive devices and what difference exist between these two types of translation in terms of their handling lexical cohesion and ellipsis.
The findings reveal that repetition has the greatest frequency of use among lexical cohesion elements and clausal ellipsis has the greatest frequency among ellipsis types in the original dialogues.
3. What similarities and differences exist in the two methods of film translation (subtitling and dubbing) in terms of applying ellipsis and lexical cohesion?
Table 5 Density of the use of different types of lexical cohesion in the dialogues of the dubbed version of the film Frequency of use Percentage Repetition 201 81.
Table 7 Frequency of the use of different types of lexical cohesion in the three versions Original version Subtitled version Dubbed version Repetition 165 219 201 Collocation 30 30 29 Synonymy 20 5 3 Superordinate 11 5 12 General term 2 2 2 Total 228 261 247 The findings also demonstrate that 69 cases of ellipsis have been used in the original dialogues whereas 70 cases have been used in the Persian subtitles, and 109 cases have occurred in the dubbed version.