On the Degree of Specificity in Translated Movie Subtitles

Abstract

Translated movie subtitles rapidly flash across the screen, keeping pace with actors’ lines. They need to be concise while retaining their original meaning. To meet this need, some linguistic devices are employed during the translations, one of which is the change in the degree of specificity of expressions in the original lines and the translated subtitles. This paper explores 1) whether the original meaning is retained when the degree of specificity increases or decreases in the subtitles; 2) the role the change in the degree of specificity plays in the understanding of viewers; and 3) what kind of original expressions are likely to be candidates for the change in the degree of specificity. We argue that both increasing and decreasing the degree of specificity serve to reduce the processing cost of the viewers while retaining “dynamic equivalence” as defined by Nida (1964) between the original lines and the subtitles.