The Concepts of Ambiguity and Equivalence in Interlingual Japanese-Italian Subtitling
How the Semiotic Coexistence of Iconic Elements, Soundtrack and Written Language Influences the Interlingual Translation Process
abstract
This study focuses on the concepts of ambiguity and equivalence in the field of interlinguistic subtitiling of feature films from Japanese into Italian. Feature films often present us with a context that is revealed not only through language, but also through various iconic components (such as different geographic locations, local symbolic signals, body movements, urban environments, social and historical trends); this illustrate how complex is the relationship between the original spoken dialogues and extraverbal elements. In particular, given the increasing demand for Japanese films subtitled in languages other than English, this study underlines how the intercultural and interlingual translation of the above assets requires the future subtitlers’ generations to have a solid AVT theoretical background.
Keywords: Ambiguity • Equivalence • Interlingual subtitling • AVT (audiovisual translation) • Japanese