Multimodal Text Analysis and Subtitling

For some years now this author has collaborated with colleagues at the universities of Pavia, Padua and Venice in research projects concerning multimodal text analysis and the creation of multimodal corpora, e.g. Taylor (2000). In particular the work of Thibault (2000) and Baldry (2000) has inspired work on the harnessing of multimodal transcriptions to the task of translating screen texts for interlingual subtitles. Specific translation (and other) strategies are required in subtitling film scripts and the like, and the multimodal transcription provides a scientific basis for formulating some of those strategies which are involved in the particularly controversial process of text condensation. A whole series of different multimodal text types have been analysed (feature films, soap operas, advertisements, cartoons, documentaries, etc.) and this chapter will illustrate the methodology underlying and the results obtained from a number of those analyses.