ABSTRACT 2

Title: The Construal of Multimodal Meaning in Subtitling Humour in Polish and

Italian
Keywords: Multimodality, Subtitles, Humour

In this paper will be carried out a contrastive analysis of the elements of audiovisual language
(visual and audible elements) in some scenes of the children’s film Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory and its Spanish version Charlie y la fábrica de Chocolate. The analysis will be based on
the model developed by Zohar Shavit (1986) to examine characteristic features of ambivalent
texts. The analysis involves comparing both texts on different aspects: alteration of the existing
model, manipulation of implied readers and violation of prevailing norms and representative
structures.

Although children are the official readership of Children’s Literature, it appeals to both, children
and adults. However, as Zohar Shavit explains, writers may avoid the constraints that imply the
double addressing by ignoring one of the two sectors of the readership. When the writer appeal
to an adult audience, “using the child as an excuse rather than as a real addressee”, the text
produced is what Shavit calls an ambivalence text (Zohar Shavit, 1986: 149). If notion of
ambivalence, primarily conceived by Lotman (1977), can be applied to the specific case of
Children’s literature, it may also be used in children’s audiovisual texts, since they also address
both audiences. The film selected for this study is thought to convey features of ambivalence
not only in its textual realization, but also in its visual and audible elements. These latter will be
analyzed both in the original version and its translated version.

The scenes selected for this study will be evaluated against the following questions: 1. are
visual-gestural signals allowed for in the subtitled Italian and Polish versions; 2. are these
signals used as legitimisation of omission or exploited for highlighting comic effect; 3.

is there any trace in translated text correspondence between the types of humour in the original
version in English and its two renditions in Italian and Polish.

films and then by examining the need to produce ambivalent texts on the basis of the systemic
constraints of the children's system.

two renditions of humour found in Polish and Italian subtitles prepared for Mel Brook's feature
film Young Frankenstein. This cross-linguistic discussion will draw on the theoretical framework
of multimodality, as it takes a multisemiotic perspective on discourse analysis, i.e. one which
allows for the interaction occurring between nonverbal signals (visual, gestural, kinesics,
proxemics) along with verbal signals (subtitles). In line with this framework, all types of semiotic
resources are believed to interact and merge in meaning construal. This means that in a
multisemiotic text, such as a film, signs are not treated separately, as autonomous, atomistic
elements to be analysed independently by scholars representing distinct provenances (e.g.
semiotics, pragmatics, gesture studies, and translation studies), but rather as a dynamic
network of elements deployed in a communicative situation, which allow meaning to emerge as
a single and coherent unit. This approach to communication treats verbal and nonverbal signals
on a par and as necessary elements equally contributing to a multisemiotic configuration, and
thus it promotes a transdisciplinary and intersemiotic research.

While studies into multimodality are now common in the field of discourse analysis, they are still
in gestation in audiovisual translation and practised by a small number of scholars based largely
in Italy (Taylor 2003; Perego 2009; Petit 2007). This paper aims to be a modest contribution to
this nascent interdisciplinary subfield arching AVT with discourse studies. The scenes selected
for the present investigation will be evaluated against the following questions: 1. are visual-
gestural signals allowed for in the subtitled Italian and Polish versions; 2. are these signals used
as legitimisation of omission or exploited for highlighting comic effect; 3. is there a
correspondence between the types of humour in the original version in English and its two
renditions in Italian and Polish.

Bibliography
Perego, E. 2009. ‘The codification of nonverbal information in subtitled texts’. In: J. Díaz Cintas
(ed.) New Trends in Audiovisual Translation, Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 58-69.
Petit, Z. 2007. ‘Translating verbal and visual language in The Piano’, Perspectives 15(3): 177-
90.
Taylor, C. 2003. ‘Multimodal transcription in the analysis, translation and subtitling of Italian
films’, The Translator 9(2): 191-205.