An-Najah National University Faculty of Graduate Studies Strategies Used in Subtitling Science Fiction Movies for Arab Children By Ahlam Ahmad Mohammad Salhab Supervisor Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah This Thesis is Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Master Degree of Applied Linguistics and Translation, Faculty of Graduate Studies, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. 2017 II Strategies Used in Subtitling Science Fiction Movies for Arab Children By Ahlam Ahmad Mohammad Salhab This thesis was defended successfully on 05/07/2017 and approved by: Defense Committee Members Signature Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah / Supervisor ……………… Dr. Mohammad Thawabteh / External Examiner ……………… Dr. Ekrema Shehab / Internal Examiner ……………… III Dedication With deepest and warmest gratitude, To my dad and mom, to whom I owe everything and who made it all possible, To my husband Abdel Rahim, I dedicate this thesis. IV Acknowledgments First, all praise is due to Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, and the author of knowledge and wisdom, for the help and foresight that enabled me to make my dream come true. Special appreciation goes to my supervisor, Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah, for his supervision and constant support. His invaluable help of constructive comments and suggestions has contributed to the success of this thesis. The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without his excellent guidance. It was really an honor to have been one of his students. Also, many special thanks are also due to the members of examining committee, Dr. Mohammad Thawabteh and Dr. Ekrema Shehab, for their fruitful comments and feedback which contributed to the improvement of this work. I'm also thankful to my family members: my sisters Reham, Wisam and We'am, and my brothers Mohannad, Emad and Amjad, and my uncle Emad who each gave me their love and support. Also, sincere thanks to all friends especially Wala, Dua, Ghazala, Samah, Eline, Salam and Nariman. Last but not least, I am also thankful to my dear colleagues in Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie, especially its president Prof. Marwan Awartani, for their moral support. To those who indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to me. V إقزار :أدٔبٖ ِمذِخ ٘زٖ اٌشعبٌخ اٌزٟ رحًّ عٕٛاْ خأٔب اٌّٛلع االسززارُجُبد اىَسزخذٍخ فٍ رزجَخ أفالً اىخُبه اىؼيٍَ ىألطفبه اىؼزة Strategies Used in Subtitling Science Fiction Movies for Arab Children ألش ثأْ ِب اشزٍّذ ع١ٍٗ ٘زٖ اٌشعبٌخ إّٔب ٘ٛ ٔزبط عٙذٞ اٌخبص، ثبعزضٕبء ِب رّذ اإلشبسح إ١ٌٗ ح١ضّب ٚسد، ٚأْ ٘زٖ اٌشعبٌخ وىً أٚ عضء ِٕٙب ٌُ ٠مذَ ِٓ لجً ١ًٌٕ أ٠خ دسعخ ع١ٍّخ أٚ ثحش .غخ رع١ّ١ٍخ أٚ ثحض١خ أخشٜعٍّٟ أٚ ثحضٟ ٌذٜ أ٠خ ِؤع Declaration The work provided in this thesis, unless otherwise referenced, is the researcher‟s own work, and has not been submitted elsewhere for any other degree. Students name: Ahlam. A. M. Salhab اعُ اٌطبٌت: Signature: ............................................. اٌزٛل١ع: Date: 05/07/2017 اٌزبس٠خ: VI Table of Contents Page Subject No. II Defense Committee Members III Dedication IV Acknowledgements V Declaration VI Table of Contents VIII List of Tables IX List of Figures X Abstract Chapter One : Introduction 1 Introduction 1.1 3 Constraints of Subtitling 1.2 6 Children Cognition Development 1.3 7 Subtitling Strategies 1.4 9 Objectives 1.5 9 Research Questions 1.6 10 Methodology 1.7 11 The Movies 1.8 13 The Procedure 1.9 14 Limitations of the Study 1.10 Chapter Two: Literature Review 16 Studies on Science Fiction Movies Subtitling 2.1 19 Observations on the Translation of Science Fiction Movies 2.2 20 science fiction 2.3 23 Audiovisual Translation 2.4 26 Subtitling 2.5 26 Definition of Subtitling 2.5.1 27 Types of Subtitles 2.5.2 29 Advantages and Disadvantages of Subtitling 2.5.3 VII Page Subject No. 31 Constraints of Subtitling 2.5.4 32 Linguistic Constraints 2.3.4.1 36 Cultural Constraints 2.3.4.2 37 Movies Subtitling for Children 2.6 39 Children Cognitive Development 2.7 48 Subtitling Strategies 2.8 Chapter Three: Subtitling Constraints 54 Linguistic Constraints 3.1 55 Linguistic Constraints in Legend and Megamind movies 3.2 55 Idioms 3.2.1 68 Long Sentences 3.2.2 74 Repetition and Redundancy 3.2.3 83 Names 3.2.4 88 Swear words 3.2.5 95 Cultural Constraints 3.3 97 Cultural Constraints in Legend and Megamind movies 3.4 97 Allusion 3.4.1 105 Puns 3.4.2 107 Fauna and Flora 3.4.3 112 Summary 3.5 Chapter Four: Conclusions and Recommendations 114 Conclusions 4.1 120 Recommendations 4.2 122 References اٌٍّخض ة VIII List of Tables Page Title Table No. 56 Legend Movie: Original Idioms and Arabic Subtitles Table (1) 56 Megamind movie: Original Idioms and Arabic Subtitles Table (2) 69 Legend Movie: Original Long Sentences and Arabic Subtitles Table (3) 69 Megamind movie: Original Long Sentences and Arabic Subtitles Table (4) 75 Legend Movie: Original Repetitions and Arabic Subtitles Table (5) 75 Megamind movie: Original Repetitions and Arabic Subtitles Table (6) 84 Legend Movie: Original names and Arabic Subtitles Table (7) 84 Megamind movie: Original names and Arabic Subtitles Table (8) 89 Legend Movie: Original swear words and Arabic Subtitles Table (9) 89 Megamind movie: Original swear words and Arabic Subtitles Table (10) IX Lists of Figures Page Title Table No. 57 A woman warning princess Lilli to be careful while wandering through the forest. Figure (1) 59 Roxanne Ritchi catches a ride down with Bernard. Figure (2) 60 Brown Tom is shot through his head by goblins. Figure (3) 61 While Titan looks at Roxanne Ritchi. Figure (4) 76 Gump nervously hits his head with ground when Jack manages to answer the riddle. Figure (5) 81 Titan tries to get rid of Megamind statue. Figure (6) 90 Gump is damaging his guitar when Jack Answers the Riddle. Figure (7) 99 Megamind's slogan as shown in the movie. Figure (8) 99 Theslogan which President Obama is shown by in 2008. Figure (9) X Strategies Used in Subtitling Science Fiction Movies for Arab Children By Ahlam Ahmad Mohammad Salhab Supervisor Dr. Sufyan Abuarrah Abstract The main concern in this study is how children age influences the subtitler‟s choice of strategy in light of the linguistic and cultural constraints in science fiction movies. This study investigates the relation between the linguistic and cultural constraints and subtitling strategies used when subtitling for Arab children at two main stages of cognitive development, namely the concrete and the formal operational stages. The study has considered idioms, swear words, long sentences, repetition, and names as linguistic constraints. Also, it has focused on cultural references as allusions, puns, fauna and flora. The study has adopted a descriptive qualitative approach where the linguistic and cultural constraints are categorized and related to children‟s cognitive development and choice of subtitling strategy. The study concludes that Arab subtitlers tend to use simpler syntactic, semantic and cultural units when translating for children at the concrete operational stage as they use the strategy of reduction (including condensation, decimation, compression and deletion). On the contrary, subtitlers when translating for children at the formal operational stage prefer to use the strategy of transfer (including neutralization, imitation, transcription, paraphrase). However, some rare cases show that the subtitlers do not pay special attention to children's cognition development as they use the same strategies of transfer and reduction when translating for both concrete and operational stages. Chapter One 1.1. Introduction: This study deals with the linguistic and cultural constraints for subtitling science fiction movies from English into Arabic for children. The constraints will be investigated as challenges for subtitlers‟ choice of strategy considering the audience age and cognition development. It assumes that children age determines the use of strategies when dealing with certain linguistic and cultural challenges since each age group has its own features which enable the target language child to comprehend the subtitles. As we may notice movies are nowadays among the most common intercultural communication devices and mass entertainment sources for Arab audiences. TV channels produce different kinds of movies, including comedy, drama, science fiction and action. As one of movie genres, a science fiction movie is defined according to Sobchack (1987) as a connection between the real world and the imaginary world. This means that it tries to create an image about an unfamiliar and unexplored situation and relates it to the real world. Some examples of science fiction movies are Frankenstein (1931), Metropolis (1927), Superman (1978), The 5 th Wave (2016) etc.. It seems that science fiction movies play a vital role in children's everyday life. Rashed (2007) states that science fiction improves the child's innovation and develops his/her critical thinking skills. It also has various http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007818-frankenstein/ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013775-metropolis/ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/superman_the_movie/ 2 advantages for Arab children, such as developing the children's ability to solve problems and enhance the children's scientific culture. Noshwan (1993) adds that science fiction enriches the child with new knowledge, recognition and problem solving skills; therefore, the child will be able to imagine the situations in the future and consider appropriate improvements. Science fiction movies are locally and globally produced. However, one can notice that global production of science fiction movies is given more attention than local production in the Arab World. These movies need to be accurately translated, so their translation might be an onerous task or a common challenge for translators. Laia (2015) states that audiovisual translators are receivers and senders; they are sometimes ordered to bridge different linguistic and cultural gaps despite dealing with the same semiotic resources. Therefore, they need to learn specific strategies that enable them to mediate between the language and cultural backgrounds in order to decode and render the intended messages and prevent miscommunication or mistranslation. Cronin (2008: 115) states that science fiction genre when it allows explicitly for language differences and variations, has potential recourse to techniques of translation which are commonly used for audiovisual media. Lambert (1997) divides audiovisual translation into three modes; he shows that movies can be either translated into subtitles or rendered like dubbing or voice-over. Therefore, subtitling or dubbing are two modes of audiovisual translation. Thawabteh (2012) confirms that the 3 task of audiovisual translators is a challenging and demanding obligation because of the wide spread of films. Concerning Arab children as an audience of science fiction movies, the translator's responsibility lies in selecting one of the available strategies to render the exact message, as well as taking into consideration the age of children the movie is directed to. Lathey (2006), for example, says that children might read translations on the screen correctly, but there is no evidence of their exact understanding of content and context. Therefore, the translator should think about children's age characteristics that enable him/her to choose suitable translation strategies and transfer the intended meaning appropriately. 1.2. Constraints of Subtitling This study considers two main challenges facing the subtitler while translating science fiction movies, namely the linguistic and cultural constraints. 1. Linguistic Constraints Linguistic problems make a challenge for translators. The effects of these challenges on the language used in the subtitling process would be countless since the linguistic domain is deep and wide. There are some linguistic varieties which are considered in this study; including idioms, swear words, long sentences, repetition and redundancy, and names. 4 Concerning these issues, the subtitler has to bear in mind how problems of each issue should be solved by using certain subtitling strategy in relation to children‟s cognition development. Moreover, technical constraints should be taken into consideration while dealing with the linguistic constraints. Karamitroglou (1998) finds that each subtitle line must allow about 35 characters in order to be able to accommodate a satisfactory portion of the translated text and reduce the need for original text omissions. Karamitroglou (1998) adds that an increase in the number of characters, attempting to fit over 40 per subtitle line, will definitely reduce the legibility of the subtitles since the font size is also inevitably reduced 2. Cultural – bound Constraints Culture and language are closely related to each other. In audiovisual translation, this might create challenges for translators in transferring culture specific terms. Pedersen (2005: 2) explains the meaning of culture reference as: A reference that is attempted by means of any culture-bound linguistic expression, which refers to an extralinguistic entity or process, and which is assumed to have a discourse referent that is identifiable to relevant audience as this referent is within the encyclopedic knowledge of this audience. However, this should be the opposite for the audience of a different language since they have different cultural background. 5 According to Newmark (1988b), the translation problems caused by culture-specific words arise due to the fact that they are strongly related to the culture concerned. Translating culture for children could be even more problematic. According to Epstein (2010), if we translate for children, cultural references should be domesticated and changed by their foreign cultural elements to make them similar to the local ones. He also sees translators like interpreters of culture. The problem of particular cultural specific references lies in understanding rather than in the process of translating them. Once understood, the translation should become easier. In fact, it seems that the translation process of cultural references, in general, and subtitling, in particular, challenge the translator to decide between whether to amend the reference to fit the target audiences or to leave it untouched. As Arab children watch English subtitled movies, they will absolutely be faced with cultural references which not exist in their native language. Therefore, these cultural items present a challenge for the subtitler who should be aware of the source language culture. "a translator has to be not only „bilingual‟ but also „bicultural‟" Baker (1998: 245). In this study, the researcher will investigate some cultural constraints while dealing with cultural items. For example, allusions, puns, fauna and flora which are translated into Arabic. 6 1.3. Children Cognition Development In discussing children's cognition development which influences the choices of the subtitlers when rendering science fiction movies, this study depends on Piaget's (1923) classification of the cognition development of children. Piaget divides children's cognition development into four main stages: Sensorimotor stage (years 0 to 2), Preoperational stage (years 2 to 7), Concrete Operational stage (years 7 to 12), and Formal Operational stage (years 12 and up). First, in the Sensorimotor stage, infants understand the world through coordinating sensory experiences, as seeing and hearing, with physical actions. Therefore, they build up knowledge of the world depending on their physical actions. Second, preoperational stage contains two sub stages: the pre-conceptual sub-stage and the intuitive sub-stage. The pre-conceptual sub-stage occurs between the ages 4 and 6. So, the child can imagine designs of objects that are not present. However, the intuitive sub-stage occurs in the ages 4 to 7. In this stage, children start to grow very curious and ask several questions; they begin using primitive reasoning. They become more interested in reasoning and wanting to know how and why things happen the way they do. The concrete operational stage occurs about the ages of 7 and 11 years. It is characterized by the suitable use of logical process, including: seriation, transitivity, classification, decentering, reversibility, conservation and elimination of egocentrism. Children in this stage are only able to solve problems related to concrete things or events, yet not abstract things or hypothetical events. 7 Finally, formal operational stage occurs between ages 12 and 15 years. In this stage, individuals go through concrete experiences and begin to think abstractly and logically. Moreover, they are able to make conclusions about current information or situation and use all these processes in hypothetical situations. Individuals start to think more as a scientist does; they draw plans to systematically solve problems and test possibilities. 1.4. Subtitling Strategies This study, which falls under the categories of subtitling strategies, follows Gottlieb‟s (1992) and Lomheim's (1992) models of subtitling strategies. These strategies are discussed and explained in this study in relation with linguistic and cultural constraints as well as with children cognition development. Gottlieb (1992) provides a set of strategies used in subtitling. They include (1) expansion, (2) paraphrase, (3) transfer, (4) imitation, (5) transcription, (6) dislocation, (7) condensation, (8) decimation, (9) deletion, and (10) resignation. Additionally, Lomheim (1992) adds four more strategies, including neutralization, compression, generalization and specification. This study reduces the number of subtitling strategies into three main strategies in order to facilitate the process of measuring the number of the most used strategies. Firstly, reduction contains decimation, deletion and condensation. Gottlieb (1994) claims that decimation, compression and deletion involve a reduction in the semantic and stylistic 8 content which is of qualitative nature (cited in Altahri, 2013: 120). Secondly, expansion includes resignation and expansion because both of them are used when there is no translation and when the meaning might be lost. Finally, transfer contains neutralization, specification, generalization and translation, limitation, transcription, dislocation and paraphrase; all of them involve translating full expressions with an adequate rendering. The problem tackled in this study is two-fold. Firstly, this thesis will try to highlight the extent to which cultural and linguistic constraints control the translator's choice in terms of rendering the message while considering the children's cognition and understanding. This forms a complex task for the translator. Zitawi (2003) claims that translating children's animated movies or programs is a complex task in addition to technical linguistic factors and problems. Also, she adds that it is not a linguistic exercise but rather a kind of intercultural communication stimulated by the rewards of making a new foreign culture. Landers (2001) argues that translators should have greater liberty in modifying the foreign cultural elements and traditions that the target children may not be interested in or familiar with. (Cited in Altahri, 2013: 73). Secondly, this thesis will try to explain the subtitling strategies the translators find appropriate for children. Bassnett and Lefevere (1998) argue that the translator's task is to develop strategies that enable them to overcome or at least work around these constraints. O'Sullivan (2006) states that the 9 translator builds his/her presupposition upon the culturally-determined interests and abilities of children at a certain stage of development. 1.5. Objectives The main objective of this study is to determine the linguistic and cultural challenges that subtitlers are faced with when subtitling science fiction movies. In addition, it investigates the subtitling strategies which play a significant role when subtitling science fiction movies for children in the Arab world. In order to achieve both aims, the study will measure the contribution of linguistic and cultural constraints in determining subtitling strategies by the translator. Moreover, it aims at investigating children cognition developments of two age groups; 7 to 12 years old and more than 13 years old. The study also aims to study whether the translator considers the age when s/he selects the subtitling strategies. So, the study will find out the relation between children age and subtitling strategy. The study will also measure the most frequent strategy when subtitling for each age group. 1.6. Research Questions This study seeks answers to the following main questions: 1. What are the linguistic and cultural constraints for subtitling science fiction movies from English into Arabic? 2. Considering Piaget's classification of children's cognition development, to what extent does that contribute to the translator‟s choice of subtitling strategy? 10 1.7. Methodology The data is gathered through analyzing the Arabic subtitles of two different science fiction movies: Legend (1985) and Megamind (2010). The reason beyond the choice of these movies is twofold. First, the researcher might find more examples of science fiction and imaginative terminology in the mentioned movies. Secondly, the selected movies might pose the main challenges of translation that will be discussed in this study. The researcher has chosen all the movies from Netflix, so the subtitling of the movies will be elicited from the same source. This website offers both amateur and professional subtitling. Netflix is the world‟s Internet TV network with over 86 million members in over 190 countries who enjoy more than 125 million hours of TV shows and films per day. Netflix presents original series, documentaries and feature films. Members can play, pause and resume watching their chosen movies. Members can also watch English movies subtitled in Arabic with the English subtitles. A descriptive qualitative approach within the discipline of translation studies will be adopted. This approach determines the nature of the relationships between translator, source and target texts, and test the used translation strategy in the text. More specifically, this approach will examine the linguistic, and cultural challenges facing the translator when translating science fiction movies. In addition, it investigates the relation between each age group cognition development and the subtitling strategies 11 used in each movie, as well as the relation between the linguistic and cultural constraints and the subtitling strategies applied in both movies and the kind of subtitling strategies applied for subtitling science fiction movies. 1.8. The Movies 1. Megamind According to Netflix, Megamind movie is a science fiction movie published in 2014 and directed to 7 to 11 years old children. The movie tells a fictional story about the super villain Megamind who has been a baby left by his parents to live in an extraordinary magic world. When Megamind grows up, he is faced by another superhero called Metro Man, but Megamind defeats his enemy Metro Man. Then, he feels that life is meaningless and purposeless without fighting with others, so he thinks that there must be a new purpose with challenge in his life. Therefore, Megamind creates a new foe called Titan who sets out to destroy the world instead of using his powers to do good actions. Megamind makes Titian by transferring Hall, the photographer who is always accompanying Roxanne Ritchi while doing press coverage, into a giant. Roxanne Ritchi is a journalist and a fan of Metro Man. Both Megamind and Titan love her, but she only loves Bernard, an archivist specializing in all things at Metro Man Museum. 12 The age, which this movie is directed to, is called by Piaget as "the concrete operational stage" which precedes the formal operational stage. It is mentioned in the previous chapter that children of this stage can comprehend concrete things and relate them to each other, but they cannot realize abstract things. 2. Legend According to Netflix, Legend movie is a science fiction movie published in 1985 and directed to 12 years old children and beyond. It tells a myth about a boy called Jack who is a hero, he lives in a mythical forest full of devils, fairies, goblins and mythical creatures. Jack has to battle a devil called Lord of Darkness in order to rescue the last unicorn. But, if he loses the battle, the whole world will plunge into darkness forever. Princess Lilli is a girl whom Jack meets and falls in love with, but she is lured into the underworld and seduced by strange goblins to become evil. However, the most important issue in the movie is that Lord of Darkness tends to kill two unicorns and steal their horns but Jack has been able to strike Lord of Darkness hand and release the unicorn's horn. Since Jack loves Princess Lilli, he has another task to do which is to rescue Princess Lilli and marry her. Gump is an elf helps Jack to find and rescue Princess Lilli from Lord of Darkness. In fact, as the movie is full of mythical creatures, devils, fairies and spells, it makes a big challenge to the subtitler to deal with many linguistic features, especially, when translating for certain ages of children. 13 1.9. The procedure In order to obtain the required information, the procedure consisted of three parts: viewing the movies, using the transcripts and focusing on the Arabic subtitles of each movie. The procedure of movie viewing itself consisted of three stages: At the first stage, the researcher has watched the movies to get the overall idea. At the second stage, the researcher has focused on the Arabic subtitles of each movie, with emphasis on the linguistic and cultural contents of subtitles without paying attention to the movie sounds, time and writing form. Through this process, cultural and linguistic problems instances based on the subtitles will be extracted. The Third Stage: At this last stage of viewing movies, the researcher have had a full viewing of the subtitled movies. Then, the gathered results through the last stage will be compared with those of the previous stage and a final list including all the terms will be given. In order to have a clear understanding of the dialogue of each movie, the researcher will use the English transcript of each movie while watching the movie to compare them with the Arabic subtitles. 14 1.10. Limitations of the Study This study has some limitations. First, it is limited to Arabic subtitles. So, it is not concerned with other languages. Second, only two science fiction movies are described and analyzed in this study. Third, it deals with subtitling yet does not refer to dubbing. Fourth, it presents subtitling strategies that are used by Arab subtitlers in rendering English movies. 2. Layout of the Study This study seeks to investigate the cultural and linguistic challenges in the translation of some English science fiction movies for children into Arabic. Moreover, it explores the strategies used in each movie. For these aims, the study will be divided into four chapters: Chapter One: The first chapter introduces the main issues of the thesis; it shows the aims of the study, states its significance, introduces previous scholarly contributions to the topic, presents the study questions, explains the methodology, and shows the limitations of the study. Chapter Two: The chapter introduces the theoretical framework of the study, including, subtitling and children cognitive development. 15 Chapter Three: The chapter will tackle the challenges and problems related to the subtitling of the movies which are directed to the age groups of children including Megamind and Legend movies. First, it will reveal how the cultural and linguistic problems have been dealt with in the movies. Then, it will also account for the strategies the translator uses in dealing with the cultural references and linguistic constraints. After that, it will compare them with children age characteristics. Finally, it will identify the most frequent strategies of subtitling. Chapter Four: The last chapter will include the findings in a form of conclusions and provide certain recommendations. 16 Chapter Two Literature Review This chapter presents the literature review for the study. It starts with a short overview about previous studies on science fiction movies. It gives observations on the translation of science fiction movie. Then, it presents definitions, advantages and disadvantages of subtitling. Moreover, types of subtitles will be mentioned. After that, it moves on to describe subtitling constraints facing translators. Also, it introduces the psychologist points of view about children cognition development, especially, Piaget's theory of children cognitive development. Finally, it examines Gottlieb‟s (1992) and Lomheim's (1992) subtitling strategies. 2.1. Studies on Science Fiction Movies Subtitling The study of screen translation is considered as "a relatively uncommon academic pursuit, but interest is growing rapidly" (Dollerup & Appel, 1996: 178). Therefore, subtitling of science fiction movies might be considered as a relatively new field of study to be discussed in translation. In general, it seems that not much has been written on subtitling science fiction movies, especially, subtitled science fiction movies for Arab children. Still, some like Kurki (2012), in his Master's thesis, explores the subtitling of neologisms in the science fiction television series Stargate SG- 1 by examining the categorization of different translation techniques which are used in the translation of the neologisms in order to build up a suitable 17 framework of the classification of various techniques, then finds which type of a translation technique that is used for the neologisms. He finds that eight original English neologisms from a total of 267 have been totally omitted from the Finnish subtitles. He also notices that the translation techniques which generate minimal standardization are calque, borrowing and synonymy. On the other hand, he finds that the techniques which clearly produce standardization are generalization, amplification and omission. Moreover, Krincvaj (2009) investigates the translation of technical and scientific terms in science fiction. His paper aims at comparing the Czech translations of current and older works with their English originals. Besides, the study presents various technical and scientific terms used in the genre of science fiction, evaluates their translation and comments on the frequency of usage of different translation methods including substitution, borrowing and direct translation. The paper reveals that translators nowadays use borrowing or direct translation more than substitution due to the fact that science fiction has always gone through things which are too fantastic for the current science to achieve. Still, these papers and other articles or chapters do not address all the issues related to the subtitling of science fiction movies as the relationship between the used subtitling strategies in science fiction movie and children 18 cognition. They deal with some issues in subtitling; such as subtitling of humor, idiomatic expression, jokes, cartoons and animation, etc. Spanakaki (2007) discusses the issue of how humor should be subtitled in terms of wordplay or punning, allusions and verbal irony. The study reveals that the selection of a translation strategy for humor is manipulated by more or less absolute rules to mere idiosyncrasies and mutual knowledge as culture and history. Similarly, Ferdowsi (2013) investigates the translation of idiomatic expressions in English language movies subtitled into Persian to find the effects of the applied strategies on comprehending the movies. The thesis finds that adopting subtitling strategies had some specific effects on movies comprehension as lack of synchronicity, incoherent sentences, non conveyance of humor of some scenes, violation of collocation patterns of Persian and non conveyance of the information of the movies. In his PhD thesis, Altahri (2013) examines issues, strategies and problems involved in Arabic subtitling of cultural references in the Harry Potter movies. The study concludes that there are cultural, ideological, and technical dimensions which have a significant impact on movies subtitlers when they translate for Arab children. Thus, the results show that Arabic subtitlers prefer adopting certain strategies more than others when dealing with cultural references. For example, it is found that when translating food 19 references, omission, globalization, preservation and localization are used more than other strategies. Actually, this chapter deals with the concept of movies subtitling, in general, as well as science fiction movies subtitling in particular. 2.2. Observations on the Translation of Science Fiction Movies Science fiction genre has several characteristics which make it different from other genres. The term science fiction logically indicates that it contains scientific and fictional features within its narration. Thus, a subtitler, who works on a science fiction piece of translation, should have a previous knowledge or experience about the crossed area between both science and fiction fields of study. Science fiction movie subtitlers, as other screen translators, should acquire the previously mentioned skills. These skills will enable them to perfectly transfer movies into other languages. In addition, subtitlers need to own a previous knowledge about science fiction subjects. Therefore, this is what is meant by 'competences' which subtitlers should acquire. Translating science fiction movies seems to be interesting and enjoyable, but they are faced with several problems. Words and phrases used in science fiction movies might not previously exist in the source language, so the subtitler will absolutely face a problem in finding their exact meaning in the target language. 20 2.3. Science Fiction No matter how ordinary or extraordinary science fiction movie is found in real life, it seems to be much more problematic and indefinable as a theoretical construct or concept. However, many scholars of various disciplines, such as psychology, sociology and linguistics, have tried to conclude several meanings for science fiction in one comprehensive and clear definition. Oxford English Dictionary (OED Online) (2017) defines science fiction as "Fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets." This definition assumes that science fiction has been built depending on an imagination related to science, technology, sociology and environment. Therefore, people could imagine what will happen in strange places and modern times far away from their current life. In fact, people‟s age might affect their comprehension of science fiction concepts since, logically, the older they are, the more knowledgeable they will be as well as they will have a richer background about science fiction and its features. Rashid (2010) defines science fiction as the optimal method by which culture literacy and scientific culture are connected. He adds that http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fiction#fiction__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/imagine#imagine__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/future#future__12 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/scientific#scientific__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/technological#technological__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/advance#advance__20 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/environmental#environmental__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/portray#portray__2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/time-travel#time-travel__2 21 science fiction is something like imagination that depends on technology and science. Moreover, he assumes that science fiction tries to imagine ideas and concepts through bringing joy to life. Clearly, science fiction contains science, culture, imagination, technology as well as joy in one genre. This is what makes this genre both complicated due to its combination of scientific knowledge and fiction, and enjoyable due to its interesting strange imagination world. Furthermore, Broderick (1995: 155) explores postmodern science fiction and defines science fiction as "species of storytelling native to a culture undergoing the epistemic changes implicated in the rise and supersession of technical-industrial modes of production, distribution, consumption and disposal." In this definition, Broderick focuses on the material aspects of science fiction as it develops as a result of the technical and industrial development in certain cultures. Likewise, one of science fiction critics, Suvin (1972: 375) considers that science fiction is "a literary genre or verbal construct whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author‟s empirical environment." Clearly, science fiction is an imagination that deals with both human feelings by its estrangement and human cognition by its logical and scientific aspects. 22 However, other researchers promote greater attention to the significance of science fiction. According to Jones (1999: 4): Science in science fiction has always had a tactic meaning other than that commonly accepted. It had nothing in particular to say about the subject matter, which may be just about anything so long as the formal conventions of future dress are observed. It means that, whatever phenomenon or speculation is treated in the fiction, there is a claim that it is going to be studied to some extent scientifically that is objectively rigorously; in a controlled environment. The business of the writer is to set up the equipment in a laboratory of the mind such as the „what if‟ in question is at once isolated and provided with the exact nutrients it needs. As other types of fiction, science fiction has its own features. Rashid (2010: 66) mentions some of science fiction characteristics. First, science fiction events are achievable. Second, its stories should depend on scientific facts and knowledge. Third, its stories can draw a possible future. Fourth, its events should be related to human. Science fiction plays a very important role in children's life. Abu Qura (2014) talks about the importance of science fiction. He assumes that science fiction connects past with future since many technological scientific inventions and discoveries in the 20 th century were predicted by science fiction in the 19 th century. For example, the industrial intelligence, 23 robot manufacturing, ATM cards, genetic engineering and nano – technology. 2.4. Audiovisual Translation: Life nowadays seems to be hard without media, including TV movies, series, videos, programs, etc. The rapid and wide spread of audiovisual media all over the world evokes a great demand in Arab TV channels to include various foreign TV programs and movies. Hence, the need of audiovisual language transfer has currently become a crucial issue. Audiovisual products exert a great influence on its audiences‟ awareness of other sources of knowledge and other people‟s cultures. Thus, there is a need for descriptive approaches and studies in the field of audiovisual translation to study the properties of subtitling certain movies. There are a lot of linguistic and cultural references that seem to be omitted within the subtitling process and that might lead to a mess in the translation of specific cultural concepts and terms. Szarkowska (2005) states that "films and TV shows can be tremendously influential and an extremely powerful method for transferring values, ideas and information." Szarkowska (ibid) adds that "different cultures are presented not only verbally but also visually and aurally." Szarkowska also recognizes that "films and TV programs as a polysemiotic medium that transfers meaning through several channels, such 24 as a picture, dialog and music." Additionally, she argues that "items which used to be culture-specific tend to spread upon other cultures and thought that the choice of film translation mode largely contributes to the reception of a source language film in a target culture. Along the same line, Luyken et al. (1991: 11) states that the transfer of audiovisual language "denotes the process by which a film or television program is made comprehensible to a target audience that is unfamiliar with the original‟s source language." It is clearly realized that audiovisual translation has already become a very important type of translation since films and TV programs have become very effective methods of transferring cultures all over the world. Therefore, transferring such cultural items play a vital role in connecting different worlds with each other. Several scholars use different terms like 'film translation', 'screen translation', and 'multimedia translation' to indicate the translation of audiovisual products, but each term contains some differences. Thus, Delabastita (1989: 212) relates 'film translation' to "the entire structure of mass media in a given culture and across the boundaries of individual cultures." However, the term 'screen translation' is " a means to achieving the L1 reader‟s goal – the learning of the foreign-language or of the second language." Moreover, the term „multimedia translation' is defined by Gambier (2003: 172) as "the relationship between verbal output and 25 pictures and soundtrack, between a foreign language/culture and the target language/culture, and finally between the spoken code and the written one." All in all, the above different terms, which are used to indicate audiovisual translation, refer to the process of transferring cultures between different communities. Moreover, they refer to the target audience's learning of foreign language and the relationship between source language and target language cultures. Screen translation is totally different from translation of written texts. In audiovisual translation, the translator logically deals with an interaction between images, words, sounds and animations. However, written texts translation, from its name, consists of written dialogues. In fact, dealing with animation and sound elements is a complicated task for screen translators because they have to consider all these elements within the text and especially the way they interact in order to produce the same effect upon the targeted audience. However, Gottlieb (1992) categorizes screen translation into subtitling and dubbing which are the main forms of language transfer in different media. On the one hand, Lovji (2013) considers dubbing as the means which modifies the source text to a large extent and familiarizes it to the target audience by domestication. It is the method in which the foreign dialogue is adjusted to the mouth and movements of film actors. The main aim of dubbing is considered as making the audience feel as if they were 26 listening to actors actually speaking the target language. On the other hand, he claims that subtitling films and TV shows can be tremendously influential and an extremely powerful method for transferring values, ideas and information. Similarly, Baker & Hochel (1998: 74(distinguish between subtitling and dubbing by defining subtitling as "a visual, involving the superimposition of a written text onto the screen." However, they explain dubbing as "oral" because it depends on "the acoustic channel" in screen translation." 2.5. Subtitling This mode of audiovisual translation seems to be one of the best- known modes of audiovisual translation which transfers movies from one language into another by changing a silent movie into a talking one and to help these movies to spread around the world. 2.5.1. Definition of Subtitling Captions which are put on the bottom of the screen are not written accidentally or randomly, but they are systemically formed and presented. Subtitling is defined in Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997: 161) as "the process of providing synchronized captions for film and television dialogue." Additionally, there are more researchers who have formed definitions for subtitling. Subtitling is defined by Díaz Cintas and Remael (2014: 8) as: 27 A translation practice that consists of presenting a written text, generally on the lower part of the screen, that endeavors to recount the original dialogue of the speakers as well as the discursive elements that appear in the image (letters, inserts, graffiti, inscriptions, placards and the like) and the information that is contained on the soundtrack (songs, voices off). Moreover, Luyken et al. (1991: 31) assume that subtitling is "condensed written translations of original dialogue which appear as lines of text, usually positioned towards the foot of the screen." As stated above, subtitling is a distinguished sub type of translation since it deals with several features and aspects regarding the movie content presentation, position of subtitles on the screen and synchrony with image. Therefore, it pays a considerable attention to additional components including screen images, soundtracks, subtitles position and time. However, Karamitroglou (2000: 5) states that "subtitles are different from 'captions'." He explains that: " 'Captions' are pieces of 'textual information usually inserted by the program maker to identify names, places or dates relevant to the story line." 2.5.2. Types of Subtitles According to Gottlieb (1998), subtitling is linguistically divided into two main distinct types – interlingual and intralingual. The interlingual 28 subtitling is considered as 'diagonal' because the movie subtitler changes a spoken text in one language to a written text in another language. So, it involves changing both mode and language. However, Intralingual subtitling includes subtitling of domestic programs directed to deaf and hard hearing people, as well as subtitling of foreign language programs directed to language learners. Moreover, Gottlieb considers it as 'vertical' since it takes down speeches in writing, so it changes the mode not the language itself. As this thesis deals with subtitling of movies directed to Arab children, interlingual subtitling is the main concern to be examined and investigated. Interlingual subtitling involves the subtitler task in transferring conversations and dialogues of certain language into written lines of another language on the bottom of the screen. Moreover, Gottlieb (1998: 247) suggests another distinction of subtitling depending on a technical point of view; open subtitles and closed subtitles. Open subtitles are considered as 'not optional'. They include cinema subtitles which are considered as parts of a movie or transmitted separately. But, closed subtitles are 'optional', i.e., they are optionally added to the original text. They include subtitling for deaf and hard hearing people. As noted previously, intralingual subtitling and closed subtitlies are mostly similar since both of them are adopted when movies are directed to 29 deaf or hard hearing people. Nevertheless, interlingual subtitling and open subtitles are the same in the sense of that both of them are concerned with the change of mode (spoken or written) and language (two languages or more). 2.5.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Subtitling As previously mentioned, subtitling is one of the audiovisual translation types which is adopted when translating foreign movies. Some scholars find it useful and beneficial but others see it less useful than other types of audiovisual translation. However, counting for the advantages and the disadvantages of subtitling will be unlimited. Therefore, this section presents some of the advantages and the disadvantages of using subtitling as a method to transfer movies. Regarding the advantages, Luyken et al. (1991) states that one of subtitling advantages is that a subtitled program is more „real‟ and more closely resembles the original one than a dubbed program, because actors, presenters, etc. are heard with their own voices ( as cited in Lovji, 2013: 260). Therefore, subtitling does not change the original voices of the movie characters; this means that audience feel the naturalness of the movie. Reich (2006: 15) adds that subtitling is much cheaper than dubbing because it does not change the original dialogue of movies. 30 However, Lovji (2013: 259) claims that during subtitling process, information within conversations and dialogues often has to be condensed, because not all of the words which are said in the original movie fit into the subtitles. Therefore, Lovji (2013) suggests a common solution, which is to change the compound past tense used in the original conversation into the simple past tense in the subtitle. For instance, using „I did that‟ instead of „I have done that‟. Moreover, Lovji (2013) argues that "the artistic unity of picture and sound is lost when the dialogue is presented through onscreen texts." Therefore, the subtitles or captions which are presented on the bottom of the screen take the audience attention, so they might not notice and enjoy the movements of picture and sounds. Likewise, Ivarsson and Carroll (1998: 34) assert that "disturbing subtitles crowd out the picture and ruin the composition." Considering the subtitling process, the transfer from a spoken form of language to a written one brings a considerable number of obstacles. One of them is the representation of the phonological component of speech in written form (De Linde and Kay, 1999). This means that there are important aspects of language as tone, sounds or accents. Therefore, conveying these elements in written forms might sound difficult. If we suppose that some of these elements are used for certain purposes as 31 leaving a humorous effect, the audience might not have the chance to get the aimed point of the movie. However, written subtitles are considered very useful because they “increase literacy, teach and maintain minority languages and consolidate official languages." (Ivarsson and Carroll, 1998: 35) Therefore, when children watch movies with subtitles, they will be acquired with more terms and phrases. 2.5.4. Constraints of Subtitling As we know, interesting and high-quality movies receive high rates of watching all over the world since people prefer watching good movies more than other ones. But, problems start to arise when movies translator fails in rendering the original movies perfectly. Actually, it is very important to translate books, magazines, newspapers, journals and other types of texts, but the more important is to capture the essence of movies message and let their audience enjoy them. Therefore, subtitlers might face more problems than other translators because they should provide a translation that renders the original movie with careful attention to all of its elements, including (sounds, images, animations, graffiti etc). The subtitler is faced with several types of constraints. However, two of these constraints are mainly discussed depending on Thawabteh (2011) classification of subtitling problems into linguistic and cultural. 32 2.5.4.1. Linguistic Constraints: Every community has its own language which differs from the other. Bloch and Trager (1942: 5) defines language as "a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates." Hence, this definition indicates arbitrariness and explicitness of each language as it has its own specific features that make it distinctive and different when it is compared with other languages. Actually, arbitrariness makes it easy to be learned by its native speakers but not by its learners. Therefore, when subtitlers translate movies from English into Arabic, they will absolutely be challenged with linguistic varieties between the two languages. Rosa (2001: 213) claims that subtitling tends to create a correspondence between the “group of linguistic varieties (dialects and accents) of the source text language and the system of the target text language." Thus, subtitlers need to make a balance between the first language system and the second language system. This is to carefully deal with the varieties between them. Therefore, subtitlers will avoid any mistranslation related to the linguistic varieties. As mentioned in many books and previous studies, every language has five main components; phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Denham and Lobeck (2010) argue that language grammar is divided into: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, which interact with each other. Phonetics and phonology in English are 33 different from other languages. For example, English language has basically twelve vowels. Morphologically, languages form their past tense differently; e.g English language adds an ed to the end of the verb. Syntactically, languages differ in the way of arranging words in sentences. Semantically, the meaning of words differs from language to another. This thesis discusses four main linguistic matters, including; idioms, swear words, long sentences, repetition and redundancy and names. First, this study examines the challenge of idiomatic expressions by comparing concrete operational children with formal operational children characteristics. Idiom is defined by Oxford Online Dictionary (2017) as "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words." In this study, it is hypothesized that the ability of children to comprehend figurative language correlates with their ages and it is linked to other linguistic abilities as metalinguistic ones. Baker (1992) classifies idiom types into three main types: a) Expressions which violate truth conditions, b) Expressions which seem ill-formed since they do not follow grammatical rules of certain language, and c) Expressions which start with like (simile-like structures). These expressions should be translated literally. 34 Then, she (1992) suggests four main strategies that can be used to translate idioms: 1. Using an idiom of similar meaning and form: This strategy involves using an idiom in the target language which conveys the same message as that of the source language idiom with equivalent lexical items. 2. Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form Sometimes it is possible to Figure out an idiom or fixed expression in the target language which has a meaning similar to that of the source idiomatic expression, but with different lexical items. 3. Translation by paraphrase: This is the most common way to translate idioms when a perfect match cannot be found in the target language or when it seems unsuitable to use idiomatic language in the target language because of variations in stylistic preferences of source and target languages. 4. Translation by Omission: In some cases, idioms might be omitted altogether in the target text. This strategy is used when there is no close match in the target language for stylistic reasons. 35 There is a study which has been conducted by Abd-el-Kareem (2010) shows that there is a high tendency toward transfer strategy and a low tendency toward other subtitling strategies, mainly the reducing ones as condensation, decimation, and deletion. Secondly, swear word is considered to be one of the linguistic constraints which are examined in this study. The aim is to investigate different pragmatic functions carried out by swearing in each movie. It is defined in Oxford Online Dictionary (2017) as "an offensive word, used especially as an expression of anger." Mey (2001) finds that pragmatics sees the meaning of a language as largely affected by the context in which it occurs. This means that swear words can perform different functions according to different contexts. Thirdly, repetition is another problem to be explained in relation with children's cognition. Written texts are more formal in their styles, but spoken language is characterized by its informal style and plenty of redundancy and repetitions (Hosseinnia: 2014). Repetitions are considered to be one of discourse features found in children's literature (Varga, 2012). This indicates the challenge that subtitlers face while translating movies for children, so the subtitler's task here is to decrease repetition and redundancy or ever eliminate them. Generally, repetitions seem to make a big challenge for translators, especially in science fiction movies. In this 36 study, it is assumed that each repetition has its own function depending on the context where it occurred. Fourthly, long sentence also constitutes subtitling challenges. Benes (2012) claims that long sentences worsen the readability of subtitles and nullify the purpose of watching entertaining programs or shows. Therefore, there should be a suitable strategy to be purchased when translating long sentences for children at both concrete and operational stages. Finally, Krincvaj (2009) states that proper names in science fiction movies can point out the origins of the characters, cities, and items. Moreover, they can be simply as fantastic as possible to add to the overall feeling of movies. 2.5.4.2. Cultural-bound Constraints: Considering the cultural richness of languages, each language has distinguished cultural specific habits, traditions, expectations, norms, conventions and behaviors in language. Thus, Newmark (1988a: 7) states that "if the text describes a situation which has elements peculiar to the natural environment, institutions and culture of its language area, there is an inevitable loss of meaning." Therefore, cultural variations need a deeper understanding and a rich background about foreign movies culture. Newmark (1988b) maintains that translation constraints which are caused by culture-specific words arise because of the fact that they are 37 intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned and, therefore, are related to the context of a cultural tradition. There are different methods to categorize culture-specific items. Newmark (1988b) classifies cultural items into five main categories: (1) ecology, including flora, fauna, winds, etc. (2) Material culture, including artifacts, food, clothes, houses, towns and transport. (3) Social culture, such as work and leisure. (4) Organizations, customs, ideas, including political, social, legal, religion or artistic. (5) Gestures and habits. Logically, cultural references should have their equivalents in other languages because the same picture can be expressed un different languages by using various variables. Three main cultural constraints are to be examined in this study, including; fauna and flora, puns and allusions. 2.6. Movies Subtitling for Children All around the world, there are a lot of movies with great benefits for people in general, and children in particular. However, children movies, as other kinds of children literature, are dealt with differently from movies which are directed to adults. So, the translator of children science fiction movies should be aware of children and their expected understanding of movies. 38 In movies dialog, every utterance is being carefully formed to include a meaningful content or reference that reflects the movie's main vision or target. Therefore, movie producers pay a careful and deep attention to the selection of terms and utterances within the movie. As a result, the subtitler is required to be more careful to resort to creative skills in order to render the exact meaning of every utterance without neglecting any of its linguistic and cultural features. As the translator adopted subtitling when translating for children, subtitles will be added to the bottom of the screen to leave a space for the core of the events and actions on the screen. However, children enjoy watching movies that require no effort from them. But, if they are forced to read the subtitles on the screen in order to understand what is going on in the movie, all their attention will be paid for captions on the screen, yet very little attention will be given for the movie actions and events. Karamitroglou (2001: 192) claims that “since children watch TV mostly for fun and less for information/education purposes … it is natural for children to favor dubbed material precisely because it involves less cognitive effort." However, Gottlieb (2001) points out that the most preferred method of screen translation, today, is subtitling for economic reasons as the high production of movies and the big number of TV channels which need translation. Therefore, subtitling is considered cheaper and quicker in comparison with dubbing. 39 However, no one can say that either dubbing or subtitling is the best type of audiovisual translation to be used when translating for children. Both of them have their ill effects or drawbacks. In fact, it is the subtitler's hard task to deeply consider audience abilities in general and their readability in particular as Georgakopoulou (2009: 23) claims “the simpler and more commonly used the syntactic structure of a subtitle, the least effort needed to decipher its meaning." So, it is only the subtitler's craft to have the ability to decrease children's effort when watching translated movies. 2.7. Children Cognitive Development It is noticed how children are physically growing up year by year, yet we might forget that they are also mentally growing up and developing. Children usually become more knowledgeable as they get older. This means that there is a complex system that controls their development. Many psychologists have addressed the notion of children cognition as Turner (1977) and Baldwin (1980). However, this study focuses on the Swiss psychologist Piaget, who is described as "the century's most prolific writer and theorist on the development of the child." (Baldwin ,1980: 137). Jean Piaget is a Swiss psychologist, who spent much of his position studying the psychological development of children with his own children as subjects. The impact of his researches on children psychology has been 40 enormous. He is the starting point for all scholars seeking to learn how children think of cause-and-effect relationships, and how they judge morally. He argues that rational adult thinking is the culmination of an extensive process that begins with elementary sensory experiences and unfolds gradually until the individual is capable of dealing with imagined concepts and abstract thoughts. However, Piaget described children cognitive development from a perspective that no one before had seen. (Piaget and Inhelder, 2008). Moreover, he is the first psychologist to conduct a comprehensive and systematic study on children cognitive development including a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of children cognition stages, as well as a series of simple but ingenious tests to find out different cognitive abilities (Saul McLeod, 2015). In fact, many papers have been conducted in the light of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development. A master's degree thesis in psychology has been conducted by Marin in 2010 discussing the concepts of illness among children of different ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and genders by depending on Jean Piaget‟s theory of cognitive development to investigate whether children‟s level of understanding of four aspects of illness (causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention) differs among children come from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and gender. The study has found that the cognitive development of children affects the http://www.simplypsychology.org/saul-mcleod.html 41 relationship between gender, background, ethnicity and children's understanding of the concept of ill. Children have higher levels of understanding of illness at both lower and higher ends of Socioeconomic Status; however, this relationship weakens as cognitive developmental level of children increases. Thus, one can conclude that children cognitive development reflects the knowledge that they gain from their environment, either home or school. This means that older children have gained more knowledge than younger ones. Additionally, one can predict different children abilities of comprehension and understanding depending on their ages. Moreover, Piaget marks the differences between the child and the adult by mentioning two main phrases: 'invariant functions' and 'variant cognitive structures'. The invariant functions contain two main processes; assimilation and accommodation. These two invariant processes push the organism of knowledge to develop and change by the effect of environment. However, the variant cognitive structures mean that the cognitive structures of children develop as the organism develops and changes. (Cited in Turner, 1977: 14). The thesis is mainly concerned with the last two stages of Piaget's division, so the first two stages are briefly explained as parts of piaget's classification of children cognition development as (cited in Turner, 1977). The following are Piaget's four main stages: 42 First, sensori-motor stage (0–2): At this stage, children do not distinguish between perceiving things and responding to them. Regarding the two aspects of knowing; figurative and operative, the child doesn't differentiate between them due to the subsequent development. Piaget also subdivides the process of this stage into two main processes: a 'circular reaction' and a 'secondary circular reactions'. In early months, circular reactions give the infant the ability to move from reflex sucking from his mother to the sucking of his fingers or any available object. The child, in his 8 th month, will be able to use instruments to react to the environment surrounded him, as making noises, these secondary circular actions will be signs of his development. Then, during the second year, which is called preoperational stage, the child moves from plain physical actions to hidden internal actions. This stage is ended when the child becomes able to use symbols to show what he knows or wants, but his symbolic activity is still weak as well as he lacks logic and order. Moreover, Piaget (1977) says that in the sensori-motor stage, the baby's mental and cognitive features develop from his birth until he starts noticing language. The child in this stage is able to find objects after they have been displaced, even if the objects have been disappeared. For instance, Piaget‟s experiments that includes hiding some objects under a pillow to notice whether the infant finds them or not. 43 As the baby at this stage doesn't have any logic or order, he only sees objects and hears sounds without paying any attention to language, so children at this stage are discarded from movies analysis. Children can not even notice the language of movies. Second, the preoperational stage (2–7): This stage is considered as a period in which children use thinking faultily, so situations and events will be enhanced through operations development. This stage is seen as limited and being mistaken by adults, but through these mistakes or limits, children can learn and build up their own knowledge. Moreover, the child only believes in his point of view and neglects any other point of views of others. Also, this stage is characterized by its irreversibility, this means that the child can not go back as he starts; for example, he can order numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, but he can not go back to order them 4, 3, 2, 1. In fact, thinking during this stage is described by Piaget as 'fluid' and easily disturbed', so the child can easily be deceived by spatial changes. Additionally, the child is unable to conserve, so he can not handle problems to do with substance, length, and area. Also, the child has a difficulty in classifying seriating objects, so he will be confused if object x belongs to more than one category at the same time. However, Piaget considers that thinking of the preoperational child is still closely connected to actions, so his thinking is 'intuitive' and he sees things as they appear no more. 44 Piaget (1977) states that the child's language in this stage increases and includes symbolic thoughts, egocentric perspectives with limited logic. Children might involve in problem-solving skills which includes touchable objects as soil, grass, and dolls. However, there is lack of logic within this stage. We notice that children draw links among unrelated objects, and they suppose that objects role life but not thoughts and points of view. However, they don't have the ability to reverse processes. For instance, if the child can add two to three and get five, he can not reverse the process by taking three from five. Also, child's perception is restricted to certain dimension of an object and he neglects the other aspects which are related to the same object. Here, Piaget examined children ability to conserve through putting the same amount of liquid in two similar glasses. When he removes liquid from one glass into a third bigger glass, the level of the liquid becomes lower, yet the child supposes that there is less liquid in the third glass. Therefore, the child depends in his thinking only on one dimension and neglects the height dimension. Third, the concrete operational stage (7–11): Piaget considers that the development of operations lasts from age seven to age sixteen, and he assumes that there are two sub-stages: 'concrete operations' which extends from seven years to eleven years, and 'formal operations' which lasts from eleven years and above. The concrete operational stage shows that the child thinking becomes 'less egocentric', 45 'less fluid'. And 'more reversible'. Therefore, the child, at this stage, is able to take into account many and different aspects and considers several dimensions during his thinking. Moreover, the child begins to realize the sequences of events or actions by developing coherent cognitive schemes. He is more systematic, so he can not be easily deceived as he was in the preoperational stage. Piaget (1969) states that this stage is called 'concrete' since operations in this stage relate directly to objects but not hypotheses. Also, there is a lack of generalization, the child coordinates his logical structures step by step. At this stage, Piaget distinguishes between logical and infra-logical groupings, groupings mean classification, the former is related to logical classes, the latter involves the relationships between parts and wholes as 'bigger than' or 'less than'. Moreover, the child, at this stage, is able to classify and categorize objects correctly, but he will find it difficult if he asked to reclassify objects again. During this stage, the child's thought is still limited; he is not able to deal with abstract combinatorial systems nor realize the notion of 'experimental manipulation' of a certain variable, then the combination of more than one variable. For example, if the child is told that 'whenever I eat bread and chocolate, I am still sick. What do you think the reason?', the 46 child can not work out whether it is the chocolate or it is the bread, or the combination of chocolate with bread. However, Piaget (1977) remarks that the third stage is characterized by a noticeable cognitive growth, since the children‟s language and acquisition of specific skills increased. The child at this stage uses his senses in order to know, so he has the ability to take into consideration more two or three dimensions. For instance, in the liquids experiment, the child will simultaneously notice that the glass is bigger. Moreover, the child in this stage can operates two logical operations, seriation and classification, which are essential to understand many concepts. Seriation is the ability to order objects according to increasing or decreasing length, weight, or volume. But, classification is the ability to group objects by depending on mutual features. Fourth, the formal operational stage (12 years – above): Piaget (1977) calls this stage 'complete induction', which means recurrent reasoning. Piaget claims that the movement from the concrete to the formal operational stage causes a primary change in children's attitude towards problem-solving. Operations within this stage deal with objects yet formal operations enhance the concrete ones to include notions and ideas of combination and possibility because children at this stage become fully aware of the interrelationship of variables as weight, speed, and time which are considered and realized separately by children at concrete operational 47 stage. As the child recognizes the interdependence between the variables, he is able to form their distinct concrete structure and untie them in different way. So, the child at this stage is able to relate objects to each other, draw relations between them, and isolate them again. The child, at the formal stage, can differentiate and order all possible combinations of data units, so the child now is able to generate unlimited number of possible combinations from one variable. This means that the child is able to realize possible worlds as he realizes the real world, so he can think hypothetically as Piaget (1977) argues that the child at this stage can build up hypotheses and their possible results. The child starts to develop abstract thought patterns by using abstracts as symbols. Diagram (1): An illustration of Piaget's theory, the four stages of cognitive development. (Piaget, 2016). 48 Similarly, there is a Figure which briefly points out the differences between Piaget's four main cognition development stages: As previously mentioned and explained, the famous Swiss psychologist Piaget divides children's cognition development into four main stages which enable people, researchers, scientists and scholars to broadly study each children's age. This enables them to conduct researches on children as they fully understand and recognize children's developments, cognition, comprehension, intelligence etc. Therefore, this study basically depends on Piaget's psychological point of view to relate subtitling strategies to each cognitive development stage. However, it focuses only on the concrete operational and the formal operational stages, because it examines science fiction movies which directed at children at age seven and onwards. 2.8. Subtitling Strategies As this thesis aims at examining subtitling strategies in order to analyze the process of rendering the source language speech into target language subtitles, it focuses on Gottlieb's and Lomheim's fundamental classification of subtitling strategies. Gottlieb (1998) claims that screen translator should take into consideration four main channels when translating movies and TV programs: First, the verbal auditory channel that includes dialogue, voices, 49 and lyrics. Second, the non-verbal auditory channel, including music and sounds. Third, the verbal visual channel, that includes titles and signs written on the screen. Fourth, the non-verbal visual channel, including the composition of picture and flow. Then, he argues that in subtitling, unlike dubbing, the subtitler focuses on the third channel which allows audience to read subtitles and enjoy the original voices and sounds. So, this which might make children enjoy watching subtitled movies as the original sounds and background voices are not changed. Anyhow, there should be certain strategies adopted by subtitlers to produce good subtitles and convey the same impression of the original. Gottlieb (1992) proposes a set of ten strategies, which are presented in his article "Subtitling – A New University Discipline." They are expansion, paraphrase, transfer, imitation, transcription, dislocation, condensation, decimation, deletion and resignation. 1. Expansion: This strategy is used when the original text needs an explanation due to some cultural nuance which is not found in the target language. It includes expanded expressions, adequate renderings and culture-specific references. 2. Paraphrase: This strategy is applied when the original phrase cannot be syntactically rendered in the same way as in the target language. So, when the subtitler does not stick to the same syntactical rules. It includes altered expression with an adequate rendering. 50 3. Transfer: The strategy of translating the source text completely and accurately. This means that it translates full expressions with an adequate rendering. 4. Imitation: This strategy maintains the same form of the original language, as typical names of places, people and other things. It includes identical expressions with equivalent rendering as proper nouns, international brands, names of magazines, journals, newspapers, and names of company and institutions. 5. Transcription: It is adopted when the term is unusual even in the source language as third language or nonsense language. It includes anomalous expressions with an adequate rendering. 6. Dislocation: This strategy is applied when the original language has a special effect, as a very short meaningless song in a cartoon film. When the translation of the effect is more important than the content itself, this strategy is adopted. It includes differing expressions and adjusted content. 7. Condensation: This strategy means shortening unnecessary utterances by using the shorter utterance, but without losing the message. However, some pragmatic features of the meaning might be lost here. It includes condensed expressions with concise rendering. 51 8. Decimation: It is an extreme form of condensation where some important items are deleted sometimes because of discourse speed. It includes abridged expressions with reduced content. 9. Deletion: it means an overall omission of a part of the text because it is not important. 10. Resignation: It is applied when there is no translation and the meaning might be lost. It includes untranslatable elements. According to Gottlieb (1992), all of the mentioned subtitling strategies, except decimation, deletion and resignation, provide corresponding translations of the original text. He also distinguishes condensation from semantic reduction. He explains that with condensation, the meaning and most of the stylistic content of the ST are obtained, although it implies the reduction of certain oral features. However, decimation and deletion affect the semantic and stylistic content. He argues that transcription, dislocation, condensation, decimation, and deletion Strategies are more common in subtitling than in printed translation. On contrast, resignation (sacrificing one of the readings of a pun or wordplay) can be found in all types of translation. Along the same line, Lomheim (1999) draws on Gottlieb's model of subtitling strategies. The following six strategies contain: reduction, expansion, neutralization, compression, generalization and specification. 52 Therefore, Lomheim adds 4 more strategies to Gottlieb's model of subtitling strategies. He also argues that the subtitler can combine one strategy with other strategies at the same time, so they are closely interrelated. All in all, Lomheim proposes four additional strategies: 1. Neutralization: which means to render expressions more neutrally in the target language but not in a colorful or idiomatic way as in the source language. 2. Specification: to signify cases in which text has been specified in the target language, assource language hyponyms which are rendered by target language hyponyms. 3. Generalization: this strategy is applied when the target language expression is more general than the source language one. It is considered as the opposite of specification strategy. 4. Compression: to edit down the source language terms in the target language version. In fact, what makes Lomheim's model a distinguished one is that it shares similar features with Gottlieb's model (1992) and with some traditional linguistic models, such as Newmark (1988), Malone (1988), and Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) models of translation. As we notice, the previously mentioned subtitling strategies might not be suitable to conduct a quantitative analysis because they are a little bit similar and share some 53 same features. So, Gottlieb's ten subtitling strategies and Lomheim's seven can be reduced to the three main subtitling strategies: expansion, reduction and transfer. Transfer can include Lomheim's strategies "neutralization", "specification", "generalization" and "translation", and Gottlieb's strategies "limitation", "transcription", and "dislocation", "paraphrase." Reduction can include condensation, decimation, compression and deletion. Also, expansion might include resignation and expansion. As Díaz Cintas and Remael (2014: 9) explain that "subtitles must appear in synchrony with the image and dialog, provide a semantically adequate account of the source language dialogue, and remain displayed on screen long enough for the viewers to be able to read them." The subtitler has to keep the semantic content beside the synchrony with image and conversation through selecting a suitable strategy. As children comprehension of movies varies from stage to another, the subtitler needs to apply reduction, expansion or transfer to assure that the child completely understands what is going on in the movie. 54 Chapter Three Subtitling Constraints 3.1. Linguistic Constraints Having watched both Legend and Megamind movies, it is clear that source language and target language are so different. Some linguistic variations are found between the original movies and its subtitled versions. When the audiences are unfamiliar with the source language of the movie, they will mostly depend on the subtitles to help them understand movie threads and theme. This section addresses the basic components of language in terms of age differences in subtitling movies from English into Arabic. Some of them are: syntax, semantics, and discourse as hesitations and repeats and it considers them as basic content for audio messages. These three main dimensions are to be discussed regarding specific matters related to them in both movies. This section addresses issues related to semantics as idioms, swear words and names. It also discusses issues related to syntax as long sentences. In addition, it explains repetitions and redundancy which are matters related to discourse. The section shows some intralingual subtitles elicited from both Megamind and Legend movies to illustrate the context where certain utterances have been told by the characters. 55 3.2. Linguistic Constraints in Legend and Megamind movies The stage, which the movie is directed to, is identified by Piaget as "the formal operational stage" which depends on "formal deduction." According to Piaget (2002: 69): Formal deduction consists in drawing conclusions, not from a fact given in immediate observation, nor from a judgment which one holds to be true without any qualifications (and thus incorporates into reality such as one conceives it), but in a judgment which one simply assumes, i.e. which one admits without believing it, just to see what it will lead to. Therefore, children at the formal operational stage are able to comprehend, understand, recognize and identify concepts and items which they haven't known or found in real life. Also, they can realize things which don't relate to facts, but they assume them true and wait to find their results or effects. This means that children at this stage can watch a science fiction movie or any imaginative movie because they can abstractly understand things beyond the real life. That will help a child in the formal operational stage to enjoy and understand what is happening in Legend movie that contains fictional and imaginative creatures, actions and events. 3.2.1. Idioms Bujic (2014) states that translating idioms requires the translators to have an excellent command of source language, including the ability to 56 actively use the language idiomatic expressions appropriately. Bujic (2014) adds that translators should have the ability to recognize, comprehend and recreate idioms by using a suitable strategy. Table (1): Legend Movie: Original Idioms and Arabic Subtitles Original Idiom Arabic Subtitle Stay clear of ٓاثزعذٞ ع You scared the life out of me ٌمذ أفضعزٕٟ ثشّذح Well spoken ال فّغ فٛن As sweet as pie ع١ّذح ٌٍغب٠خ I'll chase your fears away عأخٍظه ِٓ ِخبٚفه Then still your heart إرْ ف١ٍطّئٓ لٍجه Don't keep us in dark ال رخِف ش١ئبً عّٕب Trying to make things right أحبٚي إعبدح األِٛس إٌٝ ٔظبثٙب They done for me ٟٚرّّىٕب ِٓ ٘ض٠ّز Out of it ! ! رىٍّّب Table (2): Megamind movie: Original Idioms and Arabic Subtitles Original expressions Arabic Subtitles I Got my butt kicked pretty good Deleted I'm falling to my death ٟأٔب أعمؾ إٌٝ حزف Lift your spirits ٠شفع ِٓ ِع٠ٕٛبره Catch a ride down أعزمً اٌّظعذ I've got my eye on ٟٕعٍٝ ِشآٞ ع١ Have your mind blown اعزعذٞ ٌٍّفبعأح Has backfired رٕمٍت ػّذن The examples in table 1 above are taken from Legend movie which is published and subtitled on Netflix website. In this section, some of idioms are discussed from a linguistic and psychological points of view. The linguistic one takes into consideration the idiomatic expressions, while the psychological one addresses the cognition development of children at both formal and concrete operational stages. 57 Figure (1): A woman warning princess Lilli to be careful while wandering through the forest The first intralingual example "Stay clear of" shows how common people care about Princess Lilli, the poor woman, whom Princess Lilli visited, warns her of the forest by saying: "stay clear of toadstool rings…" If the subtitler translates it literally, he will replace it with "ِٓ اثِك ٔظ١فخ" However, this expression "stay clear of" is an idiomatic expression. It is found in the Free Dictionary to mean "to keep one's distance from something, usually something dangerous”, so the word dangerous is part of the meaning of the idiom. The subtitler translates it using the subtitling strategy of neutralization which is considered as a subtype of transfer strategy in this study. It is translated by "ٓاثزعذٞ ع" which suits 12 years old child who, according to Piaget, is fully aware of the interrelations between things (Piaget, 1977). So, a 12-year-old child watching this episode is able to recognize the woman's warning because s/he manages to make relations between the horrible forest, Princess Lilli's kind heart and the woman's care about Princess Lilli. Regarding the translation process of idioms, it seems 58 that the context where this statement is used helps the subtitler to avoid the literal translation, Cooper (1999) claims that the context influences the comprehension of the idiomatic expressions. While the woman is warning Princess Lilli from going inside the forest, she asks her to be aware of the toadstool, willow trees and oaks. This context and the appearance of the woman indicate that she wants Princess Lilli to be away from these dangerous plants. On the other side, children of the concrete operational stage, who always depend on concretes to recognize things, might not get the message of this episode from the subtitles. Children at this stage can only observe visible things, so they need to notice the way the woman warning Princess Lilli to realize that these plants are dangerous. The appearance of the woman helps them to realize that the woman is warning Princess Lilli of dangerous plants and caring about her. Table 2 shows some examples taken from Megamind movie. For example, in Megamind movie, which is directed to children at the concrete operational stage, there is an example showing how the context helps children of this stage to comprehend the idiom. The context where Roxanne Ritchi is running after Bernard saying "I guess I'll catch a ride down with you then" indicates its meaning. Bernard is walking quickly toward the elevator to go down and Roxanne Ritchi is following him, so this context makes the comprehension of Roxanne's statement better even though a concrete operational stage child might not understand its subtitled version due to 59 their concrete thinking. The translator translates it using the subtitling strategy of neutralization by " سأسزقو اىَصؼذ ٍؼل." See Figure (2). Figure (2): Roxanne Ritchi catches a ride down with Bernard. There is another intralingual example that shows how the context influences the comprehension of idioms in Legend movie. While Brown Tom, who is presented as a mythical funny creature accompanying Jack and Gump during their battles, is fighting goblins to rescue princess Lilli, they shot him through his head. So, he shouts: "they done for me." This idiomatic expression indicates several meanings in different contexts. In English Prepositional Idioms (1967: 206), "Do for" means several meanings such as; 'kill', 'destroy or damage' or 'defeat of'. The context where Brown Tom says it, indicates that he is being killed by other goblins because after a while he asks Jack: "They killed you, too."? The subtitler translates this statement using the subtitling strategy of transfer by ٍِ رَّنْب" which is more suitable for this context and "قزيىٍّ" instead of هشََزٍ" suitable for subtitling technical conditions. However, a 12-year-old child 60 reading this subtitle can understand it well because s/he can realize abstract concepts as "هشََخ." On the contrary, the concrete operational child, from Piaget point of view, who will not understand abstract concepts as the word needs to see and notice concrete and touchable things to ,"هشََزٍ" comprehend what is going on. The child here will notice Brown Tom's appearance which indicates that he is being injured but not dead. To sum up, this translation suits children in both stages. On the one hand, children at the formal operational stage are able to understand abstract concepts. On the other hand, children at the concrete operational stage need to notice concrete things to understand, so when they see how Brown Tom is defeated and fallen on the ground, they understand the message. See Figure (3). Figure (3) Brown Tom is shot through his head by goblins. In Megamind movie there is also an intralingual example which shows that the comprehension of some idioms can be influenced by the context in which it is encountered. As Megamind creates a new mythical creature called Titan to fight against him, he sits with Titan and pretends as 61 if he is his father and Minion his mother. While Megamind asks Titan whether he falls in love with a girl, Titan is looking at Roxanne Ritchi and replies "I've got my eye on, currently." Children within the concrete operational stage will easily comprehend what Titan means by this idiom since Roxanne Ritchi is concretely available before Titan's eyes. Therefore, the context here influences the child's comprehension. The idiom 'Have eye on', in the Free Dictionary, means 'to admire and want to have something' or 'to watch someone carefully.' It seems that the translator blends both definitions and replaces them by "ٍُْػيً ٍزآٌ ػ" using the subtitling strategy of transfer because s/he depends on Titan's emotional reaction when he says that and the way he watches Roxanne. However, while the translator translates for children above 12 years old, s/he doesn't always depend on the presence of things or the concrete visibility of them to render certain idioms as he does when translating for concrete operational stage children. The translator depends on the context where Titan says the statement, so children might comprehend the statement by noticing the context. See Figure (4). Figure (4) While Titan looks at Roxanne Ritchi. 62 While Princess Lilli continues wandering through the forest, Jack suddenly appears to her, then she says: "You scared the life out of me." This statement is considered as an idiomatic expression in the Free Dictionary and defined as "To shock or frighten someone very suddenly and/or severely. (Hyperbolically alludes to frightening someone so badly as to cause him or her to die.)” The subtitled version shows how much Princess Lilli feels frightened by replacing it with. "ىقذ أفشػزٍْ ثشّذح" He also adds the adverb "ثشّذح" to make it more intensive. Regarding subtitling process, the translator uses the subtitling strategy of neutralization which does not pay any attention to the colorful language of the idiom. It is also clear that the literal meaning helps the subtitler in giving a suitable rendering, Cooper (1999) considers that the literal meaning sometimes influences the recognition of the idiom. The word "scared" indicates that Jack has done something which makes princess Lilli feel frightened, so the literal meaning of "scared" contributes in concluding the meaning of the whole idiom. Regarding the translation process of idioms, one of Baker's (1992) suggestions to translate an idiom is to use an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form. This method is used when there is no idiom or fixed expression in the target language which has a similar meaning to the source idiom or expression, but consists of different lexical items. When a 12-year-old child reads this statement, he will absolutely understand it as he can comprehend and recognize any unknown concept unlike children in the concrete operational stage who will depend on the 63 appearance of Princess Lilli when saying the statement. The appearance of Princess Lilli doesn't show her real reaction since she is very kind and cute looking even she is scared. Depending on Baker's (1992) classification of idioms which are mentioned in the previous chapter, this idiom is classified under the expressions which violate truth conditions. No one can scare the life itself, yet the person can be scared. As mentioned previously, a child in the formal operational stage is able to understand things which don't exist in the real world. So, the child, who watches Legend movie and reads this subtitle, can understand the intended meaning beyond violating the truth that life can not be scared. On the contrary, 7 to 11 years old children, from Piagetian point of view, can only understand things that concretely exist in the real world or even before him or her. Although Cooper (1999) considers that the literal meaning sometimes influences the recognition of the idiom, in Megamind movie there is an example illustrating that the literal meaning of the idiom sometimes does not influence its comprehension. When Minion, the mythical creature that accompanies Megamind wherever he goes and plans for him, is ordered by Megamind to kidnap the journalist Roxanne Ritchi, he sarcastically replies "That always seems to lift your spirits" Here, it seems that the author wants to add some fun to Minion's speech, so the translator's task is to convey the same function. The translator translates it using the subtitling strategy of transfer by which , "هذا َزفغ دائَب ٍِ ٍؼْىَبرل" does not convey the funny message. On the one hand, the individual parts 64 of this idiom can help in explaining its meaning but does not give the clear and intended meaning. On the other hand, children between age 7 to 11 cannot understand abstract concepts as the word "ٍؼْىَبد" since they depend on what they actually see and touch to understand. Therefore, if th