Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Dialogue Writing for Dubbing pp 3–47Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Dialogue Writing Set in Context

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 382 Accesses

Abstract

This first part of the monograph is intended to pave the way for the practical and functional tasks and demands that delineate the dubbing and dialogue writing process. The insider’s description of the dubbing and dialogue writing process is accompanied and supported by a scholarly outlook on the subject matter and is aimed at introducing specific aspects and issues that will be dealt with later on from a practical viewpoint.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The viewers’ willingness to believe a premise that they would not believe in real life.

  2. 2.

    This information was kindly provided by SDI Media.

  3. 3.

    This information was kindly provided by SDI Media.

  4. 4.

    The software Synchronos was used to create the rhythmic band dialogue. Snapshot drawn from a student’s practical assignment which proposed the dubbing into Maltese of a film sequence extracted from The Count of Monte Cristo (2002, Touchstone pictures, Spyglass entertainment). Courtesy of Kenneth Scicluna, filmmaker, www.seawardfilms.com

  5. 5.

    The software application is called E-Rytmo Factory and is owned and used exclusively by Dubbing Brothers.

  6. 6.

    Software demo and permission to present a snapshot was kindly provided by Dubbing Brothers. Production: Grey’s Anatomy (abc Studios 2005).

  7. 7.

    This is the case with QuickDub, in-house software utilized by the localization company SDI media.

  8. 8.

    This information was provided by The Kitchen, Emmy Award-winning localization company based in Miami, Los Angeles, Caracas, South Africa, Russia, Morocco, Italy, Spain, South America, Germany, Turkey, and Moldova.

  9. 9.

    According to Chaume (2012), this task can easily fall into the hands of dialogue writers in the future, thanks to newly advanced software applications which make it easier to be handled.

  10. 10.

    Already used by Whitman way back in 1992.

  11. 11.

    Translation: Swear words in cartoon production, (the TV channel) Italia 1 is punished. Agcom charges the TV network €25,000 for broadcasting The Family Guy, due to vulgar expressions and obscenity.

References

  • Alfieri, G., Contarino, S., & Motta, D. (2003). Interferenze fraseologiche nel doppiaggio televisivo: l’italiano di E.R. e Beautiful. In A. V. Sullam Calimani (Ed.), Italiano e inglese a confronto: Atti del convegno ‘Italiano e inglese a confronto: problemi di interferenza linguistica’ (Quaderni della Rassegna) (Vol. 33, pp. 127–149). Franco Cesati Editore: Firenze. (Venice, 12–13 aprile 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  • Araújo, V. L. S. (2004). To be or not to be natural: Clichés of emotion in screen translation. Meta, 49(1), 161–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ávila, A. (1997). El Doblaje. Madrid: Cátedra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baños Piñero, R. (2006). Estudio descriptivo-contrastivo del español oral en una serie de TV de producción propia y en una serie de TV de producción ajena. El caso de Siete Vidas y Friends. Unpublished master’s thesis, Universidad de Granada, Granada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baños Piñero, R., & Chaume, F. (2009). Prefabricated orality [Special issue]. inTralinea. Retrieved from http://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1714

  • Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2012). Formulas, routines and conventional expressions in pragmatics research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 2, 206–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosseaux, C. (2015). Dubbing, film and performance: Uncanny encounters. Oxford: Peter Lang.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brincat, J. M. (2000). Il doppiaggio di telefilm americani: una variante tradotta dell’italiano parlato-recitato? In S. Vansolsem, D. Vermandere, Y. D’Hulst, & F. Musarra (Eds.), L’italiano oltre frontiera, Vol I (pp. 245–258). Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brincat, J. (2015). Morphological and semantic simplification in dubbing techniques: Translating the dialogue of the British films “Ae Fond Kiss” and “The Queen”. In M. Pavesi, M. Formentelli, & E. Ghia (Eds.), The languages of dubbing. Bern: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0809-5.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bucaria, C. (2008). Acceptance of the norm or suspension of disbelief: The case of formulaic language in Dubbese. In Between text and image. Updating research in screen translation (pp. 149–163). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caillé, P. F. (1960). Cinéma et traduction: le traducteur devant l’écran. Babel, 6(3), 103–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cerezo Merchán, B. (2018). Audiovisual translator training. In L. Pérez-González (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of audiovisual translation (pp. 484–498). London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaume, F. (1998). Textual constraints and the translator’s creativity in dubbing. In A. Beylard-Ozeroff, J. Králová, & B. Moser-Mercer (Eds.), Translators’ strategies and creativity: Selected papers from the 9th international conference on translation and interpreting, Prague, September 1995 (pp. 15–22). Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.27.04cha.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chaume, F. (2001). La pretendida oralidad de los textos audiovisuales y sus implicaciones en traducción. In R. Agost & F. Chaume (Eds.), La traducción en los medios audiovisuales (pp. 77–88). Castellón: Universitat Jaume I.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaume, F. (2004). Synchronization in dubbing: A translational approach. In P. Orero (Ed.), Topics in audiovisual translation (pp. 35–52). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chaume, F. (2007). Quality standards in dubbing: A proposal. TradTerm, 13, 71–89. Retrieved from http://www.revistas.usp.br/tradterm/article/view/47466/51194

  • Chaume, F. (2012). Audiovisual translation: Dubbing. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaume, F. (2018). Audiovisual translation in the age of digital transformation: Industrial and social implications. In I. Ranzato & S. Zanotti (Eds.), Reassessing dubbing: The past is present. Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaves, M. J. (2000). La Traducción Cinematográfica: El Doblaje. Huelva: Universidad de Huelva Publicaciones.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chorao, G. (2013). A Dobragem em Portugal: Novos Paradigmas na Tradução Audiovisual. Unpublished PhD thesis, Universidade de Vigo, Spain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornu, J. F. (2014). Le doublage et le sous-titrage: Histoire et esthétique. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Giovanni, E. (2016). Dubbing and redubbing animation: Disney in the Arab world [Special issue]. Altre Modernità, 92–106. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/6850.

  • Diaz Cintas, J. (2012). Clearing the smoke to see the screen: Ideological manipulation in audiovisual translation. Meta, 57(2), 279–293. https://doi.org/10.7202/1013945ar.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franzelli, V. (2008). Traduire la parole émotionelle en sous-titrage: colère et identités. Etudes de linguistique appliquée, 150, 221–244.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goris, O. (1991). À la recherche de normes pour le doublage. État de la question et propositions pour une analyse descriptive. MA thesis, K.U. Leuven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goris, O. (1993). The question of French dubbing: Towards a frame for systematic investigation. Targets, 5(2), 169–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, H. (2012a). Phraseology in flux. Danish Anglicisms beneath the surface. In C. Furiassi, F. González, & V. Pulcini (Eds.), The Anglicization of European lexis (pp. 169–198). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, H. (2012b). Old films, new subtitles, more Anglicisms? In M. Carroll, P. Orero, & A. Remael (Eds.), AVT and media accessibility at the crossroads. Media for all 3. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez Lanza, C. (2011). Censors and censorship boards in Franco’s Spain (1950s–1960s): An overview based on the TRACE cinema catalogue. In D. Asimakoulas & M. Rogers (Eds.), Translation and opposition (pp. 305–320). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10612/4297.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez Lanza, C. (2012). Censorship and TV dubbing in Spain: From movie of the week to Estrenos TV. In M. Fernández, T. Guzmán, & R. Rabadán (Eds.), Lengua, traducción, recepción, 2 (pp. 223–225). León: Universidad de León. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10612/4296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halliday, M. A. K. (1967). Intonation and grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Herbst, T. (1996). Why dubbing is impossible. In R. M. Bollettieri Bosinelli & C. Heiss (Eds.), Traduzione mulimediale per il cinema, la televisione e la scena. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Forlì 26–26 1995 (pp. 77–115). Bologna: Clueb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutcheon, L. (2006). A theory of adaptation. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hutcheon, L., & O’Flynn, S. (2013). A theory of adaptation. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jüngst, H. E. (2010). Audiovisuelles Übersetzen. Ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch. Tübingen: Narr Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khoshsaligheh, M., & Ameri, S. (2014). Translation of taboos in dubbed American crime movies into Persian. T&I review, 4(2), 25–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khoshsaligheh, M., & Ameri, S. (2016). Ideological considerations in official dubbing in Iran [Special issue]. Altre Modernità, 232–250. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/6864.

  • Le Nouvel, T. (2007). Le doublage. París: Eyrolles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefevere, A. (1992). Translation, rewriting, and the manipulation of literary fame. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukic, N. (2015). Traducción audiovisual en Serbia. Estado de la cuestión. Unpublished PhD thesis, Universidad de Málaga.

    Google Scholar 

  • Machado, D. (2016). O proceso da traduçao para a dublagem brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Ediçao do autor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez Sierra, J. (2008). Humor y traducción: Los Simpson cruzan la frontera. Castellón: Universitat Jaume I.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez Sierra, J. (2012). Introducción a la traducción audiovisual. Murcia: Universidad de Murcia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzà, A., & Chaume, F. (2009). The language of dubbing: Present facts and future perspectives. In M. Freddi & M. Pavesi (Eds.), Analysing audiovisual dialogue. Linguistic and translational insights (pp. 31–40). Bologna: Clueb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mereu Keating, C. (2016a). “The Italian color”: Race, crime iconography and dubbing conventions in the Italian-language versions of Scarface (1932). Altre Modernità, 107–123. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/6851.

  • Mereu Keating, C. (2016b). The politics of dubbing. Film censorship and state intervention in the translation of foreign cinema in Fascist Italy. Oxford: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minutella, V. (2015). Dacci un taglio, vuoi? Anglicisms in dubbed TV series, then and now. Ricognizioni, 261/282. Retrieved from http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ricognizioni/article/view/1104/1204

  • Minutella, V. (2017). Direct Anglicisms in dubbing in Italy: State of the art. In C. Boggio & A. Molino (Eds.), English in Italy. Linguistic, educational and professional challenges (pp. 87–104). Milano: FrancoAngeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minutella, V., & Pulcini, V. (2014). Cross-linguistic interference into Italian audiovisual discourse: The cases of realize, impressive and excited. In A. Molino & S. Zanotti (Eds.), Observing norms, observing usage: Lexis in dictionaries and the media (pp. 331–348). Bern: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paolinelli, M., & Di Fortunato, E. (2005). Tradurre per il doppiaggio. Milano: Hoepli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavesi, M. (1996). L’allocuzione nel doppiaggio dall’inglese all’italiano. In C. Heiss & R. M. Bollettieri Bosinelli (Eds.), Traduzione multimediale per il cinema, la televisione e la scena (pp. 117–130). Bologna: Clueb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavesi, M. (2005). La traduzione filmica. Aspetti del parlato doppiato dall’inglese all’italiano. Rome: Carocci.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavesi, M. (2008). Spoken language in film dubbing: Target language norms, interference and translational routines. In D. Chiaro, C. Heiss, & C. Bucaria (Eds.), Between text and image. Updating research in screen translation (pp. 79–99). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. Retrieved from British Library, London.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pavesi, M. (2016). Formulaicity in and across film dialogue: Clefts as translational routines. Across Languages and Cultures, 17, 99–121. Retrieved from British Library, London.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pavesi, M., & Malinverno, A. M. (2000). Usi del turpiloquio nella traduzione filmica. In C. Taylor (Ed.), Tradurre il cinema (pp. 75–90). Trieste: University of Trieste.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perego, E., & Taylor, C. (2009). An analysis of the language of original and translated film: Dubbing into English. In M. Pavesi & M. Freddi (Eds.), Analysing audiovisual dialogue (pp. 58–74). Bologna: Clueb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-González, L. (2014). Audiovisual translation: Theories, methods and issues. London/New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pommier, C. (1988). Doublage et postsyncronisation. Paris: Dujarric.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranzato, I. (2009). Censorship or “creative translation”? The Italian experience from Tennessee Williams to Woody Allen to Six feet under. In F. Federici (Ed.), Translating regionalised voices in audiovisuals (pp. 45–69). Rome: Aracne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranzato, I. (2016). Translating culture specific references on television: The case of dubbing. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Fresco, P. (2006). The Spanish Dubbese: A case of (un)idiomatic friends. Jostrans, 6, 134–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Fresco, P. (2007). Synching and swimming naturally on the side-the translation of hesitation in dubbing. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 6, 185–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Fresco, P. (2009a). Naturalness in the Spanish dubbing language: A case of not-so-close friends. Meta, 54(1), 49–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Fresco, P. (2009b). Description of the language used in dubbing: The Spanish dubbese. In M. Pavesi & M. Freddi (Eds.), Analysing dialogue. Linguistic and translational insights (pp. 41–47). Bologna: Clueb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romero-Fresco, P. (2012). Dubbing dialogues naturally: A pragmatic approach to the translation of transition markers in dubbing. MonTI, 181–205. https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2012.4.8.

  • Rundle, C. (2018). Stemming the flood: The censorship of translated popular fiction in Fascist Italy. Perspectives, 26(6), 838–851.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Mompeán, S. (2012). The intonation of dubbed dialogue: A corpus-based study on the naturalness of tonal patterns in the Spanish version of “How I met your mother”. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Roehampton, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Mompeán, S. (2015). Dubbing animation into Spanish: Behind the voices of animated characters. JosTrans, 25, 270–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Mompeán, S. (2016). “It’s not what they said; it’s how they said it”: A corpus-based study on the translation of intonation for dubbing. In A. M. Rojo López & N. Campos Plaza (Eds.), Interdisciplinarity in translation studies. Theoretical models, creative approaches and applied methods (pp. 259–276). Bern: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez Mompeán, S. (2017). The rendition of English intonation in Spanish dubbing. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spiteri Miggiani, G. (2014). Screen translation and adaptation for dubbing purposes: A creative and technical process. In C. Briffa (Ed.), Translation studies from Malta. Malta: Malta University Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thies, J., Zollhöfer, M., Stamminger, M., Theobalt, C., & Nießner, M. (2016). Face2Face. Real-time face capture and reenactment of RGB videos. CVPR. https://web.stanford.edu/~zollhoef/papers/CVPR2016_Face2Face/page.html

  • Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive translation studies and beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vinay, J. P., & Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative stylistics of French and English: A methodology for translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Whitman-Linsen, C. (1992). Through the dubbing glass. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J., & Lallo, M. J. (2009). Voice-over for animation. New York/London: Focal Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yahiaoui, R. (2016). Ideological constraints in dubbing The Simpsons into Arabic [Special issue]. Altre Modernità, 182–200. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/6855.

  • Zanotti, S. (2014). “It feels like bits are crumbling or something”. General extenders in original and dubbed television dialogue. In M. Pavesi, M. Formentaelli, & E. Ghi (Eds.), The languages of dubbing: Main stream audiovisual translation in Italy (pp. 113–140). Bern: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

Filmography

    TV Sitcom

    • Family Guy (1998–ongoing), S. MacFarlane & D. Zuckerman, 20th Century Fox Television.

      Google Scholar 

    TV Series

    • Grey’s Anatomy (2005–ongoing), S. Rhimes, abc Studios.

      Google Scholar 

    Motion Pictures

    • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Reynolds, K., Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment.

      Google Scholar 

    Download references

    Author information

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

      Giselle Spiteri Miggiani

    Authors
    1. Giselle Spiteri Miggiani
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Giselle Spiteri Miggiani .

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2019 The Author(s)

    About this chapter

    Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

    Cite this chapter

    Spiteri Miggiani, G. (2019). Dialogue Writing Set in Context. In: Dialogue Writing for Dubbing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04966-9_1

    Download citation

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04966-9_1

    • Published:

    • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

    • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04965-2

    • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04966-9

    • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation