Università degli Studi di Padova

Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari

Corso di Laurea Magistrale in

Lingue Moderne per la Comunicazione e la Cooperazione Internazionale
Classe LM-38

Tesi di Laurea

Audiovisual Translation: subtitling

the BBC’s documentary
“The Quantum Revolution”

Relatore Laureando
Prof. Maria Teresa Musacchio Andrea Mujagic
n° matr.1013513 / LMLCC

Anno Accademico 2012 / 2013

 CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Communicating Science 3

o 1.1 And what about Physics? 5

o 1.2 Science and journalism 11

Chapter 2 Audiovisual Translation 15

o 2.1 Audiovisual Translation 16

o 2.2 Subdivision of Audiovisual Translation 17
o 2.3 Interlingual Audiovisual Translation in the Past 21

2.3.1 History of Subtitling 22

2.3.2 History of Dubbing 25

o 2.4 Interlingual Audiovisual Translation at Present (the situation in Europe) 26

2.4.1 The Pros and Cons of Dubbing and Subtitling 28

o 2.5 Differences between Literary and Audiovisual Translation 36

o 2.6 Costs of Various Audiovisual Translation Types 37

2.6.1 The Job of Audiovisual Translator 38

Chapter 3 Subtitling 41

o 3.1 Introduction to subtitling 41

o 3.2 The subtitling process 43
o 3.3 Professionals in the subtitling process 45
o 3.4 Technical considerations 46

3.4.1 Dialogue list and style guide 46

3.4.2 Spatial dimensions and maximum number of lines 47

3.4.3 Characters per line 47

3.4.4 One-liners and two-liners 48

o 3.5 Temporal dimension 49

 3.5.1 Spotting and duration of subtitles 49

3.5.2 Synchronization and multiple voices .49

3.5.3 Shot changes and delay time between subtitles 50

3.5.4 One or two lines? 51

3.5.5 Reading time and the six seconds rule 51

o 3.6 The Semiotics of subtitling 51

3.6.1 Subtitling and images 54

3.6.2 The multimodality of language 54

3.6.3 Opinions about subtitling 55

3.6.4 From speech to writing 57

Chapter 4 Subtitling the BBC’s documentary “The Quantum Revolution” 59

o 4.1 The Punctuation of subtitling and other conventions 60

4.1.1 Commas and semicolons 62

4.1.2 Full stops and colons 65

4.1.3 Exclamation marks and question marks 65

4.1.4 Dashes and hyphens 66

4.1.5 Numbers 67

o 4.2 The linguistics of subtitling 67

4.2.1 Text reduction 67

4.2.2 Condensation and reformulation .69

4.2.2.1 Condensation and reformulation at word level 70

4.2.2.2 Use a short near synonym or equivalent expressions 70

4.2.2.3 Changing word classes 72

4.2.2.4 Short forms and contractions 73

4.2.2.5 Condensation and reformulation at clause/sentence level 74

4.2.2.6 Joining two sentences into one long sentence 74

4.2.2.7 Merge of two or more sentences into one 75

 4.2.2.8 Use of pronouns to replace nouns or noun phrases 75

o 4.2.3 Omissions 76

4.2.3.1 Omissions at word level 76

4.2.4 Segmentation and line breaks 79

4.2.4.1 Line breaks within subtitles: syntactic-semantic considerations 80

4.2.4.2 Line breaks across subtitles: syntactic-semantic considerations 81

o 4.2.5 Conclusions on the punctuation and linguistics of subtitling 82

Chapter 5 “The Quantum Revolution” subtitles 85

o 5.1 Introduction 85
o 5.2 Part 1 87
o 5.3.Part 2 93
o 5.4 Part 3 99

Conclusion 105

Appendix 1 107

Appendix 2 112

References 117
 Introduction

Audiovisual translation (AVT) has been neglected by Translation Studies scholars

for many years. Until recent times translation experts mostly centered their

investigations on the differences between dubbing and subtitling and whether the

former was better than the latter. Nowadays the things have changed, and more

and more Translation Studies scholars have entered this field. AVT is now one of

the fastest growing areas in the field of Translation studies (TS).

Subtitling is different from other types of translations in many ways. First of all, it

does not only consist in translating a text from a source language into a target

language but it also involves a shift from oral to written language. In other words,

there is a shift from one semiotic system to another.

Research outlined in this dissertation follows my experience of subtitling in an

audiovisual translation course I attended at university last year. What has changed

is the type of audiovisual text I decided to subtitle. “The Quantum Revolution” is

a scientific documentary hosted by Michio Kaku. I chose three parts of this one-

hour documentary, translated them from English into Italian, and then adapted my

translation to the final subtitles. Obviously, I provided both English and Italian

subtitles.

This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter One is about science

communication, how it is done and its uneasy relationship with journalism.

Chapter Two is entirely devoted to audiovisual translation, its history and main

achievements. Chapter Three provides an overview on subtitling, its process and

1
the people involved. Chapter Four is entirely devoted to the analyses of my work

in subtitling ranging from punctuation to the linguistics of subtitling. Finally, in

Chapter Five, all the subtitles for the documentary are listed.

2
 1.COMMUNICATING SCIENCE

"Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me."

Albert Einstein

There have been many episodes in the history of science when scientist felt the

urge to communicate their ideas to the public. For instance, during the

Enlightenment period science became extremely fashionable. At one time, the

height of chic was to hire a mathematician to come to your dinner party in order to

entertain your guests and make their dinner more exciting (Wilson, 1998:3).

Nowadays, we live in an era of unprecedented scientific progress. Due to the

growing impact of technology science is entering more and more in our daily

lives. Moreover, the extraordinary development of mass communication systems

gave the opportunity to scientists all around the world to speak up. What we have

to keep in mind is that without a general awareness of science in the public

domain, no scientific progress would have been possible. Thanks to science

communication people learn about important developments that affect everyone.

3
That is why science achievements should or better must be brought into the public

eye and especially to the attention of important stakeholders (Christensen,

2007:3).

One of the main problems of the scientific communicators is how to

communicate scientific data in a correct way. It is all about explaining unfamiliar

ideas and phenomena, but it is hard to find any systematic account on how this is

done. They usually avoid equations, strive for clarity and use metaphors or

analogies (Stocklmayer, Gore, and Bryant, 2001:49).

Increased public scientific awareness is extremely important. It benefits science

itself, the individual citizens with directly applicable skills and knowledge and a

society as a whole. For instance, especially the government and society benefit

from more scientific literacy, since an informed electorate promotes a more

effective democratic society. Moreover, it would be very difficult to reach new

achievements and recruit new scientists without continuously informing the public

(Christensen, 2007:4).

Scientist are used to communicate with their colleagues in a certain format. They

begin with background information, then move to supporting details, and finally

come to their results and conclusions. They cannot do the same thing with a non-

scientific audience. On the contrary, they have to do the opposite or in other

words “they must invert that pyramid and begin with the bottom line” and also

add the “so what” question because people want to know why should they care

(Sommerville and Hassol, 2011:49).

4
Figure1:Communication between scientist and communication between scientist
and non-scientific audience (Sommerville and Hassol, 2011:49).

1.1 And what about Physics?

Although many of us are not familiar with important scientific discoveries almost

all of us have experienced its technological applications that pervade our everyday

life, the strategic choices of our countries and our imagination (Armeni et al.

2006:23).

As far as Europeans are concerned they see physics and medicine as the most

“scientific” subjects, followed by biology, mathematics and astronomy. The

interest that Europeans have about internet is quite surprising (29%). This

application is seen as a very useful technological product but also as a mean able

to increase knowledge and its diffusion. Furthermore, the interest differs

according to socio-demographic characteristics: the Internet, space explorations

and nanotechnologies mainly attract young males who are still studying, while

medicine interests especially women and persons aged over 55 (Armeni et al.

2006:25).

5
Thanks to the comparison between the data furnished by the Eurobarometers of

2001 and 2005 we can notice a considerable increase of interest in physics. While

astronomy placed first nanotechnologies did not catch much attention although

their score doubled since 2001 ( from 4% till 9%) (Armeni et al, 2006:27).

2001 2005
65%
60%
52%49%

28%30%
22%25% 23% 22%25%
17%
9%
4%

Figure 2: The scientific and technological developments of greatest interest

according to Europeans: 2001-2005 comparison.
As we can see from the graphic below medicine placed first, followed by

environment and Internet.

As far as the expectations of Italians they are focused on: the discovery of clean

and unlimited energy sources, the use of intelligent robots for domestic work and

the first manned expedition to Mars. And even in this case the preferences are

associated with gender (women have greater expectations in cancer defeat, men in

energy innovations), age (younger people prefer creation of intelligent robots or

Mars expeditions), and education (the higher educated are more interested in

6
energy sources, the lower educated are interested in advances in medicine.)

(Armeni et al. 2006:27).

Another important question is: how much do we know physics? According to

Eurobarometer’s data we can affirm that Europeans have a quite good knowledge

of science. Some respondents were asked to decide if some scientific statements

were true or false. The results were quite good: 66% answered correctly to the

statements about physics, chemistry and medicine. Moreover, the country which

citizens proved most prepared was Sweden, Cyprus had the lowest scientific

knowledge while Italy occupied a central position. It is also true that “the Nordic

countries” have a better scientific knowledge than numerous countries of Eastern

Europe. The respondents with the best scientific knowledge are predominantly

male, aged under 55, and are students or managers. However, comparing the 2005

and 2001 results we can affirm that the knowledge about physics among

Europeans is increasing. Furthermore, the knowledge about “macroscopic

physics” is much higher than the knowledge about “microscopic physics”

(Armeni et al. 2006:31-32).

How is the image of physics conveyed to the public? Nowadays researches and

scientist communicate with the public more and more in first person. Their main

goal is to make the public more aware of science so that they could support it

more willingly. One of the best ways to attract audience are popular physics

books. These books use elements tied to imagination and fiction in order to

explain complex theories in a more simple way. One of the examples could be the

use of a time machine to explain the Einstein’s theory of relativity. Thanks to the

use of imagination physics is freed by the restraints imposed upon it by

technology (Armeni et al. 2006:35).

7
The difficulty that women encounter when trying to make it or just trying to

achieve important positions in the world of research and innovation are well-

known worldwide. This problem is also present in this sector. The very president

of the University of Harvard thinks that women are not keen to technical-scientific

abilities as men. The first assumptions were that these differences are being

formed at a young age by socialization and schooling. However, recent survey of

young Italians aged 15 and 19 don’t confirm these thesis. In fact, both boys (61%)

and girls (49%) don’t agree with the fact that males have a better attitude for

science. Moreover, the majority of them don’t think that schooling is responsible

for the reinforcement of gender differences (Armeni et al. 2006:38).

Biology

Foreign languages

Philosophy

Music
Neither 'male', neither
Medicine 'female'
more 'female'
Mathematics

Astronomy more 'male'

Economics

Chemistry

Physics

Engineering

Figure 3 The perception of selected subjects as ‘male’ ore ‘female’ among young
Italians aged between 15 and 19.
As we can see from the graphic above there are some subjects seen as

predominately ‘male’ or ‘female’. For instance, on one hand, foreign languages

are definitely seen as more ‘female’ while on the other hand engineering is

definitely seen as more ‘male’. For all the rest, the ‘neither ‘male’ or ‘female’

8
prevails. Finally, greater attention must be put on the dynamics and factors

responsible for current perceptions of science and of scientific careers.

Learning has to do with three principal perspectives: “the cognitive perspective

considers the way learners make sense of scientific information as well as the

intellectual consistency and value of the information. The affective perspective

documents the way learners feel about their knowledge – the feelings that

influence their learning of science. And finally, the conative perspective considers

the usefulness of scientific information in meeting learners’ practical and

everyday needs.” (Armeni et al. 2006:43) In the public perception of physics the

emotional involvement is of crucial importance. In fact, the affective dimension

may change the persons capacity for cognitive learning, and the same happens as

far as the conative dimension is concerned: it could influence the learner’s

motivation. Alsop tested the validity of this model on the residents of the rural

village in Somerset where high levels of radon contamination had been recorded.

For most of them the affective and conative aspects were more important. For

instance, those of them who were afraid of the consequences of the gas and

thought they could not do anything to change their situation preferred not to know

too much while those of them who thought they could do something to reduce

emissions or the contamination of their homes wanted to know as much as

possible (Armeni et al. 2006:44).

As far as nanotechnologies are concerned this is a recent sector about which still

little is known. This does not mean that citizens do not develop attitudes towards

these new technologies. On the contrary, they do develop attitudes thanks to

ideological predispositions or mass media. A survey made in 2004 on a sample of

706 US citizens highlighted an interaction between emotions and knowledge.

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Indeed: “When there were strong negative attitudes towards new technologies, an

increase in specific knowledge had only slight effects, increasing support for

nanotechnology and the perception that it had more benefits than risks. When

there was low emotional negativity, the effect of knowledge was much more

powerful, although it operated in the same direction as before (more knowledge,

more support and a more positive perception of nanotechnologies)” (Armeni et al.

2006: 47). So the ‘knowledge deficit’ model which says that people with more

knowledge seek for more information and are more open towards new

technologies does not apply always. In fact the deficit model was usually used in

early science communication. Its theory was that the public does not know much

about science because of the lack of information. The scientist thought that the

best way to solve the problem is to give the audience all the information needed.

What they did not keep in mind is that the public will not be interested in

information without context. (V Ellis, 2013) In this case we cannot take it into

consideration because the person is overwhelmed by emotions.

Not Only a little Somewhat Very

hopeful hopeful hopeful hopeful

Low 26,5% 10,7% 36,2% 26,6%

knowledge

High 13,4% 5,8% 36,3% 44,4%

knowledge

Figure 4 Feeling hopeful in nanotechnologies by level of knowledge

As we can see from the graphic above the more they know the more hopeful they

are (Armeni et al, 2006:50).

10
1.2 Science and journalism

Science has an uneasy relationship with journalism. Journalist want an

extraordinary story to tell while scientists want to communicate their ideas to the

world. In science not everything is always about or not about to happen: for

example some theories such as those of dark matter or dark energy are only

assumptions. In this case we can’t talk about something truth or false, only time a

good research will give us the answer.

A valid scientific source is very important. The opinion of the scientists, in this

case, would be of crucial importance. However, this not always happens.

Journalists are independent and nobody can force them to write what they don’t

won’t to write or on the contrary, nobody can hold their pen in order to write what

they want.

We all know that moderation is not what makes news. Journalist won’t make a

living reporting that “nothing is wrong”. That is why they usually prefer the

“extremist”. The former are used to make a good story, but they should be only

used if the end result is an accurate and balanced story (Friedman et al. 1986:100).

Accuracy is very important for scientists. Sometimes they spend a lifetime in

order to reach their goals and that is why, when the time comes to make them

public, the accuracy of the person responsible of reporting those ideas is

inevitable. Inaccuracy infuriates scientists but this is not the only reason why it

should not occur: it could also have dangerous and far-reaching effects. For

instance, a journalist must be very careful when speaking about “cancer cures”, a

misleading story could give false hopes to millions of people. And why? Just to
11
sell more copies? That is why there should not be disagreement about accuracy

between scientists and journalists but there has to be discussion about what

constitutes accuracy. When you spend a lifetime and put all of your energies in a

project once you have reached your goal you want the world to know exactly how

you have done it. On the one hand, in many cases, scientist want to see a full

discussion of their work, including details and background information. On the

other, journalists who have to deal with space problems or deadlines may have to

sacrifice some details and emphasize some striking aspects of the story. So the

story repeats itself: journalists have to satisfy the readers. Their main problem is

to sell newspapers and catch the interest of the public. They must remember that

good science writers are does who can satisfy both editors and readers. When it

comes to scientists they should understand the problems the journalists face and

try to work with them in order to have a story that is both accurate and readable. It

is probably true that journalists and scientists, in some way, live in their own

world and see the world from their own perspectives (Friedman et al. 1986: 106).

Details, of course, are of crucial importance. Firstly, details are important in order

to understand how important conclusions were reached. But how should a

journalist know when to stop? A journalist has to understand what a fact meant,

how important it was, and that it should not be presented more or less important

than it was.

We all know that journals such as Donna Moderna or perhaps Le scienze have a

different audience. The readers of Le science could feel cheated if they do not get

enough information: a more technical readership needs and deserves more detail.

On the other hand, readers of Donna Moderna are not interested in long

explanations of the scientific data. In fact, less sophisticated readers may not be

12
able to follow anything more complex than the basic steps of the research project.

This is a reason why the kind of medium is very important. What journalist must

keep in mind is that their main goal is communication. Therefore, if

communication is to be considered effective the needs and the abilities of the

audience must be considered. Moreover, journalist must do “their own

homework”: they must understand the content within which the facts lie. This is

the only way to produce a good story (Friedman et al. 1986: 109).

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 2. AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Until recently, the Audiovisual Translation (AVT) has been neglected by

Translation Studies scholars for many years. Until recent times translation experts

mostly centered their on the differences between dubbing and subtitling and

whether the former was better than the latter. However, now we can affirm that

the situation changed drastically and that more and more experts are being

interested in exploring this area. AVT is actually one of the fastest growing area

in the field of Translation studies (TS). Due to the unprecedented surge in interest

in TS, the AVT is experiencing the expansion and consolidation as an academic

discipline (Diaz Cintas, 2008:1). Therefore, academic research has started in this

field and a wide amount of works concerning audiovisual translation have been

published all around the world.

One of the main reasons why this area has been almost fully ignored was the

thought that AVT was not really a translation. They preferred referring to it as an

adaptation because of its spatial and temporal limits that were imposed by the

medium itself. Because of its use of two codes, image and sound, it must respect

the synchrony in these new translation parameters. Therefore, the experts were

searching for a perfect generic term that can include all the different

manifestations we find in the audiovisual ambit. They think that, nowadays,

14
translation should be understood in a more flexible way. We should abandon all

those outdated notions coined centuries ago, when the cinema, the television and

the computer had not been yet invented (Diaz Cintas and Remael, 2006:9-11).

Effectively, AVT and technology go hand in hand: developments in the latter will

irremediably have the effect on the former (Sanderson, 2005:24). The adjectives

such as “constrained” and “subordinate” were very often used when referring to

these kind of texts. However, they began receiving criticisms for their negative

connotation. That is why there was a need for a more appropriate term. It was, in

fact, then that the term “ audiovisual translation”, or AVT, appeared. Moreover,

this was not the only term used to refer to this field. Terms such as “film

translation” or “cinema translation” were often used, even thought they were

restricting because this kind of activity takes into account also other types of

programmes ( sitcoms, documentaries, cartoons, ect.) A term that could be a good

alternative to the ATV term is “screen translation”, because it refers to all

products distributed on screen. However, AVT gained ground in the recent years

and it is fast becoming the standard referent (Diaz Cintas and Remael, 2006:12).

2.1 Audiovisual Translation

According to Diaz and Cintas: “Audiovisual translation refers to the translation of

products in which the verbal dimension is supplemented by elements in other media”

(Diaz Cintas and Remael, 2006:13). The two authors recommend three

possibilities: 1) the message is conveyed only auditorily as, for instance, in songs

15
 and radio programmes, 2) the only channel used is the visual one, as for example,

comic strips, published advertisements, etc. or 3) both auditory and visual

channels convey the message as in products such as films, CD-ROMs or

documentaries. Due to all of these elements, AVT is considered much different

from the literary translation.

2.2 Subdivision of Audiovisual Translation

There are two types of audiovisual translation: the intralingual and the interlingual

audiovisual translation.

1) Intralingual Audiovisual Translation

For the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH)

Audio descriptio for blind

Live subtitling ( e.g news broadcasts)

Surtitling for the opera and the theatre

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In this kind of translation source language is the same as the target language and

involves a shift from oral to written language. It usually has the same author, who

uses paraphrases to explain the text in different words. In this type of translation

the target text can be created at almost the same time as the original. Moreover, it

is also true that intralingual translation is much shorter than the interlingual

translation.

The SDH is one kind of intralingual translation that is developing most at present.

They are meant for people with hearing problems and are prepared specifically for

this target group. In most European countries they are transmitted via teletext.

This type of subtitles usually change color on television depending on the person

who is speaking. Furthermore, they can also give us some paralingustic

information that those people cannot access from the soundtrack such as the irony

of the statement or a knock on the door ( Baker and Saldanha, 2009:15). Due to

new legislation in many countries tv channels are obliged to broadcast a certain

percentage of their programmes with this kind of subtitles. For instance the BBC

(British Broadcasting Corporation) made a huge progress in this area: in 2008, it

managed to subtitle a 100% of their programmes with the SDH (Diaz Cintas and

Ramael, 2006:5).

The second type of intralingual translation is audio description for the visual

elements of an audiovisual product (including films, television programmes,

documentaries, advertisements, but also such audiovisual phenomena as art

galleries, museums, dance performances, city tours, live events, etc.) This is some

kind of an additional narrative that fits between the original dialogue and

describes everything that is seen in the film or on the stage. It also includes

17
descriptions of actions, facial expressions, clothing and scenery and helps the

blind to understand the plot of the story (Diaz Cintas and Ramael, 2006:6).

A third type of intralingual translation is live subtitling, or sometimes called

respeaking. This kind of subtitling often needs some technical support because it

is carried out for life broadcastas ( e.g sporting events or tv news). That is why

special keyboards are being used: they allow the typist to press two or more keys

at the same time or perhaps to write syllables and instead of single letters.

Moreover, they also use voice recognition software: the subtitler repeates what he

sees on screen and the software “translates” that utterance into written lines

(Cintas and Ramael, 2006:7).

The fourth type of intralingual audiovisual translation is surtitling for the opera

and the cinema. These kind of subtitles are often used during musical

performances or the opera. Usually, they consist in the translated or transcribed

lyrics projected above the scene. They may be used either to translate the meaning

of the lyrics to the audience’s language, or to transcribe lyrics that may be

difficult to understand in the sung form. In general, they are displayed using a

supertitling machine (Diaz Cintas and Ramael, 2006: 9).

Surtitling for theatre follows the same principles as subtitling for television. The

only exception is the speed of the surtitles. As the audience have to move their

gaze a great distance from the actors to the display above the stage, the surtitles

have to be even slower than subtitles in a film (Diaz Cintas and Ramael, 2006:10).

18
 2) Interlingual Audiovisual Translation

Interlingual translation can be defined as the replacement of elements of one

language, the domain of translation, by equivalent elements of another

language, the range of translation.

revoicing, which consists of lip-sync dubbing, voice-overs

and narration

subtitling

The first type of interlingual audiovisual translation is voice over. “It is the term

used to refer to the audiovisual language transfer methods of dubbing, narration and free

commentary collectively, and describes the attempt to cover (partly or entirely) the

spoken source text of an original audiovisual production by a new spoken target ”

(Karamitroglou, 2000: 5)

Dubbing covers entirely the spoken source text with the target text and that is

why it is also called lip-sync dubbing. It fits the lip movements of the original. On

the contrary, voice-overs does not emphasize the lip movements of the original

19
text nor the faithfulness of the translation. It is a free interpretation of the source

language in the target language. Sometimes it is enriched with some elements not

present in the source texts, such as journalistic comments (Karamitroglou,

2000:5).

The second type of interlingual translation is subtitling. “Subtitling can be defined

as the translation of the spoken (or written) source text of an audiovisual product into

written target text which is added onto the images of the original product, usually at the

bottom of the screen” (Karamitroglou, 2000: 5). Subtitling con be both intralingual

and interlingual. Moreover, it can be open, when the target text constitutes a

physical part of a translated film or closed when a target text is stored in another

format, for instance teletext and therefore not a part of the film.

2.3 Interlingual Audiovisual Translation in the past

Even during the silent film area it was very important to convey to the viewers the

dialogue of the actors on screen. This problem was solved by the now call

intertitles: the predecessors of the subtitles. They were texts, printed on paper and

placed between the sequences of the film. Their first appearance was in 1903 as

descriptive titles in Edwin S. Porter's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Translating such

dialogues was quite easy: the original titles were removed, translated, filmed an

re-inserted. Alternatively, a translator used to give a simultaneous translation to

the audience. The very first sub-titles first appeared in 1909. In fact, M. N. Topp

registered a patent for “device for the rapid showing of titles for moving pictures other

20
than those on the film strip” (Ivarsson, 2004:1). By using some kind of a slide

projector, subtitles were shown on screen below the intertitles.

With the invention of sound films another problem emerged: how to translate the

dialogues of the actors? What they started to do was the so-called multilingual

filming. Therefore, the film was shot several times in different languages, more

precisely in English, German, Italian and French. However this technique had to

be abandoned soon ( Ivarsson, 2004:1).

2.3.1 History of subtitling

With the invention of sound films, in 1927, the viewers could hear the actors and

that is why the titles between the sequences of the film were removed. The

producers decided to replace intertitles with subtitles and inserted them directly

into the picture. This technique was quite cheap (much cheaper than dubbing) and

became of common use in countries like Netherlands. "The first attested showing of

a sound film with subtitles was when The Jazz Singer (originally released in the US in

October 1927) opened in Paris, on January 26, 1929, with subtitles in French. Later that

year, Italy followed suit, and on August 17, 1929, another Al Jolson film, The Singing

Fool, opened in Copenhagen, fitted with Danish subtitles." (Ivarsson, 2004: 2)

New techniques were emerging in order to improve the quality of the final result.

The optical method was the next step. They tried to copy the photographed titles

directly on the film copy. However, the original film negative was usually not

available so they had to re-copy the whole film in order to obtain a new negative.

21
That is why there was a “consequent loss of focus and substantial increase in the noise

level.” (Ivarsson, 2004:3)

The mechanical and thermal process were not efficient either. In 1930, Leif

Eriksen, stamped the titles directly on the images of the film strip. What he did

first was to moisten the emulsion layer to soften it. Then he proceeded by

typesetting the titles, printing them on paper and photographing them in order to

produce very small letterpress type plates for each subtitle. In 1935, O. Turchányi,

heated the plates to a very high temperature in order to melt away the emulsion on

the film without the need for a softening bath. However, both these processes had

bad results with poorly defined letters (Ivarsson, 2004:3).

The chemical process was patented in 1932 by R. Hruska. He invented a new

method for impressing the titles directly on the film. What he did was to apply e

thin coating of wax or perhaps paraffin to the emulsion side of the finished film

copy. The printing plates were placed in a printing press and the plate was fed and

heated to a temperature of nearly a hundred degrees and one by one pressed

against the paraffin coating at the bottom of the frame which corresponded to the

beginning of the dialogue line. The paraffin under the letters melted and was

displaced, exposing the emulsion. This process was repeated with all the frames

on which this subtitle was to appear, corresponding to the duration of the speech.

After the printing process the film was put through a bleach bath, which dissolved

the exposed emulsion, leaving only the transparent nitrate or acetate film. The

etching fluid and the paraffin were then washed away. This process produced

clearly legible white letters on the screen. Later on, this process too was

automated by means of a counter, which fed the plates forward, counted the

frames on the roll and ensured that the subtitles came in the right place and were

22
of the right length. This kind of process is still used in many countries (Ivarsson,

2004:4).

The laser subtitling was the most efficient development in this field. Thanks to

this method typesetting and plates became unnecessary. A computer controls a

laser beam, and it takes less than a second to write a subtitle of two lines. Laser

method is the cheapest method but requires a very good equipment (Ivarsson,

2004:5).

However, subtitling for television was something different. The experts realized

very soon that the prints used for the cinema caused a number of problems. The

picture of a tv set has a narrower contrast range than that on a cinema screen and

the subtitles were almost illegible. Furthermore, the ability of the audience to read

subtitles on a TV screen is much slower than on a cinema screen. The first

subtitled tv film was the German full-feature film Der Student von Prague

broadcast by the BBC in 1931 (Ivarsson, 2004:5).

The making of the subtitles was done by separate people. Firstly, the spotting was

done by a technician who had no knowledge of the source language. Indeed, he

just marked the in times and out times of every utterance into a dialogue list.

Secondly, these time were converted to a specific number of characters.

Afterwards, a translator had to fit his translation in this limited space and usually

he didn’t even see the film. Later on a technician had to type the subtitles onto the

type plates and some years later onto computer disks from which they were

transferred to the film. The final result was usually full of errors. From the 1980s

the things changed drastically. Translators were able to do all the work on their

own thanks to advances in computer technology and new subtitling programmes.

23
Timing, translation and revision were done by the same person and that is why the

possibility to make a lot of errors decreased (Ivarsson, 2004:7).

2.3.2 History of dubbing

The history of dubbing differs from the history of subtitling and it varies from one

country to another. This method of audiovisual translation first appeared in The

United States although it has been used mainly in Europe, where it appeared in

1936.

However, the first dubbing attempts started in the late 1930s. The quality of these

films was quite poor. Moreover, it was only one person who dubbed all the

characters of the film and it was usually the translator himself. Some years later,

several people started to perform postsynchronisation. The quality of the final

work did not change: the dialogues sounded unnatural, the text was synchronized

very badly, the performance of the actors was rather poor and as a whole it was

acoustically very badly done.

The next evolution in this field of audiovisual translation was live dubbing. In

this case the dubbing actors were the same as the actors of the film. The main

problem of this technique of dubbing was that it was broadcast live and so the

actors had no possibility of changing their version and the number of translation

errors was usually very high. Moreover, they had to take turns using only one

chair and only one pair of earphones. All the noise they made such as coughing,

moving the chair, putting the earphones on and off, their steps was heard in the

dubbing. The quality of these films was very low.

24
In 1964 the era of loop dubbing started. In this case the whole film is divided in

several parts or loops, all the actors are present an they dub the film until the film

director is satisfied. This method definitely has a better quality than the previous

but it is very time-consuming.

Another method appeared in 1990s. It was the unilinear dubbing. We have only

one actor dubbing his character from the beginning to the end until his film

director is not satisfied. In fact, in this case, if the film director is not satisfied they

have to repeat only the part where the mistake was done. The unilinear dubbing is

faster and cheaper than the loop dubbing. Indeed, it is now preferred by an

overwhelming majority of dubbing studios (Gilbert et al, 2009:22).

2.4 Interlingual translation in present-day Europe

We do not have a complete overview of the spread and the impact of the screen

translation in Europe. However, there is one main distinction: the preference of

the European countries for dubbing or subtitling. On the one hand, we have the

UK, Benelux, Scandinavian countries, Greece and Portugal, which are mainly

“subtitling nations”, and on the other, the central and southern European

countries, such as Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Austria that are mainly “dubbing

countries”. Countries such as Czech Republic Slovakia and Hungary use both

subtitling and dubbing, the former for cinema, the latter for television. The reason

for dubbing, in some countries was because of the proportion of their market so

that the expensive production of dubbing could be profitable. Furthermore, there

25
are some political and social reasons why some nations prefer the one or the other.

For instance, countries such as Italy and Germany first started using dubbing in

1930s, especially for political reasons. In fact, they wanted to protect and exalt

national languages and in this way they also controlled the content of what was

being screened. On the contrary, a preference towards subtitling, for instance, in

Scandinavia nations was the proof of its more open attitude towards other cultures

and languages. It is also due to its restrictive number of spectators that countries

such as Scandinavian prefer subtitling: subtitling cost the tenth or the twentieth

less than dubbing (Koolstra et al, 2002: 324).

Figure 1 European countries and their common methods to dub films

26
The countries in blue dub only for children, the rest of the programmes are

subtitled. The countries in orange are the so called mixed areas: they are using

occasionally full-cast dubbing otherwise solely subtitles. The countries in yellow

adopt the voice-over technique. The countries in red are countries that use only

the dubbing method. The blue-red countries occasionally produce own dubbings

but generally use dubbing versions of other countries since their languages are

quite similar to each other and the audience is also able to understand it without

any problems (for instance Belgium and Slovakia).

The screen translation map is not as well-defined as it seems. For example, it is

true, that subtitling is preferred in countries with small population but political

entities such as Wales or Catalonia opt for dubbing as a way of promoting a

minority language. Besides, traditionally subtitling countries prefer to dub

children’s films and programmes. Moreover, countries such as Greece and

Denmark now also dub for audiences other than children. In English-speaking

countries there is also a new tendency to subtitle the few foreign language films

that enter these markets (Koolstra et al, 2002: 325).

2.4.1 The pros and cons of dubbing and subtitling

The two methods mentioned above are the most prevalent methods used in most

countries worldwide. Both of these adaptions have its advantages and

disadvantages. However, it is important to stress that neither of them is better than

27
the other: not only the translators, but also the viewers are accustomed to the

method that is used in their country.

On the one hand, the main reason why one country chooses to dub its programmes

is because they think it is easier to follow a story if they do not have to read while

viewing. On the other hand, countries that choose the subtitling method claim that

this way of adaptation is more natural and realistic because does not intact the

voices of the actors. However, these often-heard arguments are definitely not the

only one. Subtiling and dubbing have different information processing, the

relation with images and learning effects.

a. Information processing

Neither of the two methods cannot translate the original text literally and that is

why sometimes there are problems with the information transfer.

As far as subtitling is concerned there is a need for condensation. In fact, the

space and time limits imposed by the medium make the translators life hard when

they have to decide what to omit and how to do it. On one hand, they have to be

concise and on the other the subtitles must have an equal informational value as

the original text (Koolstra et al, 2002:327).

As far as dubbing is concerned, we have some speech duration problems. For

instance, sometimes happen that in the source language one meaning is spelled

out with only one word while in the target language that meaning has to be spelled

out with more words and vice versa (Koolstra et al, 2002:328).

28
In special cases, subtitles are shown in the same language as the original spoken

text (usually for the hard-of-hearing using the teletext page). In this case

sometimes there can be cases of redundancy between what has been said and what

the readers can read from the subtitles. Moreover, the same thing can happen also

while watching a foreign film with our own language subtitles. In fact, thanks to

the linguistic affinity, school learning or experience most viewers have a very

good knowledge of foreign languages, especially English (Koolstra et al,

2002:329).

On the contrary, dubbing does not have problems with redundancy because the

original spoken text is entirely removed. However, that is why this method of

audiovisual translation is more vulnerable to manipulation and censorship

(Koolstra et al, 2002:330).

Dubbing has a very easy adaptation. For example, if a translator has to substitute

an untranslatable joke there are no problems, because the viewers will not notice

it. On the contrary, if the same thing had to be done with the subtitled film

viewers could notice that some changes have been done (Koolstra et al,

2002:331).

Subtitling reduces the area of the original picture and also distract the viewer’s

attention away from the screen. However, a research made by Gielen in 2008 also

proved that viewers that are used to watch programmes with subtitles adopt a

technique in which the eye is focused primarily on the area just above the subtitle

so that they do not miss much of what is happening on the screen nor they have

difficulties in reading the subtitles (Koolstra et al, 2002:331).

29
Dubbing is easier to follow. In fact, often viewers combine television viewing

with another activity, perhaps reading. The same thing could be done also with

subtitling but is not as easy as it could seem because usually viewers do not have a

very good knowledge of the foreign language (Koolstra et al, 2002:332).

Watching films with subtitles rather than with the dubbing method is much easier

if the sound of the television is overwhelmed by other sounds. In the former we

can simply read the subtitles and the problem is solved, in the latter that is not

possible and the loss of information is inevitable (Koolstra et al, 2002:332).

Watching films with subtitles also requires more mental effort because a person

has the concentrate on both what is happening on the screen and what is written in

the subtitles. On the contrary, listening to spoken texts is evidently not very

demanding mentally, because viewers do not need to be reading at the same time

(Koolstra et al, 2002:332).

Moreover as far as efficiency in information processing is concerned it seems

smarter to read subtitles because reading is usually faster than listening. In a

research made by Mangnus et al. in 1994 emerged that adults recalled equal

information from the subtitling and the dubbing programme. On the contrary, as

far as children are concerned they had some difficulties with the subtitling

programmes (Koolstra et al, 2002:333).

30
b. Images and subtitling

Usually domestic programmes are more popular than foreign products. However,

this does not mean that dubbed programmes are seen as less attractive just

because of the adaption.

Subtitling programme is seen as more real because the original spoken text is

intact. On the contrary, in dubbed programmes the original spoken text is entirely

removed. In fact, dubbing is often criticized because popular actor’s voices are

known worldwide and that is why these kind of films sound less real than

subtitling programmes (Koolstra et al, 2002:335).

As far as the familiarity is concerned dubbed programmes may seem more

familiar than the subtitling programmes. Viewers can identify more easily with

the actors and they also may think that everything that happens on the screen is

more normal just because the actors speak in their own language (Koolstra et al,

2002: 336).

One important disadvantage as far as film producers are concerned is that subtitles

overlap the picture. Film producers work hard in order to present aesthetically

attractive images and that is why the criticize this adaption method (Koolstra et al,

2002: 336).

Another disadvantage of subtitling is the fact that the artistic unity of picture and

sound is not respected. This cause the viewer’s attention to split. On the contrary,

this is definitely not the case of dubbing programmes (Koolstra et al, 2002:337).

31
One of the disadvantages of the dubbing programmes is that due to lip

synchronicity the translation work becomes even harder.

The translated sentence should begin when the speaker starts speaking and should

end when the speaker is finished. Moreover, the sound of the spoken words

should be congruent with the lips movement of the speaker. That is why sentences

sometimes are shortened or lengthened and the choice of the words and the tempo

must be adjusted to the lip movements. In the dubbing countries such as Italy or

Germany the precision in this field is of great importance. However, Germany

stays more faithful to the lip-synchronicity while Italy prefers paying more

attention on the translation (Koolstra et al, 2002:338).

Subtitling programmes have translation problems too and they are caused by the

space and time limits imposed by the medium. Translators have to put their

translation in the two line subtitle and that is why sometimes the translation is not

optimal. One of the ways to solve this problem with compound past tense words is

to substitute them with simple past tense words (Koolstra et al, 2002:338).

c. Learning effects

While watching television viewers acquire information that the producers of the

programmes wanted to convey. Nevertheless, watching television may also

develop other skills that are not closely connected with the content of the

programme.

32
Watching subtitled programmes implies reading. I still remember my mother

reading the subtitles while me and my sister were listening and watching what

was happening on the screen. At the age of 6 I was capable of reading the subtitles

with almost no difficulty. My experience is only one of many that can testify that

this kind of activity can improve children’s reading skills.

When the viewers are watching the non-subtitling programmes (including the

dubbed programmes) they are listening the actor’s words and watching the

pictures that support those words. In this way they also can acquire new

vocabulary by watching the programmes in their own language. Rice and

Woodsmall’s study proved that children from three till five years old learn two to

five new words after watching a 15-minute television programme. Moreover,

children’s listening to tv programmes can be compared with the children’s

listening to other people talk in everyday life (Koolstra et al, 2002: 341).

In subtitling programmes foreign language can be heard, in other words the

original spoken language is intact. In this way people can here the actors

speaking, for example in English and read the translation in the subtitles, for

example in Dutch. In fact, more than one-third of Dutch adolescence are

convinced that their foreign language knowledge benefits from watching subtitled

programmes. Moreover, the majority of them is convinced that they are learning

more by watching television or listening to the radio than at school. Series of

studies conducted on students in Belgium proved that after watching a 15-minute

cartoon in a foreign language with subtitles in their own language word meanings

were learnt. It is interesting to underline that the languages used for this

experiment were not only the most common foreign languages such as English or

German; unfamiliar languages such as Chinese or Hungarian were used too. The

33
comparison between the familiar and unfamiliar languages showed that both type

of languages were learnt equally well (Koolstra et al, 2002: 342).

Studies were conducted on children too. Children from Grades 4 and 6 watched a

documentary about bears in tree versions: a) with English spoken text and Dutch

subtitles b) In Dutch without subtitles c) with an English spoken text without

subtitles. The results were surprising. They learned plenty of new words with the

first method and they also managed to understand some words with the third

method. These two studies proved that both adults and children can learn the

meanings of foreign-language words just by watching a short part of a subtitled

programme. Moreover, watching foreign-language subtitling programmes also

improves the viewers’ pronunciation (Koolstra et al, 2002: 342).

Even if the benefits of these subtitled programmes for language learning are

extremely evident some people do not consider it a very good idea to broadcast

these kind of programmes. These kind of people are the so-called language purist.

In fact, they are afraid that subtitled programmes could contaminate their mother

tongue. To prevent that, some local television such as the Basque channel in Spain

prefers to dub the foreign programmes (Koolstra et al, 2002: 343).

As I have already said we cannot say which of these two methods is better. What

every country should do is to choose the right type of adaptation for every foreign

audiovisual product that she wants to broadcast.

34
2.5 Differences between literary and Audiovisual Translation

Subtitling and dubbing are certainly a form of translation. However there are

some special characteristics that make them different from the translation of a

written text.

When we are translating a book, the original source language is completely

replaced with the target language. In other words, the text is transferred from one

language to another. On the contrary, when a film is being translated the situation

is quite different. Firstly, the message of the film is conveyed by various messages

such as image, acting, sound and language. It is obvious that not all of them can

be replaced. On the one hand, when a film is dubbed only the visual component

stay completely the same while the auditory component is completely changed.

On the other hand, when a film is subtitled both auditory and visual components

remain; the actual translation is just added to the original work. Subtitling is

different from other types of translations in several ways.

The translator of audiovisual products has a reduced scope. For instance, if there

is something that has to be explained in a literary translation, the translator can

use a footnote or include an explanation directly into the text. This is impossible

in a film or a documentary.

Differently, specialized translators have to respect more strictly the content of the

original text, producing a translation that has to be clear and comprehensible.

Most of specialized texts are about scientific or technical topics; they aim to

communicate a specific and informative content, so that the translator has to pay

35
attention to particular words or expressions. There is a strict relation with reality

and the translator cannot translate following his personal interpretation. He has to

know the specific terminology required for the particular translation and the

subject of the text, considering also the target audience. There are types of texts

that can be translated using both literary and specialized translation, such as the

essay. The translator has to find the best strategies to reproduce the message of the

original text, respecting the form and the specific terminology that makes every

text a particular one.

2.6 Costs of various Audiovisual Translation types

Every audiovisual translation type has its costs. In fact, most countries adopt one

of the two methods considering this important feature.

The costs for these type of translations can be divided in two groups: investment

costs for equipment (also called capital costs) and labour costs influenced by time

(also called operational costs).

The average cost of one hour of television programme subtitling in Europe is from

€ 700 TO € 1,500. On the contrary, lip-sync subbing of the same hour costs from

€ 12,000 to € 20,000. On the other hand, voice-over for the same period of time

can be produced for about € 1,000. It is important to underline that these are only

average amount and that they can vary from one country to another (from € 250 to

€ 1,957 for subtitling and from € 3,460 to € 24,000 for dubbing) (Luyken,

2006:141).

36
As we can see from the data below dubbing is approximately 15 times more

expensive than subtitling. It takes much more time to dub a film and much more

people are needed. This fact increases financial demand enormously. However, it

is also true that the capital and equipment costs of subtitling and dubbing are

almost the same (around 130,000) (Luyken, 2006:142).

Dubbing actors present themselves a huge cost: almost a 64 % of a total budget.

Moreover, star actors are paid very high sums. As far as subtitling is concerned,

equipment accounts for about 25 per cent of the overall budget. Interpreting

labour accounts for about 60 per cent, lower than for dubbing, where the

translation labour accounts for 64 per cent. Technical labour accounts for about 15

per cent of the total cost in both methods (Luyken, 2006:143).

It is obvious that the cost of subtitling and dubbing are closely connected to its

quality. Therefore, if the whole process is done faster and fewer people are

engaged than the cost can be significantly reduced. This especially the case of

dubbing, while as far as subtitling is concerned nowadays we can find a lot of

software that can be used also by non-professional subtitlers. Nevertheless, this is

always at the expense of the quality of the overall product (Luyken, 2006:146).

2.6.1 The job of Audiovisual Translator

There is a substantial difference between a subtitler and a dubbing translator. The

subtitlers do a complex job: spotting, translation and subtitle composition. They

can be either permanent staff of subtitling studios or TV stations or they can be

37
free-lancers. The free-lancers are, however, usually used on a more or less regular

basis. On the other hand, the dubbing translator only has to do a rough translation

of the dialogue. He usually translates the script word by word, sometimes

suggesting various possibilities of translation and then passes it on to the dubbing

writers (or adaptors) who then compose a dubbing dialogue which is synchronous

with the original one.

As far as the salary of the dubbing companies translators is concerned, they earn

between € 80 and 145 per working day. In other words, about € 26,500 a year. On

the other hand, the gross annual income of a subtitler in Western Europe is

estimated at some € 34,000 per year (approximately €170 per working day)

(Luyken, 2006: 148).

Until now, media translators have been of three kind: freelance translators,

programme-makers with language skills and cinema translators. The European

Broadcasting Union ( EBU) claims that these professional figures are essential but

not sufficient for high quality performance in future multilingual television.

Therefore training for new media translators and further vocational training for

existing media translators deserves high priority (Luyken, 2006:149).

38
 3. SUBTITLING

3.1 Introduction to subtitling

Subtitling differs from other types of translations in many respects. Firstly, it does

not only consist in translating a text from a source language to a target language

but it also involves a shift from oral to written language. In other words, there is a

shift from one semiotic system to another. This is the reason why Gottlieb called

this kind of translation “diagonal translation” (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:78)

The time available for the preparation of subtitles varies, as the following two

types can be distinguished: pre-prepared subtitles and live or real-time subtitles.

The differences between the two types are not so difficult to guess. The pre-

prepared subtitles are made after the programme (documentary, film etc.) has

been shot. In this way, the translator has all the time he needs to make a good

translation. On the contrary, the real-time subtitles are made while the programme

is taking place. This is a relatively new type, it is used in the case of live

interviews, political statements etc. In this way the translator has to do his best in

order to make a good translation even if the time to make it is not enough. Pre-

prepared subtitles can also be divided according to their text density. Therefore,

the first type is the subtitling in complete sentences. This is the most commonly

used. The second type is the reduced variety: it is normally used when not all that

has been said needs to be relayed as the audience can retrieve some information

39
from other sources in the film such as image, gesture or music. As far as live

subtitles, they can also be divided into human-made and machine translated

subtitles (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:80).

From a technical perspective there are open subtitles and closed subtitles. Open

subtitles cannot be removed or turned off because they are burned onto the image.

Closed subtitles leave the choice up to the viewer who can decide whether he or

she wants to see them or not (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:80).

As far as the method of projecting subtitles is concerned two methods are being

used today: laser subtitling and electronic subtitling. Firstly, laser subtitles are an

integral part of the film copy because they are engraved on the image; in other

words they cannot be removed. Thanks to its great precision this method allows

viewer to get an excellent definition of letters. Conversely, electronic subtitles are

not engraved on the image but they are superimposed on the screen. Thus subtitles

can be projected onto or below the image, in any language, in any colour and -

most importantly- without damaging the original copy (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006:82)

c
Subtitles can also be distinguished depending on the medium used for the

distribution of the programme. In fact, the medium can affect the way subtitles are

produced: subtitles for the cinema, television, VHS, DVD or the internet. For

instance, cinema may use up to maximum of 40-41 characters since it is an

accepted norm that a viewer can read more easily from cinema screens than from

television screens. That is why one and the same film can sometimes have three or

four subtitled versions: the one used originally for the cinema, the one for the

DVD and finally one for television broadcasting. (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 84).

40
3.2 The subtitling process

The subtitling process usually starts when a client contacts the subtitling company

with a commission. The client could be a distribution company, a television

station, etc. In the first stage general details are discussed. First, the subtitling

company has to watch the film to make sure that the copy is not damaged, decide

the dialogue list and check if there is something else that needs translating too,

(such as songs or inserts). If the dialogue list is missing it has to be transcribed

from the soundtrack. Some companies only give translators the scenes that include

dialogues leaving the rest in black (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:90).

The next stage is spotting, also known as timing and cueing. It consists in

deciding the precise moment when a subtitle should appear on screen (in-time)

and when a subtitle should disappear from the screen (out-time). This is usually

done by technicians who usually do not have a good knowledge of the language

spoken in the film. A copy of the film and the dialogue is then sent to the

translator. Moreover, translator sometimes work without having any access to the

screen version of the film or from a soundtrack without a copy of the written text.

This makes subtitling much more difficult. This occurs when clients are afraid

that illegal copies will be made or perhaps when there are tight deadlines.

Watching the whole film before translating it is very important to ensure a high

quality translation, though it may not always be possible when deadlines are really

tight. During the first viewing of the programme translators:

41
 1. take notes of words and phrases that could prove problematic because they

lend themselves to a polysemous reading. For example, the English word

“funny” can have many different meanings.

2. take notes of gender and number of nouns, pronouns and adjectives that

are not marked in English. For instance, the expression “You’re great” can

have different meanings depending on whether the addressee is male or

female, or whether speakers are polite or informal.

3. decide on the formality or the informality of the pronouns used depending

on the context.

4. establish whether deictics such as “this/these” have referents on the screen.

If they do it is sometimes unnecessary to translate them

5. identify exclamations with no fixed meanings such as “oh,my” or “Christ”

which may be understood only in some contexts.

In the third stage the translator can start translating the text from the source to the

target language. Once the translation is over it is sent to the client. Nowadays

translators mainly send their work by e-mail (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:98).

The translator was not asked to produce the actual subtitles, but rather the text

translation, the translation undergoes an adaptation process. Due to the constraints

imposed by the medium a technician or adaptor has to adjust the translation to an

appropriate subtitling length. A revision and proofreading of the subtitles follows.

Ideally, a different person should be responsible for this task, even if it does not

happen all the time. All mistakes need correcting, because spelling mistakes for

example are more easily spotted on the screen and could be irritating for the

viewer. Before inserting the subtitles on the celluloid a simulation of what the film

is going to be like it is carried out in the clients presence. At this stage, changes

42
can still be made on the client’s request. Once the subtitling company’s work is

approved the next stage consists in laser engraving the subtitles on the celluloid.

This method is normally used for cinema subtitling. Electronic subtitling is used

for events like film festivals because it is cheaper. Once subtitling is over, the film

is then sent to the client, who can screen it on the cinema or perhaps broadcast it

on television (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:100).

3.3 Professionals in the subtitling process

There are three different kinds of professionals in the subtitling process:

1. The spotter who also known as subtitler. Spotters are responsible of

deciding the in and out times of the subtitles. They usually know the

language of the original film or programme but may not know any other

foreign language. On the other hand, they are conversant with film

language and shot changes.

2. The translator, is in charge of the target language version of the film or

programme. Translators need to have a very good knowledge of the source

and the target language. They also have to be experts in the semiotics of

subtitling.

3. The adaptors are the experts in subtitling translation. They must fit the

translation into the subtitling lines searching for synonyms and altering

syntactical structures without sacrificing the meaning of the original.

Sometimes they do not have no knowledge of the source language.

43
This tripartite division does not reflect the real situation in the subtitling world.

Firstly, neither the spotter or the adapter are required to have a good knowledge of

the language of the audiovisual programme. This could affect the quality of the

final film or programme. Adaptors are gradually disappearing and being

substituted by translators. Moreover, many subtitlers carry out both, translation

and adaptation. Therefore, the more versatile the professional is, the more chances

of securing different jobs. However, in some companies the distinction between

spotters/subtitlers and translators may be as relevant as it was in the past (Diaz

Cintas, Remael, 2006:103).

3.4 Technical considerations

3.4.1 Dialogue list and style guide

A dialogue list is a key document that makes the work easier. Although dialogue

lists are essential to produce high quality subtitles they are not very common in

the profession. Students attending subtitling courses usually work directly from

the soundtrack alone in order to improve their skills.

In addition to the dialogue list style guides are provided by subtitling companies

to give all the parameters needed during subtitling (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006:120).

44
3.4.2 Spatial dimensions and maximum number of lines

Generally speaking, subtitling is limited to two lines. However, subtitling for the

hard of hearing often makes use of three or even four lines and bilingual subtitling

may also have four-lines subtitles.

The standard position for subtitles is horizontal at the bottom of the screen

because this part of the screen is usually less important for the action. However,

one-line subtitles are sometimes needed to allow the viewers to see most of the

film images. In this case some companies prefer using the first (or top line) while

others prefer the second line. Nowadays, subtitling companies prefer using the

second line to keep the image clean.

Subtitles can be moved from the bottom of the screen to another position if: the

background at the bottom of the screen is too light; some important action is taken

at the bottom of the screen; some important data are displaced at the bottom of the

screen (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:125).

3.4.3 Characters per line

The maximum number of characters can vary depending on guidelines or software

used by the subtitling company. A one line TV subtitle is usually 37, including

blank spaces and typographical signs, that also take up one space. However,

sometimes clients might ask for a maximum of 33 to 35 characters per line, or

45
allow up to 39 to 41 characters. Only in film festivals is a maximum of 43

characters per line allowed, while for the cinema and DVD a maximum of 40

characters is allowed. Subtitlers get instructions from their clients, so once the

number is known the programme takes care of counting.

There is no fixed number as far as the minimum of characters are concerned.

However, subtitles with less than 5 characters are rare. Any subtitle should stay on

screen for at least one second so that the eye of the viewer could see and read it

(Cintas, Remael, 2006:127).

3.4.4 One-liners and two-liners

The general rule is that if a short subtitle can fit into one line, there is no reason to

use two. Indeed, there is no need to make the eye run from one line to another

when all the information can be presented in a single line that viewers can read in

a glance. Moreover, whether they are one-liners or two-liners, subtitles should

always have the same height on the screen. Viewers will get used to it and have

less difficulty in reading the subtitles and looking at the image. With two-liners, it

is better to keep the top liner shorter, even if this is not a general rule and may not

always be possible (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:130).

46
3.5 Temporal dimension

3.5.1 Spotting and duration of subtitles

Spotting has to keep pace -temporal synchrony- with the utterances. This means

that a subtitle should appear when a person starts speaking, and should disappear

when the person stops speaking. The exacts cues are defined in hours, minutes

seconds and frames. Studies indicate that if a subtitle stays on screen longer then

the time the viewer actually needs to read it, there is a tendency to read it again. In

order to avoid this, six seconds is the recommended maximum exposure time to

keep a full two-liner. Therefore, if we are spotting a very long dialogue we should

split it up rather than making a very long subtitle. If it is absolutely necessary,

strategies should be used to decide whether there are pauses or points where

sentence coherence allows the translator to divide the text properly. Otherwise,

the original information has to be dramatically reduced. On the other hand, if

there are very short one-line subtitles it is better to put them together in a two-line

subtitle in order to avoid flashing subtitles (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:134-135).

3.5.2 Synchronization and multiple voices

Temporal synchronization affects the viewer’s opinion about the quality of the

programme, as poor timing can be very annoying. If subtitles come in too early or

47
too late they are confusing for the viewers and can detract him from enjoying the

programme. An accurate timing is crucial because it reinforces the internal

cohesion of the translated programme and helps the viewer to identify who is

saying what in the programme. However, sometimes it is possible to have a

certain degree of asynchrony. This happens when the original dialogue is

semantically dense and it is difficult to condense or delete the information. In

these cases subtitles could appear a few frames earlier before the beginning of the

dialogue and leave the screen a fraction of a second after the speaker finished

talking.

As far as multiple voices are concerned, a subtitler has to be careful and avoid

confusing the viewer. The latter could hear several voices at the same time and

may not know who is saying what. For instance, this could happen when two

people are arguing (Cintas, Remael, 2006:136).

3.5.3 Shot changes and delay time between subtitles

A general rules says that a subtitle should not be maintained over the cut. The

subtitle should leave the screen just before the cut occurs. This rule is based on

studies showing that, if a subtitle does not disappear, the viewer is led to believe

that it is a new subtitle and will start re-reading it. However, nowadays it is

difficult not to break this rule, especially in action films. One way of avoiding this

problem is spotting much more one-line subtitles, sometime lasting less than a

second.

48
A delay time between subtitles has to exist because the viewer has to understand

that there was a change in written material. A subtitler needs to leave some frames

between the two subtitles otherwise the eye will find it difficult to realize that new

information has been presented (Cintas, Remael, 2006:137).

3.5.4 One or two lines?

Studies on the reading speed of the speaker proved that a viewer can read more

fastly a long subtitle rather than a short subtitle. This is why he spends less time in

reading each of these words. According to Brondel: “Average latency (0,35 sec)

in perception seem to make two-line subtitles possibly less demanding of the

viewer than e.g two successive one-liners, which require two onsets.

Consequently the overall “reading speed” in two liner seems to offer the viewer

more reading comfort”. So according to this assumption it is always better to have

a two-liner when possible. Moreover, a condensed one-liner may be difficult to

interpret. Finally, the subtitler has to be good enough to choose the appropriate

type of subtitle throughout the film or programme to be translated (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006:138).

3.5.5 Reading time and the six seconds rule

The subtitle has to stay on screen enough time to give the opportunity to the

viewer to read the content comfortably. However, problems may arise when
49
people on the screen speak too fast and the viewer is not able to read the

translation. It can be very frustrating for viewers to see subtitles disappear when

they have not finished reading them. They could have a feeling that they read

rather than watched the film.

When deciding the audience’s reading time their age and cultural background

have to be taken into account. Subtitlers should also keep in mind that not only the

written text has to be read but the viewers need to have enough time to scan the

images and understand the photography.

The distributional channel could change the speed of the subtitles. According to

the six second rule, an average reader can read a two-line subtitle without no

difficulties in six seconds. This happens when each line contains a maximum of

37 characters (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:140). Subtitles made for the television

screen stay on screen longer than in the cinema or DVD. This is because

television is watched by a much wider and various audience. Indeed, the profile of

an average cinemagoer is usually perceived as more educated than that of a

television viewer.

3.6 The Semiotics of Subtitling

Films are texts of great semiotic complexity in which different sign systems co-

operate to create a coherent story. In some way, subtitles have to become a part of

this semiotic system. Once they are inserted they have to interact and rely on all

50
the film’s different channels. Audiovisual translation is mediated by two

fundamental channels working simultaneously: the visual channel and the

acoustic channel.

Initially, cinema represented a universal photographic language that could be

understood by all, but after the invention of sound things changed. Nowadays, we

can affirm that images are far from universal. Subtitlers must be aware that not

only the spoken language has to be translated. Indeed, they have to pay attention

of the film’s other semiotic systems as well. Therefore, visually rendered

information must be taken into account, especially because different cultures have

different visual as well as oral and linguistic traditions. The main problem arises

when a linguistic sign refers metaphorically to an iconographic sign or image that

the source and target culture do not share. The initial optimism about the

universality of visual images has its roots in the Eurocentric perspective. As a

matter of fact, however, traditions have grown somewhat closer to each other due

to the globalization of filmic traditions.

Delabastita distinguished four categories or communication channels:

1. visual presentation-verbal signs (for instance, street names, letters,

newspapers and other written documents that appear on the screen.)

2. Visual presentation-non-verbal signs ( covers the film’s photography)

3. Acoustic presentation-verbal signs (for instance, songs and the dialogue

exchanges)

4. Acoustic presentation-non-verbal signs (for instance, instrumental music

and background noises)

51
3.6.1 Subtitling and images

In subtitling, the interaction between words and images must be examined as in

some cases the verbal mode further defines information that is also given visually

–a process known as anchoring. Conversely, in other cases words and images

communicate more or less the same information, and this is called redundancy.

Chaume introduces the term of “semiotic cohesion”. An ellipsis or a gap in the

subtitled dialogue can be filled by the information the viewer gets from the image.

For instance, in a written text a noun may be replaced by a pronoun, and this can

also happen in an AVT. The difference, however, lies in the fact that without the

support of an image some exchanges would make no sense. That is why there has

to be a perfect synchrony between the written target text and narration on screen.

In other words, subtitles should never anticipate or be ahead of visual narration on

screen. Of course, different types of AVT products require different levels of

synchrony (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:146-147).

3.6.2 The multimodality of language

The so-called multimodality of language, which the film makes great use of, is the

interaction between speech and gesture. Many experts use video recordings to

complement their research into how dialogue works from a linguistic viewpoint,

with the study of the interaction between word and movement. Luckman says that

the full meaning of a dialogue is first by the linguistic codes and the options of

52
language, but he also adds that these codes are complemented with body-gestures

and facial expressions. In other words, there is a very strong interaction between

words and gestures.

Movements, gestures or a simple nod could be quite challenging for the subtitlers.

Some stereotypical differences are well-known but much research is still needed

in this area, particularly in the field of AVT (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:148).

3.6.3 Opinions about subtitling

Many people have a negative opinion of the quality of subtitles. This is because

the translated text is presented to the viewer at the same time as the original. This

is also why subtitling differs from other translated texts: the viewers can compare

the source and the target text while in other types of translation (dubbing or

literary translation) they cannot. Of course, there are bilingual publications with

parallel texts, but the reception of the two messages is not as immediate as in the

case of subtitling. This is also referred to the “gossiping effect” or “feedback

effect”: subtitles are constantly accompanied by the film dialogue and therefore

the viewers can notice errors or deletions of the linguistic material (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006:149).

That is why this coexistence has important repercussions on a translated film or

programme. For instance, one common strategy is to transfer all those terms from

the original that have strong phonetic and morphological similarities in both

languages

53
 Hey, you’re paranoid. – Non essere paranoico.

instead of

Non esagerare.

If they do not appear the viewers may believe that the translator has forgotten to

translate such-and-such word, which they had clearly heard on the soundtrack.

In addition, it is very important to maintain semantic and syntactic correlation

between the dialogue of the film and the content of the subtitles as listening to one

text while reading the other may slow down comprehension.

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the source language can criticize the

subtitlers work. Subtitles do not only have to respect space and time limits but

also stand up to the scrutiny of an audience that may have some knowledge of the

original language. The audience may feel cheated if certain expressions are not

being translated as they think they should have. For instance if a rude expression

is not relayed in the translation, or if an actor speaks too much and the audience is

given only a brief subtitle, the overall effect of the subtitles is affected (Diaz

Cintas, Remael, 2006:150).

However, there is a limit to the faithfulness to the source text, not only because of

technical limitations but also because the target language cannot be stretched

indefinitely. The experts use the expression “half-way translations” for subtitles

that render phrases from the source text almost literary. It is interesting to point

out that DVD subtitles tend to be closer to the source text language than subtitles

for television or the cinema as there is a widespread belief in the industry that the

more literary the translation is the more it will be appreciated by the viewers.

54
Finally, another shortcoming of the subtitling world is lack of explanatory notes to

the translation, such as glossaries, footnotes etc. Even translators have understood

a play on words well they may not be able to relay it in the subtitle because of the

media limitations. However, new developments are under way in this field, such

as the inclusion of translator’s notes on the screen.

Finally, whether languages or dialects are subtitled or not in the source text and in

the translated version will also depend on the viewers’ cultural and linguistic

background in any given country. For instance, passages in Catalan will have to

be translated for the English audience, but it may not be not necessary to translate

them for a Spanish public (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 151-153).

3.6.4 From speech to writing

Subtitling is not only a unique type of translation because it is added to the source

text, but also because it renders spoken language in writing. This affect the shape

subtitles will have.

There are two basic types of speech in film: scripted and spontaneous speech.

Examples of the challenges presented by unscripted speech can be seen in tv

programmes such as documentary films. The transition from oral to written also

means that some features of written language will not be relayed.

Subtitling style can vary from genre to genre, but some basic subtitling guidelines

are almost universal. For instance, grammar and lexis tend to be simplified, while

interactional features and intonation are only maintained to some extent. In other

55
words, not all features of speech are lost, but rendering them all would lead to

long and -thus illegible- subtitles.

Especially in documentaries scripted speech can be challenging because much

information has to be relayed; on the other hand, unscripted speech can require a

lot of interpretation and rewriting due to its hesitations or repetitions. Subtitlers

may also have the to decide the form and the content according to the target

audience. The person interviewed may speak poor English, leave sentences

unfinished, use specialized vocabulary and so on. Therefore, the subtitler has to

try hard to explain and interpret the information for the audience (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006:155-157).

56
 4. Subtitling the BBC’s documentary

“The Quantum Revolution”

This work on subtitling is based on experience I gained last year when I attended

a course on Audiovisual translation. The first problem I encountered after I had

decided to focus my thesis on subtitling was to find a programme that has not

been subtitled yet. Firstly I thought about a movie or a fiction, but almost all of

them were already subtitled. A documentary was a good solution because many of

them still have not been translated in Italian. I watched some of them and finally

decided to translate some parts of the scientific documentary “The Quantum

Revolution”. I chose to subtitle the parts containing quite a lot information. The

purpose of subtitling science was to establish if I could convey all the information

to the viewers in spite of space and time constraints imposed by the medium. I did

not have a transcript of the text so I had to transcribe the parts that I wanted to

subtitle. The next step was the translation from English into Italian. Once the

translation was completed I had to choose a subtitling software to create my

subtitles. There are many subtitling programmes on the market, such as Subtitle

Workshop, Jubler, Aegisub or Clip Flair. After testing a number of them, I

decided to use Aegisub because it was the one that I found easier to use. Aegisub

is a free, cross-platform open source tool for creating and modifying subtitles.

As I have already pointed out, the combination of different channels, the audio

and the visual one, makes audiovisual translation different from literary

59
translation. Subtitles are independent and isolated units and therefore different

from other written texts. That is why I had to adapt my written text translation to

the subtitles. Not everything that was present in the written text translation was

also present in the subtitles. I had to decide what to condense, reformulate or omit,

and I had to do it without altering the source text’s meaning. The full English and

Italian texts are included in Appendix 1 and 2 to give a better idea of my work in

subtitling.

In the following paragraphs, I am going to outline first of all how I changed the

punctuation in the subtitles, because even if the rules for the written text and

subtitles are almost the same in English and Italian, there are still some

differences imposed by the medium which are worth mentioning. Secondly, I

shall concentrate on the linguistics of subtitling and provide several examples of

the changes I had to make in order to make my subtitles easy to read and

comprehend.

4.1 The Punctuation of subtitling and other conventions

Subtitling style has not undergone any process of harmonization or

standardization yet, but there are some conventions that have to be followed.

Subtitles are a written text so they have to follow the standard rules that govern

punctuation. However, there are some differences between subtitling and the other

discursive practices which are not as subject to constraints as media are. In some

60
cases if standard rules are followed, they sometimes cause errors (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006: 100).

Subtitles differ from a written text on a page due to their fragmentary nature, that

also makes reading more difficult. Each subtitle can be seen as an isolated unit

which is disconnected physically from the preceding and the following one.

Therefore, reading subtitles that appear and disappear at a given speed is

definitely more demanding than reading a written text. Indeed, if we did not

understand something that a person on screen says we just cannot go back and

read the corresponding subtitle again.

The job of the subtitlers is to make the viewers’ life easier, and to do so they

revisited some of the standard punctuation rules and gave them some kind of new

definitions. As a consequence, there is sometimes a conflict between the standard

and rules and what is actually required in subtitling (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:

103). Punctuation marks will now be analysed in groups.

4.1.1 Commas and semicolons

Comma is frequently used and very frequently used wrongly. Commas should not

be used whenever pauses are needed. The four uses of commas are: the listing

comma, the joining comma, the gapping comma and the bracketing comma (R.L.

Trask, 1997:13).

61
The listing comma is mostly used in a list of three or more words, phrases or

complete sentences.

The marvels of science, like the internet, laser beams, telecommunication

satellites, radio, television, microwaves.
The joining comma is used to join two complete sentences into a single sentence,

and must be followed by a suitable connecting word (such as, and, or, but, while

and yet).

Superconductors are a miracle of quantum physics, and they're an

outstanding example of how we are gradually becoming masters of matter
itself.

The gapping comma is used to show that one or more words have been left out

when the missing words would simply repeat the words already used in the same

sentence.

Some Norwegians wanted to base their national language on the speech of

the capital city; others, on the speech of the rural countryside.

The bracketing commas are the most frequently types of commas. They are used

to mark a weak interruption of the sentence. A kind of interruption which does not

disturb a smooth flow of the sentence (R.L. Trask, 1997: 14-32).

These findings, we would suggest, cast doubts upon his findings

More or less the same rules mentioned above apply to subtitles, but not always.

First of all, joining commas used to join two complete sentences are used in a

different way in subtitling (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 105). Subtitles are seen

and read as isolated units. Every subtitle is an independent linguistic unit and

usually consists of only one complete sentence.

62
If in a written text we have a sentence such as the one below, which consists of

two complete sentences we punctuate it as follows:

Superconductors are a miracle of quantum physics, and they're an

outstanding example of how we are gradually becoming masters of matter
itself.

But when I had to subtitle my documentary using this sentence the punctuation

changed. Because of time and space limits I had to split up the sentence and make

three subtitles out of it:

1.Superconductors are
a miracle of quantum physics

2 and they're an outstanding example

of how we are gradually becoming

3. masters of matter itself.

As you can see in the example above, commas can be removed. We do not need a

comma after physics because the end of the first complete sentence coincides with

the end of the subtitle. The use of commas at the end of the subtitle that continues

in the next line should be kept to a minimum, since they may be confused with a

full stop and lead the viewers to believe that they have reached the conclusion of a

sentence. If no punctuation mark appears at the end of a subtitle line, this

automatically means that the sentence runs on (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 105).

The same thing happens with listing commas. In the following sentence we have

several listing commas:

The marvels of science, like the internet, laser beams, telecommunication,

satellites, radio, television, microwaves.

63
When subtitling I had to split the sentence and divide it into two subtitles because

of time and space constraints:

1.The marvels of science

like the internet, laser beams

2. telecommunication
satellites radio, TV, microwaves.

As you can see the listing commas after laser beams and telecommunication

disappeared because they are placed at the end of the subtitle or the line break.

The semicolon is used to join two complete sentences into a single written

sentence (R.L. Trask, 1997: 41). The use of a semicolon should be avoided in

subtitles as it is easily confused with a colon (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 105). I

used a semicolon in the written text, but I omitted it in the subtitling version. I

also had to split the sentence into two subtitles due to space limits. Written text

version:

Quantum theory gives us more than the ability just to manipulate individual
atoms; it also underlies the architecture of the 20th century.

Subtitled version:

1.Quantum theory gives us more than the ability

just to manipulate individual atoms

2.it also underlines the architecture of the 20th century.

Another solution would be the use of a full stop instead of a semicolon at the end

of the first subtitle.

64
4.1.2 Full stops and colons

The full stop at the end of a subtitle is unequivocal evidence that a sentence is

finished. However, some subtitling companies do not make use of the full stop at

the end of a subtitle. This can be confusing for the viewers and it can make

subtitles difficult to read (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 107).

A colon is normally used in subtitling with the same functions it has in standard

grammar. It is used to indicate that what follows is an explanation or elaboration

of what precedes it:

We found the place easily:

Your directions were perfect.

4.1.3 Exclamation marks and question marks

An exclamation mark is placed at the end of a sentence or a very short phrase

which expresses very strong feelings:

1.The theory sounds preposterous,

but it has one tiny thing going for it

2.and that is, it works!

A question mark is placed at the end of a sentence which is a direct question:

Perciò dimmi, da dove arriva il carbonio?

Some companies leave a blank space immediately before an exclamation mark or

a question mark.

65
Too many explanation marks within the same subtitle should be avoided:

* I don’t believe it!!

Moreover, there are sentences that resemble questions in their structure, but are

used as exclamations. They are exclamatory questions and in normal writing we

usually put both a question and an exclamation marks (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006: 109). This approach should be avoided in subtitling:

* Isn’t she clever?!

If no answer is needed then we should only use an exclamation mark in subtitles.

Isn’t she clever!

Conversely, if the statement receives a reply, then the question mark should be

given priority.

Isn’t she clever?

- Of course she is.

4.1.4 Dashes and hyphens

Their general function of hyphens is to link compound words:

1. by creating artificial materials called meta-materials.

2.It's an age-old process, where you take a carbon-containing gas

While in subtitling hyphens are used much in the same way as they are in standard

language dashes have a much more specific function than in standard written language

and are used to indicate that the text appearing in one subtitle belongs to two different

people (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 111):

1. Ciao, Sono Steven Steiner.

- Steve, come stai? - Benissimo.

66
4.1.5 Numbers

a) Cardinals

If there is space available, the general rule is that cardinal numbers up to ten are

written in letters while the following numbers are given in letters (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006: 134):

1.La superficie del cilindro è di solo un atomo.

2. But about 20 years ago there was a revolution

An exception to this rule are the numbers of houses, flats apartments, always

written in digits. Moreover, numbers up to ten are also written in digits if they are

next to units of weight and measurement (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 134)

b) Ordinals

There are no strict rules, but because of their length it is common to find them

abbreviated (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 136):

In the 21st century science is experimenting with new classes of materials

4.2 The linguistics of subtitling

4.2.1 Text reduction

The written version of a speech in subtitles is almost always a reduced form of the

oral source text. Indeed, subtitling can never be a complete and detailed rendering

67
and nor should it be. Because of its multiple channels a complete translation is not

required. However, this does not mean that viewers do not have the right to high-

quality translation (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 146).

Why text reduction? First of all, because viewers can absorb a speech more

quickly than they can read, so subtitles must give them enough time to register

and understand what is written at the bottom of the screen. Secondly, viewers

must also watch what is happening on the screen, so they must have the time to

combine reading with watching. Finally, subtitles are limited to a maximum of

two lines. How much text they contain depends on the time available, the

subtitling reading speed, and the speed at which the source text is actually

pronounced (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:146).

There are two types of text reduction: partial and total reduction. Partial reduction

is achieved through condensation and a more concise rendering of the source text.

Total reduction is achieved through deletion or omission of lexical items. Usually,

both processes are combined and this leads to rewriting that is so typical of

subtitling. In other words, a subtitler has to assess how much time and space are

available for the written translation and then eliminates what is not relevant, or

reformulates what is relevant in a concise form as much as possible (Diaz Cintas,

Remael, 2006:147).

In general terms, we could say that the subtitler must act on the principle of

relevance. The “mini-max effect” (Cintas, Remael, 2006:148) can explain very

well how subtitling works. It is the balance between the effort required by the

viewer to process an item, and its relevance for the understanding of the film

narrative that determines whether or not it is to be included in the translation. That

68
is why subtitlers should view the film in its entirety before subtitling. Having seen

the entire film gives the subtitler a better idea of what is and is not redundant. The

amount of cutting and reformulating varies according to genre, context, speed of

delivery etc. For instance, when subtitling off-screen commentators in a

documentary film, rendering all they say may be more important, and therefore a

reformulation that allows the subtitler to condense without losing information may

be a better option than omitting information. However, no general rules can be

given as to when to condense, reformulate, or when to omit (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006: 148).

A good knowledge of the source and target culture, as well as the information

about the target audience could help the subtitler to decide, for example, if the

audience is familiar with a certain term.

4.2.2 Condensation and reformulation

How a subtitler should condense depends on what can be done as well as on what

really needs to be done. A subtitler must exploit the target language’s intrinsic

possibilities to the full. This is why a native or at least a near-native command of

the target language is very important. Moreover, since some changes are due to

linguistic differences between languages reformulation and condensation occur

both at word level and at clause/sentence level (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 150).

69
4.2.2.1 Condensation and reformulation at word level

a) use of simple rather than compound tenses which are long and complicated and

therefore use up valuable space and should therefore be replaced whenever

possible.

In this case Prof. David Smith is talking about his research:

We started thinking about interesting things we could do with artificial

materials.
In order to put this information into one two-line subtitle I replaced it with:

We thought about interesting things we could do with artificial materials.

And my Italian translation was:

Pensavamo a come poter utilizzare questi materiali artificiali.

Another sentence where I needed to use simple rather than compound tenses was

this one:

What we've done is to take materials that are commonly found.

The English subtitle was:

We took materials that are commonly found

My Italian translation was:

Abbiamo preso dei materiali che si trovano comunemente.

In this way I did not alter the source text meaning, and I also managed to put all

the information in only one subtitle.

4.2.2.2 Use of a short near synonym or equivalent expressions

This is also one of the most obvious strategies to reduce subtitle length. What we

must keep in mind is that synonyms are almost always near-synonyms rather than

exact equivalents. Secondly, they can belong to different registers and can

therefore be less appropriate in a particular context (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:

70
151). Moreover, function words, for instance, are slower to read than content

words (they opposed to nanotubes).

I had to translate the English sentence:

Our deepest insight into the atomic world comes from quantum theory.

My Italian translation for the written text was:

La visione più profonda del mondo dell’atomo proviene dalla teoria

quantistica.

However, in order to put the Italian translation into a two-line subtitle I had to find

a shorter synonym for the verb provenire. In this way I managed to fit the

translation into only one subtitle without information loss.

My final translation was:

La visione più profonda del mondo dell’atomo deriva dalla teoria

quantistica.

In this English sentence:

If we can manipulate those atoms then we can ultimately control what the
world looks like.

I did not like the literal translation of the last part “control what the world looks

like” and that is why I replaced it with an equivalent expression in Italian:

Se potessimo controllare quegli atomi allora potremmo crearci il mondo

che vogliamo.

I also had to find the equivalent expression for the following English sentence:

It really puts you into perspective how small the nanoscale really is.

My Italian translation was:

Ti dà davvero l'idea di quanto sia piccolo il mondo della nanotecnologia.

I also had to find an equivalent expression for the last part of the following

English sentence:

Quantum theory is so strange and bizarre that even Einstein couldn't get his
head around it.

I chose a much formal equivalent expression for my Italian translation:

71
 La teoria quantistica è così strana e bizzarra che nemmeno Einstein riuscì a
comprenderla.

Due to space constraints I also had to substitute the sentence below:

We thought about interesting things we could do with artificial materials

With this Italian translation:

Pensavamo a come poter utilizzare questi materiali artificiali.

I thought that this translation could be a good substitute for the much longer

version I had in the written text:

Abbiamo iniziato a pensare alle cose meravigliose che potremmo fare con
materiali artificiali.

As can be seen subtitling combines two channels, the audio and the visual one.

That is why sometimes I used function rather than content words. In this way

space is gained and information loss avoided:

We've demonstrated the principle of invisibility at microwave frequencies.

Microwave frequencies are a few centimeters in size or at least, maybe the
size of your thumb.

Italian version:

Abbiamo dimostrato il principio di invisibilità sulle frequenze di microonde

e quest’ultime sono grandi solo pochi centimetri, o forse quantomeno la
grandezza del pollice.

Another example is the following:

These extraordinary dimensions give nanotubes their unique properties.

In my Italian translation I preferred to use the pronoun:

Queste dimensioni straordinarie sono la causa delle loro esclusive

proprietà.

4.2.2.3 Changing word classes

Very often a change in word class can make for shorter sentences. For example, in

the following sentence I turned a verb into a noun:

The theory sounds preposterous, but it has one tiny thing going for it and
that is, it works!

72
My Italian version:

Questa teoria può sembrare insensata, ma ha una particolare caratteristica:

funziona davvero!

4.2.2.4 Short forms and contractions

Short verb forms were very useful especially in English subtitles and helped me

in fitting the translation into only one line. For example, I turned the following

English sentence:

We're going to pre-heat them for the growth process.

Into the English sentence below:

we’ll pre-heat them for the growth process.

As you can see from the example above, there are two processes: turning a

compound verb into a simple verb and contracting we will into we’ll.

4.2.2.5 Condensation and reformulation at clause/sentence level.

Sometimes I turned negative into affirmative sentence in my Italian translation:

In the real world, you can't simply disappear and reappear someplace else,
that's nonsense!

Nel mondo reale è considerata un’assurdità il poter sparire e riapparire in

un altro posto.

And also affirmative into negations ones:

Our deepest insight into the atomic world comes from the quantum theory.
But quantum theory gives us more than the ability just to manipulate
individual atoms it also underlies the architecture of the 20th century.

La visione più profonda del mondo dell’atomo deriva dalla teoria

quantistica che non ci dà soltanto la capacità di manipolare i singoli atomi
ma sta anche alla base dell’architettura del ventesimo secolo.

4.2.2.6 Joining two sentences into one long sentence

Especially in the case of Prof David Smith I had to do a lot of simplifying and

cutting. I also had to distribute long sentences over several subtitles. It was not

simple because I had to keep in mind that viewers might find it difficult to read.

73
I had to subtitle the English sentence below:

It's a structure that doesn't exist in nature, something that couldn't be

fashioned out of existing materials and something that really functions in an
almost science fiction way, that you might imagine wouldn't have been
possible just a few years ago.

While subtitling in English I had to split the sentence into four subtitles as follows:

1.It is a structure
that doesn't exist in nature

2.something that couldn't be fashioned

of existing materials

3.and something that almost functions

like science fiction.

4.This wouldn't have been possible

just a few years ago.

In this case I did not make any significant changes. On the contrary, when I

translated it in Italian I decided to put a full stop after materiali esistenti and in

this way I had two sentences as a result:

È un tipo di struttura che non esiste in natura, e non potrebbe essere

costruito da materiali già esistenti. È un qualcosa che assomiglia alla
fantascienza e che qualche anno fa non si sarebbe potuto immaginare
potesse esistere.

And the final Italian subtitles were:

1.È un tipo di struttura

che non esiste in natura

2.e non potrebbe essere costruito

da materiali esistenti.

3.È un qualcosa
che assomiglia alla fantascienza

4.e che qualche anno fa

non si sarebbe potuto realizzare.

I also decided to replace “non si sarebbe potuto immaginare potesse esistere” with

“non si sarebbe potuto realizzare” because of space constraints.

74
4.2.2.7 Merge of two or more sentences into one

Joining sentences can help a subtitler to solve space problems. This can be done

when two sentences are closely connected or perhaps they are short enough to be

joined (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 161).

For instance, I had two complete sentences in the English version:

Our deepest insight into the atomic world comes from the quantum theory.
But quantum theory gives us more than the ability just to manipulate
individual atoms;it also underlies the architecture of the 20th century.

I decided to join the two sentences when I translated the text in order to avoid

having to repeat the subject, and in this way I also saved some place:

La visione più profonda del mondo dell’atomo proviene dalla teoria

quantistica che non ci dà soltanto la capacità di manipolare i singoli atomi
ma sta anche alla base dell’architettura del ventesimo secolo.

My final Italian subtitles are:

1.La visione più profonda del mondo

dell’atomo deriva dalla teoria quantistica

2.che non ci dà soltanto la capacità

di manipolare i singoli atomi

3.ma sta anche alla base

dell’architettura del ventesimo secolo.

4.2.2.8 Use of pronouns to replace nouns or noun phrases

Pronouns are good translation solutions because they are short and they build on

visual information that has already been established (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006:

160). For instance, in the following example Steven Steiner is pointing at the

human hair and a strand on nanotubes as he says:

We can zoom in and compare the size of a hair to the size of the nanotubes.

The translation I provided for the written text was:

Possiamo zoomare e paragonare la dimensione del capello alla dimensione

dei nanotubi.

75
For the final subtitles I decided to use a pronoun:

Possiamo zoomare e paragonare le loro dimensioni.

4.2.3 Omissions

Omissions or deletions are unavoidable in subtitling. Before deciding to omit,

subtitlers must ask themselves: will the audience understand the message or scene

without too much of an effort, or will they not misunderstand it? Usually the

redundancy rule is the one to follow as word or a phrase may be repeated

elsewhere or perhaps an image may fill the gap (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 162).

4.2.3.1 Omissions at word level

The decision to omit words is usually dictated by issues of relevance and space

constraints. Modifiers, mostly adjectives and adverbs, are the most obvious

candidates for deletion because they usually do no more than modify the

information carried by the verb or noun. Subtitlers need to consider at all times

how important modifiers are and decide whether meaning will be affected by the

omission of a modifier (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 163).

Due to space constraints, subtitling often requires adaption as a form of

translation. Very often, I had to omit information at word level in order to fit the

translation in a single two-line subtitle. For instance, I had to delete two modifiers

in the sentence below:

This theory offers a very different explanation of our world one where the
laws of conventional physics simply don't apply.

76
The Italian translation for the written text was:

Questa teoria ci fornisce una spiegazione completamente diversa del mondo

in cui viviamo: una spiegazione alla quale non si possono applicare le leggi
della fisica tradizionale.

My final subtitles are:

1.Questa teoria ci fornisce

una spiegazione diversa del mondo

2.alla quale non si applicano

le leggi della fisica tradizionale.

As you can see, in the Italian translation, I omitted the two modifiers. I think that

viewers will not feel cheated by this translation because the omissions were not so

drastic. The most important information is still there.

While subtitling we are supposed to keep in mind that this kind of text combines

two channels, the audio and the visual one, and that is why sometimes we omit

information to avoid redundancy. Indeed, it is essential for a subtitler to watch the

film or the documentary before translating it, though do know that in real life this

is not always the case (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 107).

In a scene where Michio Kaku is positioning a magnet directly on top of the

superconducting ceramic as he says:

I'm now going to place a magnet directly on top of the superconducting

ceramic.

I think that, in this case, I can omit the adverb now because if we look at the

image we can see clearly that he is doing it at the moment. In this way I managed

to fit the translation into only one subtitle without information loss:

Posizionerò il magnete direttamente sopra la ceramica superconduttiva.

When the interviewer -in my case Michio Kaku- was speaking he had no

hesitations or false starts. His speech was prepared and therefore easier to subtitle.

On the contrary, his interviewees had a lot of hesitations and false starts. This

77
could happen because they are not used to being filmed and therefore feel

embarrassed. On the one hand, if we are subtitling a film and there is a very shy

character we should keep all those hesitations because there are a part of his role.

On the other hand, in a documentary, we can omit them without worrying. For

instance, when Prof. Steven Steiner is speaking about nanotubes he says:

It's actually an age-old process, where you take a carbon-containing gas,

and you put your chip on which we want to grow nanotubes, heat up the
furnace and the heat causes the gas to decompose, and by that reaction, by
that chemical reaction, we can grow billions of nanotubes.

As you can see from the example above there is a false start (and by that reaction,

by that chemical reaction). I decided to omit it in the subtitles because this repetition

is definitely not important for the viewer and it would take me a lot of precious

space. My final Italian translation was:

In effetti, questo è un metodo antichissimo si prende il carbonio contenente

gas, si prende il chip sul quale si vogliono sviluppare nanotubi, si riscalda la
fornace e a quel punto il calore causa la decomposizione del gas. Da questa
reazione chimica, si possono ottenere miliardi di nanotubi.

The same thing happened in this case:

This is…These are our furnaces where we grow nanotubes.

Queste sono le fornaci dove noi creiamo nanotubi.

There were also some hesitations that I decided to omit in the subtitles, such as:

No, no we just don't want to get the samples dirty, because the process needs
to be pretty clean, as we're growing such… such small things.

No, vogliamo solo assicurarci che i campioni non si sporchino perchè il

processo deve essere piuttosto pulito dato che stiamo sviluppando cose così
piccole.

There are also omissions at clause/sentence level but they did not occur in my

subtitling of the BBC’s documentary. Moreover, the part of the documentary that

I translated was full of essential information, especially when Prof Michio Kaku

was speaking. In a film this does not occur as often. For instance, in a noisy

crowded scene that is meant to create an atmosphere rather than anything else,

78
some talk may not have to be subtitled. If the information that the actor is

conveying is not essential a subtitler could simply omit it (Cintas, Remael, 2006:

108).

4.2.4 Segmentation and line breaks

Segmenting means to dividing something into separate parts. As far as subtitling

is concerned, segmentation is a division of the text into segments, in our case

subtitles, that a viewer can understand without difficulties. Moreover, subtitles are

segmented on two levels: a sentence may have to be distributed over two available

lines of a subtitle, or line breaks, or it may run on into two or more subtitles. The

segmentation rules are the same within and across subtitles but, when dividing

text over more than one subtitle, a subtitler should keep in mind that the viewers’

memory span is limited at any age (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 172).

However, when using only one subtitle the text segmentation should follow

syntactic and grammatical considerations rather than aesthetic ones. A translator

should not wait to fill the first line before venturing into the bottom line. The

second line can be shorter than the first one or vice-versa (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006: 172).

A text should be subtitled at the highest possible syntactic node. In other words,

each subtitle should contain one complete sentence. When a sentence cannot fit

into a single-line subtitle, the segmentation on each line should coincide with the

highest possible syntactic node. However, it is not always possible to match a

79
sentence with a subtitle, so it is important to remember that each subtitle should

make sense in itself, while somehow indicating that the sentence continues in the

next subtitle (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 173).

4.2.4.1 Line breaks within subtitles: syntactic-semantic considerations

Words should never be hyphenated in subtitling. If a word cannot fit in one line it

should just be put it in the following one. If a subtitle consists of two sentences it

would be ideal to put one sentence on each line. However, it is not always

possible. The sentences in my documentary were quite long, so I had to use one

line for each clause. If a subtitle consists of a sentence with two coordinated

clauses, and inserting one after the other is impossible because the maximum

number of characters per line would be exceeded or would result in an extremely

long subtitle, one line for each clause should be used (Diaz Cintas, Remael,

2006:176):

This is a block of nanotubes Questo è un blocco di nanotubi

and that's a human hair. e quello è un capello umano.
It will not always be possible to make such clean-cut divisions. We should always

bear in mind that it is not necessary to fill the first line completely before going

addressing the problems in the second one. Generally speaking the longest line is

established by deciding which word groups are to be kept together. It is not

advisable to separate noun or verb groups (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 177):

And this altered material E questo materiale diverso

has a unique property. ha una proprietà unica.

Superconductors are I superconduttori sono

a miracle of quantum physics un miracolo della fisica quantistica

but it's hard to imagine ma è difficile immaginare

will stop there. che ci fermeremo li.

80
If the sentence contains a to-infinitive or a phrasal verb an attempt is made not to

split them up (Cintas, Remael, 2006: 177):

Scientists hope to raise Gli scienziati sperano di alzare

the temperature of the Meissner effect. la temperatura dell’effetto Meissner.

that even Einsten che nemmeno Einstein

couldn't get his head around it. riuscì a comprenderla.

If the sentence contains a compound verbal form, we not separate auxiliary from

lexical verb (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 177):

It was thought to be incompatible Si pensava fosse incompatibile

with the laws of physics. con le leggi della fisica.

We should also avoid separating a verb from its direct or indirect object (Diaz

Cintas, Remael, 2006: 177):

So we’ll pre-heat them Perciò li preriscalderemo

for the growth process. per il processo di crescita.

4.2.4.2 Line breaks across subtitles: syntactic-semantic considerations

Sometimes it is not possible to ensure that a sentence and a subtitle coincide. This

can happen because the information load is too much, or because the sentence

structure does not lend itself to a division into closed off units. In these cases we

must run over two or more subtitles.

In my documentary I had many long sentences. For instance I had to spread the

following sentence over 3 subtitles (Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 178):

And this altered material E questo materiale diverso

has a unique property ha una proprietà unica

it can bend può far ripiegare la radiazione

electromagnetic radiation around itself elettromagnetica su se stessa

81
 making it invisible to microwaves. facendola diventare
invisibile alle microonde.

I had to pay attention while dividing the sentence because some word groups

cannot be split. However, sometimes I found other solutions for my Italian

translation. For instance, I decided to divide a sentence because in this way I

avoided stretching the viewer’s memory unduly, as in the following example

(Diaz Cintas, Remael, 2006: 178):

It was thought to be incompatible Si pensava fosse incompatibile

with the laws of physics con le leggi della fisica.

but last year, Tuttavia l'anno scorso

scientists made it happen. gli scienziati l’hanno fatto.

4.2.5 Conclusions on the punctuation and linguistics of subtitling

The punctuation of subtitling has almost the same rules as those of other written

texts. However, there are some differences due to time and space constraints

imposed by the medium. For instance, the use of joining and listing commas is not

always necessary in subtitling because of the subtitles’ fragmentary nature.

Moreover, we should avoid using semicolons when subtitling. Finally, reading

subtitles is more demanding than reading other written texts and that is why the

use of punctuation should be kept to a minimum.

Knowledge of the linguistics of subtitling is very important. This kind of

translation is considered an adaptation due to the constraints imposed by the

medium. The combination of the two channels -the visual and the audio one-

renders this kind of text different from other written texts. Indeed, I had to adapt

82
my translation for the subtitles. That is why I had to condense, reformulate or omit

some words or sentences. I had to pay attention because the meaning of the source

text had to stay the same. I could not put all the information in the subtitles and

that is why I had to decide what was important and what could be sacrificed

without altering the meaning of the original.

83
84
 5.2 Part 1
00.03.08-00.06.55

Our deepest insight into the atomic world La visione più profonda del mondo

comes from quantum theory. dell’atomo deriva dalla teoria quantistica

But quantum theory che non ci dà soltanto

gives us more than the ability la capacità di manipolare i singoli atomi

just to manipulate individual atoms

ma sta anche alla base

it also underlies dell’architettura del ventesimo secolo.

the architecture of the 20th century.

The marvels of science Le meraviglie della scienza

like the internet, laser beams come internet, raggi laser

telecommunications, telecomunicazioni

satellites, radio, TV, microwaves satelliti, radio, tv, microonde

even the structure anche la struttura del DNA

of the DNA molecule and biotechnology e la biotecnologia

all of it, ultimately, tutto ciò, proviene essenzialmente

comes from quantum theory. dalla teoria quantistica.

87
 This theory offers Questa teoria ci fornisce

a different explanation of our world una spiegazione diversa del mondo

one where the laws alla quale non si applicano

of conventional physics don't apply. le leggi della fisica tradizionale.

Quantum theory La teoria quantistica

is so strange and bizarre è così strana e bizzarra

that even Einsten che nemmeno Einstein

couldn't get his head around it. riuscì a comprenderla.

At the atomic level A livello atomico vediamo un fenomeno

we see a phenomenom

that normally che normalmente considereremmo

we would consider sheer madness. pura follia.

In the real world, you can't simply Nel mondo reale è considerata

un’assurdità il poter sparire

disappear and reappear e riapparire in un altro posto

someplace else, that's nonsense!

88
 but in quantum world nel mondo quantistico invece

it happens all the time. questo succede continuamente.

At the level of atoms A livello degli atomi

and subatomic particles e delle particelle subatomiche

matter can be la materia può essere

in an infinite number of places at once. in un’infinità di posti all’istante.

The theory sounds preposterous, Questa teoria può sembrare insensata

but it has one tiny thing going for it

and that is, it works! ma ha una particolare caratteristica:

funziona davvero!

In the coming century it will enable us Nel prossimo secolo ci permetterà

to radically transform our world. di trasformare il mondo radicalmente.

These Maglev trains I treni MagLev viaggiano

travel on air due to magnetism sospesi in aria a causa del magnetismo

hovering just above the track. elevandosi appena sopra il binario.

They cruise at up to 580 km\ h Viaggiano ad oltre 580 km / h

89
 and they use less energy ed usano meno energia

than regular trains rispetto ai treni normali

thanks to a quantum grazie al fenomeno

phenomenon - superconductivity. quantistico - la superconduttività.

Superconductors are I superconduttori sono

a miracle of quantum physics. un miracolo della fisica quantistica

They're an outstanding example of ma anche uno straordinario esempio di

how we are gradually becoming come stiamo gradualmente diventando

masters of matter itself. dei veri e propri esperti

della materia stessa.

Superconductivity is quite difficult La superconduttività è molto difficile

to achieve in the laboratory da realizzare in laboratorio

and it's quite expensive. ed è molto costosa.

But about 20 years ago Ma circa vent’anni fa

there was a revolution ci fu una vera rivoluzione

when it was discovered that quando si scoprì che certe

certain ceramics, like yttrium, barium ceramiche come l’ittrio, il bario

90
 copper oxide here, e l'ossido di rame che vedete

become superconducting qui diventano superconduttori

when exposed to se esposti al semplice azoto liquido.

ordinary liquid nitrogen.

Now, liquid nitrogen Ora, l’azoto liquido

costs as much as ordinary milk. costa quanto una bottiglia di latte.

By cooling the ceramic Raffreddando la ceramica

to -200 degrees centigrade a – 200 gradi centigradi

I'm effectively creating io sto di fatto creando

a new state of matter. un nuovo stato della materia.

The new material loses Il nuovo materiale perde

all its electrical resistance tutta la sua resistenza elettrica

and becomes superconducting, e diventa superconduttivo

able to induce powerful magnetic fields. capace di produrre potenti campi magnetici.

I will place a magnet directly on top Posizionerò il magnete direttamente

of the superconducting ceramic. sopra la ceramica superconduttiva.

The polarity has to be just right. La polarità deve essere giusta.

91
 There. It's floating now. Ecco. Ora sta levitando.

This is the Meissner effect. Questo si chiama effetto Meissner.

The presence of the magnet on top La presenza del magnete sovrastante

Induces a secondary magnetic field produce un secondo campo magnetico

within the superconductor all’interno del superconduttore

and the two magnetic fields e i due campi magnetici si respingono

repel each other

giving you the illusion of anti-gravity. dandoci l'illusione

della presenza di anti-gravità.

Notice that this thing is spinning Come vedete, questo oggetto

without any friction whatsoever. sta ruotando senza nessun tipo di attrito.

Scientists hope to raise Gli scienziati sperano di alzare

the temperature of the Meissner effect la temperatura dell’effetto Meissner

to avoid having to cool the ceramic. per evitare di dover

raffreddare la ceramica.

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 5.3 Part 2

00.08.03-00.11.14

Until recently there was Fino a poco tempo fa, c’era una

a property of matter so fantastic proprietà della materia così particolare

it was thought to exist che si credeva potesse esistere

only in myths and legends. solo nei miti e nelle leggende.

It was thought to be incompatible Si pensava fosse incompatibile

with the laws of physics con le leggi della fisica.

but last year, Tuttavia l'anno scorso

scientists made it happen. gli scienziati l’hanno fatto.

They created a material Crearono un materiale

which shouldn't exist in nature. che non dovrebbe esistere in natura.

When light hits an object Quando la luce colpisce un oggetto

it's the object's atomic structure è la struttura atomica dell’oggetto stesso

that determines what we see che determina quello che vediamo

whether it's translucent marble che sia marmo traslucido

clear water or green leaves. acqua limpida o foglie verdi.

93
 It all depends on how the light Tutto dipende da come

interacts with the atoms. la luce interagisce con gli atomi.

If we can manipulate those atoms Se potessimo controllare quegli atomi

then we can ultimately control allora potremmo crearci

what the world looks like. il mondo che vogliamo.

This is exactly what David Smith Questo è esattamente quello

che stanno iniziando a fare

and his team David Smith e il suo team

in North Carolina are beginning to do nella Carolina del Nord

by creating artificial creando materiali artificiali

materials called meta-materials. chiamati meta-materiali

We thought about interesting things Pensavamo a come poter utilizzare

we could do with artificial materials questi materiali artificiali.

and one of the things that came up was Per esempio,

ci siamo inventati un qualcosa

94
 we could make che si potrebbe chiamare

something like an invisibility cloak. il mantello invisibile.

We took materials that are Abbiamo preso dei materiali

commonly found, like copper and plastic che si trovano comunemente

which is what our circuit board materials e di cui sono fatti i nostri circuiti

are made out of stampati, come il rame e la plastica.

and we've placed patterns in the copper Abbiamo messo delle forme nel rame, ottenendo

so that they're tiny circuits. dei minuscoli circuiti.

And these circuits act as artificial atoms Questi circuiti si comportano come

in a regular material atomi artificiali in materiali normali

except now we've made solo che così adesso abbiamo creato

an artificial material. un materiale artificiale.

And this altered material E questo materiale diverso

has a unique property ha una proprietà unica

it can bend può far ripiegare la radiazione elettromagnetica

electromagnetic radiation around itself su se stessa

95
 making it invisible to microwaves. facendola diventare

invisibile alle microonde.

The lime green waves are microwaves. Le onde verdi che vedete

sono microonde.

When an ordinary copper ring Quando un semplice anello di rame

is placed in their path è situato sul loro percorso

the waves are disturbed. le onde vengono disturbate.

But when the meta-material Quando il meta-materiale viene messo lì,

is placed there, the waves bend around it le onde si ripiegano su di esso

e si fondono completamente

and seamlessly merge on the other side, sull'altro lato

as if there was nothing there.

come se non ci fosse

nulla ad ostacolarle.

An invisibility cloak Un mantello invisibile

is something entirely new. è un qualcosa di completamente nuovo.

It is a structure E’ un tipo di struttura

that doesn't exist in nature che non esiste in natura

96
 something that couldn't be fashioned e non potrebbe essere costruito

of existing materials da materiali esistenti.

something that almost functions E’ un qualcosa

like science fiction. che assomiglia alla fantascienza

This wouldn't have been possible e che qualche anno fa

just a few years ago. non si sarebbe potuto realizzare.

We've demonstrated the principle of invisibility Abbiamo dimostrato il principio di invisibilità

at microwave frequencies sulle frequenze di microonde.

Microwave frequencies e quest’ultime sono solo

are a few centimeters in size di pochi centimetri

or at least, o forse grandi quanto un pollice.

maybe the size of your thumb.

Now we're looking into the future Ora perciò stiamo guardando

verso il futuro

and whether or not per vedere se siamo capaci

we can do this invisible light. di creare luce invisibile.

97
 In addition to microwaves Oltre alle frequenze di microonde

scientists have already succeeded gli scienziati sono riusciti

in bending red and blue light. a far piegare anche le luci rosse e blu.

Full invisibility L’invisibilità completa potrebbe essere lontana

may be just decades away. solo qualche decennio.

The first applications Dapprima saranno probabilmente

are likely to be for military stealth utilizzate per la segretezza militare

but it's hard to imagine ma è difficile immaginare

will stop there. che ci fermeremo li.

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 5.4 Part 3

00.22.50-00.25.58

In the 21st century science is experimenting Nel 21. sec. la scienza sta sperimentando

with new classes of materials con nuove classi di materiali.

like carbon resins come la resina di carbonio,

ceramics and polymers. la ceramica e il polimero.

And one of the most promising

una delle più promettenti è una sostanza

is a substance that's actually più forte e leggera dell’acciaio.

stronger and lighter than steel

and in fact, you could replace In effetti, si può sostituire

the steel in these cables l’acciaio in questi cavi

with fibres as thin as a human hair. con delle fibre sottili

come il capello umano.

That's the promise of carbon nanotubes. Ed è questa la promessa

dei nanotubi di carbonio.

Carbon nanotubes I nanotubi di carbonio

are a miracle of nature. sono un vero miracolo della natura.

99
They're made out of individual carbon contengono singoli atomi di carbonio

atoms arranged in a hollow cylinder. sistemati in una cavità cilindrica.

The cylinder surface La superficie del cilindro

is just one atom across. è di solo un atomo.

The diameter is only 50 atoms across. Il diametro è di soli 50 atomi.

And these tubes can be e questi tubi possono essere lunghi

billions of atoms long. bilioni di atomi.

These extraordinary dimensions Queste dimensioni straordinarie sono

give nanotubes their unique properties. la causa delle loro esclusive proprietà.

Their atoms are bonded si legano con la stessa proprietà

with the strength of diamonds responsabile della durezza del diamante

yet they have the flexibility of fibre. tuttavia, hanno la flessibilità della fibra.

Hi, I'm Stephen Steiner. Ciao, Sono Steven Steiner.

-Steve, how do you do? - Great. -Steve, come stai? - Benissimo.

Here at MIT, S. Steiner and J. Hart Quì alla MIT S.Steiner e J. Hart

will show me how to grow my own. mi insegneranno come sviluppare i miei.

100
 So this is where it all happens, right? Perciò è qui dove succede il miracolo?

Yes, these are our furnaces Sì, queste sono le fornaci

where we grow nanotubes. dove noi sviluppiamo nanotubi.

So tell me, Perciò dimmi,

where does the carbon come from? da dove arriva il carbonio?

It comes from a gas, Arriva dal gas

which is right in this tank here. che è proprio in questo serbatoio.

It's an age-old process, E' un metodo antichissimo dove si prende

where you take a carbon-containing gas il carbonio contenente gas

and you put your chip si mette il chip sul quale

on which we want to grow nanotubes si vogliono sviluppare nanotubi

we heat up the furnace and si riscalda la fornace e a quel punto

the heat causes the gas to decompose il calore causa la decomposizione del gas

and by that chemical reaction, Da questa reazione chimica

we can grow billions of nanotubes. si possono ottenere miliardi di nanotubi.

It's not dangerous, is it? Non è pericoloso, vero?

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 No, no we just don't want No, vogliamo solo assicurarci

to make the samples dirty che i campioni non si sporchino

because the process needs to be clean, e il processo sia pulito

as we're growing such small things. dato che sviluppiamo cose così piccole.

Our substrate has catalyst seeds, Il nostro substrato ha particelle di

nano particles of a metal catalizzatori, nanoparticelle metalliche

and these act as the seeds e queste agiscono come semi

from which the nanotubes will grow. dai quali si svilupperanno i nanotubi.

so we’ll pre-heat them Perciò li preriscalderemo

for the growth process. per il processo di crescita.

It's hard to believe E’ difficile immaginare che sotto

that under this tiny piece of glass questo piccolissimo pezzo di vetro

we're creating one of the strongest stiamo creando uno dei materiali

materials known to man. più forti conosciuti dall’uomo.

Yet carbon nanotubes are so small Tuttavia i nanotubi di carbonio

sono così piccoli

102
 we can only see them che possiamo vederli soltanto con l’aiuto

under a powerful microscope. di un potentissimo microscopio.

This is a block of nanotubes Questo è un blocco di nanotubi

and that's a human hair. e quello è un capello umano.

So now we can focus in. Ora possiamo mettere a fuoco.

There we have a strand of carbon nanotubes e lì vediamo un filo di nanotubi di

sitting on the human hair. carbonio seduto su un capello umano.

We can zoom in and compare them. Possiamo zoomare e paragonare

le loro dimensioni.

Because even this strand contains Anche questo filo contiene

hundreds, thousands of nanotubes. centinaia, migliaia di nanotubi.

It really puts you into perspective Ti dà davvero l'idea di quanto sia piccolo

how small the nanoscale really is. il mondo della nanotecnologia.

So far we can only grow Fino ad ora siamo riusciti a sviluppare

short lengths of carbon nanotubes. solo piccole lunghezze di nanotubi

But hundreds of businesses and ma centinaia di uomini d’affari e

researchers are racing to develop ricercatori stanno combattendo

103
 longer carbon nanotubes nel tentativo di sfruttare

in order to harness their huge potential. il loro enorme potenziale.

104
 5. “The Quantum Revolution” subtitles

5.1 Introduction

“The Quantum Revolution” is the third episode in Michio Kaku’s documentary

“Visions of the Future”. It is a scientific documentary produced by BBC4. It was

first broadcast in 2007, and it was hosted by the Japanese-American theoretical

physicist, Michio Kaku.

The programme is a three-hour documentary on future technology and is divided

into three parts. The third part “The Quantum Revolution” is entirely devoted to

the quantum world. It shows how various science fiction ideas are now becoming

reality thanks to the latest scientific advances such as meta-materials,

superconductors and carbon nanotubes. The fundamental theme and focus of “The

Quantum Revolution” is that human kind is at a turning point in history.

The various concepts of physics are firstly introduced and then analysed in detail

through the use of specific terminology. It is a captivating programme, which

makes use of futuristic images and metaphorical language in order to express

complex theories related to time, space and matter. However, while the style

chosen, is simple and clear, it serves the purpose of simplifying the notions, while

the documentary still shows a terminological precision that makes it a valuable,

scientifically accurate programme. The documentary is targeted at well-informed

viewers, ranging from those possessing merely a basic knowledge of the subject

85
matter to people with background knowledge of physics and a general interest in

science, but not experts.

I subtitled three parts of “The Quantum Revolution” documentary. The first part

is about superconductivity. The second part is about meta-materials. Finally, the

third part is about carbon nanotubes.

86
 Conclusion

The aim of this dissertation was to explore the subtitling world by providing

subtitles to the BBC’s scientific documentary The Quantum Revolution. Luckily, I

found a great quantity of material about audiovisual translation and especially

subtitling to back up my analysis an research.

First I provided an overview of science communication because the documentary

I planned to analyse was a good example of how scientist and/or science

communicators try to heighten general awareness of science in the public domain.

Thanks to science communication people learn about important developments that

affect human life. In the second chapter I explored the world of audiovisual

translation, while in the third chapter I concentrated on subtitling. The last two

chapters, the fourth and the fifth, are entirely devoted to the analyses of my work

and they provide subtitles of some parts of the BBC’s scientific documentary The

Quantum Revolution.

Subtitling has always been considered an adaptation more than a translation in the

traditional sense of the word. Before subtitling I translated the transcript. In the

process I noticed that many features of my translation for the written text had to

be simplified, reformulated or omitted in order to produce subtitles that the

viewers can read at a glance. However subtitles should be not considered less

important than transcript translation. As with all translations with severe

constraints, subtitling requires great care and skill. Therefore, more and more

105
experts in the field of Translation studies (TS) are increasingly interested in this

area.

Subtitling is also a good way of learning foreign languages. This is because while

we hear perhaps the actors, reporters, interviewers and so on speaking in one

foreign language in the subtitles we can find a translation of what they are saying.

Indeed, people living in countries where subtitling is more common than dubbing

claim that they learn more by watching the television or listening to the radio than

at school.

While transcribing the documentary, translating the transcript from English into

Italian and finally creating my subtitles I realized how complex the work of an

audiovisual translator is. The decisions to make are many and very important

because they influence the final product and finally reception and communication.

I had to fit my translation in a two-line subtitle without omitting important

information. Sometimes I had to sacrifice some parts of the text that I thought

were not important for the comprehension: for example the modifiers. Moreover,

omitting information was not the only method I used. In order to give all the

information needed to convey the message to the viewers I often had to

reformulate or condense my translation. In this way, I managed to create subtitles

that the viewers could understand and read at a glance. It was not very simple

because the text was full of specific terms that could not be sacrificed. Indeed, I

chose a scientific documentary because I knew it would have been a challenge. I

believe that there should be more general awareness about the importance of this

kind of translation. Universities can contribute by doing more research in this

field of Translation Studies.

106
 APPENDIX 1

BBC FOUR

Michio Kaku on Quantum Mechanics

00.03.08-00.06.55

Michio Kaku: Our deepest insight into the atomic world comes from quantum
theory. But quantum theory gives us more than the ability just to manipulate
individual atoms; it also underlies the architecture of the 20th century. The
marvels of science, like the internet, laser beams, telecommunication satellites,
radio, television, microwaves. Even the structure of the DNA molecule and
biotechnology. All of it, ultimately, comes from quantum theory. This theory
offers a very different explanation of our world. One where the laws of
conventional physics simply don't apply. Quantum theory is so strange and
bizarre, that even Einstein couldn't get his head around it. At the atomic level, we
see a phenomenon that normally we would consider sheer madness. In the real
world, you can't simply disappear and reappear someplace else. That's nonsense.
But in quantum world, it happens all the time. At the level of atoms and
subatomic particles, matter can be in an infinite number of places at once. The
theory sounds preposterous, but it has one tiny thing going for it, and that is, it
works. And in the coming century, it will enable us to radically transform our
world. These Maglev trains travel on air due to magnetism, hovering just above
the track. They cruise at up to 580 kilometres an hour, and they use less energy
than regular trains, thanks to a quantum phenomenon - superconductivity.
Superconductors are a miracle of quantum physics, and they're an outstanding

107
example of how we are gradually becoming masters of matter itself. Now,
usually, superconductivity is quite difficult to achieve in the laboratory, and it's
quite expensive. But about 20 years ago, there was a revolution, when it was
discovered that certain ceramics, like yttrium, barium, copper oxide here, become
superconducting when exposed to ordinary liquid nitrogen. Now, liquid nitrogen
costs as much as ordinary milk. By cooling the ceramic to -200 degrees
centigrade, I'm effectively creating a new state of matter. The new material loses
all its electrical resistance and becomes superconducting, able to induce powerful
magnetic fields. I'm now going to place a magnet directly on top of the
superconducting ceramic. The polarity has to be just right. There. It's floating
now. This is the Meissner effect. The presence of the magnet on top induces a
secondary magnetic field within the superconductor, and the two magnetic fields
repel each other, giving you the illusion of anti-gravity. Notice that this thing is
spinning without any friction whatsoever. Scientists hope to raise the temperature
of the Meissner effect to avoid having to cool the ceramic.

00.08.03-00.11.14

Michio Kaku: Until recently there was a property of matter so fantastic, it was
thought to exist only in myths and legends. It was thought to be incompatible with
the laws of physics. But last year, scientists made it happen. They created a
material which shouldn't exist in nature. When light hits an object, it's the object's
atomic structure that determines what we see, whether it's translucent marble,
clear water or green leaves. It all depends on how light interacts with the atoms. If
we can manipulate those atoms, then we can ultimately control what the world
looks like. This is exactly what David Smith and his team in North Carolina are
beginning to do, by creating artificial materials called meta-materials.

Prof. David Smith: We started thinking about interesting things we could do with
artificial materials, and one of the things that came up was, we could make
something like an invisibility cloak. What we've done is to take materials that are
commonly found, something like copper and plastic, which is what our circuit

108
board materials are made out of, and we've placed patterns in the copper so that
they're tiny circuits. And these circuits act as artificial atoms in a regular material,
except now we've made an artificial material.

Michio Kaku: And this altered material has a unique property: it can bend
electromagnetic radiation around itself, making it invisible to microwaves. The
lime green waves are microwaves. When an ordinary copper ring is placed in their
path, the waves are disturbed. But when the meta-material is placed there, the
waves bend around it and seamlessly merge on the other side, as if there was
nothing there.

Prof. David Smith: An invisibility cloak is something entirely new. It's a

structure that doesn't exist in nature, something that couldn't be fashioned out of
existing materials and something that really functions in an almost science fiction
way, that you might imagine wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago.
We've demonstrated the principle of invisibility at microwave frequencies.
Microwave frequencies are a few centimeters in size, or at least, maybe the size of
your thumb. So now we're looking into the future, and whether or not we can do
this invisible light.

Michio Kaku: In addition to microwaves, scientists have already succeeded in

bending red and blue light. Full invisibility may be just decades away. The first
applications are likely to be for military stealth. But it's hard to imagine we'll stop
there.

00.13.05-00.16.14

Michio Kaku: In the 21st century science is experimenting with new classes of
materials like carbon resins, ceramics and polymers. And one of the most
promising is a substance that's actually stronger and lighter than steel, and in fact,
you could replace the steel in these cables with fibres as thin as a human hair.
That's the promise of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are a miracle of nature.
They're made out of individual carbon atoms arranged in a hollow cylinder. The

109
cylinder surface is just one atom across. The diameter is only 50 atoms across.
And these tubes can be billions of atoms long. These extraordinary dimensions
give carbon nanotubes their unique properties. Their atoms are bonded with the
strength of diamonds, yet they have the flexibility of fibre. Hi. I'm Stephen
Steiner. Steve, how do you do? Great. Here at MIT, Stephen Steiner and John
Hart are going to show me how to grow my own. So this is where it all happens?

Steven Steiner: Yes. This is…These are our furnaces where we grow nanotubes.

Michio Kaku: So tell me, where does the carbon come from?

Steven Steiner: It comes from a gas, which is in this tank. It's actually an age-old
process, where you take a carbon-containing gas, and you put your chip on which
we want to grow nanotubes, heat up the furnace and the heat causes the gas to
decompose, and by that reaction, by that chemical reaction, we can grow billions
of nanotubes.

Michio Kaku: It's not dangerous, is it?

Steven Steiner: No, no we just don't want to get the samples dirty, because the
process needs to be pretty clean, as we're growing such… such small things.

John Hard: Our substrate has catalyst seeds, nano particles of a metal, and these
act as the seeds from which the nanotubes grow. We're going to pre-heat them for
the growth process.

Michio Kaku: It's hard to believe that under this tiny piece of glass we're creating
one of the strongest materials known to man. Yet carbon nanotubes are so small,
we can only see them under a powerful microscope.

Steven Steiner: This is a block of nanotubes, and that's a human hair. So now we
can focus in... and there we have a strand of carbon nanotubes sitting on the
human hair. We can zoom in and compare the size of the hair to the size of the
nanotubes. Even this strand contains hundreds, thousands of nanotubes altogether.

John Hard: It really puts into into perspective how small the nanoscale really is.

110
Michio Kaku: So far we can only grow short lengths of carbon nanotubes. But
hundreds of businesses and researchers are racing to develop longer carbon
nanotubes in order to harness their huge potential.

111
 APPENDIX 2

BBC FOUR

MICHIO KAKU SULLA MECCANICA

QUANTISTICA

00.03.08-00.06.55

Michio Kaku: La visione più profonda del mondo dell’atomo proviene dalla
teoria quantistica che non ci dà soltanto la capacità di manipolare i singoli atomi
ma sta anche alla base dell’architettura del ventesimo secolo. Le meraviglie della
scienza come internet, raggi laser, telecomunicazioni, satelliti, radio, televisione,
microonde; anche la struttura del DNA e la biotecnologia provengono
essenzialmente dalla teoria quantistica. Questa teoria ci fornisce una spiegazione
completamente diversa del mondo in cui viviamo: una spiegazione alla quale non
si possono applicare le leggi della fisica tradizionale. La teoria quantistica è così
strana e bizzarra che nemmeno Einstein riuscì a comprenderla. A livello atomico
vediamo un fenomeno che normalmente considereremmo pura follia: nel mondo
reale è considerata un’assurdità il poter semplicemente sparire e riapparire in un
altro posto; nel mondo quantistico invece, questo succede continuamente. A
livello degli atomi e delle particelle subatomiche la materia può essere in
un’infinità di posti all’istante. Questa teoria può suonare insensata ma ha una
particolare caratteristica: funziona davvero! Nel prossimo secolo ci darà la
possibilità di trasformare il nostro mondo radicalmente. I treni MagLev che vedete
quì viaggiano sospesi in aria a causa del magnetismo, elevandosi appena sopra il
binario. Viaggiano ad oltre 580 km / h ed usano meno energia rispetto ai treni

112
normali grazie al fenomeno quantistico- la superconduttività. I superconduttori
sono un miracolo della fisica quantistica, ma anche uno straordinario esempio di
come stiamo gradualmente diventando dei veri e propri esperti della materia
stessa. Di solito la superconduttività è molto difficile da realizzare in laboratorio
ed è molto costosa. Ma circa vent’anni fa ci fu una vera rivoluzione quando si
scoprì che certe ceramiche come l’ittrio, il bario e ossido di rame che vedete quì
diventano superconduttori se esposti al semplice azoto liquido. Ora, l’azoto
liquido costa quanto una bottiglia di latte. Raffreddando la ceramica a – 200 gradi
centigradi io sto di fatto creando un nuovo stato della materia. Il nuovo materiale
perde tutta la sua resistenza elettrica e diventa superconduttivo, capace di produrre
potenti campi magnetici. Adesso posizionerò il magnete direttamente sopra la
ceramica superconduttiva. La polarità deve essere giusta. Ecco. Ora sta levitando.
Questo si chiama effetto Meissner: la presenza del magnete sovrastante produce
un secondo campo magnetico all’interno del superconduttore e i due campi
magnetici si respingono dandoci l’illusione della presenza di anti-gravità. Come
vedete, questo oggetto sta ruotando senza nessun tipo di attrito. Gli scienziati
sperano di alzare la temperatura dell’effetto Meissner per evitare di dover
raffreddare la ceramica.

00.22.50-00.25.58

Michio Kaku: Fino a poco tempo fa, c’era una proprietà della materia così
particolare che si credeva potesse esistere solo nei miti e nelle leggende. Si
pensava fosse incompatibile con le leggi della fisica. Tuttavia, l’anno scorso gli
scienziati riuscirono a creare un materiale che non dovrebbe esistere in natura.
Quando la luce colpisce un oggetto, è la struttura atomica dell’oggetto stesso che
determina quello che noi vediamo: che sia marmo traslucido, acqua limpida o
foglie verdi. Tutto dipende da come la luce interagisce con gli atomi. Se
potessimo controllare quegli atomi allora noi sostanzialmente potremmo crearci il
mondo che vogliamo. Questo è esattamente quello che stanno iniziando a fare
David Smith e il suo team nella Carolina del Nord, creando materiali artificiali
chiamati metamateriali.
113
Prof. David Smith: Abbiamo iniziato a pensare alle cose meravigliose che
potremmo fare con materiali artificiali. Per esempio ci siamo inventati un
qualcosa che si potrebbe chiamare il mantello invisibile. Quello che abbiamo fatto
è stato prendere dei materiali che si trovano comunemente e di cui sono fatti i
nostri circuiti stampati, come il rame e la plastica, abbiamo messo delle forme nel
rame ottenendo così dei minuscoli circuiti. Questi circuiti si comportano come
atomi artificiali in materiali normali solo che così adesso abbiamo creato un
materiale artificiale.

Michio Kaku: E questo materiale diverso ha una proprietà unica: può far
ripiegare la radiazione elettromagnetica su se stessa facendola diventare invisibile
alle microonde. Le onde verdi che vedete sono microonde. Quando un semplice
anello di rame è situato sul loro percorso le onde vengono disturbate. Ma quando
il metamateriale viene messo lì, le onde si ripiegano su di esso e si fondono
completamente sull’altro lato come se non ci fosse nulla ad ostacolarle.

Prof. David Smith: Un mantello invisibile è un qualcosa di completamente

nuovo. E’ un tipo di struttura che non esiste in natura, e non potrebbe essere
costruito da materiali già esistenti. E’ un qualcosa che assomiglia alla fantascienza
e che qualche anno fa non si sarebbe potuto immaginare potesse esistere.
Abbiamo dimostrato il principio di invisibilità sulle frequenze di microonde e
quest’ultime sono grandi solo pochi centimetri o forse quantomeno la grandezza
del pollice. Ora perciò stiamo guardando verso il futuro per vedere se siamo
capaci di creare luce invisibile.

Michio Kaku: Oltre alle frequenze di microonde gli scienziati sono riusciti a far
piegare anche le luci rosse e blu. L’invisibilità completa potrebbe essere lontana
solo qualche decennio. Le prime applicazioni saranno probabilmente utilizzate per
la segretezza militare ma è difficile immaginare che ci fermeremo li.

114
00.22.50-00.25.58

Michio Kaku: Nel ventunesimo secolo la scienza sta sperimentando nuove

tipologie di materiali come la resina di carbonio, la ceramica e il polimero. A dire
il vero, una delle più promettenti è una sostanza più forte e più leggera
dell’acciaio. In effetti, si può sostituire l’acciaio in questi cavi con delle fibre
sottili come il capello umano. Ed è questa la promessa dei nanotubi di carbonio.
Sono un vero miracolo della natura: sono composti da singoli atomi di carbonio
sistemati in una cavità cilindrica. La superficie del cilindro è di solo un atomo, il
diametro del cilindro è di solo 50 atomi e questi tubi possono essere lunghi bilioni
di atomi. Queste dimensioni straordinarie sono la causa delle esclusive proprietà
di questi nanotubi di carbonio: hanno una grande stabilità, perché sono legati con
la stessa proprietà responsabile della durezza del diamante, tuttavia, hanno la
flessibilità della fibra. ( Ciao, sono Steven Steiner. Steve come stai?) Qui alla MIT
Steven Steiner e John Hart mi insegneranno come far crescere i miei nanotubi.
Perciò è qui dove succede il miracolo?

Steven Steiner: Sì. Questo è.. queste sono le fornaci dove noi sviluppiamo
nanotubi.

Michio Kaku: Perciò dimmi, da dove arriva il carbonio?

Steven Steiner: Arriva dal gas che è in questo serbatoio. In effetti, questo è un
metodo antichissimo dove tu prendi il carbonio contenente gas, metti il tuo chip
sul quale vuoi sviluppare nanotubi, si riscalda la fornace e a quel punto il calore
causa la decomposizione del gas e da questa reazione, da questa reazione chimica,
possiamo sviluppare bilioni di nanotubi.

Michio Kaku: Non è pericoloso, vero?

Steven Steiner: No, no, vogliamo solo assicurarci che i campioni non si
sporchino perchè il processo deve essere piuttosto pulito dato che stiamo facendo
svipuppando cose così… così piccole.

115
John Hart: Il nostro substrato ha particelle di catalizzatori, nanoparticelle
metalliche, e queste agiscono come semi dai quali si svilupperanno i nanotubi.
Perciò inizieremo a preriscaldarli per il processo di crescita.

Michio Kaku: E’ difficile immaginare che sotto questo piccolissimo pezzo di

vetro stiamo creando uno dei materiali più forti conosciuti dall’uomo. Tuttavia i
nanotubi di carbonio sono così piccoli che possiamo vederli soltanto con l’aiuto di
un potentissimo microscopio.

Steven Steiner: Questo è un blocco di nanotubi e quello è un capello umano. Ora

possiamo mettere a fuoco e lì vediamo un filo di nanotubi di carbonio seduto su
un capello umano. Possiamo zoomare e paragonare la dimensione del capello alla
dimensione dei nanotubi. Anche questo filo contiene centinaia, migliaia di
nanotubi tutti insieme.

John Hart: Ti dà davvero l’idea di quanto sia piccolo il mondo della

nanotecnologia.

Michio Kaku: Fino ad ora siamo riusciti a far crescere solo piccole lunghezze di
nanotubi di carbonio ma centinaia di uomini d’affari e ricercatori stanno
combattendo per sviluppare nanotubi di carbonio sempre più lunghi nel tentativo
di sfruttare il loro enorme potenziale.

116
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