Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian PDF

Comptuing, 17 (2), Oxford University Press, pp. 207-30 Translation of Taboos Puurtinen, T. (2004) “Explicitation of clausal relations: a corpus-based analysis of clause connectives in translated and non-translated Finnish c...

Comptuing, 17 (2), Oxford University Press, pp. 207-30 Translation of Taboos Puurtinen, T. (2004) “Explicitation of clausal relations: a corpus-based analysis of clause connectives in translated and non-translated Finnish children’s literature”, in Mauranen in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian and Kujamäki (eds.) Translation Universals: Do They Exist? John Benjamins, pp. 165-76 Saldanha, G. (2005) Style of Translation: An Exploration of Stylistic Patterns in the Translations of Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush, PhD dissertation, Dublish City University Stubbs, M. (1996) Text and Corpus Analysis, Oxford: Blackwell Masood Khoshsaligheh Teubert, Wolfgan (1996) “Comparable or Parallel Corpora?”, in International Journal of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Lexicography, vol.9, no.3, Oxford University Press, pp. 238-64 Saeed Ameri Thomas, J. and Short, M. (eds.) (1996) Using Corpora for Language Research, London: Longman; Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Véronis, J. (2000) Parallel Texts Processing: Alignment and Use of Translation Corpora, Kluwer Academic Publishers Xiang, G (1979) “Relationships between Chinese Idioms, Natural Environment, Cultural Traditions, and Linguistic Characteristics”, in Chinese Language, vol. 2, pp. 112-121 This study aimed at investigating the strategies which Iranian AV translators use for rendition of taboo language in American crime movies dubbed into Persian. The required bilingual corpus was purposively selected based on a pre-determined set of criteria. During data collection, drawing on a Persian-specific set of types of taboo language, the 642 instances in the selected sample of four American crime movies were detected and recorded. Having analyzed the strategies in rendering the original taboos into Persian, a model of four basic strategies was empirically achieved–namely, a) translating the source culture taboo to a target culture taboo, b) deletion of the source culture taboo, c) substituting the target culture taboo with a target culture non-taboo, and d) rendering the source culture taboo to a target culture euphemism. The descriptive statistics showed that the general approach taken by the AV translators was toning down the force of taboo language, following the target culture norms especially by deleting the source culture taboo as the most frequent strategy or replacing it by a non-taboo or euphemism, even though nearly one-thirds of the taboos were kept in the dubbed target product. The findings are useful data within descriptive translation studies; nevertheless, they cannot be generalized since the study is limited by a relatively small corpus and a non-probability sampling technique. KeyWords: Taboo language, dubbing, American crime movies, Persian, Author’s email address censorship meng.ji @ uwa.edu.au About the author Meng Ji is Associate Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her areas of research include corpus-based translation studies, contrastive linguistics (Chinese / Japanese / Spanish / Engli sh). She has published seven books and is the founding and current editor of Routledge Studies in Empirical Translation. 24 Meng JI Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 25  1. Introduction Translating the above features are more challenging in movies because the audience has direct access to a considerable portion of the original material, Language as a means of communication is entangled with culture, which is that is, the visuals. Among these taboo language is grave difficulty. Rendition “socially acquired knowledge” (Yule, 2010, p. 267), as a main component of of taboo language in AVT is a difficult and complex task and with the advent every language. To House (2009), culture is a series of values and conventions of screen material, taboo languages are observed more frequently, while it is which are shared among a certain speech community and is in the service generally thought that their force is strengthened when they appear in written of directing people’s thoughts and manners, while Newmark (1988, p. 94) materials like subtitles or books (Tveit, 2009). However, the situation is now construes culture as “the way of life and its manifestation that are peculiar to a different as the printed swear expressions possess the weaker version than the community that uses a particular language as its means of expression.” auditory ones in movies since “they are pronounced with stress and intensity” Taboo as a means or topic of expression has always been part of every (p. 89). At often times AV translators attempt to “tone down the expressive language and culture. According to Longman Advanced North American force of the four-letter words [English taboo language written with four Dictionary (2007) “a taboo subject, word, activity, etc. is one that people avoid letters], in addition to leave many of them out” (Tveit, 2009, p. 89). Pavesi and because they think it is extremely offensive or embarrassing.” Taboo has a Malinverno (2000), cited by Antonini and Chiaro (2009, p. 103), explain that strong cultural component representing particular customs and the way people Italian AV translators are used to “under-translate” such expressions and reduce view their society (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2013). the number of taboo expressions in the translated versions than in the original. Since the advent of audiovisual (AV) materials, people have gained It goes without saying that, AV translators have to employ particular strategies increasingly more access to various types of screens like theaters, TV, DVDs, to cope with the challenges of taboo rendition. This study is an attempt to computers, and tablets, among others which are based on the display of the describe the normatively employed strategies of translation of taboo expressions image, and it is safe to assume that movies, with vast entertaining, artistic, by Iranian AV translators in dubbed crime movies into Persian. critical, and political dimensions, have been the most popular of all such AV material. Obviously, movies as art or industry are international and trans- cultural, and therefore, not limited to a single audience. As Ivarsson (1992) 2. Literature Review points out people can hear the sound of the conversations in movies and get the essential information, but the problem is that when movies are shown in other countries with a different language thus, original conversations are not 2.1. Taboo Language understood to all audience, and translation comes as an aid. When the first “talking pictures” were created in the 1920s, there was a great concern for a The English term taboo was originally derived from Tongan tabu in the late solution to avail movies to circulate despite language varieties and differences 18th century (Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary, 2010). Capitan James internationally (Chiaro, 2009, p. 141). Cook was the first person in introducing the term into European languages To this end, audiovisual translation (AVT) was born. However, AV after he encountered it for the first time in Polynesia (Holden, 2001). Taboo translators have always faced a series of complex problems during the process of in Tongan means “forbidden” (Fromkin et al., 2013, p. 321). As for the translation. These difficulties according to Chiaro (2009, p. 155) are: contemporary understanding of the concept in English, Yule (2010) relates taboos to slang used by the youth, and he adds that these are expressions of 1. Highly culture-specific references (e.g., place names, famous people) which people shun to make use due to religion, politeness, and behavior, and 2. Language specific features (e.g., taboo) he explains that swear words make up most taboos. Fromkin et al. (2013) 3. Areas of overlap between language and culture. believe that taboos show particular customs and the way in which a society is viewed. They also mention that expressions associated with sex, sex organs, and 26 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 27 body functions, constitute the majority of taboos in most cultures. According as taboos, while in the Anglophone world for instance, they are not. Although to Allan and Burridge (2006, p. 1) taboos are rooted in social limitations on Allan and Burridge’s typology can be applied to the Persian culture, it lacks people’s behaviors which can result in discomfort or harm. They classify taboos some Persian taboo categories such as those related to politics or immoral into the following categories: behaviors. For example, the Iranian would not consider diseases or death as taboos. Likewise, the words like boyfriend and girlfriend which are considered a) Bodies and their effluvia (sweat, snot, faeces, menstrual fluid, etc.); as taboos in the Iranian culture do not fit Allan and Burridge’s (2006) typology. b) The organs and acts of sex, micturition and defecation; Furthermore, Sharifi and Darchinian’s model is much more specific than c) Diseases, death and killing (including hunting and fishing); Allan and Burridge’s. This study, thus, in order to make detailed use of taboo d) ‌Naming, addressing, touching and viewing persons and sacred beings, classifications, employs Sharifi and Darchinian's (2009) typology. objects and places; e) Food gathering, preparation and consumption. 2.2. Dubbing as Audiovisual Translation The classification appears clear and practical for the western world; however, Sharifi and Darchinian (2009) in a local study found that the Persian translator Even though multimedia translation, screen translation, or AVT is a widely has to deal with a wider and fairly different range of categories as taboo expanding field within translation studies (Gambier, 2012; Orero, 2009), the language: most prevalent forms of AVT are subtitling and dubbing. However, Gambier (2009, pp. 42 - 46) introduces a wider range of current AVT categories: a) ‌Private relations between men and women whether legitimate or illegitimate and words related to them such as, kissing, hugging, sleeping a) ‌Interlingual subtitling (open caption), which is carried out between two with, cheating on, etc.; different languages for the cinema and video DVDs, including bilingual b) ‌Boys’ and girls’ relations before marriage like boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.; subtitling. c) Calling or naming outer sexual organs and related words; b) ‌Bilingual subtitling, in the case of the country Belgium where subtitles d) Words and expressions related to alcoholic drinks and drugs; are shown in two different languages at the same time. e) Swearing, curse and impolite expressions; c) Consecutive interpreting f) Stating features of immoral behaviors and habits like thieving, etc.; d) Simultaneous interpreting g) ‌Issues related to religion and belief which are against those of the e) ‌Intralingual subtitling (close caption), which is done in the original translator’s society; languages and for the hard of hearing. h) ‌Stating some political issues which are rather threatening to the f) ‌Dubbing, in that the original sound track is replaced by a target one and translator’s society and cause some political situations to remain highly covers lip-synchronizations. unstable. g) ‌Voice-over or half-dubbing, which is associated with documentaries and interviews, and the original sound is heard beneath the translation Given that taboos are not universally recognized, the present study uses sound. Sharifi and Darchinian’s (2009) taboo typology of contemporary Iranian h) Free-commentary culture. Namely, what is considered taboo in one culture might not be i) Sight Translation considered taboo in another, even though cultures share much in common j) Real-time Subtitling in this regard. In the case of Alcoholic drinks the situation is an instance of k) ‌Surtitling, which is used in musical performances and projected above discrepancy, as the Persian culture considers the alcoholic drinks related terms the stage. 28 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 29  l) ‌Audio description, which is used for the visually impaired, and the blind, their own language thus, they have no access to the original language of the in which a narration is added to the movie in order to transfer the visual movie (O’Connel, 2007). Therefore, dubbing is “an assertion of the supremacy information via verbal information. of the national language and its unchallenged political, economic and cultural power within the nation’s boundaries” (Danan, p. 612). Chaume (2013, p. 107) takes his definition of dubbing further as follows: In the case of dubbing, according to Chiaro (2009), typically, four stages are involved. First, the text of the movie (transcript) is rendered. Second, some Dubbing consists of translating and lip-syncing the script of an audiovisual changes inevitably occur in order to make the translation sound natural and to text, which is then performed by actors directed by a dubbing director and, solve the problem of lip synchronizations of the actors. Third, the translated where available, with advice from a linguistic consultant or dubbing assistant. transcript is going to replace the original sound by that of the dubbing actors in In some European and Asian countries (i.e. France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the studio. And finally, once recording is completed, the recoded sound tracks Spain and Turkey, or China and Japan, among others) it is the most widespread are fitted into the original movie. form of audiovisual translation for productions from foreign distributors and Nevertheless, it is generally thought that the process of dubbing is the same television companies. This complex process is linguistic and cultural, but also everywhere, but the process might differ from one country to another or even technical and artistic, where teamwork is vital in order to achieve a high from a certain dubbing studio to another in certain details. The task of dubbing quality end product. is very convoluted, and as such many factors are involved in the process comprising many stages. The first step starts by the client like a TV station Iran is among the countries that a considerable number of foreign movies sending the transcript of the movie to the dubbing studio. The client might are dubbed, and the market’s preference is dubbing and voice-over. And commission the dubbing studio to dub the original songs or assign special rules subtitling is mostly carried out as an amateur activity on the net by fansubbers. to the dubbing actors. Then, an independent translator is asked to translate In addition, all TV channels provide dubbed versions of fictional screen the received material by means of the original movie and the transcript. Next, products including all kinds of movie genres and animated movies, and voice- a proof-reader confirms the translation. At the synchronization phase, the over versions for documentaries, and interviews, whereas subtitling is seen in synchronizer matches the translation with the original, and omits and adds few cases on low profile interviews on news programs. It is only natural that information if necessary to preserve synchronization. At last, in the dubbing the Iranian viewers have grown accustomed to dubbing. Moreover, in the sessions the synchronized and translated scripts are given to the dubbing actors country which is known to defy Westernization, culturally, expressing a strong to play their roles at a minimum of time and cost. Screen materials in this field preference for dubbing is reasonable since there is a relation between dubbing always encounter great changes and adaptations, and that is what makes this and nationalism. As Danan (1991) states, “A strong nationalistic system field quite sensitive. And most of modifications might happen at the process of tends to be closed and reject outside influences. Translation in a nationalistic synchronization and proof-reading phases (Martínez, 2004). Chaume (2006) environment must therefore be target oriented in order to make the foreign also points out that “Synchronization (or lip-sync) is one of the key factors material conform as much as possible to the local standards” (p. 612). Since at stake in dubbing” (p. 7). In her seminal paper, Matamala (2010) provides viewers have direct access to original dialogues in subtitling, this might prompt evidence that a great deal of changes take place at the synchronization phase audiences to use the foreign language in their routine activities or make them like, reduction, amplification, changed word order, modification, repetition, interested in the foreign cultures (Danan, 1991). Or when AV material in among others. English and English language as the current language of power is concerned, according to Gottlieb (2004) subtitling helps “cementing the dominance of English” (p. 87). On the other hand dubbing hides the original sound track of the movie, creates a situation for the audience as they are watching a movie in 30 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 31  2.3. Norms in Translation Table 1. Toury’s and Chesterman’s classification of norms (Munday, 2012, p. 183) Toury Chesterman The characteristics of norms would lead us to a better understanding of translation or more specifically, the translating strategies (Toury, 2004) and Translator’s subjection What the readers expect of the the audience’ s expectations (Chesterman, 1997). Munday (2012) believes to ST-oriented norms Product or TT; they relate to translation that norms are peculiar to cultures, societies, and time, being socio-cultural Initial norms (adequacy) or expectancy tradition and prevailing genre and TT-oriented norms norms discourse convections and give limitations which are acquired by persons during the educational and (acceptability) criteria for evaluation socializing processes. The concept of norms is best defined by Toury (1995, p. 55) as follows: Translation policy Accountability norm is for selection of texts ethical; the translator accepts Preliminary and directness of responsibility. The translation of general values or ideas shared by a community–as to what norms translation (sometimes is right or wrong, adequate or inadequate – into performance instructions via intermediate Communication norm is social; appropriate for and applicable to particular situations, specifying what is language) translator is expert prescribed and forbidden as well as what is tolerated and permitted in a certain Professional Relate to the choices in norms behavioral dimension. Relation norm is linguistic; the text itself; metrical judged according to the text type, norms (is the text Pym (2010) points out that while dealing with descriptive translation Operational brief, ST author intentions and complete?) and textual- theories, norms “usually operate at a wider, more social level” (p. 73). He then norms needs of TT readers linguistic norms (the adds that norms are not supposed to be followed by all translators as they are lexical and syntactic not general rules in order to be respected. But according to Delabastita (2008) choices) norms can be parts of the main factors which have “guided or influenced the translators in their choices” (p. 234). In their socio-cultural dimensions, in the process of translation, norms put some limitations on translators’ behaviors One of the socio-cultural norms pertains to ideology (Pei, 2010) which because the acceptability of target text (TT) is of great concern to them. its role in dubbing studies in particular descriptive ones is highly significant Due to socio-cultural norms like religion, morality, among others, translators (Chaume, 2012), and is well stated by Hatim and Munday (2004) as “the manipulate the source text (ST) by means of some strategies such as omission basic orientation chosen by the translator operating within a social and to create an acceptable translation for the TT audience (Pei, 2010). Generally cultural context (the choice, for example, between Venuti’s domesticating and speaking as Schäffner (2010) remarks translation is norm-governed, and the foreignizing translation” (p. 103). relation between the ST and TT is dictated by norms, and the best method in In the process of translation, the ideological interventions are highly made studying such translational behaviors according to Baker (2009) is researching not only by the translators but also by those who “wield power” that make a corpus of actual translations, then discerning regular translation strategies or translators produce texts which are not rendition in nature; in other words, the habitual patterns of translation in that corpus. readers or audience are not aware that they are reading a translation (Fawcett Toury (1995, 2004) classifies norms into: a) initial norms, b) preliminary & Monday, 2009, pp. 137-138). Indeed, it is called a domestication translation norms, and c) operational norms. According to Munday (2012), in line with or a covert one in Venuty’s (1998) and House’s (1997) typology of translation Toury’s initial and preliminary norms, Chesterman (1997) proposes his model strategies, respectively. of translation norms as: a) product or expectancy norms and b) professional Karamitroglou (2000) explores the links of the concept of norms and AVT. norms. He lists a series of elements which are involved in the process of AVT among 32 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 33 which “human agents” have the highest priority (p. 71). The dub manager, Table 3. The Persian Corpus of the Study translation commissioners, and the translators play a key role in this process. For example, the commissioners which are national channels of Iran contact Title Back No. Dubbing Year Run Time AV Translator Translation the dubbing studio for a dubbed version of a movie with a special purpose they might outline. For instance, the dubbed movie should not show high 1 Outlaw 2010 99 minutes Changiz Jalilvand cases of inappropriate visual and auditory materials (Taboo words); thus, 2 15 Minutes 2007 105 minutes Mahdi Arjomand the dub manager and translator must fulfill the determined purpose by the 3 Pulp Fiction 2004 95 minutes Amir Houshang Zand commissioners. Otherwise, their dubbed products would not receive the permission to be distributed in the market or broadcast on TV channels. 4 Insomnia 2003 111 minutes Aria Zarin Kafsh 3. Method translator, c) dubbed by an Iranian AV translator with Persian as their native language, d) dubbed by an official and professional AVT company, and e) each movie ought to be translated by a different AV translator. The details of the 3.1. Corpus four original movies and the dubbed version, selected for the study is presented in Table 2 and 3. The study is based on a comparative model, and it uses a bilingual unidirectional parallel corpus (Saldanha & O’Brien, 2013, p. 68; Laviosa, 2010, p. 84) which comprises of the original scripts of a purposively determined 3.2. Procedure sample of popular American crime movies and the dubbed versions into Persian. To determine the subjects to form the corpus needed for the study, In addition to the original movies, the dubbed movies were also acquired a criterion sampling technique (Saldanha & O’Brien, 2013, p. 34; Dörnyei, from a well-established, professional Iranian media distribution and AVT 2007, p. 126) was used, and as such, a set of predetermined criteria was set company, 21 Century Visual and Media Company, with Iranian Persian native, to select the movies which would best serve the purpose of the research. This in-house translators. technique of sampling has successful applications in corpus-based studies The following steps were taken to collect and analyze the required data. (Saldanha & O’Brien, 2013). The following criteria were used for selection: To begin with, after watching the original movies carefully, the taboos were a) including a high frequency of taboo language, b) dubbed by a single AV extracted and recorded. Each English taboo word or expression was compared with its dubbed equivalent in Persian. After reviewing all the recorded pairs of taboos, the strategies used for rendition of the taboo language was Table 2. The English Corpus of the Study identified and categorized into four basic types. Subsequently, descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, and sum, was provided for each No. Original Title Release Year Run Time Director strategy. In order to consistently detect the words or expressions which are 1 Cop Out 2010 110 minutes Kevin Smith locally understood as taboos according to the Iranian culture in the American 2 15 Minutes 2001 120 minutes John Herzfeld movies, the categorization of taboo language in Iran introduced by Sharifi and 3 Pulp Fiction 1994 154 minutes Quentin Tarantino Darchinian (2009) was employed. 4 Insomnia 2002 118 minutes Christopher Nolan 34 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 35  4. Findings a) ‌Translating the source culture taboo to a target culture taboo (Taboo to Taboo) A total of 642 instances of taboo language were found in the English corpus b) Deletion of the source culture taboo (Deletion) of the study (see Appendix). Table 4 shows the frequency of taboo language in c) ‌Substituting the target culture taboo with a target culture non-taboo each of the four movies. (Taboo to Non-taboo) d) ‌Rendering the source culture taboo to a target culture euphemistic equivalent (Euphemism) Table 4. Frequency of Taboos in the Original Movies No. Name Frequency Based in the achieved model of categorization of the rendition strategies, Table 5 shows the frequency of taboo rendition into Persian in the first 1 Cop Out 166 American crime movie used in the study, Cop Out. As can be seen, translating 2 15 Minutes 118 the source culture taboo to a target culture taboo (38%) and closely next, 3 Pulp Fiction 282 deletion of the source culture taboo (36.7%) were the two most frequently used strategies in this case. Substituting the target culture taboo with a target culture 4 Insomnia 76 non-taboo was the least frequently used strategy. Total 642 Table 5. Frequency of each Taboo Rendition Strategy in Cop Out At the outset, it goes without saying that the taboos marked and investigated Strategy Frequency Percentage in the study are those which are locally understood as taboos according to the Taboo to Taboo 63 38 contemporary Iranian culture found in the selected American movies. In other words some of the marked language strings as taboo might not be considered Deletion 61 36.7 taboo language in the Anglophone world like alcoholic drinks, boyfriends and Taboo to Non-taboo 17 10.2 girlfriends and their relationships, which could be explained due to the existing Euphemism 25 15.1 religious differences. A review of the corpus of the study showed that a variety of taboo language Total 166 100 had occurred in the original movies. Based on Sharifi and Darchinian (2009) categories, the taboo words and expressions in the following categories had occurred more frequently: a) Private relations between men and women For further clarity, a few examples are mentioned with the source and target whether legitimate or illegitimate and words related to them such as, kissing, equivalents used as well as the English back translations of the Persian dubbed hugging, sleeping with, cheating on, etc.; b) Boys’ and girls’ relations before translation. In the beginning of the movie (TCR: 00.01.34-00.01.37), the marriage like boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.; c) Calling or naming outer sexual string of words “The expression you’ re gonna see on my face is Fuck you.” was organs and related words; d) Words and expressions related to alcoholic drinks dubbed into Persian (back-translation of the Persian segment) “Wana see the and drugs; and especially and much more frequently than other e) Swearing, expression on my face? The expression on my face says curse and damn your cursing and impolite expressions. father’s soul and your father’s father’s soul.” This segment involves a curse which The analysis of the strategies used for the rendition of the taboo language has been rendered into Persian as a curse, not as strong, yet still a curse, and resulted in the following categorization. thus, as a taboo-to-taboo strategy. 36 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 37  In another instance, the sentence, “He’ s taking a shit in the house”, in otherwise deletion of the taboo language is avoided. the original (TCR: 00.33.08-00.33.14) is translated to “He has gone to In the third movie, Pulp Fiction, as can be seen in Table 7, deletion of the the bathroom in the house (back-translation of the Persian words)” in the source culture taboo (35.4%) was the most frequently used strategy, and dubbed Persian version. It is an example for Taboo rendered in the form of a substituting the target culture taboo with a target culture non-taboo (5.1%) Euphemism as the segment includes an impolite word which has been rendered was the least frequently used strategy. as a positive word into Persian. In the second movie, 15 Minutes, as can be seen in Table 6, translating the source culture taboo to a target culture taboo (41.6%) was the most frequently Table 7. Frequency of each Taboo Rendition Strategy in Pulp Fiction used strategy, while substituting the target culture taboo with a target culture Strategy Frequency Percentage non-taboo (11.8%) was the least frequently used strategy. Taboo to Taboo 100 35.4 Deletion 115 40.7 Table 6. Frequency of each Taboo Rendition Strategy in 15 Minutes Taboo to Non-taboo 14 5.1 Strategy Frequency Percentage Euphemism 53 18.8 Taboo to Taboo 49 41.6 Total 282 100 Deletion 38 32.2 Taboo to Non-taboo 14 11.8 An example of taboo language in Pulp Fiction (TCR: 00.07.58-00.08.02) Euphemism 17 14.4 refers to alcoholic drinks (d), which unlike many parts of the world, is a taboo Total 118 100 in most Muslim countries including in Iran. The used strategy was a taboo to taboo rendition. The segment originally, “You can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer”, was rendered as “For example, they serve beer in An example for taboo rendition in 15 Minutes relates to sexual relations Amsterdam’s movie theaters” (back-translation from Persian to English). This (a) where the strategy of Deletion was used. In the original version (TCR: segment includes a taboo word related to alcoholic drinks; “beer” is considered 00.30.30-00.30.32), the segment, “I don’ t want sex”, while in the dubbed a taboo word in Persian, while it is not a taboo in most of their cultures. But version, the entire sentence was skipped. This segment involves sexual relations the translator seems to have decided to keep the taboo probably due to its fairly between an unmarried man and woman, and due to its high sensitivity in the weakening taboo force in the Iranian culture. religiously cautious, Iranian culture in which premarital sexual relations are Another instance of taboo language occurs towards the end of the movie forbidden, it was omitted (censored) in the dubbed version. (TCR: 02.08.02-02.08.05) relates to impolite words (e) and Euphemism has In another instance of Taboo language in 15 Minutes (TCR: 00.36.59- been utilized as the rendition strategy. The original segment was, “This is some 00.37.01), taboo word related to sex (a), “She’ s a prostitute” was rendered as fucked-up repugnant shit” and it was rendered in the dubbed version as “I'm (back-translation from Persian to English) as “The girl was from the Czech” in about to barf” (back-translation from Persian). The original segment includes the dubbed version. Since this segment includes the taboo word “prostitute”, it two impolite words which have been rendered through one single positive word was rendered to a non-taboo expression; in other words, it was substituted with in Persian, “barf” (back-translation from Persian). a non-taboo segment. By using the word Czech instead of the word prostitute, In the fourth movie used in the corpus, Insomnia, as can be seen in Table which according to the setting of the movie is factually correct, a silence due to 8, deletion of the source culture taboo (38.1%) was by far the most frequently 38 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 39 used strategy, and rendering the source culture taboo to a target culture Table 9. Percentage of the Most Frequent Strategy Used in each Movie euphemistic equivalent (19.7%) was the least frequently used strategy. Strategy Movie Percentage Taboo to Taboo Cop Out 38 Table 8. Frequency of each Taboo Rendition Strategy in Insomnia Taboo to Taboo 15 Minutes 41.6 Strategy Frequency Percentage Deletion Pulp Fiction 40.7 Taboo to Taboo 14 18.4 Deletion Insomnia 38.1 Deletion 29 38.1 Taboo to Non-taboo 18 24 in each movie. Euphemism 15 19.7 In summary, the strategies of Deletion and Taboo to Taboo are the most Total 76 100 common among the translators of the movies under investigation, and the two other strategies, Euphemism and Taboo to Non-taboo are less frequently employed. Nonetheless, in a more general picture, the four basic strategies As an example from Insomnia, in early parts of the movie (TCR: 00.19.03- can be classified into a binary classification of a) keeping the taboo force or b) 00.19.07), a segment including a taboo for the Iranian culture related to boy’s suppressing the taboo force in the dubbed version. In that case, three of the and girl’s relations (b) is translated using a taboo to non-taboo strategy. In the four strategies fall into the latter divide including Deletion, Taboo to Non- original version, the segment, “I know you beat your girlfriend” is translated as taboo, and Euphemism. “I know you beat your fiancée” (back-translation from Persian). This segment In the light of this binary classification of the strategies, the overall results, involves taboo language related to the relation of an unmarried boy and girl, a as can be seen in Figures 1 and 2, demonstrate that the AV translators would relation which has been replaced with a non-taboo word in Persian, “fiancée” tend to tone down the force and effect of the original taboo language–segments (back-translation from Persian). As discussed above in terms of the word “beer”, recognized as tabooed by the criteria of the Iranian audience–since only the word “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” for that matter, are not taboo words in nearly one third of the taboo language was kept in the dubbed versions in the the Anglophone world and many other parts of the world, but the Persian sample altogether and approximately two-thirds of the taboos were deleted or translators have recognized them as taboo in consideration of the contemporary suppressed into a euphemism or even some type of non-taboo. Iranian socio-cultural context. The final example is a segment from towards the end of Insomnia (TCR: Figure 1. Percentages of Taboo Rendition Strategies in the Entire Corpus 01.30.33-01.30.36).This taboo segment is a type of Curse (e) and is rendered as a taboo in the dubbed version. In the original version “He was an asshole.” was translated as “Randy Shabder was a dirt bag” (back-translation from Persian). This segment includes a curse which has been rendered as another taboo into Persian. Deletion And the results demonstrate that Taboo to Taboo strategy has a higher Taboo to Taboo frequency in the movies Cop Out and 15 Minutes, while in the two other Euphemism movies, Pulp Fiction and Insomnia, the results were different and the highest Taboo to Non-Taboo percentage goes to Deletion strategy. Table 9 shows the most frequent strategy 40 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 41 Figure 2. Distributions of Taboo Rendition Strategies in each Movie translators directs their overall translation decisions and strategies to produce a rendition of the movie script which would best fit the target culture. 50 The results of this study indicated that professional AV translators in dubbing American crime movie into Persian, following the initial norms of 40 AVT in Iran, would take up a target-oriented approach to their work so as to meet the AVT expectancy norms of the Iranian society. That is, the translators 30 are generally inclined to moderate and soften the impolite force and the vulgar effect of the original taboo language in the dubbed movies into Persian either 20 by censoring the items or by suppressing them into a euphemism or a non- Deletion taboo lexical item. 10 Taboo to Taboo However, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to make any Euphemism strong claims, and can be taken only as far as empirically-supported insights 0 Taboo to Non-Taboo cop out 15 minutes pulp fiction insomnia provided by an exploratory study because the current research, as a corpus- based translation study, lacks the large enough corpus which ought to include over a million lexical units. The study is also limited as the formation of the fairly small corpus is not randomly selected which addition to the small size of 5. Discussion and Conclusion the sample restrains the researchers to generalize their findings. Basic types of norms namely, initial norms, preliminary norms, and operational norms are discussed (Toury, 1995). The scope of this study relates to initial norms. The findings of this study indicate that the AV translators try to create an acceptable, target-oriented translation. They do so in order to meet the expectations of the target society in terms of American dubbed movies, or the American AVT expectancy norms (Chesterman, 1997). In other writing, “the foreign utterances are forced to conform to the domestic norms and frame of reference” (Danan, 1991, p. 612). Likewise, Agost (2004) asserts that in AVT, TTs have higher priorities over the STs. The Anglophone world is in principle a secular culture, whereas the Iranian culture is religion-oriented and relatively restrained. Since the Persian culture does not accept interferences easily from the outside, and as cultures take up defensive stances (Hermans, 2013), AV translators seem to attempt to tone down the original taboos–segments which would be recognized as taboo by the cultural standards of the receiving Iranian audience in case translated without any modifications–because they can be challenging intrusions to the integrity of the public Iranian audience. It is in that case which the translation is more acceptable to the target culture and could be useable by a wider range of audiences. In other words, the ideology of the professional Iranian AV 42 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 43  Lumpur, Malaysia: Persatuan Penterjrmah Malaysia. Gambier, Y. (2012). The position of audiovisual translation studies. In C. Millán & F. Bartrina References (Eds.), The routledge handbook of translation studies (pp. 45-59). 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Conference on Translation: The sustainability of the translation field (pp. 40-57). Kuala Saldanha, G., & O’Brien, S. (2013). Research methodologies in translation studies. Manchester, 44 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 45  England: St. Jerome. Schäffner, C. (2010). Norms of translation. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of translation studies (Vol. 1, pp. 235-244). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Appendix Sharifi, S., & Darchinian, F. (2009). ‫نآ یاهدمایپ و یسراف هب همجرت رد وبات ینابز دومن یسررب‬ [Investigating the representation of taboo in translation into Persian and its consequences]. Linguistics and Khorasani Dialects, 1(1), 127-149. Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive translation studies and beyond. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Table 10. ‌Sample Taboo Language and the Back-translation of the Persian Dubbed Benjamins. Equivalence from Cop Out Toury, G. (2004). The nature and role of norms in translation. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation Back-translation of studies reader (2nd ed., pp. 205-217). London, England: Routledge. Strategy Taboo Segment the Persian Dubbed Tveit, J.-E. (2009). Dubbing versus subtitling: Old battleground revisited. In J. Diaz Cintas & G. M. Anderman (Eds.), Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer on Screen (pp. 85-96). Fuck you Curse your father’s father’s father’s soul Basingstoke, England: Palgrave MacMillan. Who the fuck are you? Who the hell are you? Venuti, L. (1998). The scandals of translation: Towards an ethics of difference. London, England: Taboo Routledge. to Hell , fake ass kuju Get lost you Taboo Fuck this job The hell with this job Yule, G. (2010). The study of language (4th ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Just sit the fuck back and shut up Just sit at the back and zip it Mother Fucking Homage – Fucking Amsterdam Amsterdam Deletion These assholes are crazy They both are crazy You are a pussy – Believe this shit? Can you believe it? Fuck ! Damn this luck! Nitwit here almost got his ass shot off We were about to arrest him Author’s email address He has gone to the bathroom in the Euphemism He’ s taking a shit in the house [email protected] house About the author I’ ll fuck you up Watch it, or else Dr. Masood Khoshsaligheh is assistant professor in Translation Studies at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran. He teaches translation theory and research at graduate levels and supervises theses in translation and Mr. Dickhead Useless fruitcake interpreting studies. His research interests include translation education and curriculum, psychometrics in Son of bitch Killer translation, and translation process and norms. He is on the editorial board of a number of translation and language studies journals and the managing editor of International Journal of Society, Culture & Language. Baboon chimpanzee is the only non Chimpanzee is the only animal which Taboo to human primate that has oral Sex? can do so many things like humans Co-author’s email [email protected] Non-taboo They crave the cock , any cock , They need help every cock About the Co-author Saeed Ameri has a BA in English translation from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman and is currently a She got one nitty missing a nipple She has lost a lot of hair graduate student in English translation at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran. His research interests focus on audiovisual translation, music and translation, and interpreting. It’ s in Paul’ s wife pussy In your friend’ s pocket 46 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 47 Table 11. ‌Sample Taboo Language and the Back-translation of the Persian Dubbed Table 12. ‌Sample Taboo Language and the Back-translation of the Persian Dubbed Equivalence from 15 Minutes Equivalence from Pulp Fiction Back-translation of Back-translation of Strategy Taboo Segment Strategy Taboo Segment the Persian Dubbed the Persian Dubbed Come on you fucking guys Come you schmucks You can walk into a movie theater in For example, they serve beer in You are a son of bitch Schmuck Amsterdam and buy a beer Amsterdam’ s movie theaters Taboo You are just a little, small Russian You are a Russian useless, He’ s motherfucker Son of a bitch Taboo to piece of shit piece of garbage Some fuckless piece of shit fucked A dirty, piece of shit screwed with its to Taboo You sick fucks You sick bastards with it lock Taboo That is what American want: That is what the American want: This shit is hard to get off This shit does not come off easily violence and sex violence and sex Any of you fucking pricks move, I will shoot his brains out, if any of Give me your fucking money Give me your money I’ ll execute every motherfucker you bastards move I don’t want Sex – Sound like a sensible fucking man Like a wise man Deletion Get the fuck back Get back to work I’m fucking going So, I am off Fuck off ! – Deletion I been sayin’ that shit for years For years, I’ ve repeated this As a plumber, fixing fucking toilets. You want me to plumb In agonizing pain rapist Be in pain Are you fucking kidding me? Are you joking? One more kiss – You remind me of a puppy I used to My little dog always messes up the Marcellus fucked him up good Marcellus took care of him have. Used to piss all over the carpet carpet What’ d he do, fuck her? There has been a woman? Euphemism She's got the potential to fucking hang Euphemism French Fox’ s specialty was sex French Fox was a seducer She was ready for your propose on you I’ m going to get Medieval on your ass I am having Medieval fun with you Get the hell of outta here Beat it. This is some fucked-up repugnant shit I’ m puking Make me bust your ass I'll kick your butt He feared that if he does Eating a bitch out and giving a bitch a Fuck her first I wana see her give her a message, she is going to foot message aint the same thing You slept with her You left your ex-wife rat him out to Marcellus Taboo to Taboo to Non-taboo Getting dates or what? Getting the information was so hard ? Non-taboo Cause my girlfriend is vegetarian Cause my wife is vegetarian Smoking after sex Firing after getting high And one in my clit And one on my ankle She’s to be a prostitute The girl was from the Czech It’ s a sex thing and helps fellatio It’ s relaxing like physiotherapy Go home and jerk off You go home and take a shower 48 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian 49 Table 13. ‌Sample Taboo Language and the Back-translation of the Persian Dubbed 통번역학 석사 교육과정 개정을 위한 졸업생 설문조사: Equivalence from Insomnia 이화여대 통역번역대학원 사례연구 Back-translation of Strategy Taboo Segment the Persian Dubbed Son of bitch Worthless scum bag 이지은 유효미 전양주 정희정 Except your fucking novel Except that damned book 이화여대 통역번역대학원 Taboo to What the fuck is this? Where the hell is this? Taboo What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell is wrong with you? Jieun Lee et al. (2014), Graduates’ survey in the process of the renewal of MA He was an asshole Randy Shabder was an awful dirt bag T&I curriculum: A case study of Ewha GSTI. It was her big fucking secret This was her big secret too This paper deals with the findings from graduates’ survey conducted by the Ewha It’ s so fucking bright here It’ s too bright in here Research Institute for Translation Studies in relation with the curriculum renewal Deletion Do you want a beer or something? Don’ t you want something? of the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation (GSTI) of Ewha Womans University. 313 graduates participated in the online survey in November 2013. The Shit ! – survey questionnaire comprised of 31 questions asked about their profiles such as their Drinking related-problems – majors and professional experiences as interpreters and translators, and their evaluation If she talks, you’ re fucked If she talks, you are screwed of the curriculum and suggestions for the development of Ewha GSTI. The survey results I’ m sick of this bullshit You make me sick indicate graduates’ overall positive evaluation of the curriculum provided at Ewha GSTI. The graduates’ employment types and professional practices and their suggestions Euphemism My rep’ s in the shit They ruined my reputation for T&I education curriculum offer valuable information for the discussion on the Sick bastard psycho renewal of T&I curriculum of Ewha GSTI. (Ewha Womans University, South Korea) You never had the balls to be one of us You didn’ t have the guts to be a cop Did you have sex with her? You were just her friend ? Keywords: postgraduate translation education, curriculum renewal, market What has two thumbs and loves Who is that has two thumbs and is needs, survey of graduates, employment Taboo to blowjobs? hungry as hell Non-taboo I kissed her I just wanted to relax her She argued with her boyfriend She argued with her fiancé I know you beat your girlfriend I know you hit your fiancée 1. 서론 국제화와 함께 정보, 지식, 인적 교류가 활발해지면서 전문적인 통역과 번역 업무를 수행할 인력에 대한 수요는 꾸준히 증가해왔다. 이러한 수요 증가에 부응해 정규 교육 과정을 중심으로 국내 통번역 인력 양성이 이루어져왔고, 통번역 교육을 제공하는 학 교 숫자도 증가했다. 전문 통번역대학원 형태로 석사과정을 개설한 학교는 한국외대와 50 Masood Khoshsaligheh and Saeed Ameri 통번역학 석사 교육과정 개정을 위한 졸업생 설문조사: 이화여대 통역번역대학원 사례연구 51 51