Article published In: Indirect Translation and Sustainable Development
Edited by Jan Buts, Hanna Pięta, Laura Ivaska and James Hadley
[Translation Spaces 12:2] 2023
► pp. 285–304
Regular Article
The emotional value of Polish and English subtitles
Survey research
Published online: 17 August 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.23001.sta
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.23001.sta
Abstract
Although research on the role of emotion in audiovisual translation and audio description has gained some ground in recent years, the emotional reception of subtitles as an AVT mode has been under researched. To address this empirical gap, this paper presents the results of a study on the emotional rating of English and Polish subtitles to a selection of animated films. Expressions from Polish and English subtitled versions of the same films were collected, and 100 participants (native speakers of Polish and English) were asked to rate them in terms of emotional valence and arousal evoked. While the main effect of utterance type (negatively valenced, neutral, positively valenced) was observed, there was no effect of language, suggesting that the subtitle excerpts elicited similar responses in both languages.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Emotion in language
- 3.Emotion in translation and interpreting
- 4.Emotion in audiovisual translation and audio description
- 5.Aims and research questions
- 6.Method
- 6.1Respondents
- 6.2Survey
- 6.3Affective norms
- 7.Results
- 7.1Survey
- 7.2Affective norms
- 8.Discussion
- 9.Limitations of the study
- 10.Conclusion
References
References (43)
AENOR. 2005. “Norma UNE 153020: Audiodescripción para personas con discapacidad visual. Requisitos para la audiodescripción y elaboración de audioguías [Audiodescription for visually impaired people. Guidelines for audio description procedures and for the preparation of audio guides].” Madrid: AENOR.
American Council of the Blind. 2009. “Audio Description Standards [Online].” Retrieved from [URL]
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. 2006. “Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 101: 20–46.
Bontempo, Karen, and Jemina Napier. 2011. “Evaluating emotional stability as a predictor of interpreter competence and aptitude for interpreting.” Interpreting 13 (1): 85–105.
Bradley, Margaret M., and Peter J. Lang. 1994. “Measuring emotion: The Self-Assessment Semantic Differential Manikin and the Semantic Differential.” Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 25 (1), 49–59.
. 1999. “Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction manual and affective ratings. Technical Report C-1.” The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.
Citron, Francesca M., Gray, Marcus A., Critchley, Hugo D., Weekes, Brendan S., and Ferstl, Evelyn C. 2014. “Emotional valence and arousal affect reading in an interactive way: Neuroimaging evidence for an approach-withdrawal framework.” Neuropsychologia 56 (100): 79–89.
Chaume, Frederic. 2013. “The turn of audiovisual translation: New audiences and new technologies.” Translation Spaces 2 (1): 105–123.
Deckert, Mikołaj, and Łukasz Bogucki. 2019. “Polish audience preference regarding audiovisual translation: A reception study.” In Audiovisual translation: Research and use. (2nd expanded edition), edited by Mikołaj Deckert, 67–79. Berlin: Peter Lang.
Ekman, Paul. 1972. “Universal and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotions.” In Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1971, edited by J. K. Cole, 207–283. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Ekman, Paul, Cordaro, Daniel. 2011. “What Is Meant by Calling Emotions Basic.” Emotion Review 3 (4): 364–370.
Hansen, Gyde. 2005. “Experience and emotion in empirical translation research with think-aloud and retrospection.” Meta 50 (2): 511–521.
Hubscher-Davidson, Severine. 2013. “The role of intuition in the translation process: A case study.” Translation and Interpreting Studies 8 (2): 211–232.
Imbir, Kamil. 2016. “Affective Norms for 4900 Polish Words Reload (ANPW_R): Assessments for valence, arousal, dominance, origin, significance, concreteness, imageability and age of acquisition.” Frontiers in Psychology 71, article 1081.
Iturregui-Gallardo, Gonzalo, and Jorge-Luís Méndez-Ulrich. 2019. “Towards the creation of a tactile version of the Self-Assessment Manikin (T-SAM) for the emotional assessment of visually impaired people.” International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 67 (6): 657–674.
Iturregui-Gallardo, Gonzalo, and Olga Soler-Vilageliu. 2021. “Audio subtitling and subtitling: A comparison of their emotional effect on blind/partially sighted and sighted users.” Onomázein, Special Issue on Emotions in Translation and Interpreting 81: 61–82.
Jääskeläinen, Riitta. 1999. Tapping the Process: An Explorative Study of the Cognitive and Affective Factors Involved in Translating. Joensuu: University of Joensuu.
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, w: E. Brower (red.), On Translation. Cambridge: Harward UP, 232–239.
Johnston, Elizabeth, and Leah Olson. 2015. The Feeling Brain: The Biology and Psychology of Emotions. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Korpal, Paweł, and Aleksandra Jasielska. 2019. “Investigating interpreters’ empathy: Are emotions in simultaneous interpreting contagious?”. Target 31 (1): 2–24.
Korpal, Paweł, and Katarzyna Jankowiak. 2021. “On the potential impact of directionality on emotion processing in interpreting.” Onomázein: Special Issue VIII – Emotions in Translation and Interpreting, 43–60.
Lehr, Caroline. 2011. “The happier, the better? Exploring the impact of positive and negative emotions on performance in translation.” Paper presented at the International Symposium for Young Researchers in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Miall, David, and Don Kuiken. 1994. “Beyond text theory: Understanding literary response.” Discourse Process 17 (3): 337–352.
Ó Cuilleanáin, Cormac. 2011. “Channelling Emotions, Eliciting Responses: Translation as Performance.” In Translating Emotion, edited by Kathleen Shields and Michael Clarke, 67–85. Bern: Peter Lang.
Perego, Elisa. 2018. “Audio description: Evolving recommendations for usable, effective and enjoyable practices.” In The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation, edited by Luis Pérez-González, 114–129. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ramos, Marina. 2015. “The emotional experience of films: does Audio Description make a difference?”. The Translator 21 (1): 68–94.
. 2016. “Testing audio-narration: The emotional impact of language in AD.” Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 24 (4): 606–634.
Rojo, Ana. 2017. “The Role of Emotions.” In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, edited by John W. Schwieter and Aline Ferreira, 369–385. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Rojo, Ana, and Marina Ramos Caro. 2015. “Can emotion stir translation skill? Defining the impact of positive and negative emotions on translation performance.” Paper presented at the 4th International Workshop on Translation Process Research (TPRW4). Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Rojo, Ana, Ramos, Marina, and Javier Valenzuela. 2014. “The emotional impact of translation: A heart rate study.” Journal of Pragmatics 711: 31–44.
Rojo, Ana, and Paweł Korpal. 2020. “Through your skin to your heart and brain: A critical evaluation of physiological methods in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies 191, 191–217.
Russell, James A. 1980. “A circumplex model of affect.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39 (6): 1161–1178.
Scherer, Klaus R. 2009. “Emotions are emergent processes: They require a dynamic computational architecture.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364 (1535): 3459–3474.
Snyder, Joel. 2005. “Audio description. The visual made verbal across arts disciplines – Across the globe.” Translating Today 41, 15–17.
Tryuk, Małgorzata. 2009. “Co to jest tłumaczenie audiowizualne? [What is audiovisual translation?].” Przekładaniec 201: 26–39.
Vercauteren, Gert. 2007. “Towards a European guideline for Audio Description.” In Media for All: Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language, edited by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Pilar Orero, and Aline Remael, 139–149. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Watson, David and Lee Anna Clark. 1994. The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule – Expanded Form. Ames: The University of Iowa.
