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Article published In:
Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts
Vol. 7:3 (2021) ► pp.308–338

Qābeli nadāre (It is not worthy of you)

Anything except offer of money is expected in English subtitles

| University of Ottawa
| Universiti Sains Malaysia
This article reports on a study of English subtitles of Persian Ostensible Offer of Money (POOM). The first stage of this study involved identifying instances of POOM in Iranian films on the basis of their locutions (forms) and culture-specific contextual features and underlying concepts. At this stage we highlighted the potential problems that may be encountered when relaying the meaning of POOMs in English, and described the translation strategies used by the subtitlers. In order to corroborate our findings, we also conducted a survey of the perceptions of non-Iranian viewers. On the basis of our analysis, we conclude that, owing to subtitling restrictions such as space and time, subtitlers can rely on information provided in the preceding and following scenes of instances of POOM as well as dialogues, audiences’ familiarity with Persian culture, and similarities with other cultures in order to avoid mistranslations or misunderstandings.
Keywords: Persian Ostensible Offer of Money (POOM), Ta’ārof , subtitling, Iranian films, translation strategy, viewer’s perception, pragmatics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Genuine versus ostensible speech acts in English
    • 1.2 Ta’ārof: An umbrella term for the realization of Persian OSAs
    • 1.3English subtitling of Persian OSAs
    • 1.4Analysis of subtitling in previous studies
  • 2.Method
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Descriptive analysis
      • 3.1.1Translation of POOM by omission
      • 3.1.2Translation of POOM into a genuine speech act
      • 3.1.3Translation of POOM into a non-speech act
      • 3.1.4Translation of POOM into an ostensible offer
    • 3.2Survey analysis
      • 3.2.1Analysis of viewers’ comprehension
      • 3.2.2Effective factors on viewers’ comprehension
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Difficulties in subtitling POOMs based on descriptive analysis
    • 4.2Problematic issues in understanding the meaning of subtitles based on survey analysis
    • 4.3Factors helping to understand POOMs based on survey analysis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
  • Filmography
Published online: 10 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00078.yaq
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