This study enquires into the representation of foreign characters in a number of American TV series, in order to identify how the socio-cultural and linguistic dimensions of the original characterisations are reformulated and adapted for Italian receivers. In particular, the analysis focuses on the representations of a group of Indian workers from The Simpsons, of two non-native speakers from Family Guy, and of a man from Outrageous Acts of Psych, so as to investigate the influence of the linguacultural background at the time of selecting the adaptation strategies and modifying the original illocutionary force and perlocutionary effects (Austin 1962). In order to prompt humorous responses, the original representations are based on the strategy of “power distance” (Guido 2012) as well as on cognitive contrasts of the possible/impossible and expected/unexpected types (Raskin 1985; Attardo 2001), whereas the Italian versions resort to regionalisms (Rossi 2007), diatopic/diastratic language varieties and stereotypical reproduction of the non-native pronunciation. This chapter will explore the levels of linguistic and functional equivalence achieved by the retextualisations, along with the ideological nature of the specific adaptation strategies, which stem from the translators’ interpretation of the source-text semantic and communicative dimensions. The influence of “ideology” (Fairclough 2015) is thus identified in the audiovisual and linguistic modifications to the source scripts, which eventually reveal the influence of the target linguacultural background in the activation of the cognitive construct of the ‘implied audience’, to which translators conventionally resort for the production of target versions that are tailored to the viewers’ expectations. Finally, the analysis will also enquire into the extent to which the target scripts produce non-natural representations (Yule 1996) from a multimodal perspective (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006), due to the interaction between the visual, acoustic and verbal features.
The Representation of Foreign Speakers in TV Series. Ideological Influence of the Linguacultural Background on Source and Target Scripts
Pietro Luigi Iaia
2018-01-01
Abstract
This study enquires into the representation of foreign characters in a number of American TV series, in order to identify how the socio-cultural and linguistic dimensions of the original characterisations are reformulated and adapted for Italian receivers. In particular, the analysis focuses on the representations of a group of Indian workers from The Simpsons, of two non-native speakers from Family Guy, and of a man from Outrageous Acts of Psych, so as to investigate the influence of the linguacultural background at the time of selecting the adaptation strategies and modifying the original illocutionary force and perlocutionary effects (Austin 1962). In order to prompt humorous responses, the original representations are based on the strategy of “power distance” (Guido 2012) as well as on cognitive contrasts of the possible/impossible and expected/unexpected types (Raskin 1985; Attardo 2001), whereas the Italian versions resort to regionalisms (Rossi 2007), diatopic/diastratic language varieties and stereotypical reproduction of the non-native pronunciation. This chapter will explore the levels of linguistic and functional equivalence achieved by the retextualisations, along with the ideological nature of the specific adaptation strategies, which stem from the translators’ interpretation of the source-text semantic and communicative dimensions. The influence of “ideology” (Fairclough 2015) is thus identified in the audiovisual and linguistic modifications to the source scripts, which eventually reveal the influence of the target linguacultural background in the activation of the cognitive construct of the ‘implied audience’, to which translators conventionally resort for the production of target versions that are tailored to the viewers’ expectations. Finally, the analysis will also enquire into the extent to which the target scripts produce non-natural representations (Yule 1996) from a multimodal perspective (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006), due to the interaction between the visual, acoustic and verbal features.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
