Modulation as a Strategy in Subtitling: With Special Reference to the Movie, ‘Sam’s Story’ by Priyankara Vittanachchi and its English Subtitling

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue IV, April 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Modulation as a Strategy in Subtitling: With Special Reference to the Movie, ‘Sam’s Story’ by Priyankara Vittanachchi and its English Subtitling

Menike A. M. L. N. A., Hansani J. A. M., Gunathilaka D. D. I. M. B.
Department of Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka

Abstract: – Subtitling is one of the most popular areas of audiovisual translation which is expanding rapidly. To succeed in subtitling, it is better to work with professional translators who have specialized knowledge and experience in subtitling. As translators use numerous translation strategies in the process of translation, adopting strategies in subtitling is also important. Many theorists have introduced diverse strategies to facilitate subtitling. This study attempts to identify and describe “modulation” as a strategy in subtitling with special reference to the Sinhalese movie ‘සැමීගේ කතාව’ – sæmīgē katāva (Sam’s Story) by Priyankara Vittanachchi. In conducting this study, qualitative research methodology is used. Both primary and secondary data have been used for the study. The primary data were collected from the dialogues and subtitles of the movie ‘සැමීගේ කතාව’ – sæmīgē katāva (Sam’s Story). Content analysis was the method of data collection. The data were analyzed using the steps of data identification and data analysis. 22 examples were analyzed for this study. The selected examples were discussed based on Vinay and Darbelnet’s theory and Albir and Molina’s theory. The results show that modulation strategy is mainly applied in culture-related situations. Each selected sentence that contained modulation strategy was able to generate the exact meaning of the source text. Moreover, this study is expected to provide recommendations and suggestions for translators in the field of Audio-Visual Translation. Inserting the modulation strategy to overcome cultural challenges in translating subtitles as per the text is a good solution and having sound knowledge of the types of modulation is a key factor in applying modulation.

Keywords: Modulation, Movie, Subtitling, Translation, Translation strategy

Abbreviations
AVT – Audio-Visual Translation
SL – Source Language
TL – Target Language
ST – Source Text
TT – Target Text
I. INTRODUCTION
Translation is needed for the communication between languages and cultures. It is more than just rendering a document from one language to another. The aim of the translation should not only be to satisfy the literary interest of the target language audience but to translate in a way that is completely reasonable to the original author. Audiovisual translation (AVT) is a sub-topic of translation that refers to the

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