Speech Acts in Translation

Tani Fakile

 

In Linguistics, a speech act can be described as phrases that are used to perform an act, the act itself being more important than the informational content of the phrase (Austin, 1975). This can cover things like greetings, farewells, and requests etc. As we speak, the action is performed.

Speech acts present another challenge for translators to work with. They can differ between cultural groups that even share the same language, let alone groups that speak different languages. For example, despite being born in England, I’ve often found myself confused by the ubiquitous greeting of “alright!/?”. At first glance, this may seem (and indeed it did to me) like a genuine, albeit contracted question, inviting the addressee to respond, perhaps with something along the lines of “yes I’m alright, how are you?”. However, in reality, responding in this way may be met with confusion of discomfort. This phrase is an example of a speech act, and its function is simply to perform as a greeting, and all the addressee needs to do is respond in kind with an “alright!/?”. But how would one translate this sequence in the context of a TV show or movie? If we were to translate this verbatim into Spanish for example, it may look something like this:

Person A: ¿bien?

Person B: ¡bien!

But that is more equivalent to the following in English:

Person A: Good?

Person B: Good!

As bien doesn’t typically fulfil the function of a greeting in Spanish, it may not convey the greeting in translation, despite the fact that bien is a perfectly fine translation of the word “alright” itself. Without the cultural awareness of this speech act, such a small interaction can be mistranslated and misconstrued on a global stage. An example of this can be found in the Mandarin translations of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Captain America’s more informal greeting of “son of a bitch!” was translated into Mandarin as “My old familiar partner.” Though both are intended as greetings, the latter lacks the more humorous and informal feel of the latter, as well as the cultural context of the phrase in American English, and perhaps may lead to the audience forming a different opinion of the character.

 

The challenger for translators therefore, is the need to find culturally salient translations of a script from one language and cultural background to another, in order to ensure a writer/director’s vision is realised in the process of translation. This can sometimes be a fun or humorous task, for example finding puns that work in more than one language. But when translating a full script for a movie or TV show, especially under time pressure, the process is often laborious and intense. This is compounded by the fact that translators are often overworked and underpaid, perhaps in part due to the perception that this work is simple or easy (Lung Jan Chan, 2004). Hopefully through this blog, we can show you that this is far from the truth and encourage you to provide your translators with more support and funding.

 

References:

No Author Given (2019, September 10). 7 worst movie translations ever: Why good translation is vital. Day Translations Blog. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/7-worst-movie-translations-ever/.

Austin, J. L., Urmson, J. O., & Sbisà Marina. (1975). How to do things with words: The william james lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955. Harvard University.

Chan, A. L. J. (2010, January 14). Effectiveness of translator certification as a signaling device: Views from the translator recruiters. Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/tis.4.2.06cha.