Arabic Subtitles on English Movies: Some Linguistic, Ideological and Pedagogic Issues

Abstract

The study pro vides an investigation of a sample of Arabic subtitles on English movies and TV dramas in an attempt to identify and account for some patterns of "corruption" in these subtitles, to provide some suggestions for fixing such subtitling problems and to provide some guidelines for doing, and teaching, Arabic subtitling on English audiovisual texts. The investigation of the sample Arabic subtitles on the English movies - Big Daddy, Tempted, and Lizzie McGuire Movie - and TV dramas identifies specific patterns of problems: Literal translation, insensitivity to context, ungrammatical, unnatural or inaccurate translations, treatment of foul language and unnecessary formality. The discussion of the problems and the analysis thereof addresses some of the major issues in translating Arabic to English in general and in doing English-to-Arabic audiovisual translation (ATV) in particular..