The Netherlands is a country with a subtitling tradition. This tradition would suggest that Dutch viewers generally have a more positive attitude towards Dutch subtitling compared to Dutch dubbing....Show moreThe Netherlands is a country with a subtitling tradition. This tradition would suggest that Dutch viewers generally have a more positive attitude towards Dutch subtitling compared to Dutch dubbing. However, this subtitling tradition does not seem to have been established at the hand of the attitudes of Dutch viewers towards both modes, considering these attitudes have received nearly no coverage in academic work. This is problematic, since a lack of data on these attitudes makes it challenging for translators of audiovisual media to create translations that are suitable for a Dutch audience. Therefore, this thesis collected data on the attitudes of 53 Dutch participants towards Dutch subtitling and dubbing in the Netherlands through an online questionnaire. The results show that the participants prefer Dutch subtitles over Dutch dubs, but also rate the overall quality of both modes in a similar manner and even list slightly more disadvantages for Dutch subtitles than Dutch dubs. There also appears to be a consensus amongst the participants that children are the main target audience for Dutch dubs, and most participants indicated that Dutch dubs are the most suitable for children’s programs, cartoons and commercials. Furthermore, 69.8% of the participants believe that there is a negative stigma surrounding Dutch dubs and 88.7% of the participants stated that they do not desire for more audiovisual media to become available with Dutch dubs. Additionally, 49.1% of the participants indicated they do not desire for more audiovisual media to become available with Dutch subtitles either. Although 56.6% of the participants indicated they do not feel restricted by Dutch subtitles, the majority of the participants stated that they frequently disagree with the translation choices in Dutch subtitles. Finally, 66% of the participants indicated that they prefer English subtitles over Dutch subtitles. While these findings only represent the attitudes of 53 Dutch viewers, they can form a starting point for future research regarding attitudes towards both modes in the Netherlands.Show less
This dissertation investigated the occurrence of linguistic stereotypes regarding gender in the Japanese animated movie Kimi no Na Wa (君の名は) compared to the English dubbed-translated movie Your...Show moreThis dissertation investigated the occurrence of linguistic stereotypes regarding gender in the Japanese animated movie Kimi no Na Wa (君の名は) compared to the English dubbed-translated movie Your Name. The Japanese audio script functioned as the source text (ST) and the script of the English dub as the target text (TT). Based on previous research of Spiridon (2014), Okamoto (1995), and Lakoff (1973; 2004), stereotypically gendered language was listed for both the ST and the TT. This study researched whether the TT favoured transferring Japanese gender markers (foreignization), conforming to English gender stereotypes (domestication), or omitting ST gender markers (neutralization) as a translation strategy. Based on results from earlier studies (Inoue (2003), González Vera (2012), De Marco (2006), Pettit (2005)) and considering the role of dubbing constraints, it was hypothesized that neutralization would be the favoured option in Your Name and that few new gender markers would be introduced in the TT. The data analysis consisted of an ST analysis to determine the gender markers in the ST, a TT analysis to determine which translation strategies were applied in the rendering of the ST markers, and a TT analysis to determine whether any new gender markers had been introduced in the TT. The translation procedures of Vinay & Darbelnet (1995) were used to establish how the gendered items had been rendered in the TT. The results suggest that the hypothesis is confirmed, since only 32 out of 386 gender markers were rendered in the TT and 197 were newly introduced, which shows that neutralization was indeed the favoured translation type in the TT. Thereby, sentence-final particles were mostly represented in the ST versus hedging language in the TT. Some possibilities for future research include replicating this study for the subtitled script and investigating the characters’ pitch.Show less
The purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to discern whether Dutch gamers and non-gamers want to play games in Dutch and if so, what they think of existing translations. In order to investigate the research question, an online survey was created and distributed amongst a Dutch sample audience consisting of five different types of gamers, including non-gamers; questions involved the subject’s opinions on several areas of videogame translation and localisation, with a focus on subtitling and dubbing. My hypothesis was that the target group would be willing to play more games if a higher number of them were translated into Dutch in the first place, or if current videogame translations were improved upon in some way. Only the first part of the hypothesis turned out to be false.Show less
The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of dubbing and subtitling on EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. If significant differences exist in EFL competence...Show moreThe purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of dubbing and subtitling on EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. If significant differences exist in EFL competence between dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU, this might have implications for dubbing countries, especially in the light of the 2002 Barcelona objective, which states that citizens of the EU should speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. Since English is the most commonly learned foreign language in the EU, and because the majority of dubbed or subtitled material in the EU is anglophone in origin, this paper asks how dubbing and subtitling affect EFL competence in dubbing and subtitling countries in the EU. To answer this question, secondary data from a number of large-scale EU studies were analyzed. The results of the analysis showed a clear link between subtitling countries and relatively high EFL competence; EFL competence was found to be lower in dubbing countries. However, there were exceptions to this general trend, suggesting that other factors such as quality and quantity of exposure and issues related to formal education also play an important part in determining overall EFL competence.Show less
