Abstract
The significance of textual heterolingualism is not necessarily a function of the quantity, but of the nature and quality, of foreign- language use in a text (cf. Delabastita and Grutman 2005: 17). There are many films in which isolated heterolingual words or phrases acquire a resonance out of proportion to their frequency of occurrence. Laura Martin (1984) finds more evidence of biculturality in the scattered Spanish phrases, lexemes and song lyrics of Zoot Suit (Valdez, 1982) than in the quantitatively more significant Spanish dialogue of The Border (Richardson) released the same year. But the markedness of the use of a foreign language on screen is also a function of its quantity in that sustained use contributes towards the constitution of the foreign dialogue as a text demanding hermeneutic engagement rather than simply as a musical feature of the acoustic landscape. In this chapter I look at foreign languages as marked elements of a film’s dialogue track, and hence as elements which require translation.
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© 2011 Carol O’Sullivan
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O’Sullivan, C. (2011). Before and Beyond Subtitles. In: Translating Popular Film. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230317543_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230317543_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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