LiveTextAccess.
Training for real-time intralingual subtitlers.
This is Unit 1. Understanding accessibility.
Element 1. Basic concepts.
This video lecture focuses on multimodal communication,
which is a specificity of audiovisual translation
and live situations.
My name is Rocío Bernabé
from the Internationale Hochschule SDI München, in Germany.
I have prepared this video lecture
in collaboration with the European Federation
of Hard of Hearing, in short, EFHOH.
On completion of this training sequence, you will be able to explain
the concept of multimodal communication,
and to describe the challenges that real-time subtitlers
and end-users face.
Let's take a look at the agenda.
We start talking about what modes are
in audiovisual translation
and why communication is considered to be multimodal.
Then we discuss multimodality
in the context of real-time intralingual subtitling,
and we also talk about the intricacies of conveying information through a mode
that is not the original one.
The concept of multimodality seems easy to understand at first glance.
In audiovisual translation, scholars such as Jorge Díaz Cintas
classify modes into 2 categories:
audio and video.
Modes help us to classify in which way a specific resource is realised.
In multimodal communication, resources are realised
either visually or aurally.
Sociolinguists and semiotic scholars, such as Halliday, Kress or Van Leeuwen,
explain that there are many different types of resources within a culture.
These resources can be verbal, such as language,
or non-verbal, such as gestures, images, sounds, or objects,
for example clothes or food.
Depending on the type of resource, a speaker can choose the video
or the audio mode for its realization.
For instance, words are a resource that can be realised aurally,
through the audio mode,
and visually, by using subtitles, for example.
When a message is rendered multimodally,
the audience needs to access both channels
to receive the complete message.
However, this is not always the case.
The reasons why one channel may not be available are manifold,
and can range from a noisy environment to a hearing loss.
In such cases, alternatives need to be available.
This is the essence of the work of audiovisual translators
and the purpose of access services.
That is, to provide an alternative way to access the information
that is not reaching the audience through the original channel.
Our job is to enable a diamesic change from one mode to another,
which has been described by Carlo Eugeni
as "diamesic translation".
For instance, dialogues or narrations that are rendered aurally in an original
can be conveyed visually using subtitles.
In real-time subtitling, subtitler generates this visual information
that is then added
to the original resources that were already rendered visually.
This change from one mode to another
includes words and other resources that are necessary
to understand a message.
For example, sounds,
contextual information, and identifying a speaker.
For instance, at a conference, subtitlers may render sounds,
like an "APPLAUSE" after a speech
or a sound to which a speaker may react
such as siren from outside, or someone sneezing,
or a loud bang in another room.
This brings us to the challenges that a real-time subtitler face.
The challenge of multimodality.
The challenges that real-time subtitlers face
in the process of rendering resources visually
emerge from 3 main constraints.
These are a limited amount of time and space for our subtitles,
and latency.
Latency refers to the maximum delay or time
by which subtitles should appear on a screen.
Subtitles should coincide as much as possible with speech onset.
A minimum delay supports understanding and lip-reading,
which is an additional input cue
that persons with hearing loss often use in communication.
Some examples of maximum delay in different contexts are:
6 seconds for TV, 6 to 8 seconds in parliaments,
and 3 seconds at conferences.
These constraints of real-time situations have clear implications for subtitlers,
who will continuously have to choose what resources to render.
These choices are influenced by how well-organised a speaker is,
and how fast he or she speaks,
and by the working context.
Let's see some examples.
In parliaments,
the most important features to be subtitled are, in this order:
speech, which should be as verbatim as possible,
and without features of orality, such as tone or stress.
Then, speaker identification.
This is especially important because words need to belong
to the actual speaker.
Otherwise, diplomatic incidents could occur.
Then, contextual information,
which becomes key when voting takes place.
In voting cases, the other resources
(speech, speaker identification, slides, etc.)
are of less importance.
Lastly, other materials.
In parliaments,
rarely happens that somebody brings things with him or her
such as pictures, or slides.
In most cases, this information is not relevant
and will not be prioritised.
Lastly, an example from conferences.
At conferences, speech is also prioritised
as it is in parliaments.
Identifying a speaker is often less important in conferences
because it is usually quite clear who is speaking,
especially when only one speaker is on stage.
However, identifying a speaker may be relevant
when there is a debate and speakers start to switch.
In these cases,
identifying the speaker becomes more critical,
as subtitlers will have to pay more attention to mentioning the names.
Another case of speaker identification at conferences would be
when an interpreter says something for him or herself.
For example, a simultaneous interpreter may say:
"I cannot hear the speaker".
Or "the microphone is shut off".
In such cases, it is a small challenge
to show in your text, as subtitler, very clearly,
that this is something that the interpreter says,
and not the original speaker.
Sounds, like applause, are often included in subtitles, at conferences,
whereas contextual information such as "irony" is less common
because the interaction is live.
Ok, let's recap now.
Multimodal communication makes communication exciting and complex
at the same time.
Moreover, multimodality often requires a higher effort from both
viewers and subtitlers.
On the one hand,
viewers or end-users will perceive more information
through the visual mode,
and at a pace that is set by the speaker.
On the other, subtitlers continuously have to make choices
about what resources should be rendered and when.
Depending on the context,
this will mean to add information or, conversely, to reduce
or condense the message to provide subtitles in synchrony
with the speech onset with a minimum delay.
You will learn how to do this in Unit 5 and Unit 6
with our colleagues Wim Gerbecks, Carlo Eugeni and Silvia Velardi.
As for now, I say goodbye.
Exercises.
The exercises for this video lecture are in the Trainer’s Guide
for Unit 1
and in the PowerPoint presentation.
LTA - LiveTextAccess.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
SDI - Internationale Hochschule.
Scuola Superiore per Mediatori Linguistici.
2DFDigital.
The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People – EFHOH.
VELOTYPE.
SUB-TI ACCESS.
European Certification and Qualification Association – ECQA.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Erasmus+ Project: 2018-1-DE01-KA203-004218.
The information and views set on this presentation
are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion
of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any person acting on their behalf
may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained here.