This video lecture is aimed at letting you know
how to produce coherent text while respeaking
by extracting and combining
the information conveyed with the speakers’ material.
First of all,
I will try to recap the notion of text according to text linguistics
in terms of its relationship between its different structural components
and in terms of its relationship with the context.
Then, I will also try to recap the semiotics of the audiovisual text
and identify verbal and non-verbal components,
as conveyed either visually or acoustically.
This will allow me to provide examples of strategies
to concretely combine the speech made by the speaker
with all the materials that he or she may make use of,
in order to come to a coherent target text.
This is the agenda of this presentation.
In Element 1,
we have seen how to repeat the words of a text.
However, a text is not just what a speaker actually says
in terms of words that are grammatically combined
to create sentences.
According to De Beaugrande & Dressler,
a text is a communicative occurrence
which has to meet 7 standards
that correspond to 7 textual characteristics.
The first one is cohesion.
Cohesion refers to the way words are related to each other.
It is the grammatical relations between words.
When subtitling,
the speaker may make use of other tools to make a text cohesive,
grammar mistakes included.
These mistakes are automatically filtered by the audience.
If repeated word for word,
non-grammatical sentences, for example, result
in a more difficult text to understand compared to a speech.
This means you always have to keep an eye to the text you have just produced
to make sure that subtitles are cohesive.
The second element is coherence.
Coherence is the way concepts are related to each other.
It is the semantic relations between concepts.
When subtitling,
it is important that coherence is kept in the subtitles
as you as a subtitler may have problems understanding a text.
In case of doubts,
if you manage to follow what the speaker says,
it is going to be much easier
to correctly report the speech he or she makes.
If an incoherent subtitle is produced, it is very possible
that the subtitler has made a mistake in the understanding process.
The third element is intentionality.
Intentionality is the meaning the speaker wants to convey.
This may be different
from the word-for-word reproduction of a text.
If you think of irony, for example,
you always need to keep in mind
that it is clear to understand when listening to an ironic speech,
but it may be not that evident
when reading at the same text written in the subtitles.
In this case, you may think of translating the source text
into its corresponding meaning
or make use of exclamation marks or of all caps to signal it.
The fourth characteristic is acceptability.
Acceptability is the way the text satisfies the receivers needs.
This refers to technical and linguistic aspects.
Technically, reading speed is something binding,
especially if the text unfolds on two-liner subtitles.
This means that if the speaker speaks rapidly
you may think of reducing the number of words in the subtitles
by omitting words or summarising concepts.
Or you may be required to use tags to identify a change of speakers.
Or again you may want to simplify the text or explain some parts of a text
if you know your audience misses some knowledge
that the speaker gives for granted
and that is shared with the hearing audience,
like sounds or other acoustically conveyed information.
The fifth characteristic of a text is informativity.
Informativity is the way information is provided.
It is strictly related to the notion of acceptability.
It is the way information is provided to the audience.
If the speaker has planned in advance his or her speech,
then information is normally provided according to the theme-rheme pattern.
This means that known information is used
to introduce unknown information.
In this case,
repeating the speech word-for-word is not a problem.
It will effectively convey information.
However, if the speaker makes an impromptu speech,
it may happen that the pattern is broken.
The subtitler may think of providing more information in the subtitles
to make the text more acceptable to readers.
The sixth characteristic is situationality.
Situationality is the relevance of a text in a situation.
If a text is cohesive, coherent, intentional, acceptable and informative,
situationality is met.
However, it may happen that more speakers speak at the same time
in a talk show or political session,
or the speaker may speak over a video during a conference or a class.
In this case,
the most relevant utterance is to be reported,
the other one or ones may be disregarded.
Finally, intertextuality is the way the text relates to other texts.
This refers to similar texts
but also to other sources of information used in the live event.
In the case of a speaker using slides to support his or her speech,
it is always important
that the subtitles are coherent with the slides
or other types of on-screen text.
In case of a mistake by the speaker,
if the subtitler is super sure the speaker has made a mistake,
he or she can reproduce it word-for-word.
However, in case of doubts,
it is always wise to go for solution
that is more coherent with visual elements.
Similarly, if a speaker reads a slide,
it may not be wise to repeat something that is already there as written text.
In this case, the subtitler can send a caption to audience
telling them the speaker is reading a slide.
However, a text alone does not work if it is not used in the right context.
According to Halliday and Hasan,
text is not the only element that creates meaning.
Meaning is also created by something that accompanies it, the context.
The context includes the way something is said,
also called paraverbal components,
and all the non-verbal signs
that help the text provide its overall meaning.
Without a context,
the concepts expressed in a text cannot be really understood.
That is why it is very important to understand its peculiarities.
According to the authors,
the context is composed of the field, the tenor and the mode.
Field is the shared experience of participants.
When a doctor talks to other doctors,
he or she gives for granted they know some things
which he or she does not explain.
The opposite would happen
if the same doctor spoke to a wider audience.
Tenor is the role and relationships among participants.
If our doctor explains a strategic plan against a pandemic
during a live broadcast,
his or her words will have a different impact on the audience
compared to the populist leader opposing it, who makes the same speech.
The mode is the way the text is organised and its function.
This is strictly related to the previous two.
While explaining the strategic plan against the pandemic
during a live broadcast,
our doctor will organise his or her speech in a very logical way,
making sure that nothing is given for granted,
word choice included.
He or she will speak clearly and slowly,
as what he or she says is going to play an important role in the citizens lives.
Any audiovisual product communicates
through the combination of many semiotic components.
Be they TV programs, conferences,
parliamentary sessions, meetings or school classes,
they are all made of acoustic and visual elements,
that are either verbal or non-verbal.
This picture shows the semiotic components of a film,
but the same features can be found in any of the events
I have just mentioned.
In particular, acoustic elements can be of verbal or non-verbal nature.
The most relevant acoustic element of verbal nature
is the speech to subtitle and its paraverbal characteristics,
such as the speaker’s tone, pitch, and volume of voice.
In the case of elements of non-verbal nature,
we can differentiate between sound effects like applauses from the audience,
a bell announcing the voting time,
the stop signal of an assessment, a special effect, etc.;
and music, like the national anthem being played
at the beginning of every parliamentary session,
a music to be guessed by a quiz participant,
the jingle of a presentation,
the lyrics of a song to be transcribed in class, etc.
In some cases,
these non-verbal elements are super important,
like the one just mentioned.
In other cases,
they are absolutely meaningless and can be disregarded,
like for example the footsteps of an MP,
a sound accompanying a visual element on screen,
the music of a mobile ringing,
the noise of a pen falling from the speaker’s table
or the shuffling of documents.
It is the duty of the subtitler to decide whether to subtitle them or not.
With visual elements,
we keep having the same verbal and non-verbal dichotomy
that we have seen in the case of acoustic elements.
The most relevant visual elements of verbal nature
are graphic elements
like a question written on screen in a quiz or talk show,
the results of the voting in a parliamentary session,
the content of slides in a conference, an exercise instructions.
Other visual elements are of non-verbal nature,
like pictures in a talk show, in a school exercise,
in a session commemorating an important political figure,
or in the PowerPoint presentation of a conference speaker.
In case a video is played during these contexts,
the film code is also present.
Worth a last mention are also the way a person dresses,
the role of a speaker in the context,
the movements participants make and so on.
Compared to what happens in the case of acoustic elements,
the subtitler here is not called to decide
whether to render them or not in the subtitles,
as they are already visible.
However, he or she has to decide
whether to care about the audience noticing them or not
and having the time to watch at them or not.
In Element 1, you have seen how to respeak a speech,
which is verbal acoustic component.
In case the speaker also makes use of verbal visual resources,
it is important to avoid redundancy.
So, for example, if a speaker is reading a slide containing a lot of text,
avoid repeating the text in the slide.
Prefer a caption instead,
like one saying [reads the slide].
This guarantees a smooth transition
between the subtitles and the slide the speaker reads.
However, some problems remain.
For example, the reader will not know
when the speaker has finished reading the slide.
Or the slide may only contain a few words of the quoted text.
What to do to solve these issues?
To let the reader know
when the speaker has finished reading the slide,
much depends on whether the subtitles appear
as two lines bottom of the screen with the slide,
or if they appear as full text on a different screen.
In the first case, which is the most common one,
the subtitler will start respeaking
as soon as the speaker stops reading the slide
and starts saying something else.
By doing this,
the reader’s attention is attracted by the subtitles re-starting,
popping up or scrolling in the periphery of their view.
In the second case, which may not be rare in conference subtitling,
it is always recommended to «educate» both the speaker and the audience
before the event starts.
In particular,
the speaker should always change to a new slide
once he has finished reading the slide.
The audience should always keep an eye on the screen with the subtitles
to check whether new text is appearing.
In case the slide only contains a few word or sentences of the quoted text,
better to keep subtitling, thus avoiding non-effective captions.
A final tricky situation is that of a video played during an event
and the video contains dialogue.
Here, there is not consensus in the professional community
about whether to subtitle the video or not,
as the speech may not share
the same characteristics of the event you are subtitling,
like a fictional video in a conference, or a song in a school exercise.
Some colleagues prefer asking the client to think of pre-recorded subtitles
before the event starts,
otherwise they would not subtitle the video
so as not to provide low-quality subtitles.
If the client does not want to provide pre-recorded subtitles,
we suggest using a disclaimer like [the video is not subtitled].
Some other colleagues try to subtitle the video
for the sake of accessibility,
despite the audio input may not be good or difficult to subtitle.
In this video lecture we have analysed the text
and its relationship with the context
and the different essential characteristics it is made of.
This has allowed us to introduce the main semiotic characteristics
of an audiovisual product,
be it a parliamentary session, a conference speech,
a TV program or other events that require a personalised access.
We have seen how much all of them make the event heavily dependent
on the verbal visual component of the subtitles.
This makes the job of the respeaker
much more complex than simply repeating what is said.
It implies
the real-time intralingual subtitler has to provide subtitles
that manage to smoothly provide information,
and avoid the audience get lost with all the inputs they receive.
To better understand this, for each semiotic element,
we have seen some strategies
that allow for the subtitler to provide information
that is consistent with the intended message of the speaker
and with the expectations of the audience.
In the homework session,
you will be asked to try and provide solutions
for each situation where a mismatch between the verbal acoustic
and the other semiotic elements may occur
because of a wrong strategy being used.