Pronouns in film dubbing and the dynamics of audiovisual communication

A crucial research question in audiovisual translation has been the degree of orality exhibited by the language of dubbing. More specifically, researchers have begun to look for the structures which are entrusted with the reproduction of orality in dubbing or which set dubbese apart from spontaneous spoken language. In this perspective, the source language may be considered one cause of possible divergences from the language norms of the target community. This paper focuses on the frequency of subject pronouns, typical spoken language structures which can be used to evaluate the interaction in audiovisual translation between target language norms, source language transfer and film language specificities. From the investigation of both translated and original language corpora some translation tendencies emerge whereby Italian dubbese overal aligns with target language norms but transfer from the original Anglophone films emphasizes choices related to the dynamics of audiovisual communication.