Univerza v Mariboru

Filozofska fakulteta

Oddelek za prevodoslovje

Diplomska naloga

Translation of the book and subtitling of the film

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Kandidatka: Maja Schreiner

Mentorica: dr. Michelle Gadpaille

Maribor, avgust 2008

"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world

around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden

in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in

magic will never find it.” ~ Roald Dahl

I am very grateful to my mentor Michelle Gadpaille, the most brilliant professor in the world,

for her guidance and kindness.

SUMMARY The aim of this diploma paper is to provide an insight into translation of the book and

subtitling of the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book received many literary

awards and was adapted into two motion pictures. Likewise, in Slovenia both the book and

the film were very well received by children. I was interested in the translation of this

particular children’s book, especially its stylistic rendering into Slovene and any shifts that

occurred on the basis of cultural or other constraints. Another focus of interest was the

translation of the dialogue in the film, abridgement of the text – paraphrase and omission in

particular.

The Slovene translator of the book has used a strategy of domestication, bringing the text

close to a Slovene child in terms of linguistic and cultural values. The translation has retained

all the major stylistic features, preserving the playfulness of Dahl’s language with some minor

lexical and grammatical changes. The analysis of the subtitles has shown a great difference

between the intralingual (English) and the interlingual (Slovene) subtitles, particularly

considering the omissions, which are prominent in the latter. The register is also quite

different, being far more formal in the Slovene subtitles than in the English. Unfortunately,

omitting some of its silliness and nonsense resulted in the loss of some humor.

POVZETEK

Namen te diplome je predstaviti prevod knjige Čarli in tovarna Čokolade in podnapisov

istoimenskega filma, posnetega po tej knjigi. Knjiga je prejela več literarnih nagrad, po njej

sta bila posneta dva filma in tudi v Sloveniji sta bila tako knjiga kot film zelo dobro sprejeta.

Mene je zanimal prevod te otroške knjige v slovenščino, možni prevodni premiki, ki so nastali

na podlagi kulturnih ali drugih omejitev in stilistični elementi. Zanimal pa me je tudi prevod

podnapisov, predvsem skrajšanje teksta pri prevodu dialoga, parafraziranje in izpusti.

Slovenski prevajalec se je pri prevodu knjige odločil za strategijo podomačevanja,

upoštevaje lingvistične in kulturne vrednote, s čimer je besedilo približal slovenskim

otrokom. V prevodu so glavne stilistične značilnosti, predvsem igrivost jezika, ki ga Dahl

uporablja, večinoma ohranjene, pojavljajo se le manjše leksikalne in slovnične spremembe.

Analiza podnapisov je pokazala, kako velika razlika obstaja med angleškimi

(intralingvističnimi) in slovenskimi (interlingvističnimi) podnapisi, predvsem v izpustih, ki so

v slednjih zelo pogosti. Razlika je tudi v registru, ki je v slovenskih podnapisih veliko bolj

formalen kot v angleških in zaradi izpustov določenih neumnosti in nesmisla tudi manj

humorističen.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS...........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 1 CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY..........Error! Bookmark not defined. 2 CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION ..Error! Bookmark not defined. 3 STYLISTIC ANALYSIS................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.1 ORIGINAL (ENGLISH) VERSION .......................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1.1 Lexical categories............................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1.2 Grammatical categories ...................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1.3 Figures of speech.............................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1.4 Context and cohesion ......................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1.5 Paratextual features .........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.2 SLOVENE VERSION ............................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.1 Lexical categories............................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.2 Grammatical categories ...................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.3 Figures of speech.............................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.4 Context and cohesion ......................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.5 Paratextual features .........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.3 RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS ............................Error! Bookmark not defined. 4 CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND FILM ADAPTATION ........Error! Bookmark not

defined.

4.1 SUBTITLING AND DUBBING.............................Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.2 SUBTITLING CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY .................Error!

Bookmark not defined.

4.3 SUBTITLE ANALYSIS .........................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 5 CONCLUSION ..............................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED ...................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

1. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved children’s book and a world best-seller,

written by a renowned British author Roald Dahl and illustrated by one of the most popular

contemporary illustrators, Quentin Blake. Since its publication in 1964, the book has been

very well received by children; it received four literary awards and it was adapted into two

major motion pictures: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 1971, and Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory in 2005. In 1972, the author published a sequel, Charlie and the Great

Glass Elevator, continuing the adventures of Charlie Bucket, as he and Willy Wonka travel

through space. Certain literary critics think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is too dark for

children because it has too much violence; some even consider it cruel. In most of Dahl’s

books, bad characters are either adults or monsters, but in this case, the antagonists are the

badly behaved children. There is an unfortunate outcome for each of the “bad children”:

Augustus Gloop falls into the chocolate river and is sucked up by a great pipe, Violet

Beureguarde turns “blue and purple all over” and becomes a blueberry, Veruca Salt is thrown

down the garbage chute by squirrels, and Mike Teavee shrinks to an inch in size as he is sent

by television. Some adults find these funny situations with a somewhat dark overtone too

violent; children, on the other hand, find them merely amusing.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a novel-length fantastic tale or a fantasy, involving

elements of the supernatural. The strange little people (the Oompa-Loompas), their homeland

(Loompaland), the fanciful sweets, the crazy lift, etc. are all wondrous and magical. It has

many similarities with a fairytale: black and white characters, the inclusion of violence,

fantastic events, and a happy ending. The real and the fantastic are combined in the story of an

ordinary little boy whose life is forever changed when he wins the ticket to the most

extraordinary journey in his life. When the great gates of Wonka’s chocolate factory close

behind him, when the outside world disappears, Charlie Bucket enters the world of fantasy.

Charlie and the reader are both aware of the strangeness of these events; they are astonished

and amazed, but they are willing to accept them as true and real. Like other fantastic tales, the

story acknowledges imagination as an integral part of childhood and encourages children to

suspend disbelief and enjoy the “greatest secrets” Dahl invented.

Although Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a morality tale, moral judgments of good

or bad behavior are disguised in highly entertaining adventures. All children in the story

(except Charlie who is honest and selfless) have a flaw for which they are rightfully punished.

Augustus Gloop is a glutton, Veruca Salt is a spoiled “frump”, Violet Beauregarde is a

stubborn gum-chewer and Mike Teavee is a “crazy” boy obsessed with television. Children

love the story because the moral of the story (good behavior is rewarded and bad is punished)

is not shown in a preachy way with tedious moralization but rather in a wonderfully

humorous way. It is also a modern cautionary tale, this being reflected in the inclusion of

verse-stories (sung by the Oompa-Loompas), which provide an explanation of why the “bad

children” deserve their comeuppance and warn parents about mistaken methods of

upbringing.

This brilliantly imaginative story is full of creativity and playfulness of language, wit and

humor. Humor is always associated with the concept of incongruity; thus, when something is

odd, inappropriate or unexpected, we find it funny. There are different sources of humor in

this book: linguistic humor (verse, fanciful names, puns, word play, exaggeration), situational

humor (all unfortunate situations when “bad children” start disappearing “like rabbits”),

humor of character (silly children, bizarre Willy Wonka), and physical humor (the physical

appearance of Augustus Gloop and Willy Wonka).

2. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION

Children’s literature is a special literary genre; children’s books are specifically written for

children, intended for children, and read by children. However, adults also play an important

part: they are the ones who produce it, they buy it, they oftentimes read it to children, and

they can also enjoy it themselves. Thus, children’s books have a dual readership; they have to

persuade a child and an adult.

Translation is always a process of rewriting for a new target audience and a new target

culture. A translator has to recreate the idea of the book in another place (and time); thus,

translation is not merely an act of interlinguistic communication, but rather an act of

intercultural communication. When translating for children, one has to consider many factors

about specific target readers: children’s knowledge, their experiences, abilities and

expectations, because the main problem of translatability is a problem of reception, which

means the ability of the young readers to accept the book. Riitta Oittinen argues that

“children’s literature tends to be adapted to a particular image of childhood”, which means

that children’s books reflect our (adult) view of childhood and children. Considering this, we

may say that translators are always restricted by their own images of childhood, and,

furthermore, with the image of society as a whole.

There are different strategies in translating children’s literature, the most general ones

being domestication and foreignization. Riitta Oittinen defines these terms in the following

way: “while domestication assimilates texts to target linguistic and cultural values, in

foreignization some significant traces of the original text are retained” (Van Coillie 42).

Different authors favor different strategies; however, both techniques have their advantages

and disadvantages. On the one hand, foreignization recognizes the cultural values and

aesthetics of the original; on the other hand, domestication brings the text closer to a child

reader, making it easier for them to relate to it. In children’s books domestication of proper

names, units of currency, units of measurement, food, literary references, and word play are

very common.

Although there is a tendency in the translation process to keep proper nouns in their

original form, this is not the case with suggestive names in children’s books. Authors

commonly use meaningful names for their characters (sometimes in a humorous way) to

enrich the text with certain connotations and associations, thus, making it an important aspect

for a translator to consider and try to preserve.

Milan Dekleva, the Slovene translator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has opted for

the domestication approach, domesticating all proper names (Willy Wonka = Vili Majavšek),

units of currency (sixpenny = nekaj deset tolarjev) and measurements (thousand feet = več kot

tristo metrov). Cultural adaptation is also common with food; however, the translator did not

over-domesticate it, preserving food familiar to Slovene children, even if it is not “typically

Slovene”, (e.g. tomato soup = “paradižnikova juha” and not, for instance, “goveja juha”).

There is, in my opinion, one small oversight in translation of food, where the translator put

“pražen krompir” for “baked potato”, which is not the same kind of dish, because it cannot

have crispy skin (“hrustljavo kožico”) and cannot be filled with butter (“polnjen z maslom”).

That would be “pečen krompir”.

Translation, being a constant decision-making process, always generates shifts between the

source text and the target text. Preserving word play and idiomatic discourse in children’s

books is of great importance for the “semantic vividness” of the target text and for sustaining

specific connotations. If a strategy of generalization and neutralization is too often applied,

the translation may lose some very important dimensions. In the Slovene translation of

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, many shifts occur when it comes to word play, names,

and culture-bound expressions. The Slovene translator was aware of pragmatic

considerations, bringing the text close to a Slovene child, making it easier for a child to

identify with it, rather than alienating it on account of cultural misunderstandings.

3. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

Peter Hunt, the author of Literature for Children: Contemporary Criticism, mentions the

following characteristics of language and style in children’s literature: child-orientedness,

simplicity, easy structure, a narrow range of grammatical and lexical patterns, simple lexis

and registers, standard set phrases, words from everyday life, repetitions, and short texts and

sentences. In children’s books, dialogue is more prevalent than description and thought, the

concrete is more prevalent than the abstract, the pace of the plot is quite fast, and action is

preferred over inaction and reflection (Coillie 162). We can easily see all these traits

manifested in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Playfulness of language, punning,

portmanteau words and some elements of nonsense make the text vivid, alive and, most

importantly, interesting for children.

For the stylistic analysis of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I referred to Leech and

Short's “Checklist of Linguistic and Stylistic Categories”, and I chose Chapter 3, “Mr Wonka

and the Indian Prince”, for a more thorough examination.

3.1 ORIGINAL (ENGLISH) VERSION

3.1.1 Lexical categories

Since this is a children's book, intended for children aged 7-10, the vocabulary is simple.

In the whole chapter, 70.3% of words are monosyllabic, 25.1% disyllabic, 3.6% trisyllabic,

and merely 0.9% of words have 4 syllables. The prevalence of monosyllabic words indicates

the simple vocabulary.

The vocabulary is informal and also colloquial, especially in direct speech, the most

mimetic narrative mode, which is present throughout the book. The author uses common

everyday words, familiar to children, contractions (you’d, I’m, I’ll), and informal discourse

markers (of course, well, anyway, you see). In direct speech, the author makes some

characters use slang expressions from time to time, to make the language more convincing

and amusing for a young reader (crikey, whiz-banger). There are also some simple idiomatic

phrases throughout the book, such as “to pull someone’s leg” or “to keep your hair on”.

Almost all nouns used in the chapter are concrete, and only 3 (nonsense, clevernesses,

time) are abstract. Names of characters are very descriptive of their personalities (Mike

Teavee).

Adverbs are quite frequent in the text; particularly performing the semantic function of place

(there, in, out), degree (very, really, quite), time (soon, after, then), and manner (slowly,

better).

Verbs are mostly single-word, only 4 of them are multi-word phrasal verbs (turn on, pour out,

wake up, call out). The majority of verbs are dynamic, especially referring to a momentary

action or an activity. The most common stative verb is “to be”, and there are also some others

such as “see”, “have”, “hear”, “seem”, “know”.

Adjectives are quite frequent, the majority being descriptive, depicting visual characteristics

of nouns, especially size (huge, little), color (brown), age (old), etc. Others are evaluative, and

only few are emotive.

Numerals are all simple enough for children to comprehend: one hundred rooms, all four of

the old people, four old faces.

3.1.2 Grammatical categories

Sentence length is a typical characteristic of a certain literary style. In children’s literature

sentences are supposed to be shorter, corresponding with the age of a child reader. The

average sentence length in this chapter is 11.7 words. Dahl uses a sequence of longer and

shorter sentences; they, of course, tend to be shorter when the author’s attempt is to represent

spoken conversation.

Most sentences are declarative (66%), but there are also a fair number of exclamations

(And what a palace it was!) and questions (Grandpa, what do you mean?). Throughout the

book, longer or shorter stretches of dialogue occur in connecting narrative. In direct speech,

sentences are primarily simple, which is the most natural sentence structure, and the first kind

children learn to speak, and also the most common sentence in the spoken language. The

whole of Chapter 3 is written in direct speech, with the exception of 5 sentences, mainly

compound (They were friendly smiling faces, but they were also quite serious.), which are

very common for small children, who learn to connect their ideas in this way at an early age.

However, there are also a few compound-complex sentences, which make the text more

elaborate: “But, Mr Wonka was right, of course, because soon after this, there came a very

hot day with a boiling sun, and the whole palace began to melt, and then it sank slowly to the

ground, and the crazy prince, who was dozing in the living room at the time, woke up to find

himself swimming around in a huge brown sticky lake of chocolate.” (Dahl 25). The chapter

is mostly written in the past (simple) tense, since Grandpa Joe is telling a story about the

prince; when he and Charlie are talking, present tense is used.

3.1.3 Figures of speech

Figures of speech are very common throughout the book; thus, the examples given are not

just from Chapter 3.

There are many similes throughout the book. It is the most frequent figure of speech in the

novel. Here are some examples:

They were as shriveled as prunes, and as bony as skeletons

Now he’s thin as a straw!

an enormous round tub as big as a bath

his face was like monstrous ball of dough

floating up in the air like a balloon

rushing in on them like a hurricane

Parallelism and repetition are very common in the text. Here is an example of an epistrophe:

The bricks were chocolate, and the cement holding them together was

chocolate, and the windows were chocolate, and all the walls and

ceilings were made of chocolate, (Dahl 25).

There are also many examples of alliteration:

They simply stood and stared.

Great flabby folds of fat bulged out

Charlie sat very still on the edge of the bed, staring at his grandfather (alliteration

and consonance).

Although they are somewhat less common than those illustrated above, these figures of

speech are also introduced in the text:

• onomatopoeia:

a small shiny affair that kept going phut-phut-phut-phut-phut

• climax:

Mr Willy Wonka is the most amazing, the most fantastic, the most

extraordinary chocolate maker the world has ever seen!

• metaphor:

My dear old fish

• rhetorical question:

Where were they going now? What were they going to see?

• personification:

/…/ in the black pupil, a little spark of wild excitement was slowly

dancing.

• pun:

By gum, it’s gum!

Violet, you’re turning violet, Violet!

• allusion:

The younger ones had Beatrix Potter,

With Mr Toad, the dirty rotter

• epizeuxis:

and up they went, up, up, up

• synecdoche:

Little Charlie looked slowly around at each of the four old faces

They were friendly smiling faces

Some constructions are repetitive and phonologically interesting, and they enliven the text

even more; for example:

We mustn’t dilly! We mustn’t dally!

they get jiggled and joggled around

He’s balmy!

He’s nutty!

He’s screwy!

He’s batty!

He’s dippy!

He’s dotty!

There are numerous repetitions of words, phrases or clauses in the text and there are also a

lot of enumerations:

Then he turned left.

Then left again.

Then right.

Then left.

Then right.

Then right.

It has pictures of fruits on it – bananas, apples, oranges, grapes,

pineapples,

All I’ve got at home is two dogs and four cats and six bunny rabbits

and two parakeets and three canaries and a green parrot and a turtle and

a bowl of goldfish and a cage of white mice and a silly old hamster!

In the text, we can find some deviations from the linguistic code, such as “made-up” (and

portmanteau) words used by the author to make the text more interesting, lighter and funnier.

Here are some examples: swudge, snozzberries, buttergin, hornswogglers, snozzwangers,

whangdoodles.

There are also some elements of nonsense in the text, specifically expressed in the speech of

Mr Willy Wonka:

Just as a poached egg isn’t a poached egg, unless it’s been stolen from

the woods in the dead of night.

Willy Wonka also makes some sarcastic remarks, such as:

Just imagine it! Augustus-flavoured chocolate-coated Gloop! No one

would buy it.

3.1.4 Context and cohesion

The story is written from Charlie’s point of view, although it is a third person omniscient

narrator who tells the story. The narrator’s voice is subjective, clearly sympathizing with

Charlie and his circumstances. The anonymous narrator is very critical of negative characters

in the story, and he overtly makes his judgments clear, as in this example: But there was no

stopping Mike Teavee now. The crazy boy rushed on. A character’s judgments are oftentimes

represented in direct speech: “But now,” he added, “it’s time we left these four silly

children.”

Sometimes the reader is addressed directly through the voice of the narrator or the

character. At the very beginning of the book, for instance, there is a dialogue between

Charlie and the reader, (which is also a semi-quote from an English nursery rhyme):

This is Charlie.

How d’you do? And how d’you do? And how’d you do again? He is

pleased to meet you.

In the next example, the narrator addresses the reader again:

But I haven’t yet told you about the one awful thing that tortured little

Charlie, the lover of chocolate, more than anything else.

With this type of address, the narrator tries to establish a friendly and relaxed relationship

with the reader.

Cross-reference is the main tool the author uses to achieve cohesion in the text. The use of

pronouns and the repetition of words (and names) are the most common.

Little Charlie sat very still on the edge of the bed, staring at his

grandfather. Charlie’s face was bright, and his eyes were stretched so

wide you could see the whites all around. “Is all this really true?” he

asked.

Generally, Dahl favors a paratactic sequence of clauses (clauses following each other

without any linking word, or linked only by coordination), (Freeborn, 195). There is an

excessive use of coordinating conjunctions in the text, the conjunction “and” being by far the

most common; although, “but”, “or”, and “so” are also present.

And what a palace it was! It had one hundred rooms, and everything

was made of either dark or light chocolate! The bricks were chocolate,

and the cement holding them together was chocolate, and the windows

were chocolate, and all the walls and ceilings were made of chocolate

There are just a few subordinating conjunctions in the whole chapter:

“But, Mr Wonka was right, of course, because soon after this, there

came a very hot day with a boiling sun, and

Overall, the text is very coherent, since the reference is always clear. This is also evident in

direct speech, where names are used consistently, so the reader knows exactly who is

speaking.

“I … I really don’t know, Grandpa,” Charlie stammered. “Whenever I

walk past the factory, the gates seem to be closed.”

“Exactly!” said Grandpa Joe.

“But there must be people working there…”

“Not people, Charlie. Not ordinary people, anyway.”

“Then who?” cried Charlie.

3.1.5 Paratextual features

Children’s eyes are very perceptive, craving something to get and hold their attention,

thus, the visual appearance of a book is very important. The illustrations, the covers, the

typeface, the headings, etc. all have an emotional impact on the child reader. The author was

well aware of that fact, making the pages look as interesting as possible. For the purpose of

emphasis as well as to win the attention of the young reader, numerous words (and sometimes

the whole sentences) in the text stand out, because they are written in italics:

“Nobody … ever … comes … out!”

“Out of where?” asked Charlie.

“And … nobody… ever … goes … in!”

“In where?” cried Charlie.

“Wonka’s factory, of course!”

Grandpa, what do you mean?”

“I mean workers, Charlie.”

Another common means of emphasis the author uses is CAPITALIZATION:

The one thing he longed for more than anything else was

…CHOCOLATE.

There are also two examples in the book of letters in different size and font and in boldface,

representing the newspaper headline in the story:

WONKA FACTORY TO BE

OPENED AT LAST TO

LUCKY FEW

And there is another such example, representing a newspaper article.

Illustrations are also an important visual element that enlighten and enliven the text. They

are, of course, most common in children’s books, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is

no exception, having been illustrated by the noted British illustrator, Quentin Blake. On

average, every fourth page of the book is visually represented with an illustration. It is »a

free-wheeling sort of drawing that looks as if it has been done on the spur of the moment” as

Blake himself put it. People in the drawings are almost always depicted in motion, as if doing

something, or conveying gestures.

Figure 1

The book is definitely the richer for Blake’s illustrations; however, I will not analyze them

more thoroughly, since my main concern is translation of the book and subtitling of the film,

and naturally, the illustrations are preserved in the Slovene version of the book.

3.2 SLOVENE VERSION

3.2.1 Lexical categories

The first thing the analysis shows is a reduction in words. In the original, there are 549

words in Chapter 3, and in the Slovene translation there are 480, so there are 69 fewer units of

language (or a reduction of 12.6%). The vocabulary is simple, since the majority (43.3%) of

words is monosyllabic; however, the percentage is far lower than in English (70.3%). There is

a greater percentage of disyllabic (33.3%), trisyllabic (17.3%), and four syllables words

(5.6%). There are even two words with 5 syllables in the Slovene version, whereas there are

none in the English text.

The vocabulary is rather informal and sometimes colloquial. In direct speech, basic words,

idiomatic phrases (Me ne vlečeš za nos?), and colloquialisms (pogruntavščina), denote

common conversation. Sometimes idiomatic expressions occur in the translation of certain

sentences, where they did not exist in the source text (“Za nos te vleče!” for “He’s lying to

you!”). As in the original, the translation contains slang expressions in direct speech, such as

(šus, lajf).

There are a few more nouns (2%) in the Slovene version than in the original. Here are some

examples of nouns being used in the Slovene version and not in the original:

When it was all finished

Ko je bila palača dokončana

cried all four of the old people at once.

so v en glas kriknili štirje starčki.

Little Charlie looked slowly around at each of the four old faces

Mali Charlie je s pogledom zaokrožil po obrazih starčkov

In the original, there are only 3 abstract nouns in Chapter 3, while in the Slovene

translation, there are 8 occurrences of abstract nouns (neumnost, misel, resnica,

duša, pogruntavščina), on account of the following processes:

- transforming adjectives into (abstract) nouns:

Is all this really true?

Je vse to čista resnica?

- transforming indefinite pronouns into (abstract) nouns:

Nobody … ever … comes … out!

živa duša … ni prišla … ven!

- or adding new lexical chunks:

I’m not even going to nibble the staircase or lick the walls!

Še na misel mi ne pride, da bi grizljal stopnice ali lizal stene!

There is approximately the same number of adjectives in the translation as in the original,

most of which are qualitative, relating to size, color, etc.

Throughout the novel, numerals are translated faithfully; however, there is one example of

omission of a numeral:

It was a fifty pence piece!

Bil je srebrnik!

As in the original, almost all verbs in the translation are dynamic (although Slovene grammar

does not officially classify verbs as stative and dynamic).

Adverbs are a little less frequent than in the original; sometimes they are omitted, for no

apparent reason:

I warn you, though, it won’t last very long, so you’d better start eating

it right away.

Opozarjam vas, da ne bo dolgo stala, zato bi bilo najbolje, da jo

pričnete jesti.

Wonka’s factory, of course!

V Majavškovo tovarno!

The most common are adverbs of time (kmalu, zjutraj, zvečer), place (ven, noter), and manner

(tiho, široko, prijazno).

3.2.2 Grammatical categories

The average sentence length in the Slovene translation of Chapter 3 is 10.4 (one word

fewer per sentence, on average, than in English (11.7)). There is approximately the same

percentage of declarative sentences (63%), exclamatory sentences (24%), and interrogative

sentences (13%) as in the original. The structure of sentences is similar, with a few more

complex sentences in the Slovene version:

Čeprav so se prijazno smehljali, se niso norčevali. (subordination)

They were friendly smiling faces, but they were also quite serious.

(coordination)

Anthea Bell, a British translator, claims that tense in narratives is linked to dominant

literary conventions within languages, and that tense shifting in translation is one means by

which a text is assimilated into the target culture (Lathey 134). The analysis shows certain

changes in tense; past tense is more frequently used in Slovene than in English:

živa duša … ni prišla … ven! (past)

Nobody … ever … comes … out! (present)

Kadarkoli sem šel mimo vhoda v tovarno, so bila vrata zaprta. (past)

Whenever I walk past the factory, the gates seem to be closed. (present)

3.2.3 Figures of speech

All figures of speech are equivalently rendered in Slovene.

Similes, the most frequent figures of speech in the book, are mainly retained in the

translation:

They were as shriveled as prunes, and as bony as skeletons.

Bili so suhi kot trlice, pravi okostnjaki.

Now he’s thin as a straw!

zdaj pa je suh kot trska!

an enormous round tub as big as a bath.

ogromno kadjo, veliko kot bazen.

his face was like monstrous ball of dough /…/.

obraz je imel podoben krofasti žogi, /…/.

floating up in the air like a balloon.

da lebdi, kot bi bil balon.

rushing in on them like a hurricane.

treščil mednje kot hurikan. (calque)

In the example, epistrophe in the original is replaced in the translation with polyptoton and

anadiplosis:

The bricks were chocolate, and the cement holding them together was

chocolate, and the windows were chocolate, and all the walls and

ceilings were made of chocolate

Čokoladne so bile opeke, malta, ki jih je povezovala, je bila čokoladna,

iz čokolade so bile stene in stropovi

Alliterations are preserved, where possible:

They simply stood and stared.

Nemo so stali in strmeli.

Great flabby folds of fat bulged out

so viseli kolobarji tolšče

Charlie sat very still on the edge of the bed, staring at his grandfather.

Charlie je tiho sedel na robu postelje in strmel v dedka

These examples of figures of speech in the original are rendered as follows:

• onomatopoeia:

a small shiny affair that kept going phut-phut-phut-phut-phut

majhni bleščeči zadevi, ki je kar naprej puh-puh-puh-puhala

• climax:

Mr Willy Wonka is the most amazing, the most fantastic, the most

extraordinary chocolate maker the world has ever seen!

“gospod Vili Majavšek je najbolj čudovit, najbolj poseben, najbolj

nenavaden izdelovalec, ki se je kdaj rodil!

• metaphor (retained with additional rhyme):

My dear old fish, go and boil your head!

Draga moja stara koklja, v lonec na glavo za juhico pravo!

• rhetorical question:

Where were they going now? What were they going to see?

kam se odpravljajo? Kaj bodo videli?

• personification:

in the black pupil, a little spark of wild excitement was slowly dancing.

v očesnih punčicah, so zaprasketale iskre nenadzorovanega razburjenja.

• pun:

By gum, it’s gum!

Že vem, žvečilka, to je žvečilka!

Violet, you’re turning violet, Violet!

Violeta, violetna postajaš!

• allusion:

The younger ones had Beatrix Potter,

With Mr Toad, the dirty rotter, /…/.

Ko ni bilo ekrana, so brali Jurčiča in še Krpana!

• epizeuxis:

and up they went, up, up, up

Gor, gor, gor, tokrat so šli samo navzgor

• synecdoche:

Little Charlie looked slowly around at each of the four old faces

They were friendly smiling faces

Mali Čarli je s pogledom zaokrožil po obrazih starčkov in vsi štirje

so mu vrnili pogled.

Some repetitive and phonologically interesting examples are rendered in an interesting way:

But we mustn’t dilly! We mustn’t dally!

Ne smemo okle imeti v vati, ne smemo oklevati!

they get jiggled and joggled around

kjer poskakujejo in se vrtinčijo okrog

He’s balmy!

He’s nutty!

He’s screwy!

He’s batty!

He’s dippy!

He’s dotty!

Odbit!

Zabit!

Premaknjen!

Iztaknjen!

Prifrknjen!

Pritegnjen!

Zafuljen!

Odpuljen!

All I’ve got at home is two dogs and four cats and six bunny rabbits

and two parakeets and three canaries and a green parrot and a turtle and

Vse, kar imam doma, sta dva psa, štiri mačke, šest zajčkov, dve mali

dolgorepi papigi, trije kanarčki, zelena papiga, želva, (without »and«)

English “made-up” words are translated as Slovene “made-up” words: swudge

(sladkovnik), snozzberries (dremavnice), buttergin (sladkopir), hornswogglers (zamorogi),

etc. Additionally, there are other made-up words in the translation that are not in the original:

sladkonjak for »butterscotch«, čavknjena for »silly«.

Nonsense is also retained in the translation, forming the character of Willy Wonka into an

eccentric, as he is in the original:

Tako kot jajce na oko ni jajce na oko, dokler ga ne položiš na oko in

šele potem spečeš v ponvi.

Likewise, his sarcastic remarks remain unchanged:

Predstavljajte si! Avgustovsko aromatiziran, s čokolado oblit zlimanec!

Živa duša ga ne bi kupila!

In going through the Slovene translation of the book, one can see that the translator has

retained numerous figures of speech, and when they are not preserved in the exact clause or

sentence, they are compensated in another.

Simile and alliteration are the most common figures of speech in the original and in the

translation. There are plentiful examples of these two figures of speech in the translation

(where there are none in the original):

neglede na to, da je garal kot črna živina

however hard he worked

Kot vsi ljudje, ki so stari kot zemlja (simile)

Like all extremely old people

Pri priči jih bom preselil. (alliteration)

I'm going right on in to fetch them.

Skakljal je med skledami in stroji (alliteration)

He was hopping about among the saucepans and the machines

Sometimes other figures of speech appear in the translation which do not exist in the

original sentence:

• rhyme: da je veruška večja buška

that a veruca was a sort of wart

• metaphor: iz katere je v svet bolščal par požrešnih rozin

with two small curranty eyes peering out upon the world

• word play: Če pijejo skadkopir, se obnašajo kot pirati.

Buttergin and tonic is also very popular

3.2.4 Context and cohesion

The author’s subjective voice and his direct address to the reader are preserved in the

translation, thus, retaining the friendly relationship between the narrator and the reader.

Cohesion is achieved differently in Slovene than in English. If we look at the example, it is

evident that in the Slovene version, the name Charlie is not repeated, but rather replaced by a

personal pronoun (mu), which is not as explicit a cohesive device as is the repetition of a

name. However, I think it is reasonable to expect a young reader to understand that “mu”

refers to Charlie, and not, for instance, to grandpa. Furthermore, in Slovene, personal

pronouns are inherent in inflections and not overtly shown.

Mali Čarli je tiho sedel na robu postelje in strmel v dedka. Lica so mu

žarela in oči je imel odprte tako na široko, da je gledal z belim. »Je vse

to čista resnica?« je vprašal.

Little Charlie sat very still on the edge of the bed, staring at his

grandfather. Charlie’s face was bright, and his eyes were stretched so

wide you could see the whites all around. “Is all this really true?” he

asked.

In direct speech, names are sometimes added (where there are none in the original) and

sometimes missing (where they exist in the original):

“Ne… ne vem, dedek Jože,” je zajeclal Čarli.

“I … I really don’t know, Grandpa,” Charlie stammered.

“Kam ni prišla?”

„In where? “ cried Charlie.

Coordinating conjunctions are not as common in the translation as they are in the original;

however, the conjunction “in” (“and”) is still predominant:

And what a palace it was! It had one hundred rooms, and everything

was made of either dark or light chocolate! The bricks were chocolate,

and the cement holding them together was chocolate, and the windows

were chocolate

In to kakšno palačo! Imela je sto soban in vsa je bila iz črne in bele

čokolade! Čokoladne so bile opeke, malta, ki jih je povezovala, je bila

čokoladna, okna so bila čokoladna

Many times, gerundial clauses in English are rendered as subordinate clauses in Slovene:

A si mogoče kdaj videl enega samega človeka, ki bi šel vanjo – ali pa

prišel iz nje?

Have you ever seen a single person going into that place – or coming

out?

3.2.5 Paratextual features

At the macro level, a translator must pay attention to paratextuality, that is, to visual

elements such as titles, illustrations, front and back cover, etc., as these help the target reader

to form an overall impression of the text.

In the translation, italics are not used as often as in the original. In fact, in the analysis of

Chapter 3, not a single word was found in italics in the translation, although there are 21

italicized words in the original. Furthermore, throughout the book, italics never appear in the

body of the text, except in songs, and chapter titles. Children’s books are commonly meant to

be read aloud, and so the author probably used the italicized words with the intention that they

be pronounced differently (intonation, tone, stress) from others. The translator may have

chosen to omit italics because he didn’t think the book would be read aloud (parents to

children), and because it is uncommon to use italicized words (for reasons of emphasis) in

children’s literature in Slovene. The capitalization in the translation is, however, always

preserved, and so are two examples of letters in different size, font and in boldface, with

minor differences.

The illustrations are, of course, the same as in the original, including the front and the back

covers, which are just slightly different. There is, however, one minor oversight, evident when

one looks closely at one particular illustration in the book. In the Chapter Družina začne

stradati (“The Family Begins to Starve”), the first illustration, depicting the great gates of

Wonka’s factory has three instances of the initial letters of Willy Wonka’s name (WW). In

Slovene, the name “Willy Wonka” is domesticated as “Vili Majavšek” (Willy = Vili; Wonka

= wonky = majavo = Majavšek), the initials being V and M and thus not corresponding with

the symbols on the gates.

3.3 RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS

Overall, the stylistic analysis of the English and the Slovene text shows the occurrence of

some translation shifts in style (either obligatory or optional). First, we can see the reduction

in words in the translation. Half of the word reduction relates to the fact that Slovene does not

have articles like English; other than that, the omission of adverbs oftentimes occurs (either

obligatory or optional). Many times they are omitted where they could easily have been

preserved. Thus, the translation loses some of the original specificity. The vocabulary is

simple in both texts; however, the Slovene version has many more polysyllabic words than

English. The increase in syllables per word relates to the fact that Slovene is a highly inflected

language, with six cases for nouns, adjectives and pronouns, three genders and four tenses. A

word that has 2 syllables in neutral form, acquires an additional syllable when in different

case (e.g. gospod – 2 syllables, gospodu – 3 syllables); however, this does not suggest that

polysyllables do not represent, to a certain extent, the complexity of the Slovene vocabulary.

Some words have more syllables in their neutral form (e.g. nonsense – 2 syllables, neumnost

– 3 syllables). Thus, we can say that the Slovene translation has a slightly more complex

vocabulary than the original.

The vocabulary is informal and sometimes colloquial in both texts, likewise, slang

expressions occur in the original as well as in the translation. There is, however, a minor

difference in the occurrence of nouns; there are more nouns used in the translation, which is

quite unusual, since the tendency to use nouns is greater in English than in Slovene.

Furthermore, abstract nouns are used more frequently in the translation (6.9% of all nouns in

the chapter) than in the original (3.8% of all nouns in the chapter). Therefore, the translation

may seem less concrete and down to earth than the original.

Sentences are shorter in the translation (one word fewer per sentence), which would make the

translated text less demanding; however, the sentences are more complex in the translation.

Past tense is used more in the Slovene version, which can make the story seem more distant to

a child reader.

Figures of speech are abundant in both texts; simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor,

puns, allusions, and epizeuxis, are all found in the original as well as in the translation.

Sometimes they are not found in the translation of the exact sentence but they are

compensated in another. Simile (and to a slightly minor extent also alliteration) are found

throughout the translation even when there are none in the original. I think the author wanted

to add simile where possible to enrich the text and make it fun for Slovene children who are

familiar with this type of figure of speech from a very early age.

The text is very cohesive in both versions, with a slightly more overt style in English than in

Slovene. In the original, names are used more often; likewise, the conjunction “and” is used

more frequently.

The paratextual features of both texts are very similar: the illustrations are retained, the

capitalization is preserved, the front and back covers are just slightly different, and so are the

letters in different size, font and in boldface. There is just one major change, i.e. the use of

italics in the body of the text, which is not preserved in the translation.

4. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND FILM ADAPTATION

From its early days, the flourishing film industry has produced adaptations of numerous

works of art: literary works (especially novels, but also autobiographies, epic poetry, Greek

mythology, the Bible, lectures, comic books and, of course, children’s books), theatrical

works, television series, and radio series. Over the years, much literature for children has been

rendered into film, especially in recent years.

The first film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was in 1971, titled Willy

Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder. The

screenplay was written by Roald Dahl himself, although he was supposed to be disappointed

with how the film turned out (retrieved June 25, 2008 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Wonka_&_the_Chocolate_Factory). The second film

adaptation of the book came to the screen in 2005, with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and

direction by Tim Burton. It received generally good reviews, and, unlike the first film, this

one was a box office success. Furthermore, the film was rated in the Guardian as one of the

50 best (novel to film) adaptations of all time (ranking 45th on the scale).

In our mass-communication culture, a film can lead a child to read a certain book he

otherwise would not. Motion pictures are a significant visual source of stories for children,

with the advantage of conferring physical realism on the imagined world. Films give a

different kind of imaginative experience to children than they would obtain through reading;

indeed, a story is given to the child in another dimension.

4.1 SUBTITLING AND DUBBING

The study of audiovisual translation is relatively recent in academic circles; however,

many concepts have already been well-established and defined. Adaptation is the rewriting of

a work for a different genre or medium than the one in which it was originally written (i.e.

adaptation of a novel to a play, adaptation of a play to a film, etc). Adapting a novel (or a

children’s book) to a film is a process of recreation. And, when a foreign film adaptation

comes to movie theaters, one of the processes in the translation of audio-visual products

occurs: voice-over, simultaneous interpreting, dubbing, or subtitling, the latter two being the

most common.

As in literary translation theory, adequacy and acceptability are the two main concepts in

audiovisual translation theory. Jorge Diaz Cintas defines adequacy as a process that occurs

“when the translated text adheres to the values and referents of the source product”, and

acceptability occurs when “the translation embraces the linguistic and cultural values of the

target polysystem” (Cintas 29). These are actually two extremes; however, many translators

argue that a translation can be adequate and acceptable at the same time. This is, by no means,

an easy task but certainly an ideal towards which a translator must strive.

As Henrik Gottlieb says, subtitling is “the rendering in a different language of verbal

messages in filmic media, in the shape of one or more lines of written text, presented on the

screen in synch with the original verbal messages” (Cintas 86). Cintas defines subtitling as “a

linguistic practice that consists in providing, usually at the bottom of the screen, a written text

that intends to account for what has been said (or shown in written form) in the audio-visual

product” (retrieved June 25, 2008 from

http://www.literarytranslation.com/workshops/almodovar/).

Gottlieb characterizes different types of subtitling: from a technical perspective, subtitles

can be either open or closed, and from a linguistic perspective they can be intralingual or

interlingual. Subtitles are open when the written text is delivered together with the image

without the spectator being able to choose its presence; this occurs with foreign films on TV

or in the cinema. On the other hand, subtitles are closed when they are broadcast separately

from the audio-visual product, and the spectator has the option of displaying them together

with the original version, i.e. subtitling for the hearing impaired, versions produced for DVD.

Intralingual subtitling (captioning) within the same language is primarily aimed at the hearing

impaired but is also extremely useful for people learning a foreign language. Interlingual

subtitling is the spoken or written message of the original product that has been translated into

the language of the target audience.

Dubbing is defined as the process of inserting into a film a soundtrack with synchronized

dialogue in another language; we can say it is a process of acoustic replacement. This is a

very complex process, since there are many factors that must be taken into consideration.

Visual synchrony, comprising lip synchrony (translated dialogue must coincide with the

actor’s lip movement), kinetic synchrony (translated dialogue must coincide with the body

movements of the actor), and isochrony (translated dialogue must coincide with the actor’s

utterances and pauses) is one of the most important factors here, and, according to Goris, the

most important aspect of the naturalization process in dubbing. However, nowadays, new

technology is overcoming some of the problems in dubbing, since certain applications (e.g.

Video Rewrite) use computer animation to match lip movements with the new voice track.

Subtitling is considered to be more authentic than dubbing, the former being a

supplementary mode, and the latter a substitutional mode. “Dubbed and subtitled versions

often contain very different translations of the same phrase” (Sanchez 2004), the dubbed

version being closer to adaptation. Let us take a closer look at all the differences between

subtitling and dubbing, as enumerated by Cintas:

DUBBING SUBTITLING

Expensive Cheap

The original dialogue is lost Respects the integrity of the original dialogue

It takes longer Reasonably quick

Pretends to be a domestic product Promotes the learning of foreign languages

Dubbing actors' voices can be repetitive Retains the quality of original actors' voices

Suits poor readers Suits the hearing impaired / Helps

immigrants

Respects the image of the original Pollutes the image

Conveys more original information Requires more reduction of original

information

Allows the overlapping of dialogue Does not allow the overlapping of dialogue

Viewer can focus on images Dispersion of attention: image + written text

Viewer can follow the sense even if

distracted from watching

Viewer will lose the sense if distracted

Constrained by lip-sync Constrained by space and time

Only one linguistic code Two different linguistic codes

simultaneously can be disorientating

Allows more cinematic illusion Can detract from cinematic illusion

Slovenia is a subtitling country, subtitling being the preferred mode of translation both in

cinema and on television. Dubbing is used only in animated films specifically intended for

very young children, i.e. preschool children who cannot read. The movie theaters in Slovenia

often offer two versions of animated films, a dubbed one and a subtitled one; therefore, one

can choose for himself which version is personally preferable. With the exception of parents

with preschool children, the vast majority of cinemagoers in Slovenia prefer subtitled

animated films. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, of course, subtitled in Slovene. It was

shown in movie theatres and came out on DVD, which means the subtitles were open (in

movie theaters) but also closed (on DVD). They are also interlingual, since they are translated

into Slovene.

Subtitling is a highly complex process that may sometimes involve the cooperation of

several people. The actual translation of the dialogue is only one of several stages. After

translation comes editing, and finally, there is a subtitle composition; however, a professional

subtitler may do these activities simultaneously. There is always a modality transfer in

subtitling: the same or different languages are transferred from the oral to the written mode

(Orero 134). When we transform oral text into written form, many constraints in editing arise.

Hatim and Mason speak of four such constraints, as noted in Neves’ article (Orero 134): the

shift in mode from speech to writing, factors which govern the medium or channel in which

meaning is to be conveyed, the reduction of the source text as a consequence of these factors,

and the requirement of matching the visual image. Shortage of screen space and lack of time

(people can speak faster than they can read) inevitably induces the reduction of the original

message. A translator’s task is to retain as much as possible of the original, achieving that the

same message be conveyed in the target text.

4.2. SUBTITLING CHARLIE END THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Subtitling, as an overt mode of translation, is always “laying itself bare to criticism from

everyone with the slightest knowledge of the source language” (Bowker, et all, 68); however,

I will not look at the subtitles from that perspective. In the following pages, I will discuss one

particular stage in the subtitling process: the translation of the dialogue in Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory into Slovene. I will concentrate on how the text was translated and

rendered into subtitles: what elements were preserved, rendered in a reduced form, or omitted

altogether.

Subtitling usually provides a shortened version of the original text containing the

maximum amount of information. Besides all the constraints in subtitling, a subtitler is always

faced with additional challenges, such as dialects, puns, jokes, ambiguities, localisms, etc.

The problem lies, as Luyken mentions, “in the fact that behind words lies a world of

associations, customs and institutions” (Luyken et al, 157), which, of course, is not typical of

subtitling intrinsically but of translation in general. However, in subtitling, these challenges

are usually harder to meet, since we are limited in space and time.

When analyzing the translation of English subtitles from the DVD Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory (Čarli in tovarna čokolade) into Slovene, I looked more closely at the

abridgement of the text, at how the text was condensed, what the subtitler chose to translate

and what he/she chose to omit, the two most difficult elements of the art of subtitling. A

subtitler must always consider “the essential content that should be communicated to the

viewers” (Ivarsson 85). To a large extent, this depends on each subtitler himself; thus, no hard

and fast rules can be made. There are, however, principles that must be followed or avoided.

For instance, one may never translate an irrelevant part of the text in order to detract attention

from something he/she did not understand.

Abridgement consists of either paraphrasing or omitting something that is not regarded as

strictly necessary for an understanding of the dialogue (Ivarsson 86). Ivarsson believes

omission is better since it is less intrusive than paraphrase, although, sometimes it is necessary

to paraphrase. Most subtitlers do not consciously choose between these approaches: omitting

part of the dialogue usually makes it necessary to paraphrase the rest to a certain extent

(Ivarsson 87). Certain words (“well”, “you know”, “like”), exclamations, forms of address or

greeting, names, tautologies and repetitions can safely be omitted when it is clear that viewers

will still understand what is being said.

Subtitles are supposed to be “universally acceptable”; thus, a subtitler should take into

account the general viewing public, their linguistic awareness, background, level of

education, etc. Vocabulary must be simple enough for an average viewer to grasp; therefore it

is better to use common, familiar words, which take less time to read and to absorb. Likewise,

complex syntax should be avoided and replaced with simple, shorter structures. A subtitler

must bear in mind that viewers want to take in as much of the image and the sound of a film

as possible and that subtitles are there to help the viewer to comprehend the film and are not

themselves an objective.

Two basic principles must always apply: the principle of legibility (typeface, spacing,

layout etc.) and the principle of visibility. Besides these, there are other codes of good

subtitling practice as defined by Ivarsson (Ivarsson, 157-159); I will enumerate these and then

try to analyze to what extent they are applied in the subtitles from Charlie and the Chocolate

Factory:

• subtitles should be highly legible with clear lettering and a font which is easy to read;

the characters should have sharp contours and be stable on the screen;

• translation quality must be high with due consideration of all idiomatic and cultural

nuances;

• straightforward semantic units must be used,

• where compression of dialogue is necessary, the results must be coherent;

• subtitle text must be distributed from line to line in sense blocks and/or grammatical

units,

• as far as possible, each subtitle should be syntactically self-contained,

• the number of lines in any subtitle must be limited to two,

• the language should be (grammatically) “correct”, since subtitles serve as a model for

literacy,

• the language register must be appropriate and correspond with the spoken word,

• “displays” – all important written information in the images (signs, newspaper

headlines, letters, graffiti, notices, etc.) should be translated and incorporated

wherever possible,

• songs should be subtitled where relevant,

• obvious repetition of names and common comprehensible phrases need not always be

subtitled,

• the in- and out-times of subtitles (spotting) must follow the speech rhythm of the film

dialogue, taking cuts and sound bridges into consideration,

• the subtitles must underline surprise or suspense and in no way undermine it,

• no subtitle should appear for less than one second or, with the exception of songs, stay

on the screen for longer than seven seconds,

• wherever two lines of unequal length are used, the upper line should preferably be

shorter to keep as much of the image free as possible and in left-justified subtitles in

order to reduce unnecessary eye movement, (see Figure 2);

• there must be a close correlation between film dialogue and subtitle content; source

language and target language should be synchronized as far as possible,

• two-person dialogue in one subtitle should be left-justified or left-centered; individual

speakers should be indicated by a dash at the beginning of each line.

Figure 2

In Slovenia there is a general guideline to leave a two-line subtitle on the screen for 7

seconds, although this may deviate to some extent, according to the dynamics of the dialogue.

4.3. SUBTITLE ANALYSIS

When comparing the English and the Slovene subtitles of Charlie and the Chocolate

Factory, we must first point out that the English subtitles are actually the captioning, i.e. the

intralingual subtitles, primarily aimed for the hearing-impaired, and that the Slovene subtitles

are interlingual, aimed to help the foreign viewers understand the film, considering that they

do not know the English language. Thus, there is a major difference between the two.

Both subtitles are placed at the bottom of the screen, since the most important part of the

picture is usually in the upper section of the screen. They do, however, occasionally appear at

the top, in order to “keep the crucial part of the picture unobstructed” (Ivarsson 51). In the

scene, for instance, with Violet Beauregarde holding her “golden ticket” in her hand, both the

English and the Slovene subtitles are placed at the top of the screen, since the viewers want to

see the ticket and otherwise could not. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

The Slovene subtitles include, where possible, the translation of displays i.e. words that are

not spoken but shown in the picture and important for the plot. Here are some examples:

Twenty Years Ago

Pred 20 leti

New Delhi, India

New Delhi, Indija

SECRET RECIPE

Skrivni recept

Russian Ticket a Fake

Ruska vstopnica ponaredek

Both English and Slovene subtitles are centered on the screen; however, in two-line

dialogues, the shorter line is left-centered in English but not in Slovene:

-But that’s impossible.

-But Willy Wonka did it.

Nemogoče.

-Majavšku je uspelo.

As is evident in the above example, the use of dashes also differs; in the English subtitles

dashes are used (in dialogue) in the first and the second line, but in Slovene, a dash is used

only in the second line. It seems superfluous to use a dash at the beginning of a subtitle to

indicate speech, since subtitles by definition represent speech (Ivarsson 113).

In both subtitles, italics are used only

- when a narrator is telling the story:

This is a story

of an ordinary little boy…

Pričenja se zgodba

o čisto običajnem fantku,

- and in songs:

Augustus Gloop, Augustus Gloop

Avgust Zliman, Avgust Zliman,

Punctuation is also quite different, the suspension dots being far more common in English

than in Slovene:

Well, Prince Pondicherry

wrote a letter to Mr. Wonka…

…and asked him to come

all the way out to India…

…and build him a colossal palace

entirely out of chocolate.

Princ Češnjeluž

je pisal g. Majavšku

in ga povabil

v daljno Indijo,

kjer bi zgradil veličastno

palačo iz čokolade.

In the English example, the three dots are used at the end of a subtitle and in the beginning of

the next, which indicates the continuation of a sentence. In Slovene, however, a sentence

continues without the dots, using the conjunction “in” (and) or a comma to indicate

continuance.

Sometimes, the suspension dots are used to indicate an omission, in both English and in

Slovene:

Well, it’s a good thing you’re going to

chocolate factory, you ungrateful little…

Potem pa še dobro, da greš

v tovarno čokolade, nehvaležni...

They can also suggest an interruption of the train of thought; however, the Slovene translation

does not preserve this feature:

Until then, I’ll just… Well, I’ll just

thin down the soup a little more.

Do takrat bom pa

juho še bolj razredčila.

The suspension dots should never be used to indicate that “the character is saying more than I

have time or space for, so I’m skipping a bit here” (Ivarsson 113), which is what happened in

the next Slovene subtitle:

Wash your face, comb your hair, scrub your

hands, brush your teeth, blow your nose.

Umij si obraz, počeši lase,

zdrgni roke,

operi si zobe…

The alternative in such cases, Ivarsson suggests, is to shorten the sentence and use a single

full stop.

Exclamation marks are used far more in Slovene than in English, as is the case in all types of

writing:

It’s exactly what I need.

Točno to potrebujem!

Sometimes interrogative sentences become declarative in translation, and vice versa:

Did you see that some kid in Russia

found the last golden ticket?

Nek otrok iz Rusije

je našel zadnjo vstopnico.

He will be made into

strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge.

Spremenili ga boste v jagodov

kolač, oblit s čokolado?

Translation of all the names of characters and places in the subtitles are the same as in the

translation of the book. Willy Wonka, thus, remains “Vili Majavšek” in the subtitles, which is

reasonable, since many children who went to see the film first read the book in Slovene and

were thus already familiar with the names. It’s a common practice to leave the translated

names as they are, since otherwise spectators would only get confused. Likewise, the new

coined words for candy, strange people, strange animals, etc. remain the same as in the book

(“Everlasting Gobstoppers” = “večne marmorne kroglice”, “Oompa-Loompas” = “Jodlarji”,

“hornswogglers” = “zamorogi”, etc.). However, one name is changed in the subtitles, i.e.

Mike Teavee is rendered as Miha Bulc, and not Majk Bulc, as in the book. Why did the

translator change this particular name only? Perhaps he/she thought “Majk” inappropriate,

since it is not a Slovene name but a literal rendering of “Mike” as it is pronounced, but I do

not believe this would be a problem for Slovene viewers, especially those who have also read

the book and could easily recognize it. There is, also, one minor mishap when a subtitler left a

translated word as it was in the Slovene translation of the book. “Hair Toffee” was translated

in the book as “lasni sirup” (= a syrup), i.e. something that you drink, and when the subtitler

used “sirup” for toffee, a spectator could see that Willy Wonka was holding something solid

in his hands and not a liquid. They could, of course, think it was just one more of Wonka’s

nonsensicalities, but I still think a subtitler should have changed it, since nonsense was not

conveyed in the original meaning. See Figure 4.

Figure 4

Style and register are important elements to consider in subtitling, since subtitles represent

spoken communication. A subtitler must strive to find the most appropriate translation

solutions for literary, conversational, slang or even obscene expressions, so as to retain the

stylistic intentions of the author as much as possible. Informal language, colloquialisms and

slang are commonly used in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Slang expressions, used

mostly by Willy Wonka, are preserved when translated into Slovene although not always.

Here are some examples:

You know, all those hip, jazzy, super-cool,

neat, keen and groovy cats.

Vsi tisti moderni, špica, mega,

super kul, frajerski ljudje.

It’s in the fridge, daddy-o.

Are you hep to the jive?

Sej je kul, stari.

Informal words are sometimes omitted, or are replaced by formal Slovene words (boogers” =

“tegale”, “noggin” = “glava”, etc.); likewise, informal idioms are often rendered as standard

Slovene:

Well, let’s keep on trucking.

Gremo naprej.

Renderings like this actually minimize the silliness of Wonka’s character, and lessen the

humor behind it.

Furthermore, informal contractions are translated as standard Slovene (“I wanna show you

guys something.” = “Nekaj bi vam rad pokazal.”).

Certain word plays, originally taken from the book, remain translated as in the Slovene

version of the book:

…whipped cream isn’t whipped cream at all

unless it’s been whipped with whips.

Stepena smetana ni stepena smetana,

dokler je ne stepeš s stepalko.

Some similes are creatively preserved, while some are omitted:

But young men are extremely springy.

They stretch like mad.

Mladi fantje so zelo elastični.

Potegnejo se kot ponedeljek.

...with a family hanging over you

like an old, dead goose. No offence.

če ti družina diha za vratom.

Brez zamere.

“A key question in any analysis of subtitles is which parts of the original text get

translated, which are translated only partially, in a condensed form, and which are completely

omitted” (Bowker, et al. 78). To find “the right balance between economy and

comprehensibility” (Bowker, et al. 79) is the key to achieving high quality subtitles and

certainly not an easy task. Furthermore, the decision is very individual since each subtitler

will choose different solutions. Let us first consider omissions, which are the most evident.

The most prominent are the omissions of interjections (oh, well, yeah, now, okay, hey,

boy, you know, you see):

Well, how wonderful.

Čudovito.

Oh, really? Oh, good.

Res? Odlično.

Hey, little boy.

Fantič!

Sometimes they are preserved, though rarely:

Oh, yeah. It’s very beautiful.

O, ja. Prekrasno je.

Question tags are always omitted:

You’re all quite short, aren’t you?

Kako ste majhni.

Among the most commonly omitted items are various repetitions, especially repetitions of

names, greetings, terms of endearment, etc.:

-Evening, Buckets.

-Evening.

Dober večer, Vedranovi.

Everyone has a chance, Charlie.

Vsak ima možnost.

Thank you, dear.

Hvala.

Know why? Know why?

Veste, zakaj?

How do you know, Mr. Smarty-Pants?

Kaj pa ti veš?

Furthermore, adverbs and conjunctions are frequently omitted:

Just drop your coats anywhere.

Odložite svoje plašče.

-But that’s impossible.

-But Willy Wonka did it.

Nemogoče.

-Majavšku je uspelo.

Sometimes sentences are reduced to just one word:

The man was a genius.

Genij.

It is perfect in every way.

Izjemno.

And, in certain cases sentences are omitted altogether if they are not important for the

understanding of the plot, for instance, the voice on television, etc.:

Golden ticket claimed and four more…

Where’s my golden ticket?

Sleep well.

Thank you, Charlie.

As can be seen from the many examples, omission is very commonly applied; paraphrase, on

the other hand, is not as common. Here is an example:

True to his word,

the bricks were chocolate…

Držal je besedo.

Vse je bilo iz čokolade,

… and the cement holding

them together was chocolate.

od opek do malte.

Overall, if considering the codes of good subtitling as defined by Ivarsson, the Slovene

subtitling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an example of a good subtitling practice.

The two basic principles of visibility and legibility are, of course, applied, and there is a

maximum of two lines in each subtitle. The spotting was done correctly; the in- and out- times

of subtitles are always suitable, and they stay on the screen for the recommended period of

time (not less than a second and not more than 7 seconds). The text is grammatically correct

and coherent, with straightforward semantic units, each subtitle being syntactically and

semantically self-contained, wherever possible. Displays are always translated, except in two

instances (Tokyo, Japan; and, Atlanta, Georgia), probably because of time shortage, but the

viewer is not deprived of any important information. Songs, on the other hand, are always

translated, since they are a very important part of the story. Repetitions, which could distract a

viewer from the action, are always omitted, leaving the viewer more than enough time to

absorb all visual and auditory elements. Sometimes, however, omissions of certain lexical

elements occur where they could be preserved, probably with no distraction to any other

elements of the motion picture. What is also not in accordance with the Ivarsson code is the

principle of left-justified subtitles, which is a common practice in Slovenia. Idiomatic and

slang expressions are mostly preserved, although not always. Furthermore, standard Slovene

is sometimes applied where nonstandard English is used in the original. Informal and

colloquial words are many times omitted or replaced with standard Slovene; thus, the original

register is somewhat lost in the Slovene subtitles. Unfortunately, some humor was lost on

account of that as well. Nevertheless, the content of the subtitles did not change in the

translation.

5. CONCLUSION

Children’s literature is a special literary genre that induces many considerations a

translator must take into account when attempting to recreate a book that children in a target

culture will easily accept. A domestication approach in translating, which assimilates text to

target linguistic and cultural values, allows children to bridge the gap of cultural

misunderstandings and fully enjoy the recreated art. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a

good example of a successful rendering, since it became a very popular book among children

in Slovenia. The analysis showed many translation shifts (especially in lexis, grammar and

syntax); however, it proved the translation retained all the major stylistic features. It is

stylistically close to the original and, furthermore, appropriately domesticated.

Film adaptations of children’s books have, over the years, become very popular. Charlie

and the Chocolate Factory is just one of many that became a huge success, in Slovenia as

well. Considering all the constraints, translation of the dialogue of the film is one of the most

challenging tasks in audiovisual translation practice. Interlingual (English-Slovene) subtitling

of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has, in general, proven to be an example of a good

subtitling practice. However, certain unnecessary omissions and deviations from the original

register might have changed the overall impression of the movie and, in my opinion,

somewhat lessen the humoristic dimension of the film.

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