ABSTRACT

The rapidly growing demand for subtitling on the global translation market has resulted in a new development which has revolutionised the way subtitles are created and distributed: the template. A template is a subtitle file containing a time-coded transcription of the dialogue to be later translated into multiple target languages. Loved by global subtitling companies and frowned upon by subtitlers, templates have become an inseparable part of modern subtitling workflows. The goal of our study is to examine this new development in terms of quality, its impact on the profession and the resulting changes in subtitler competences. With this goal in mind, we conducted an online survey which was completed by 344 professionals from 47 countries involved in the subtitling process with templates. We gathered data on the content of the templates, subtitling workflows, types of software, pivot translation, annotations, and language combinations. We found important differences in spotting skills between subtitlers depending on their experience and type of company they work for. Our results also show that the quality of templates currently available on the market is rather inadequate. We present suggestions for improvement based on the subtitlers’ views. The results may be used to inform current market practices.

摘要

全球翻译市场对字幕的快速增长需求催生了一种新的发展，它彻底改变了字幕的创建和分发方式：模板。模板是一个字幕文件，其中包含对话的时间编码转录，稍后将翻译成多种目标语言。受到全球字幕公司的喜爱和字幕制作者的不满，模板已成为现代字幕工作流程中不可分割的一部分。我们研究的目的是从质量、其对专业的影响以及由此产生的字幕能力变化等方面来检验这一新发展。考虑到这一目标，我们进行了一项在线调查，该调查由来自 47 个国家的 344 名专业人士使用模板参与了字幕制作过程。我们收集了有关模板内容的数据，字幕工作流程、软件类型、支点翻译、注释和语言组合。我们发现根据他们的经验和他们工作的公司类型，在发现字幕的技能方面存在重要差异。我们的研究结果还表明，目前市场上可用的模板质量相当不足。我们根据字幕提供者的意见提出改进建议。结果可用于为当前的市场实践提供信息。我们根据字幕提供者的意见提出改进建议。结果可用于为当前的市场实践提供信息。我们根据字幕提供者的意见提出改进建议。结果可用于为当前的市场实践提供信息。