This thesis investigates the use of the pragmatic particles (PPs) 'enfin' and 'écoute' in French film dialogue, and their translations in British English subtitles. Using a corpus of nine films and eight episodes drawn from two television series – all released in the UK between 2005 and 2015, and equating to approximately twenty-two hours – the study identifies tokens across a much wider range of contexts than has previously been possible using traditional corpora. The main contribution is an analysis of PP functions. The results for 'enfin' show a different functional distribution of the particle to other corpora, with corrective 'enfin' occurring significantly less frequently. The relatively large number of tokens of performative and emotional (or affective) 'enfin' allows for an elaboration of these two categories, and a tendency is observed for 'enfin' to appear as an apparent disagreement mitigator in discussions between peers. With regard to 'écoute', it is argued that écoute1 functions as a face-threat mitigator in unequal relationships and écoute2 as an FTA, although the particle is multifunctional and some tokens exhibit characteristics of both categories. Attention is given to combinations of 'enfin' and 'écoute' with other particles: while there is a clear tendency for disagreement-mitigating 'enfin' to co-occur with 'mais', and for the precision and restrictive subcategories of the corrective to co-occur with 'je veux dire', other previously documented combinations ('enfin bon' and 'ben écoute') are not frequently occurring in the present corpus. The thesis also makes a significant contribution to the field of Audiovisual Translation (AVT). The English subtitles show high rates of omission for both particles consistent with previous research, with disagreement-mitigating 'enfin' particularly vulnerable to omission. However, the analysis reveals a surprising pattern regarding 'écoute': a clear division of labour between ‘look’ (used to translate more confrontational tokens) and ‘listen’ (more conciliatory and socially distant). The study includes an experimental analysis of the subtitles relative to their character limits, demonstrating a potential new approach for researchers wishing to investigate the impact of various subtitling constraints.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:716761 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Connors, Marianne Dorothy |
| Contributors | Boughton, Zoë ; Coveney, Aidan |
| Publisher | University of Exeter |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/27764 |
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