Die Bedeutung von Suprasegmentalia bei der Untertitelung

The Importance of Suprasegmentals in Subtitling Based on the definition and delimitation of the term suprasegmentals, their importance in conversation will be examined before different possibilities of visualizing paralingual properties in the subtitles are discussed. The subtitling process not only covers the transformation of spoken into written language, it also applies special techniques such as reducing what is heard to the essentials. What is initially a question of intralingual subtitling, reveals further aspects in the process of translation into another language, because the written product of the target language has not only to meet the oral form and the language varieties in the film (sociolect, dialect etc.), but also needs to take cultural matters into account. Paralingual criteria (intonation, pausing, voice volume, etc.) might have special culture-bound significance. – The outlined issues are discussed by means of examples taken from selected television commercials.