The paper titled "A Corpus-Based Study of Subtitling Religious Swear Words from English into Arabic" investigates the challenges of subtitling religious taboo words in Hollywood films for conservative societies, particularly Arab audiences. The study aims to identify the dominant religious terms, functions, and subtitling strategies used in Arabic translations of Hollywood films. It explores whether these strategies are source language-oriented (foreignizing) or target language-oriented (domesticating).
The researchers compiled a corpus of 90 Hollywood films released between 2000 and 2018 and analyzed them using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The analysis was based on a self-designed parallel corpus of the films and their corresponding Arabic subtitles. Insights from descriptive translation studies, especially those of Toury (2012), guided the approach.
The findings indicate that religious taboo words significantly impact subtitling strategy choices. Interestingly, foreignization strategies were used in roughly two-thirds of the instances, despite the cultural gap between English and Arabic. The use of Modern Standard Arabic in subtitles posed linguistic constraints for subtitlers. Additionally, the nature of audio-visual translation, where meaning can be conveyed through gestures, images, or sounds, further influenced subtitling decisions.
This study highlights the complexities involved in subtitling religiously sensitive material for culturally conservative audiences and provides insight into the translation strategies employed in such contexts.