Text Compression in Surtitles: A Case Study of the Opera La Traviata

Abstract

Summary Surtitling as a mode of audiovisual translation is commonly used for intercultural communication both intralingually and interlingually in theatres. The largest Lithuanian theatres often provide surtitles as a means to present translated text of the original language, although in the scientific field surtitling is still a little studied mode. In order to provide qualitative surtitles that convey the essentials of the original language, translators and surtitlers applied a number of compression strategies. The duration and length of the surtitles are limited; therefore, the surtitle specialists must take into account the time and space constraints and provide the shortest text without losing the essence so that the viewer would be able to spend less time reading and mostly focusing on the performance. The article investigates cases of compression of translated text at both the syntactic and lexical levels. Using the descriptive, analytical and comparative methods, Lithuanian surtitles of the opera Traviata for two theatres, namely Kaunas State Musical Theatre and Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, are prepared, and a study of the cases of text compression is performed.