The nature of fixed language in the subtitling of a documentary film

8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 64 
References...................................................................................................................... 66 

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Abstract 
This research is based on the assumption that audiovisual translation (AVT ) performs a 
social and cultural function over its viewers, thus still justifying studies that focus on 
linguistic issues. This is particularly striking for the reading literacy in countries such as 
Portugal, that are traditionally subtitling countries, even if dubbing and voice-over are 
also occasionally used, particularly in the case of documentaries. 
The purpose for this research is to analyze the examples of restricted lexical 
occurrence, i.e. set phrases or semantic phrasemes 
(Mel’čuk 1995), depending on the 
terminology chosen, within the two versions of the AVT 
– subtitling and voice-over – 
of a documentary film called “The Real Da Vinci Code”. 
In order to achieve this purpose, we chose to follow a case study methodology 
that allowed us to center our attention on and single out a specific feature of language 
– 
set phrases 
– used in this type of audiovisual texts – documentary films. Nonetheless, 
we will later attempt to combine this methodology with corpus studies at the level of the 
doctorate thesis. 
The analysis conducted intended to identify set phrases in English and their 
respective Portuguese translations and to classify them in terms of the terminology used 
by Mel’čuk (1995), as well as to combine this with the identification of possible 
metaphors that could be on their basis. Then, from their interpretation and translation 
analysis, it was possible to confirm our initial hypotheses, which were that set phrases 
are as usual in general language as in specialized texts within the audiovisual context 
and the informative genre, namely documentary films, and that occasionally set phrases 
are omitted by translators either because they miss to identify them or because of 
constraints related to translation or to the target language. As a final point, we managed 
to prove that everything that is on screen at the time of the utterance of the set phrase is 
of influence to their strengthening. 
Keywords: audiovisual translation; subtitling; dubbing and voice-over; word 
combinations; free and restricted lexical co-occurrence; setness or frozenness; 
idiomaticity; collocations; idiomatic expressions. 

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List of tables 
Table 1. Summary of different proposals for free and non-free word combinations. 
Table 2. Examples of lexical compounds (Bosque & Demonte 2000: 4763). 
Table 3. Examples of syntagmatic compounds (Bosque & Demonte 2000: 4764). 
Table 4. Scale of idiomaticity according to Fernando (1996: 32). 
Table 5. Some results ta
ken from the pilot study “The Real Da Vinci Code”. 

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