A Descriptive Analysis of Non-obligatory Shifts in Three Disney Animated Films Dubbed into Modern Standard Arabic

Abstract

This qualitative quantitative descriptive-analytical study aimed to describe the non-obligatory shifts employed in three English Disney animated films dubbed into Modern Standard Arabic by applying Toury’s (1995/2012) normative model and shifts introduced in the course of his applied case studies. The study first describes and analyzes preliminary, initial and operational norms (non-obligatory shifts) employed on the level of three textual segments: the lexical- semantic, the stylistic, and the prosodic. It further compares those shifts with the original choices in the English versions of the three selected Disney animated films. In the light of Toury’s theory (1995/2012), the current study investigates the hypothesis that the accepted socio-cultural, ideological, and linguistic norms of the Arabic culture might direct the choices of the non-obligatory shifts chosen by the Arabic dubbers of English Disney animations dubbed into MSA. The current study set out to answer the following research questions:

1. How do Toury’s preliminary and initial norms govern the orientation of operational norms in the three selected English-MSA dubbed animations?

2. Which of Toury’s non-obligatory shifts are opted for by Arab translators on the lexical- semantic, stylistic and prosodic levels of the selected dubbed animated films?

3. To what extent do the socio-cultural norms of the dubbers affect the choices of the non- obligatory shifts applied on the three textual levels in the selected dubbed animations?

4. Which non-obligatory shifts are more frequently used on the lexical-semantic, stylistic and

   prosodic levels of the selected dubbed animated films?

5. How effective is Toury’s normative model in describing the relation between non-

   obligatory shifts and target culture norms in Arabic dubbed animations?

The answers to these questions relied on the analysis of the corpus, which drew on three films: Tangled (2010), Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6 (2014). To decide the most frequently used shifts in the process of dubbing, the frequency rate of each non-obligatory shift was calculated to determine the highest frequently used shift. The study concluded that there is a direct relationship between the non-obligatory shifts (operational norms) applied during dubbing, on the one hand, and the socio-cultural, ideological, and linguistic norms imposed by the target culture, on the other hand. Those target culture norms governed not only the operational choices but also the preliminary choices of the three selected Disney animated films dubbed into MSA. Results of analyzing operational norms and preliminary norms reflected the initial norms adopted by Arab translators responsible for translating Disney animated films dubbed into MSA. When comparing the selected data in the STs with those in the Arabic dubbed versions, it is obvious that different types of non-obligatory shifts occurred. The researcher’s observations pointed to some linguistic, socio-cultural, and religious reasons governing the dubbers’ choices of those non-obligatory shifts. The shifts used are target-oriented since the dubbers preferred to produce acceptable over adequate translation. The researcher discussed various examples under the lexical-semantic, stylistic and prosodic textual segments. Affected by the preliminary and operational norms, Arab dubbers’ tendency towards producing acceptable rather than adequate translations governed the initial norms.