Censoring Swearwords in the Translation of Ken Loach’s Films

Abstract

Language variation in its diamesic and diatopic dimensions represents a multi-faceted field of research in audio-visual translation, frequently generating issues of language censorship and sanitization when a film undergoes scrutiny before its public release. This is all the more so in the case of the translation of swearwords inextricably embedded in genuine interplay between actors, encouraged to perform using their own dialects and accents. The aim of this paper is primarily to identify possible patterns of translation of strong language occurring in both the dubbed and subtitled versions of two of Ken Loach’s films, Sweet Sixteen (2002) and The Angels’ Share (2012), where the use of vernacular varieties featuring taboo words and expressions has been censored by the British Board of Film Classification (bbfc), and their viewing restricted. As both externally imposed and internalised systems of social control, censorial practices seem to be less concerned with images of violence than with the use of what is preventively marked as bad language. The difficulty of measuring the perceived severity of swearwords in the source culture affects the translation process in which these tend to be deleted or toned down, regardless of their social and pragmatic functions. The comparative analysis of the two modes of audio-visual translation focuses on whether the specificity of the medium may affect the translation choices and what is the relationship between them. Is there a connection between the degree of manipulation encountered in translation and the pragmatic function played by swearwords in the source text? What are the strategies used in the attempt to achieve dynamic equivalence?