As mentioned previously, each subtitle appears on screen as an individual and isolated item. To facilitate reading, when a sentence is not nished in one subtitle and needs to be carried over to the next subtitle or subtitles, continu-ation dots have generally been used as a bridge at the end of the rst subtitle and the beginning of the following one to alert the viewer visually of this connexion. This use of the three dots is unique to subtitling. No spaces are left between the dots and the words or punctuation marks that precede or follow them. Note that the word following the dots is written in lower case, as it is a continuation from the previous subtitle:
2 Your friend called.
He’s taking me to dinner . . . _______________
. . . at some Ma a joint next week.
2 Your friend called.
He’s taking me to dinner…
_______________
…at some Ma a joint next week.
To save a space, some companies use three and two dots respectively to indi-cate sentence continuation:
2 Your friend called.
He’s taking me to dinner…
_______________
..at some Ma a joint next week.
Nonetheless, using the dots with this function seems a rather uneconomical way of conveying information in a professional practice where space is at a premium. The trend nowadays is to act by default. That is, if the subtitle does not have a full stop at the end of the line, then it means that the sentence is not nished and continues into the following subtitle. The absence of the stop, together with the fact that the next subtitle starts with a word in lower case, are suf cient pointers to understand that the second subtitle projection must be the continuation of the previous line:
3 Your friend called.
He’s taking me to dinner _______________
at some Ma a joint next week.
Even though the recommendation in this book is to avoid the use of the con-tinuation dots between subtitles, there are occasions when using them helps internal cohesion and boosts the viewer’s understanding of the written subtitles.
This is particularly true in the case of songs, when the spotting of the lyrics can be tricky and the time allocated for the translation of one or two words can be very long. Nino Matas (personal communication), the subtitler into Spanish of Moulin Rouge, comments that in the lm:
most of the subtitles are the lyrics of the songs, and the time gap between subtitles was so long that, if we didn’t put the continuation dots at the beginning of the subtitles, it was very dif cult to relate the content with the previous subtitle. In many cases, the vowel at the end of a verse could still be heard when the following subtitle had already been cued in, and sometimes the subtitle was a single word, or two. Without the continuation dots the word was “isolated” for too long, lacking temporal connexion with the previous and the next subtitles. (our translation)
Another function attached to the three dots is the same as in other written texts, i.e. to indicate prosodic features like pauses and hesitations in the way speakers deliver their utterances. A blank space is always left after the dots
but not before, as in the following examples:
3 You mean that… you won’t do it?
3 It… It’s not true, is it, Renato?
When a sentence is carried over to the next subtitle because of the presence of a lengthy pause that calls for two different subtitles, suspension dots are then used at the end of the rst subtitle but not at the beginning of the next one:
3 You mean that…
_______________
you won’t do it?
When there is a clear interruption, usually followed by a new sentence that marks a change of direction in the thread of the conversation, a space is also left after the dots and before the next word, which is spelt with a capital letter:
3 I knew he’d… But it doesn’t matter now.
Some authors, like Ivarsson and Carroll (1998:113), recommend not to leave a space after the dots in the case of hesitations and to leave a space when they indicate interruption. However, the convention in this book is to allow always for a space after the dots since both the context and the spelling are clear indicators of the value of the three dots in any particular case.
Triple dots are also used to account for an ellipsis at the beginning of a subtitle, when the start of the original sentence is inaudible or missing in the soundtrack:
3 …and he never played it again.
They are also used when conveying that a sentence or idea has been left
un- nished in the original too:
3 Come in.
- Do you like cho…?
When a character finishes a sentence that has been started by another person:
3 A cake. On top, I want you to write…
- “To Lolo. From Auntie”, as always.
When a list of items is deliberately not completed:
3 She took books, records, DVDs…
And when it is felt absolutely necessary to emphasize a stutter in the diction of some character. In this case, the reduplication of a letter together with the use of the dots is usually suf cient. No spaces are left between the dots and the previous and following letters:
3 We d…d…don’t want to go.
Triple dots are also used to link subtitles that can be perceived as being too far from each other, as in the case of overlapping dialogue, when a second speaker intervenes, interrupting the utterance of the rst speaker. In these cases, the continuation should be signalled with the three dots at the end and the begin-ning of the subtitles affected (example on the left). The dots are not required, however, when the subtitles follow each other (example on the right):
3
We have been travelling since…
- We are all tired here.
_______________
…the early hours.
3
We are all tired here.
- We have been travelling since _______________
the early hours.
Although a certain degree of surprise can be emphasized in written form by using the three dots at the end of a statement and before an exclamation or ques-tion mark, their use with this funcques-tion is not recommended in subtitling:
2 Am I the oldest…?
2 Working so early in the morning…!
It is worth remembering here that subtitles are consumed in conjunction with the image and the soundtrack of the original. Viewers can hear how a particu-lar person is talking, and apprehend whether the delivery is choked, hesitant, or straightforward. Subtitlers should resort to the suspension dots sparingly, and only when there is a good reason for their use. They should use them as
a stylistic tool to pepper the subtitles, but avoiding a potential pleonastic or redundant con ict with the original.
The three dots should never be used to transmit to the viewer that the actors are saying a lot more than can actually be tted in the subtitles.
WinCAPS
Three dots are never used as continuation dots, unless there is a long pause that forces the cueing of two subtitles. Otherwise, the absence of a full stop at the end of a subtitle is suf cient to indicate that it is un nished and must therefore be continued in the following subtitle.
5.2.8 Asterisks (*)
The asterisk is mainly used in a written text to signify that a letter or letters have been intentionally omitted from what can be considered by many as an objectionable word. Though a total stranger to all types of subtitling in the past, asterisks seem to be creeping in as an answer to the ever more frequent bleeps that punctuate some television programmes in certain countries. This new prudery that has gripped the media is responsible for the fact that some of Helen Mirren’s lines as Detective Superintendent in the British TV series Prime Suspect have been bleeped out when broadcast on American public television. The extent of the manipulation goes to rather extreme and unso-phisticated lengths, blurring and obscuring the investigator’s mouth every time she loses her temper, so that her expletives cannot be lip read either (Baxter 2004). When captioned for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing, these words are edited out completely unless their obliteration has an impact on the syntax of the sentence. If, on the other hand, deletion leads to a grammatical con ict, some broadcasters write the initial letter followed by a set of asterisks, as in the (in)famous case of the play Shopping and F***ing, by Mark Ravenhill.
5.2.9 Slashes (/)
This punctuation mark, also called ‘stroke’ and ‘forward slash’, has a very concrete and limited use, with many guidelines recommending its avoidance in subtitling. When found in subtitles, it is normally as part of a symbol to abbreviate the message and comply with the medium limitations. Only well known cases in the given language ought to be used, such as c/o (care of), km/hr (kilometres per hour) or 1/3 (one third) in English. They tend to make more of an appearance in lms and programmes where scienti c jargon is of the essence:
3 Pulse 88. BP 140/95.
It’s a bit elevated.