Exclamation marks show in writing something that is normally said loudly or strongly in speech, with a certain prosodic pattern to convey anger, scorn, surprise, happiness, and disgust. They are also used to indicate irony, to underline insults and expletives, and to command. As with the colon, some companies leave a blank space immediately before the exclamation and the question mark, arguing that this way it is easier to see them on screen. In this book, the rule is that both signs are written immediately after the word that precedes them, without any blank space in between, and separated with a space from the word that follows them:
2 Nice car ! Where did you buy it ? 3 Nice car! Where did you buy it?
It is an error to add a period after an exclamation or question mark, since they already have one:
2 I cannot believe he said it!. 3 I cannot believe he said it!
When the exclamation or question mark coincides with the end of a subtitle, it tells the viewer that the query is complete and does not carry on to the fol-lowing projection. Unless clearly rhetorical, the viewer will then expect an answer to the question:
3 Were you having dinner?
Can you reheat it?
_______________
Don’t worry. I’m not hungry anymore.
As with all emotional punctuation marks, there is a danger of overusing them in subtitling. Subtitles should not be overloaded with unnecessary
punctua-tion that does not bring in any informapunctua-tion, is pleonastic and only uses up space. If scattered throughout the subtitles, they lose their force and become tiresome for the viewer. Exclamation marks convey intensity to a written text and need to be used sparsely since part of that intensity may also be retriev-able from the soundtrack or the gestures. On some occasions, mainly when translating directly from the dialogue list or from templates, there is a risk of copycatting in the subtitles the same amount of punctuation as in the work-ing documents. The subtitler may fall into the trap of overuswork-ing exclamation marks to re ect a nervous or histrionic performance. However, it has to be stressed that subtitles are only a part of the audiovisual programme. Viewers are also watching the images and listening to the original soundtrack and they can apprehend certain emotions directly from the original: surprise, sadness, anger, happiness, and the like. This is why it is recommended not to rely on the script when deciding whether to use exclamation marks and to listen to the actual speech and the way it is delivered orally. It would not be appropriate, therefore, to constantly use exclamation marks to indicate, for instance, that a character is shouting.
The use of several independent exclamation marks within the same subtitle should be avoided if possible:
2 Come on! We’re all waiting! 3 Come on, we’re waiting!
Double or multiple exclamation or question marks should be avoided in all cases:
2 Did they really??
I don’t believe it!!
Some sentences resemble questions in their structure, but are used as excla-mations. They are exclamatory questions and in normal writing can usually end with both a question and an exclamation mark, in this order. However, this approach should be avoided in subtitling. If no answer is put forward, the exclamation mark should take precedence. On the contrary, if the statement receives a reply, then the question mark should be given the priority:
2 Isn’t she clever?! 3 Isn’t she clever!
2 Isn’t she clever?!
- Of course she is. 3 Isn’t she clever?
- Of course she is.
Obvious rhetorical questions that do not expect an answer should not end in
a question mark, and an exclamation sign is more appropriate:
3 And I’m supposed to be the oldest!
5.2.6 Dashes (–) and hyphens (-)
Although strictly speaking they are different signs and dashes are slightly long-er than hyphens, we shall considlong-er both the same sign for subtitling purposes, stick to the smaller of the two (-), and refer to them as dashes. Their general function is to link compound words or to create new adjectival groups:
3 They were in quiet, contemplative, in-between-tour, writing-records modes.
A dash to divide words at the end of a line may be common in written language, but it is never used in subtitling since it makes reading more dif cult:
2 Those are cops and
re-men from Marseille. 3 Those are cops and remen from Marseille.
The parenthetical dash, used as an alternative to brackets, is discouraged in subtitling:
2 What happens in this clip
- nearly 30 actors in total - 3 What happens in this clip, with nearly 30 actors in total, In subtitling, dashes have a much more speci c function than in standard writ-ten language and are used to indicate that the text appearing in one subtitle belongs to two different people. Dialogue subtitles always consist of two lines.
The rst line is reserved for the speaker we hear rst in our spotting, and the second line for the second speaker. A way of indicating that this is a dialogue turn is to present each line preceded by a dash, with a space left between the dash and the rst letter, although some companies prefer not to leave a space after the dash:
2 - I couldn’t move her.
- Be rm, for goodness’ sake! 2 -I couldn’t move her.
-Be rm, for goodness’ sake!
This convention of using two dashes can be considered traditional and seems to be most frequent in cinema subtitling. A new approach, however, appears to be gaining ground in the profession. In an attempt to rationalize the space
available in each line, this convention resorts to the use of a dash in the second line only, leaving a space between the dash and the letter, as in the following example:
3 I couldn’t move her.
- Be rm, for goodness’ sake!
Although possible, it is considered incorrect to include more than one charac-ter on a line. In the following subtitle, either the rst statement or the second question need to be moved to the previous or following subtitle, depending on the spotting that we think is most suitable:
2 - What am I going to do? - Put it under
the rug. - It’s a wall-to-wall carpet. 3 What am I going to do?
_______________
Put it under the rug.
- It’s a wall-to-wall carpet.
3
What am I going to do?
- Put it under the rug.
_______________
It’s a wall-to-wall carpet.
WinCAPS
To indicate a dialogue exchange, a dash is only used at the beginning of the second line, and a blank space is left between the dash and the rst letter.