A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example

Singapore’s pidginized language variations include English, Mandarin, Malay and Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien. Although English was designated to be Singapore’s lingua franca upon the nation’s independence from British colonial rule, the Singaporean vernacular is often code...

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Main Author: Lee, Wei Liang
Other Authors: Arista Kuo
Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148780
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1487802023-03-11T20:16:05Z A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example Lee, Wei Liang Arista Kuo School of Humanities sykuo@ntu.edu.sg Social sciences::Communication::Audience research Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Language policy Singapore’s pidginized language variations include English, Mandarin, Malay and Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien. Although English was designated to be Singapore’s lingua franca upon the nation’s independence from British colonial rule, the Singaporean vernacular is often code-mixed by infusing English with grammar of Mandarin, Malay and Chinese dialects. More often than not, subtitlers are caught in a dilemma between faithfulness of source dialogues and retaining a Singaporean flavour in order to engage both local and foreign audiences. Given that existing literature and research on subtitling code-mixed dialogues are inchoate, this empirical study seeks to explore the relationship between Singlish proficiency and audiences’ understanding of subtitles for code-mixed dialogues through the case study of the local film Singapore Dreaming. An analysis of the 130 responses shows that there is a strong correlation between Singlish proficiency and audiences’ understanding of subtitles. A semi-structured survey and interviews were conducted online with 12 respondents to further investigate the reasons behind such a phenomenon. The majority of the respondents preferred subtitles to be expressed in standard language as it serves as a communicative bridge for audiences, be it local or foreign, to comprehend the Singaporean way of speaking. Apart from comprehension, subtitles are also of educational value in language acquisition, thus emphasising on the importance of using standardised subtitles to prevent misinterpretation by audience. Notwithstanding the viewpoints of the majority, there is a minority who preferred code-mixing subtitles by means of transliteration for cultural-specific terms. Such preference stems from their support for the Singaporean identity and its preservation, and contradicts regulatory authorities’ policies, which advocate standardised language. The outcome of both quantitative and qualitative studies based on the case study Singapore Dreaming clearly indicates the necessity of standard subtitles for Singaporeans and native speakers of English and Chinese to understand Singaporean audiovisual productions culturally and linguistically. Master of Arts (Translation and Interpretation) 2021-05-10T07:34:58Z 2021-05-10T07:34:58Z 2021 Thesis-Master by Coursework Lee, W. L. (2021). A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148780 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148780 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Communication::Audience research
Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Language policy
spellingShingle Social sciences::Communication::Audience research
Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Language policy
Lee, Wei Liang
A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
description Singapore’s pidginized language variations include English, Mandarin, Malay and Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien. Although English was designated to be Singapore’s lingua franca upon the nation’s independence from British colonial rule, the Singaporean vernacular is often code-mixed by infusing English with grammar of Mandarin, Malay and Chinese dialects. More often than not, subtitlers are caught in a dilemma between faithfulness of source dialogues and retaining a Singaporean flavour in order to engage both local and foreign audiences. Given that existing literature and research on subtitling code-mixed dialogues are inchoate, this empirical study seeks to explore the relationship between Singlish proficiency and audiences’ understanding of subtitles for code-mixed dialogues through the case study of the local film Singapore Dreaming. An analysis of the 130 responses shows that there is a strong correlation between Singlish proficiency and audiences’ understanding of subtitles. A semi-structured survey and interviews were conducted online with 12 respondents to further investigate the reasons behind such a phenomenon. The majority of the respondents preferred subtitles to be expressed in standard language as it serves as a communicative bridge for audiences, be it local or foreign, to comprehend the Singaporean way of speaking. Apart from comprehension, subtitles are also of educational value in language acquisition, thus emphasising on the importance of using standardised subtitles to prevent misinterpretation by audience. Notwithstanding the viewpoints of the majority, there is a minority who preferred code-mixing subtitles by means of transliteration for cultural-specific terms. Such preference stems from their support for the Singaporean identity and its preservation, and contradicts regulatory authorities’ policies, which advocate standardised language. The outcome of both quantitative and qualitative studies based on the case study Singapore Dreaming clearly indicates the necessity of standard subtitles for Singaporeans and native speakers of English and Chinese to understand Singaporean audiovisual productions culturally and linguistically.
author2 Arista Kuo
author_facet Arista Kuo
Lee, Wei Liang
format Thesis-Master by Coursework
author Lee, Wei Liang
author_sort Lee, Wei Liang
title A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
title_short A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
title_full A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
title_fullStr A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
title_full_unstemmed A study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : Singapore dreaming as an example
title_sort study of audience reception on code-mixing in subtitles : singapore dreaming as an example
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148780
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