Multimodality in translation and interpreting studies

Multimodality aims to redress the traditional displacement of language from other kinds of meaning-making resources in a range of communicative encounters.

Our research

In the context of translation and interpreting studies, multimodality is used to investigate the contribution that non-verbal semiotics makes to a range of genres and texts, and to gauge how the distribution of meaning across various types of meaning-making resources influences translation and interpreting behaviour.

At CTIS, multimodality is at the centre of quantitative and qualitative research on:

Translation bureau in a meeting
  • the interplay between written and spoken language and images in printed media and audiovisual material
  • the modelling of composite semiotic systems, such as movement, gestures and gaze, and their combination with spoken language in interpreter-mediated encounters
  • the embodiment and representation of identities and narratives through the interaction between verbal and non-verbal meaning-making resources
  • the grammaticisation of translators’ and interpreters’ reliance on multimodal resources
  • the multimodal re-conceptualisation of key notions in translation and interpreting studies research (eg. implicature, irony, humour, systemic functional metafunctions, etc.)

PhD projects

  • Amer Al-Adwan (2009) Euphemisms as a Politeness Strategy in Screen Translation in the Arab World
  • Waleed Al-Amri (2002) Semiotics, Translation and the Press
  • Khalid Al-Shehari (2000) The Semiotics and Translation of Advertising Texts: Conventions, Constraints and Translation Strategies, with Particular Reference to English and Arabic
  • Paulina Burczynska: A Multimodal Analysis of Film Translation – An Empirical and Comparative Study of Polish and Spanish Audience Reception
  • Li-Wen Chang (2013) Investigating Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting - Using the Concept of Visual Grammar
  • Pasakara Chueasuai (2010) Translation Shifts in the Love and Lust Section the Thai Version of Cosmopolitan: A Systemic Functional Perspective
  • Elena Davitti (2012) Dialogue Interpreting as Intercultural Mediation: Integrating Talk and Gaze in the Analysis of Mediated Parent-Teacher Meetings
  • Louisa Desilla (2009) Towards a Methodology for the Study of Implicatures in Subtitled Films; Multimodal Construal and Reception of Pragmatic Meaning Across Cultures
  • Vicki Flippance (2009) In Search of a Model for Assessing the Quality of Advertisements in Translation
  • Rebecca Johnson: The Clash of Articulations: A Narrative Account of Creative Subversion, Intersectional Identity and Islam in Post-9/11 Britain and France
  • Fotios Karamitroglou (1998) Towards a Methodology for the Investigation of Norms in Audiovisual Translation: The Choice between Subtitling and Revoicing in Greece
  • Andriani Theocharous (2014) Investigating the Cultural Determinants of Advertising Style in the UK and Greece
  • Jehan Zitawi (2004) The Translation of Disney Comics in the Arab World: A Pragmatic Perspective

Selection of related publications

  • Asimakoulas, Dimitris (2004) ‘Towards a Model of Describing Humour Translation. A Case Study of the Greek Subtitled Versions of Airplane! And Naked Gun', Meta 49(4): 822-842.
  • Karamitroglou, Fotios (2000) Towards a Methodology for the Investigation of Norms in Audiovisual Translation, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2014) ‘Multimodality in Translation and Interpreting Studies’, in Sandra Bermann and Catherine Porter (eds) A Companion to Translation Studies, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 119-131.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2013) ‘Co-creational Subtitling in the Digital Media: Transformative and Authorial Practices’,International Journal of Cultural Studies 16(1): 3-21.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2012) ‘Amateur Subtitling and the Pragmatics of Spectatorial Subjectivity’, Language and Intercultural Communication 12(4): 335-353.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2008) 'Audiovisual Translation', in Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (eds) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, second, revised and extended edition, London & New York: Routledge, 13-20.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2007) 'Intervention in New Amateur Subtitling Cultures: A Multimodal Account', Linguistica Antverpiensia 6: 67-80.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2007) 'Appraising Dubbed Conversation. Systemic Functional Insights into the Construal of Naturalness in Translated Film Dialogue', The Translator 13(1): 1-38.
  • Pérez-González, Luis (2006) 'Fansubbing Anime: Insights into the Butterfly Effect of Globalisation on Audiovisual Translation',Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 14(4): 260-277.