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60728-01 - Seminar: The Pragmatics of English Subtitling (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2021 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Thomas Messerli (thomas.messerli@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Interlingual English subtitles can on the one hand be regarded as a product of a translation process from spoken dialogue in another language to a particular type of written text. On the other hand, subtitles are also written communication between a collective sender - all those involved in the production of a film or television series - and a target audience. In this seminar, we will take into account the translational aspects as part of the context in which subtitles are created, but we will focus on subtitles as situated language use in a particular context. While we will think about the particularities of subtitles as a genre and as a communicative practice, using subtitled film as an object of linguistic and more specifically pragmatic investigation will also allow us to revisit core pragmatic principles and to explore the meaning-making in and through film as it is examined in the tradition of a pragmatics of fiction. Questions we ask include: What are the particularities of subtitles as examples of English language use? How and what do subtitles communicate and what is their relationship to the multimodal context in which they are embedded? |
| Learning objectives | By the end of the course, students will have revisited core aspects of pragmatics and understood what role they play in the meaning-making of subtitled film. They will have worked with data, learned about different methods of analysis and practiced these methods on relevant examples. |
| Bibliography | All obligatory reading for the course will be made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Admission requirements | This course is open to students of English who have passed all three BA introductory modules and to MA students of English and MSG Sprache und Kommunikation. |
| Course application | In addition to signing up for courses on the course registration platform, please also sign up in the doodle at https://doodle.com/poll/fxdmhnmwfipuwppm?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link. In order to ensure a good learning environment, we aim at no more than 20 students per class (4 classes). **Please only register for a maximum of TWO seminars and only for more than one if you really intend to take the course. ** Should you have not made it into one of the courses and you are only able to register for the waiting lists, we guarantee that we will take you in the course with the least student numbers. The doodle will open on January 4, 2021, 10am (CET) and close on February 25, 2021, midnight (CET) in order to finalize student distribution in the week before term starts. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Friday | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz - |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 05.03.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 12.03.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 19.03.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 26.03.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 02.04.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | Ostern |
| Friday 09.04.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 16.04.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 23.04.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 30.04.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 07.05.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 14.05.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | Auffahrt |
| Friday 21.05.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 28.05.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Friday 04.06.2021 | 10.15-12.00 | - Online Präsenz -, -- |
| Modules |
Modul: Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul: English Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Forschungspraxis und Vertiefung (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul: Sprache als Prozess (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | regular and active participation; preparatory reading; written task (analysis paper of max. 5000 words) |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |