Subtitling Idiomatic Expressions from English into Arabic: Enola Holmes as a Case Study

Abstract

Translation involves conveying a text's pragmatic, cultural, and semantic components to a different language. On the other hand, idiomatic expressions pose a challenge to translators because they are culturally distinctive and incorporate various cultural nuances. This study employs a qualitative case study approach to identify the most frequently used subtitling strategy for translating idioms in the movie Enola Holmes (2020). Additionally, it aims to examine the influence of various types of idioms on the subtitler’s selection of subtitling strategies. Pedersen’s taxonomy for rendering extra-linguistic cultural references in subtitling was selected for data analysis as it was expressly created for audiovisual translation. The results show that substitution was the most frequently used translation strategy for subtitling idioms, particularly in subtitles that were remarkably pure and semi-idiomatic. The second most dominant strategy was the official equivalent, which was applied to render all three types of idioms. Direct translation was the third most used strategy, especially in subtitling literal idioms. Further research could investigate how the strategy used to translate idiomatic expressions affects the audience’s overall interpretation of the implicit meaning of colloquial expressions.