“It feels like bits of me are crumbling or something”. General extenders in original and dubbed television dialogue

Vague language is a common feature of everyday conversation that is also reflected in fictional dialogue, to which it conveys spontaneity and naturalness. The rendering of vague language expressions may pose problems for translators due to cross-cultural differences between the two languages involved. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies dubbing translators use in dealing with a particular type of vague language, namely general extenders. The term denotes a set of multi-word units, such as, for example, or something, and everything, and stuff, which are characteristically associated with informal spoken language. The main characteristic of these expressions is that they do not have independent reference, but rather serve to indicate that the expression preceding the conjunction is not to be taken as precise or exhaustive. Research has shown that the translation of these devices can be problematic, since not only do languages differ in the way they express vagueness, but even when identical or similar forms are shared, there is no overlapping of functions, plus there can be divergence in frequency and conditions of use. This paper reports on the results of a preliminary study conducted on a small parallel corpus of recent British and American television series. The findings reveal that general extenders are frequently omitted in dubbing owing to a number of factors, the most important of which are the limits imposed by synchronization as well as the divergence between source and target language norms. It is suggested that translators’ concern for target audience expectations and levels of understandability should also be counted among the factors that determine translation choices.