Balancing between Netflix Translation Guidelines and Cultural Sensitivities: An Analysis of English Swearword Translation in the Thai Subtitles of Paradise P.D. (Season 1)
คำสำคัญ:
audiovisual translation (AVT), subtitle translation (ST), swearword translation, translation norms, cultural sensitivitiesบทคัดย่อ
As Netflix expands globally, subtitle translation (ST) has become essential for cultural localization, particularly when navigating sensitive content such as swearwords. In Thailand, where face-saving and politeness are valued, translators must strike a balance between Netflix translation guidelines and cultural sensitivities. To explore specific strategies employed in the translation of English swearwords in Thai subtitles and the norms that govern such translation, this study analyzed the English-to-Thai translation of 494 moderate-to-strong swearwords from 5,105 Thai subtitles in the series Paradise P.D. (Season 1) using Díaz-Pérez’s (2020) framework and Chesterman’s (1993) translation norms. The findings show that while the majority of swearwords were sanitized via de-swearing (31.17%), softening (30.16%), and omission (9.5%), pragmatic correspondence, which retained the offensiveness, occurred at 29.15%, almost at the same rate as de-swearing and softening. These results suggest a "middle ground" negotiation: Translators avoided total sanitization in favor of "substitution" to preserve the offensive humor of the show. However, cultural boundaries remained firm, evidenced by the de-swearing and omission of some instances of the graphic Thai term khi (Thai: ขี้ IPA: /kʰîː/ ‘shit’), the most common swearword in the corpus.
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