From Gibberish to Jamboree: A Multimodal Analysis of Pseudotranslation in Danmu Subtitling

This chapter seeks to unravel the intricacies of pseudotranslation in danmu subtitling from a multimodal perspective. It focuses on the danmu subtitles for Pingu, an animation series that features a fictional language, Penguinese. Many of the danmu subtitles for the series are pseudotranslation, as no genuine meanings of the source text (the fictional Penguinese) exist for them. This study proposes an analytical framework that elucidates pseudotranslation in danmu subtitling from four dimensions: (1) explicitness (explicit or implicit), (2) meaning representation (congruent or incongruent), (3) source of meaning (verbal, visual, and/or aural), and (4) narrative strategies (respeaking, homophonic rendering, mentalisation, or transposition). It was found that pseudotranslation on the danmu interface frequently reconstructed the original story by transforming it into something incongruent with the ongoing narrative, deprioritising the traditional translation standards of fidelity and accuracy. Furthermore, many pseudotranslations in danmu subtitles were triggered by non-verbal cues in the video, underlining the role of danmu subtitling as a form of multimodal rewriting. These findings contribute to an expanded notion of audiovisual translation on participatory media.