The TV-series Sherlock subtitled into Norwegian - The case of politeness

Abstract

This thesis investigates the shifts in politeness that occur when the English dialogue in Sherlock (2010) is translated into Norwegian subtitles. Previous research has shown that because reductions and omissions are necessary due to the limitations of subtitling, such as time and space, some things are lost and politeness is typically one of them. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness model has been used to analyse the material in this thesis. I looked at the number of the politeness markers please, thank you and sorry in the three episodes of Sherlock (2010), to see what the difference was between the dialogue and the subtitle, focusing particularly on two of the characters. I found that roughly, a third of the politeness markers were omitted, and that thank you was the most translated in the subtitles. These omissions might also be connected with Norwegians very economic use of politeness in the language. Second, using Mason and Hatim’s (2000) method of analysis I studied the dialogue and subtitles in 6 extracts from the first episode of Sherlock: A Study in Pink (2010). In the analysis of the extracts I found that the omissions and reduction do change the characters. They tend to be become more direct, less polite, and more confident and assertive. The most polite and impolite part of the dialogue are omitted making the characters more onedimensional and less varied.