On Subtitling of Ta’ārof Apologies

Apologies are sources of problems in the process of Persian-English subtitling as they are performed with variant forms and functions in these two languages and cultures. ‘Ta’ārof apologies’-Persian apologies which are extended to show politeness-creates more serious obstacles for the subtitlers. These difficulties root in the culture-specific contexts in which they are used as well as the cultural norms underlying their practice in Persian. This study qualitatively analyses the difficulties encountered by Persian-English sub- titlers of Iranian films in both understanding of ta’ārof apologies in the source text (ST) and their translation into the target text (TT).The results revealed that besides the subtitles applied for translating ta’ārof apolo- gies, different elements help the subtitlers to transfer their meaning into English subtitles. These elements are speaker’s and the hearer’s utterances as well as the end act in the conversation and also the verbal and non-verbal signs in the conversation and the previous and next scenes.