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Subtitling strategies of swear words and taboo expressions in the movie “Training Day”

Translators face some problems when they translate swear words and taboo expressions, as they belong to different cultures and they have different impacts on the audience. Although some studies examined the problems faced in translating swear words and how to deal with them, little is known about studies that examined the strategies employed in translating such words and expressions from English into Arabic. Therefore, this study examines the strategies employed in translating such words and expressions from English into Arabic in the “Training Day” movie; and to assess the quality of subtitling these expressions. Samples from the movie were selected and analyzed. The results of the study showed that the subtitler used different strategies to subtitle swear and taboo words and expressions. Two of the most common strategies were found to be translating the swear and taboo words euphemistically, and by omission. As regards, the quality of the subtitles, they were found to be of good quality. This study concludes by proposing a model for subtitling swear words and Taboo expressions.

behavior in one culture because it is perceived as harmful to its members by causing them fear, humiliation or shame, p.234".
Some studies investigated the strategies employed in subtitling Arabic movies. Dabbas and Haider (2020) examined the cultural difficulties in subtitling the American animated sitcom Family Guy into Arabic and the strategies used in subtitling the cultural references especially taboo and swear words, and they found that there are constraints in subtitling these words. These constraints are governed by the nature of the audience. Such constraints forced the translator to opt for specific strategies such as the use of euphemistic expression and omission. In a similar vein, Almijrab (2020) investigated the extent the taboo words and expressions are translatable. He concluded that euphemism is the most appropriate translation strategy when dealing with taboo words, because of the Islamic background of the Arab audience. Al-Yasin and Rabab'ah (2019) examined the connotative equivalence of taboo words in American hip hop movies and their Arabic correspondence in the subtitle/Audiovisual Translation (AVT). They found that Arab amateur subtitlers used omission and euphemism as translation techniques, and this was induced by the cultural constraints between English and Arabic.
However, translation of swear words and taboo expressions in movies is not a simple job. It requires employing specific subtitling strategies. Thus, this study examines the strategies used to translate swear words and taboo expressions, and it also assesses the quality of the translation of these swear and taboo words and expressions in the movie entitled Training Day (2001), a movie directed by Antoine Fuqua (Fuqua, 2001), and written by David Ayer.

Subtitling strategies
Translators use a number of strategies to subtitle swear and taboo words. This study sheds light on subtitling strategies related to the concept of culture in the American Movie called "Training Day". In this regard, Pedersen (2011) suggested some strategies to subtitle culture-bound terms, and since taboo and swear words tend to be culture terms, this model was adopted in this study. In addition to Pedersen's strategies, the strategies proposed by Abdelaal (2019) were adopted. Some of these strategies are ST-oriented while others are TT-oriented. These strategies are unpacked below: 1. Retention: this strategy is similar to borrowing strategy proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), in which the ST item is retained in the TT or slightly adapted to the TL norms. It is the most faithful strategy to the ST as it transfers the ST term completely to the TT (Pedersen, 2005). Faithful is used here to refer to the extent the ST lexis is maintained in the TT. This strategy is mostly used in translating proper nouns. For example, translating John as ‫ﺝ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻥ‬ ; however, it is not always successful with all nouns. A case in point is "Austria, England …etc.", which are rendered into different equivalents in Arabic.
2. Specification: in this case the ST item is not translated in the TL, but it is explained through either: a)addition, or b)completion. In addition, explicitation or addition is used to explicate the ST item. Explicitation occurs for the purpose of rendering some implicit meaning explicit or explicating a shortened name or acronym. This can take place in translating acronyms or names by adding first or last name to clarify the meaning (Pedersen, 2005). Addition happens when the translator adds some information that is latent to the ST for clarification purpose. 3. Direct translation: it is a direct word for word translation, which is mostly used for translating names of institutions and common names (Pedersen, 2005). There are two types of direct translation, viz., calque and shifts. Calque is a kind of exoticism that conveys intact literal translation. However, shifts imply a kind of shift in terms of grammar.
Regarding TT-oriented strategies, they are: Having discussed the strategies proposed by Pedersen, in the following section the strategies proposed by Abdelaal (2019) are discussed. Abdelaal proposed two strategies, which are TT-oriented strategies. These two strategies are elaborated on below.
1. Rendering informal language into formal language: this happens when translator changes the register of the ST in the TT. They translate informal language into formal language to either widen the platform of audience who can only understand formal language, or to avoid the use of some words in the TL, which cannot be used in a family context. Families usually watch movies together, where it is socially and religiously unacceptable to watch or see taboo words, be sex-related words, or any other similar swear and taboo words. Although the target audience can be young people who go cinemas, it is more common these days that people watch movies at home on YouTube or on TV. 2. Rendering the ST items euphemistically: this strategy is used when translating from English to Arabic because of the nature of the Arabic society which is constrained by religious and social factors that make it impossible to translate some ST words into Arabic. It is impossible from religious and social perspectives rather than translation perspectives. Translators usually observe the norms of the TT cultures and the social and religious aspect when they translate from any SL to a TL.

Quality assessment
This study is based on Pedersen's (2017) FAR quality assessment model, whereby 'F' stands for Functional equivalence", 'A' stands for Acceptability, and 'R' stands for 'readability'. Functional equivalence is concerned with if the subtitles convey the speaker's intended meaning; Acceptability is concerned with if the subtitles sound correct and natural in the target language); and Readability is concerned with if the subtitles can be read fluently and non-intrusively. Following the FAR Model, these three parameters are employed to test a quality of subtitles; these parameters are judged based on an error analysis typology. Errors are categorized into 'minor, 'standard' or 'serious' errors, whereby each type of error is assigned a score. Minor errors are those errors that can go unseen unless the audiences are very observant, and they are assigned a score of 0.25. Standard errors are errors that can ruin the subtitles for most viewers, and they are assigned a score of 0.5. Serious errors are errors that affect the subtitles and the subtitles to come and take time for viewers to get rid of them, and they are assigned a score of 1. These penalty scores, however, are not used throughout the model as explained in the sections to come. The table below makes it clearer (see Table 2).
In the next lines, the FAR Model components are unpacked.

Functional equivalence
Many scholars and researchers (e.g. Gottlieb, 2001;Pedersen, 2005Pedersen, , 2017 argue that functional equivalence is the most important type of equivalence in subtitling because of the time and space constraints that make other types of equivalence unimportant. Pedersen (2017) follows that it is important to convey the intended meaning without the need to render the lexical items verbatim. He adds that if the meaning is not conveyed in the subtitles while the utterances of the speaker were conveyed, this should be considered an error. Pedersen divides semantic equivalence errors in his model into two types: semantic errors and stylistic errors. The two types are explained below.
Semantic errors According to Pedersen (2017), the penalty score for semantic equivalence are minor: 0.5, standard: 1, and serious: 2. Minor errors refer to the lexical errors that do not affect the plot of the movie or the primary meaning. Standard errors, however, happen when the subtitles show errors but still they do not affect the conveyance of the primary meaning and they do not disrupt viewers' progress with the subsequent subtitles. They happen when some utterances that are integral to the plot are left without subtitling. As regards, serious errors, they are so erroneous to the extent that they affect the viewers' understanding of the movie and affect the understanding of the subsequent subtitles.

Stylistic errors
Pedersen (2017) follows that stylistic errors do not obstruct the understanding of a movie, and therefore they are less serious than semantic errors.

Acceptability
The second parameter of the FAR Model is acceptability, and it centers around the extent a subtitle sounds natural and idiomatic. Acceptability errors are subdivided into three categories: grammar errors, spelling errors and errors of idiomaticity. Grammar errors can be assessed on the basis of minor, standard and serious errors. Minor errors are errors that can be noticed by grammarians only, e.g., using of who instead of whom. Serious errors impede reading and comprehension. Whereas, standard errors are those errors that neither hamper understanding nor go unnoticed by common people such as dropping the final tense marker in the third person singular in present simple tense. Spelling errors are also subdivided into serious, standard and minor errors. If it is just a spelling error, it will be rated as a minor error. However, if the error changes the meaning of a word, it will be assessed as a standard error. Serious errors make it difficult to read a word. Pedersen follows the NER 1 Model in grading acceptability, which means that serious errors are penalized by 1, while Standard errors are penalized by 0.5. Minor errors are penalized by 0.25 in total, serious errors are those errors that yield false or misleading information, whereas standard errors are errors that impede comprehension or disrupt the coherent flow of text. Minor errors include errors of capitalization, apostrophes and insertion of small word (Romero-Fresco and P€ ochhacker, 2017).

Readability
The third parameter of the FAR Model is readability. Readability errors are subdivided into errors of segmentation and spotting, punctuation and reading speed and line length. The following graph summarizes the FAR Model (adopted from Abdelaal, 2019).

Methodology
The main objectives of our study are to identify the strategies that are used to translate swear word and taboo expressions as well as assess the quality of the translation. Therefore, this study adopts mixed method approach, whereby qualitative analysis was used to identify the strategies used in the translation while quantitative measurements were used to assess the quality of the subtitles. In this regard, Strauss and Corbin (1990) define qualitative research as that research, which produces findings that are not reached through statistical procedures or other methods of quantification. However, quantitative research is more about statistical inferences and numbers. Numbers were used to assess the translation quality only, and there were no specific statistical tests used. Numbers were given to assess the subtitles based on the researchers' background knowledge. The researchers are bilinguals who master English and Arabic; and therefore, can judge the translation quality. For more methodological details, please refer to the theoretical framework section.
In relation to sampling, this study adopts purposive sampling. The researcher chose the American movie "Training Day" and found 40 examples of using swear words or taboo words. These samples cover most but not all the swear and taboo words used in the movie. The data was manually collected from the American movie entitled "Training Day". This is considered as a case study. The Movie is an American crime and drama film released in 2001, directed by Antoine Fouquet, written by David Eyre, and starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawk. We have selected this movie because it is a good source for many swear and taboo words and expressions, which is one of the criteria of selecting samples in qualitative inquiry (Patton, 1990). Another reason for choosing this film is its popularity in the Arab world. The film was thoroughly analyzed using Pedersen's (2005) subtitling strategy typology and Pedersen's (2017) quality assessment model.
The movie was accessed on YouTube and the English and the Arabic subtitles were downloaded from https://yifysubtitles.org/movie-imdb/ tt0139654. The English an Arabic subtitles were downloaded from the website without any modifications. The translation seems to done by an amateur who uses unreal name. The film's events revolve around Jake Hewitt (played by Ethan Hawkie), the security officer who finally gets a place in the anti-drug police in Los Angeles. On his first day of work, veteran investigator Alonzo Harris (played by Denzel Washington) is assigned to train him and explain the details of his daily work. Surprised by the nature of the work on the ground, Ethan never expected to work on the streets of Los Angeles filled of criminals and drug traffickers to be so different from the way he believed. The expert, Alonzo, himself, sees the secret world in crime and violates the law without any thought because it is the only way to reach truth and achieve justice. Over time, Jake finds out facts about his new colleague and trainer. Alonzo leaves Jake to die but he is spared by Mexican gangsters because one of their cousins is the girl Hawke rescued at the beginning of the movie. And, Jake comes back to the apartment of Sara (played by Eva Mendesto arrest Alonzo but a gunfight and pursuit follows.

Results and discussion
In this section, strategies used in subtitling swear words and taboo expressions in the film have been exhaustively identified and described on the basis of the model proposed by Pedersen (2005Pedersen ( , 2011. Then they are followed by quality assessment of the translations, based on the quality assessment model of Pedersen. It is noteworthy to mention that some examples were not included because they are redundant. Examples of retention were not given exhaustively because they are clear and any more examples will be redundant. The following graph summarizes the findings of the strategies used. However, 'retention' was not included because there are many examples of retention that were not presented in this study, as they seem redundant. For example, all proper nouns are examples of retention strategy. As seen in Figure 1, omission and euphemism are the most frequent strategies (see Figure 2). These strategies are unpacked below. As seen in example 1a, the slang terminology for the combination of drugs, that is, P.C.P. Primos, were retained in English in the translation. In other words, it was left without translation. The abbreviation "P.C.P stands for phencychidine and it causes hallucination, and to become extremely violent, and to feel high. People were known to do themselves horrible things under the influence of PCP.
As for the quality assessment, subtitles translated using retention as a strategy rarely have any semantic or stylistic errors because the ST items are left without translation.

Specification: this strategy is divided into addition and completion
when the culture-bound term is left untranslated, and it is indicated by adding additional information. Examples of such a strategy use are provided below. [drunk driver] instead of translating it as "driving under influence'. This is a kind of specification through explicitation. However, in this case, explicitation is employed using more direct and clearer, yet, fewer words. Another example of specification strategy is provided below.  Table 3).  As seen in the table above, example 2a shows a minor stylistic error, which is a functional equivalence error; and acceptability error in terms of spelling. Also, it has a minor error in readability because the subtitler used an English comma instated of Arabic comma. Example 2c has a standard error in functional equivalence as well, as the TT word ‫ﻡ‬ ‫ﻝ‬ ‫ﺍ‬ ‫ﻉ‬ ‫ﻱ‬ ‫ﻥ‬ is expressively stronger than the ST word.

Generalization
This is a kind of strategy that is used by a subtitler when he decides to use a hypernym for a ST word in the target language (Abdelaal, 2019 ; it is named after the package brand name that it comes in when smuggled across the Mexican border. The subtitler opted to translate the ST expression into a more general term that can be mentally accessed and perceived easily. The quality assessment is provided below (see Table 4).
As seen in the table, a minor error that does not affect meaning can be identified. The TT did not identify the brand type of the Mexican drug, which is common in the case of using generalization as a subtitling strategy.

Translation using a euphemistic expression
Actually, this strategy was not stated by Pedersen (2005Pedersen ( , 2011, but it was proposed by Abdelaal (2019). In the Arabic culture, people tend not to talk about, watch or listen to sex-related issues openly or explicitly. This cultural difference obliges the subtitler to euphemistically render some sex-related words to make them more suitable to target culture viewers, which is a kind of physiological limitation (Malenova, 2015 . . Although, the subtitler rendered the word literally, this does not sound as rude as the ST. The ST word is always used as a swear word to describe a woman who behaves unpleasantly. However, the translator maintained the denotative meaning and omitted the reflected meaning of the word. In Arabic, the word 'pitch' can be used for both men and women. There is a wide range of such words in spoken Arabic depending on the geographical dialect and local culture and not only one word 4e. 00:37:12,000-> 00  In 4p, the subtitler rendered the ST rude expression into a neutral euphemistic expression in Arabic. The ST expression has an equivalent in Arabic, but it sounds rude to use. All the examples above illustrate how a subtitler can choose to euphemistically translate the term, or by omitting the ST word and compensating for it in the TT. The table below summarizes the quality assessment for the euphemistic strategy-related expressions and words (see Table 5).
As we see in above table, Example (3 a, b, c) showed standard errors because the meaning of subtitling is lost. . And, in all the other examples minor readability errors in punctuation and omitted full stops.

Direct translation
In direct translation, translators render ST lexical items literally. In relation to the current study, some expressions were found to be translated literally in the movie. Examples of such strategy uses are provided below.
As seen in the table above, functional equivalence does not seem to be a problem. Also, most examples have minor acceptability errors in spelling and readability errors in punctuation.

Omission
Omission is one of the strategies used to subtitle some taboo and swear expressions. In the movie, the subtitler opted to delete some ST words/phrases and he sometimes compensate for them. Examples of such a strategy use are provided below. also concludes that some subtitling strategies overlap. For example, rendering informal language formal sometimes it is done for a euphemistic purpose, and other times for the purpose of using a language understandable by everyone.

Conclusion
This study aimed to identify subtitling strategies of swear and taboo words in the American move entitled "Training Day, and to provide quality assessment for these subtitles. For this purpose, the data was collected from the movie and were analyzed using Pedersen's (2005Pedersen's ( , 2011 modified typology proposed by Abdelaal (2019) of subtitling strategies and Pedersen's quality assessment model. The results of the study illustrate that all the strategies proposed by Pedersen and those proposed by Abdelaal were used in subtitling the selected words and expressions. However, it was found that omission and euphemistic translation are the most common strategies used by the subtitler. Omission was used because of cultural constraints, as the translator observed the target culture constraints that sometimes make it difficult to render some swear and taboo words into Arabic, especially those which are perceived as very pejorative and unacceptable. These terms include expressions related to sex, excretion and others. However. In some cases the translator opted to render those pejorative sex and excretion related words into English to maintain the spirit of the ST which tragets young people and teenagers. Another reason for adopting the omission strategy is economical, i.e. the translator wants to save space on the screen which allows limited number of characters. One more reason for using omission as a translation strategy is that some swear and taboo words collocate in English but they do not collocate in Arabic. Omission as a strategy can be appropriate if the translator did not create a kind of vacuum on the screen that hampers the viewers from enjoying the movie. The second most common strategy is euphemistic translation, which is quite expected; the Arab society is conservative and therefore some swear and taboo words sound super offensive. To avoid such subtle offensiveness and rudeness, the translator opted to render many swear and taboo words euphemistically. I think this strategy is acceptable as long as it does not affect the essence of meaning. However, one problem with such a strategy is that it might result in mismatch between the actors' facial expressions and body gestures on one side and the subtitles. Put clearer, the body gestures and facial expressions may convey anger and rudeness which is not reflected in the subtitles.
The quality assessment showed that most subtitles are of good quality. It is suggested that Pedersen's Model of quality assessment needs to be revised. The model provides quantitative assessment, but the qualitative assessment is required as well. Previous studies on subtitling swear words and taboo expressions are still lacking. A model that regulates the strategies used in subtitling from Arabic into English is also needed.

Author contribution statement
Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.
Amani Al Sarhani: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments.

Funding statement
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Data availability statement
Data included in article/supplementary material/referenced in article.