Subtitling: Diagonal translation

Abstract Subtitling of televised foreign‐language material not only changes language; it also switches from the spoken to the written mode, and it presents itself 'in real time', as a dynamic text type. Hence, due to the complex, 'diagonal' nature of subtitling, the subtitler must possess the musical ears of an interpreter, the stylistic sensitivity of a literary translator, the visual acuteness of a film cutter, and the esthetic sense of a book designer. The author discusses subtitling in the context of language transfer, and suggests nine basic fields to consider when creating ‐ and evaluating ‐ interlingual subtitles for television and video.