Exploring implicatures in subtitling: a comparative quantitative study of three Arabic subtitles of Sherlock Holmes 2009

This paper explores all the particularized conversational implicatures found in Sherlock Holmes 2009 movie by conducting a quantitative analysis of three Arabic subtitles. It also investigates the different techniques used in subtitling particularized conversational implicatures by three subtitlers through comparative analysis. The paper reveals that there are 107 particularized conversational implicatures, including situational, contextual, and interpersonal implicatures. It also shows that the most commonly used subtitling technique by the three subtitlers is literal translation. Moreover, the paper identifies certain areas of mistranslation of all types of particularized conversational implicatures made by the subtitlers and suggests either literal translation or explicitation, depending on the situation, context, relation, and purpose of the subtitling process. This study offers a baseline for exploring particularized conversational implicatures in movies and may have implications for other subtitling implicatures projects in similar subtitling contexts.