Dubbing or subtitling: The eternal dilemma

Abstract Despite the quantitative importance of translation in audiovisual mass communication, very few scholars have turned their efforts to its analysis. It is my intention to offer an account of the two major translation techniques used in the cinema, dubbing and subtitling. I will elicit some of the limitations that act upon these modes of translating and make them so different. Imposed on the translator by the medium, these constraints are responsible for the coinage of the concept ‘constrained translation’, a term that intends to encapsulate these empirical phenomena as translation, as opposed to adaptation. After exploring the reasons why one of these techniques may be favoured I will finish with an evaluation of the pros and cons of both linguistic transfer methods that will enable me to propose the idea that we should do away with the aprioristic negativism surrounding synchronisation and accept that both approaches should have their place in the world of translation.