Linguistic and textual aspects of audio description

Authors:

• Iwona Mazur

Abstract

Audio description (AD) is a verbal commentary of visual content, and as such it inherently involves language. AD is governed by a number of factors, such as time constraints, being a linear verbal representation of a complex holistic image, not being an independent text as well being a text that is written to be spoken. All of these factors ultimately contribute to the unique nature of the language of AD. The chapter starts with an overview of the main research approaches to the study of AD as a linguistic and textual construct, which is followed by an analysis of the syntactic and lexical aspects, including different parts of speech (nouns and pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, similes and metaphors) as well as relevant cross-linguistic differences. As for textual aspects, special attention has been devoted to coherence and cohesion in an AD text. Finally, a comprehensive Textual and Linguistic Audio Description Matrix has been proposed, which incorporates the issues discussed earlier in the chapter and thus presents an interplay between: text types and genres, syntax and grammar, lexical choices and cohesion and coherence. The chapter ends with future directions and further reading.