Silvia Pettini
Silvia Pettini obtained a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting (English-Spanish) at Gregorio VII University (Rome) in 2006, and an M.A. in Specialised Translation at Sapienza University (Rome) in 2008. She received her second M.A. degree in Modern Languages for International Communication (English-Spanish) at Roma Tre University (Rome) in 2013, where she also earned a Doctor Europaeus Ph.D. in English Language and Translation Studies in 2017, with a thesis titled “The Translation of Realia and Irrealia in Game Localisation: Culture-Specificity between Realism and Fictionality”. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Roma Tre University, where she also teaches Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies as adjunct instructor. Her main research areas are Audiovisual Translation, Bilingual Lexicography, Contrastive Linguistics and Game Localisation.
Address: Roma Tre University
Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Via Ostiense 234 Roma
Address: Roma Tre University
Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Via Ostiense 234 Roma
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Talks by Silvia Pettini
Dante’s Inferno (Visceral Games, Electronic Arts 2010) is a third-person action title, which is loosely based on the first part of the famous medieval poem, as its action premise, its beat’em up subgenre and the evident poetic licence demonstrate. Players assume the role of Dante whose avatar becomes a hyper-masculine and bellicose crusader-knight, who descends into the nine circles of Hell to save his beloved Beatrice.
From the perspective of Game Localisation (Mangiron and O’Hagan 2013), this paper examines its full localisation from English into Italian. Parallel excerpts from in-game dialogues have been selected and compared by drawing on both Electronic Arts’ authentic localisation database, and online resources such as walkthroughs. While analysing the relationship between the source and the target game texts, this study explores the influence Dante’s original lines exert on the Italian transfer. The aim is to show that, when a game is based on the target culture literature, the latter inevitably affects and constraints translation in order to ensure a more successful local impact and deliver a “deep or enhanced localisation” (Bernal-Merino 2014: 189). As first findings suggest, by means of integral or partial quotations together with lexical, syntactic and stylistic choices, the Italian game turns out to be more literarily expressive than its English source, thus providing its audience with a digital imitative Dantesque experience.
This paper explores the relationships between video games and the field of Languages for Special Purposes (LSP) from the perspective of Game Localisation (Mangiron/O’Hagan 2013), an emerging and worthy area of investigation within Translation Studies. Since these relationships cannot be captured holistically, an eclectic approach will be used in order to highlight the main areas of interaction. Excerpts from in-game texts will be analysed and discussed to pinpoint (a) video games’ terminology (user interfaces, instructions, platform-specific references, etc.), (b) single titles’ terminology, (c) video games’ terminology belonging to specialised domains such as sports. Special attention will be paid to the in-game textual world and the discussion will focus on the specialised translation of those game genres that require a technical subject matter expertise (Dietz 2007). In particular, this paper will focus on the sports simulation game FIFA 2014 (Electronic Arts 2013) in its English into Italian localisation.
Accordingly, the aim of this pilot study is to show that on the basis of the linguistic and translational features of video games, this emerging technology-driven and market-oriented translation sector can belong to the LSP realm because, as preliminary results suggest, some games - like sports simulators - seem to require a very domain-specific language transfer specialisation in order to deliver an equivalent gameplay experience.
Papers by Silvia Pettini
Dante’s Inferno (Visceral Games, Electronic Arts 2010) is a third-person action title, which is loosely based on the first part of the famous medieval poem, as its action premise, its beat’em up subgenre and the evident poetic licence demonstrate. Players assume the role of Dante whose avatar becomes a hyper-masculine and bellicose crusader-knight, who descends into the nine circles of Hell to save his beloved Beatrice.
From the perspective of Game Localisation (Mangiron and O’Hagan 2013), this paper examines its full localisation from English into Italian. Parallel excerpts from in-game dialogues have been selected and compared by drawing on both Electronic Arts’ authentic localisation database, and online resources such as walkthroughs. While analysing the relationship between the source and the target game texts, this study explores the influence Dante’s original lines exert on the Italian transfer. The aim is to show that, when a game is based on the target culture literature, the latter inevitably affects and constraints translation in order to ensure a more successful local impact and deliver a “deep or enhanced localisation” (Bernal-Merino 2014: 189). As first findings suggest, by means of integral or partial quotations together with lexical, syntactic and stylistic choices, the Italian game turns out to be more literarily expressive than its English source, thus providing its audience with a digital imitative Dantesque experience.
This paper explores the relationships between video games and the field of Languages for Special Purposes (LSP) from the perspective of Game Localisation (Mangiron/O’Hagan 2013), an emerging and worthy area of investigation within Translation Studies. Since these relationships cannot be captured holistically, an eclectic approach will be used in order to highlight the main areas of interaction. Excerpts from in-game texts will be analysed and discussed to pinpoint (a) video games’ terminology (user interfaces, instructions, platform-specific references, etc.), (b) single titles’ terminology, (c) video games’ terminology belonging to specialised domains such as sports. Special attention will be paid to the in-game textual world and the discussion will focus on the specialised translation of those game genres that require a technical subject matter expertise (Dietz 2007). In particular, this paper will focus on the sports simulation game FIFA 2014 (Electronic Arts 2013) in its English into Italian localisation.
Accordingly, the aim of this pilot study is to show that on the basis of the linguistic and translational features of video games, this emerging technology-driven and market-oriented translation sector can belong to the LSP realm because, as preliminary results suggest, some games - like sports simulators - seem to require a very domain-specific language transfer specialisation in order to deliver an equivalent gameplay experience.