The document discusses a study on subtitle segmentation. The study examined viewer preferences for segmented versus non-segmented subtitles among hearing, hard of hearing, and deaf participants from different language backgrounds. Results showed that most participants preferred segmented subtitles, though deaf participants showed less preference for segmentation, especially of function words. Response times were faster for segmented subtitles. However, line breaks may be less important for fast readers. The study suggests revising subtitling standards to avoid splits on conjunctions and considers subtitles as important linguistic input for deaf viewers.

1. Where to break up?
A study on line breaks
in intralingual subtitling.
Agnieszka Szarkowska
Centre for Translation Studies, UCL
Olivia Gerber Morón
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Intermedia 2017
25-26 September 2017
Poznań, Poland

2. How to segment two-line subtitles?
“
If necessary, sentences should be
broken […] at natural linguistic
breaks so that each subtitle
forms an understandable segment.
OFCOM, Guidelines on the provision
of television access services

3. How to segment two-line subtitles?
“
Lines should be broken at logical
points. The ideal line-break will be
at a piece of punctuation
like a full stop, comma or dash.
BBC, Online Subtitling Editorial Guidelines V1.1

4. “
If the break has to be elsewhere in the sentence,
avoid splitting the following parts of speech:
▪ article and noun (the + table; a + book)
▪ preposition and following phrase
(on + the table; in + a way; about + his life)
▪ conjunction and following phrase/clause
(and + those books; but + I went there)
▪ pronoun and verb
(he + is; they + will come; it + comes)
▪ parts of a complex verb
(have + eaten; will + have + been + doing)
BBC, Online Subtitling Editorial Guidelines V1.1

10. “
Where breaks occur, the split should
be made in a way that makes clear
that there is more to come.
This can be achieved by ending
the first subtitle with a conjunction,
a colon or semi-colon as appropriate,
or even a short run of dots.
OFCOM, Guidelines on the provision
of television access services

11. Why bother segmenting?
“
Good line-breaks are extremely
important because they make
the process of reading
and understanding far easier.
BBC, Online Subtitling Editorial Guidelines V1.1

12. Perego et al. 2010
▪ Noun + Adjective
capelli biondi ‘‘blond hair’’
▪ Noun + Prepositional Phrase
colpi di fucile ‘‘shots of a rifle’’
▪ Adjective + Noun
preciso ricordo ‘‘precise memory’’
▪ Determiner + Noun
quel giorno ‘‘that day’’

14. “
No indication of differences
in processing or performance
related to subtitling segmentation
quality was found.
Subtitle segmentation quality
did not have a significant impact
in our study.
Perego et al. 2010

15. DO PEOPLE THINK THAT SUBTITLE
SEGMENTATION IS IMPORTANT?

16. Participants
▪ 88 people
– 69 Hearing
• 22 English
• 21 Polish
• 26 Spanish
– 10 Hard of hearing
– 9 Deaf
▪ Aged 19-74, M=30.7, SD=11.23, median=27

18. Design
▪ Mixed factorial
▪ Independent between-subject variables
– Language
– Hearing loss
▪ Dependent within-subject variables
– Preference for segmented vs. non-segmented linguistic units
– Time to click
– Eye tracking measures
• dwell time
• fixation count
• mean fixation duration
• revisits

19. Materials
▪ 30 pairs of screenshots from BBC’s Sherlock
▪ Counterbalanced order of segmented
vs. non-segmented screenshots
▪ Randomised order of presentation

20. Linguistic units
1. Indefinite article + Noun phrase
2. Definite article + Noun phrase
3. Compound (Noun + Noun)
4. to infinitive
5. Preposition + Noun phrase
6. Possessive
7. Adjective + Noun
8. Conjunction
9. Auxiliary + lexical verb
10. Subject + predicate

33. 0 20 40 60 80 100
Indefinite article + noun
Definite article + noun
To-infinitive
Compound
Auxiliary + lexical verb
Subject and predicate
Preposition + noun phrase
Possessive
Adjective + noun
Conjunction
Percentage of people
Preferences for segmented and non-segmented text
Segmented Non-segmented

34. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
English Polish Spanish
Definite article by language
segmented non-segmented

35. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Hearing Hard of hearing Deaf
Definite article by hearing
segmented non-segmented

36. Deaf participants
▪ Highest preference for non-segmented subtitles in:
– Indefinite article
– Definite article
– Adjective + Noun
▪ Lowest preference for segmented subtitles in:
– Definite article
– Preposition
– Possessive
– Conjunction

37. Deafness and function words
▪ Many function words do not exist in sign languages
▪ Difficulties with articles
– overuse the definite article
– avoid the indefinite article
(Channon & Sayers,2007; Wolbers, Dostal, & Bowers, 2012)
▪ Problems with demonstratives, determiners,
and dependent clause markers
(Channon & Sayers, 2007)

38. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Indefinite article
Definite article
To-infinitive
Compound
Auxiliary + verb
Subject + Predicate
Preposition
Possessive
Adjective + Noun
Conjunction
Time to click
(Hearing people only)
Segmented Non-segmented

39. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000
Indefinite article
Definite article
To-infinitive
Compound
Auxiliary + verb
Subject + Predicate
Preposition
Possessive
Adjective + Noun
Conjunction
Time to click
(English hearing, hard of hearing and deaf)
Segmented Non-segmented

40. 0
20
40
60
80
100
semantic and
syntactic phrases
pyramid-shaped rectangle-shaped I don't know
What was most important for you
when deciding which subtitles were better?

41. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
English Polish Spanish Deaf and
Hard of
hearing
Segmentation preferences by group
I don't know
rectangle-shaped
pyramid-shaped
semantic and
syntactic phrases

42. “ Line breaks have their value,
yet when you are reading fast,
most of the time
it becomes less relevant.
Deaf participant

43. So what?
▪ Viewers show marked preference
for segmented subtitles
▪ People spent more time deciding
in the non-segmented condition
▪ Revise Ofcom’s subtitling standards
– no conjunctions at the end of lines
▪ Subtitles as linguistic input for the Deaf

44. www.facebook.com/SureProject
This project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 702606