Translating medical language and terminology in dubbing : a case study of Grey’s anatomy in Italian

Abstract

This study investigates the field of audiovisual translation by analysing three episodes of the American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy in their Italian dubbed version. The research aims to examine how medical terminology is rendered in the target language, while accounting for the constraints of dubbing. Selected episodes were viewed and transcribed in both their original and dubbed versions to extract instances of medical terminology. These instances formed a dataset that constitutes the basis of the present study, which was subsequently analysed using criteria specifically designed to distinguish medical jargon from general language. The findings indicate that, despite key constraints typically associated with the dubbing modality – such as lip synchronisation and isochrony – which tend to make the adaptation process and the preservation of medical terminology more challenging than in the dubbing of other audiovisual genres, professionals nevertheless opted to prioritise terminological accuracy. As a result, surrounding syntactic structures were often adjusted to maintain both semantic precision and fluency in the target language. However, slight modifications were occasionally introduced to enhance comprehensibility for non-expert audiences. Moreover, the choice of translation strategies varied depending on how medical terminology was integrated into the target-language discourse. The most commonly observed strategies were simplification, explicitation, nominalisation, and dynamic equivalence. Future research could be directed specifically towards investigating how medical terminology in television dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy diverges from the specialised language used in real-life clinical settings. Comparative studies may also explore discrepancies between the terminology employed in fictional portrayals and that used in real emergency contexts, taking into account emotional factors that influence communication, as well as regional variation in medical language. Furthermore, reception studies involving viewers – particularly non-specialists – would be valuable in assessing how medical discourse is perceived and understood by target audiences.