“Per sentire… Vedo!”: un viaggio nella sordità attraverso la traduzione di un video dalla LIS all’italiano

This thesis is focused on the translation from LIS to written Italian of a video entitled Per sentire… Vedo! Un viaggio nella sordità… by Dr. Mauro Mottinelli, a psychologist, psychotherapist and a leading figure in the field of Italian Sign Language (LIS). The work is based on the linguistic and cultural challenges of translating a message from a source language (LIS) to a target language (written Italian). The first Chapter of the thesis introduces the aims and methodology of the study, illustrating the approach used and analysing the translation. Chapter 2 provides an in-depth overview of Dr. Mottinelli's biography, his professional career and the importance of his contributions to the world of deafness and LIS. It also explores the thematic areas addressed in his work, providing a context for understanding the video in question and all other videos produced by Dr. Mottinelli. In Chapter 3, the source text is analysed, describing the content of the video and carrying out a macro-level analysis of the text, including the type of text, the genre, the publication venue, the target audience and the sociolinguistic elements present. This is followed by a micro-level linguistic analysis, which considers vocabulary, syntax, rhetorical figures, prosody and non-manual elements, which are as fundamental as manual ones in a language such as LIS. The translation of the video from LIS to Italian is presented in Chapter 4, while Chapter 5 contains a detailed commentary on the choices made and the translation strategies employed, examining the intramorphemic translation, the problems encountered during the process and the strategies used to maintain the integrity of the original content by adapting it to a different linguistic and cultural context, and the type of translation approach used. This study offers a complete analysis of the translation process from LIS to Italian, providing insights into the theoretical and practical aspects of sign language translation and highlighting the importance of maintaining both linguistic accuracy and cultural relevance in translation.