Omission Phenomena in the American TV-series ”The Wire”

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to find out what effects the omission of intensifiers, interjections and fillers has on the general English subtitle track in the TV-series “The Wire”. Questions addressed in the study include the possible reasons for such omissions, and the consequences of applying omission strategies in this context. Thirteen episodes of the series were investigated in order to see to what extent these three types of words were omitted, and how that affected the experience when watching the series. The investigation showed that the majority of all omitted words in the subtitle track belonged to these three categories, and that technical restrictions were the most common reason for the omissions. Arguably, the lack of intensifiers, interjections and fillers made the language more stiff and formal, which in the end affected the authenticity of “The Wire”.