论文总字数：31021字

摘 要

电影作为一种日益流行的大众文化形式,是对外进行文化传播的有效渠道,电影字幕翻译则在传播中扮演着重要的角色。与文学作品相比, 影视字幕作为一种视听媒体文本有其独特的语言特点,因此, 在翻译影视字幕时, 译员应当使之简单易懂，并采取相应的翻译策略, 以最终达到影视字幕翻译的目的。在跨文化交际中,英文电影的字幕对白与译文之间存在偏差,两种语言、两种文化之间的差异注定了字幕对白原义与译文之间的偏差,因为不同的文化背景会导致部分意义的缺失。很多电影根植于中国传统文化和古典文学的背景之下，其字幕的翻译必然涉及到语言、文化翻译的各个方面。本文以电影字幕作为研究对象，探讨译者在翻译中所采用的翻译策略。

关键词：字幕翻译; 时空节约法；省译法

1. Introduction

1.1 Background information

Modern science and technology provides us with variety of access to information. The birth of Internet further deepened the relationship among the people from different countries. People’s desire to understand each other has become stronger and stronger. American movies and teleplays become more and more popular in china, which makes audience feel the exotic culture in entertainment at the same time. However, most Chinese audience cannot understand the meaning of the TV products because of the language barrier, and they can only rely on the dubbing or subtitles provided by the specific workers. The updating speed of English movies and teleplays is fast; these subtitle translated versions which keep the original sounds and voices share more popularity in china. We consider foreign films and TV series as a way of cultural transmission, the occurrence rate of them is becoming higher and higher. In order to make the Chinese audience understand foreign films, fansub groups usually translate the subtitle in two ways: Firstly prints captions at the bottom of the screen; another way is using the voice dubbed subtitles. The latter one is often considered as "dubbed film" (it refers to the films’ dialogue firstly translated into Chinese and then dubbed by the voice actors which makes the film looks like a Chinese version). In the 1980s, because of the limited conditions, only few foreign films came to china, so film subtitles translation didn’t get enough attention it actually deserves in a very long time.

1.2 Existing problems

However, the current film and television market is very confused. Many foreign films’ subtitles have more than one version of translations; which brings the audience a lot of inconvenience. Many dubbed film looks very unnatural, some of them are wrong mouth shapes, and some with terrible collocation of sounds and pictures, as well as some tone of voice is simply not matches the exact situation. Among these are some problems mainly because of the translators’ lacking understanding of the special nature of the subtitle translation. It is known to all that the subtitles’ translation works are completed by the English lovers; as a result, there exist many problems in terms of the quality of translation. The subtitles in movies and teleplays have its own distinct characteristics; therefore, English movies’ subtitle translation should be based on the language features and loyal to the content of the works and cultural background at the same time. In recent days, many famous websites of subtitles’ translation were forced to close because of the copyright restriction. The field of subtitle translation in china will come back to an interrogation mark. This paper pay attention to dealing with cultural factors and other strategies during the process of translation on the basis of the subtitle translation’s language features of colloquial, popularized and widely use of rhetoric; in order to give a perfect film and television programs to the public.

• 1. The aim of this paper

This paper firstly lists the film theorists’ outstanding contributions and respective achievements in subtitle translation area. By understanding the achievements of predecessors, this paper analyzes the deficiencies and makes approaches for the future development. Second, this paper explores the concepts and features of film subtitle translation. Many translation theorists have different definitions and different views on film subtitle translation. Unlike other literary translation, subtitles translation has its own unique characteristics. The film itself is the art combining of sound and picture, and therefore the film subtitle translation is limited by factors like space and time. Translators can make the correct translation strategy as long as they understand these constraints. By absorbing the previous experiences and achievements, this paper summarizes the three translation principles: accurate, concise and achieving functional equivalence. There are some problems in the movie subtitle translation. Problems are mainly reflected in three aspects: translator themselves, movies and picture captions unity and the cultural words translation in dialogue. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the corresponding translation strategies.

2. Literature Review

There are as many different views concerning the nature of translation as there are views concerning the nature of language. If you think of language as a means of conveying ideas, you will be satisfied with a translation that renders the ideas of the foreign language text. If you think of language as the embodiment of a tribal way of seeing life, you are convinced that language and thought are inseparably bound up with each other and you will want a translation to retain as much of the source language as possible. In 1960S, J.C.Catford gives an idea that one’s theory of translation is determined by one’s theory of language, and a linguistic theory of translation will draw upon general linguistics. The general linguistics theory used in his book is “influenced to a large extent by the work of the late J.R.Firth”. The author’s thesis is that the translation must do what the original text did; translation must be functional, i.e. the thing to translate is not the meaning of the text, but its function.

Later in 1990s, Nida Eugene came up with the theory of cultural difference in translation. In order to accurately reproduce the source language culture and eliminate the cultural differences, the translator can follow the three steps below. The first, strive to create a translation text with original semantic and reflects the cultural features. However, the two languages represent two completely different cultures; culture may have similar factors, but may not be completely the same. Therefore, a translation text which fully displays the cultural in tension of the original is not possible; the translator can only maximize the reproduction of the source language culture. Second, if the meaning and culture can not be simultaneously, the translator has no choice but abandon formal equivalence to reproduce the original semantic and cultural objective by changing the text in the target text form. Third, if the change of form is still not enough to express the original meaning and the culture, we can use “recreation” skills to deal with cultural differences between the source language and the target language so that the translator can achieve equivalence on the degree of meaning.

Li Yun Xing, the professor of TJNU’s English department thought that the primary requirement of subtitling is to provide, within the constraints of time and space, the most relevant information in the most effective way. This article analyzes the features of subtitling in terms of time-space constraints, informative function and cultural factors, and then puts forward and corresponding strategies for translation, with concrete examples for illustration.

Also in 2009, Professor Gao Bin thought that according to functionalist approaches, translation principles and strategies should be firstly determined by its speakers. Compared with literary works, screen subtitle falls into the category of audio visual texts and has its distinctive features, namely colloquial, time-and-space-limited and culture-specific. Therefore, screen subtitle translators should follow two basic principles of conciseness and instant legibility while adopting corresponding translation strategies so as to finally serve the purpose of translation.

1. Subtitle Translation Strategies and Methods for English Movies and Teleplays

3.1 Definition of Subtitle Translating

There are two kinds of subtitles: intralingual subtitles and interlingual subtitles. Interlingual subtitling refers to these texts which were translated from source language and printed in the bottom of the screen under the condition of retaining the film soundtrack. That is the usual subtitle translation we call. Subtitle translation is a kind of special language conversion type: the concentrated written translation of spoken soundtrack. Subtitle translation including three layers of meaning which is theoretically separate but actually inseparable: interlingual information transmission, text simplification or concentration, as well as the spoken language conversion into the written language. The latter two meanings of the subtitle translation make it different from other translation types. The cut in other types of translation of the original text is common, although there are, but none of them reached in such breadth and intensity like subtitle translation; there is no change in the method of textual interpretation and translation, and there is no conversion of spoken and written language; subtitle translation experiences the conversion from spoken language to written language (or rather text). In our country, there are many subtitles were translated from the script. But it is certainly different from the usual translation, because the translators have to do the text operation by referring to the television picture and voice, otherwise sometimes they cannot even decide a single or plural noun. Besides the conversion way of enrichment and discourse, there are two characters of subtitle translation. First, the appearance of the subtitles has not changed the image, voice (including language, music and other sound effects) information of the original film. In this way, the subtitles information and the original sound information which the audience received will have interaction, if there is something that can not be expressed or expressed enough by the subtitles, the audience can be compensated from the original sound. For example, the tone of the sentence is furious or softly, and the image details and other things that words cannot express. Perhaps this is the advantage of the subtitling compared to the other types of translation. Second, if the original voice of the source language is clear and correct. Any person who has some knowledge of the source language would unconsciously take a critical attitude towards the subtitles. Slightly improper will cause the audience's distrust, it affects the information transmission. A subtitle translator should work like publishing a bilingual book, which needs to be very careful. Subtitle translation can be divided into feature films, television dramas, documentaries, topics and so on. The subtitle translation of different texts range will also have different characteristics, even if the same story, there will also be action oriented version or language based version, and they certainly require different translation strategies.

3.2 The function and stylistic features of the subtitles

The function of the subtitles is obvious: to provide information. But information function of subtitles has two unique features: first, the language information which provided by subtitle is closely cooperated with visual and auditory information; second, the language information of subtitles appears a progressive advance. First characteristics enable us to realize that not only the sign language can be the tools for subtitle translators, picture and sound can also become the tools in their hand, the question is how he could make the translated text and the inherent audiovisual information become complementary to each other. The second feature is that the translation method is relative to the voice dubbing and simultaneous interpretation. In these two kinds of translation, the information flow were continuously transmitted to the listener, while subtitle translation provides information by printing sections of texts on a screen; the audience would wait for a little while after they ran down the former part (though the waiting is quiet short). The subtitle is the text which flashes on the screen, unlike the text in the book, which may easy for the reader to consult before and after. This specific way of realizing the information function is another restriction to the subtitle translation. The translator must ensure that this progressive information is connected and coherent, and that the audience can obtain the clearest information with the least effort. And the realization of this kind of guarantee mostly depends on the style of the translation. Subtitles should use common words, tiny words and short words; sentence should be concise, avoid cumbersome and lengthy, and reduce the use of long insertion components, word structure and clauses. Although subtitle translation can be classified as a branch of literary translation, but due to the particularity of subtitle language, it has more different points than same points. There are many opinions on the problem of the language features of the film and television subtitles. I believe that the language of the film subtitles has three basic features. First, it is oral, because the subtitle is a plot of the dialogue which is very brief, exquisite and direct both in morphology or syntax, and close to life. Therefore, it has obvious feature of spoken language. The second is space-time. Compared with the literary works, the film and television subtitles language is particularly prominent. In literary works, the translated text can change numbers of words according to the needs of source language, the reader can also has a plenty of time appreciating the text slowly through repeated reading. But subtitle is designed as the special language of drama dialogues according to the characters; it is usually displayed at the bottom of the screen with limited spaces, it keep changing to follow the change of cutscene, so subtitling translation is constrained by two factors of time and space. The third is cultural. Language is the carrier of culture; as an important aspect of cultural exchange, the film and television works is a window for people to observe and understand the national culture in a large extent, so film language contains varieties of cultural factors, such as the plot of the film and television works contains a large number of idioms, slang, puns and word games, which are all good examples. Based on the above analysis of subtitle language features, the translators can truly achieve the subtitle translation purpose as long as he fully considers these linguistic features perfectly reproduced in the target language.

3.3 Cultural words in Subtitle Translation

In the source text, there are a lot of words that contain special cultural meaning, they are not familiar with the target language culture, and even difficult to understand and accept. This comes up with the problem of cultural words and phrases. There are five common modes of dealing with cultural words in the normal translation. Straight type: literal translating or transliterating the culture words in source language; blocking type: omitting the cultural words and expressions of the source language; annotation type: providing relevant context; integration type: combining the expression of source language culture with the expression of target language to achieve a new form of language into the target language; domestication type: use the culture words of the target language instead of the cultural words in source language. The characteristics of subtitle translation media add many restricting factors. But on the other hand, the multimedia character of film also provides a lot of favorable conditions for the intercultural communication. In general written translation, the translator can only convey information by writing symbols, using words to describe the dynamic and static status of things. While subtitling is much more different because of the synchronous pictures, accompaniment music, nature sounds and people speaking (although the audience may not understand). Such extra-linguistic messages provide many favorable conditions to overcome cultural differences. In view of this, subtitle translation of cultural words processing should advocate the straight type and reduce the using of other types. When the image information can not help effectively convey the cultural content, the annotation type is a priority choice, but it has to be concise and clear. There is no absolute cultural blocking in the subtitle translation, because even if the text information is blocked, the audio-visual information is still playing its function, and making some degree of compensation.

3.4 Time-space constraint and reduction method

Mayoral, Kelly and Gallardo divided the film dubbing and subtitling constraints into six categories: time, space, music, image, phonetics and spoken language. When it comes to subtitling, it is mainly related to two factors: time and space. Time refers to the synchronization of language and image, although the subtitle is not as strict as the voice in this regard, but it must complete the transmission of information within the same time as the source language discourse. In addition, each line of subtitles must stay enough time for viewers to glance in the screen; the average second is appropriate 2 to 3 seconds. Subtitles sometimes use two lines, sometimes with one line; the numbers of words are also different in different countries. Because of the restriction of time and space, subtitle translators often have to use deduction translation strategy. Therefore the subtitle translation is also called "the reductive form of translation" or "constrained translation". In the actual operation of translation, the deduction strategy can be divided into three kinds: condensation, reductive paraphrasing and deletion. Condensation means translating the original information only; reductive paraphrasing refers to the exact words with the relatively brief statements; deletion is, of course, completely omitted in translation. The reduction method is not the blindly compression, and one important operation principle is the relevance. The relevance theory tells us that the individual's cognitive structure is composed of logic, vocabulary and knowledge. And the cognition of any text can not be separated from the concrete context. The relevance principle is mainly reflected in the translator's judgment of the cognitive ability of the receiver. The information which is irrelevant in the receiver’s limited cognitive space can be deleted straightly to highlight the more relevant information; the information which is lacked in receiver’s inherent cognitive structure and can not be added in the limited time and space should slightly deleted; the information which has sufficient context provided by pictures or music can be considered to reduce. In view of the above interpretation of the subtitle language features as well as functions and the purpose of film subtitle. The author thinks that subtitle translation should follow two basic principles of translation: simple and easy to understand. With the three features of the film subtitle language, the translators can only take proper translation strategies, techniques and methods to realize the purpose of film subtitle translation. The following example is taken from the American TV series "Prison Break", which can serve as an example of the above discussion.

3.4.1 Make the translation oral

Taking oral strategy actively and ensuring the subtitle translation is easy to understand. the so-called oral strategy refers to using the simple, popular, easy-understanding vocabulary and sentence structures during the process of film subtitle translation to make the subtitles in the target language accord with common oral expressions and easy for the audience to read and understand. Look at the following dialogue:

Michael: We get him on board; there’s gonna be a midnight flight waiting for us the night we get out side those walls.

Burrows: You’re willing to risk the entire escape on a guy you don’t even know?

Translation version 1: Michael :我们拉他入伙, 然后就有飞机在半夜帮助我们逃

Burrows :你都不了解他, 这么做是不是太冒险?

Translation version 2: Michael: 我们先引其入彀, 在一月黑风高之夜, 将有飞机把我们从高墙中接走。

Burrows :你愿把整个逃脱大计押宝在一个你并不十分了解的人身上吗?

By simple comparison, we can find that the language and meaning of version 1 is easy to understand, while version 2 both in the choice of words and sentence structure are relatively complex and lengthy, it is not conform to the characteristics of subtitle language and less likely to help the audience understand and appreciate the story.

3.4.2 Use the deduction strategy tactfully.

As previously discussed, subtitle translation is restricted by time and space factors both in the source language and the target language, so translators can not translate completely loyal to the original text like the translation of literary works to achieve the source language and the target language equivalence, it is necessary to use concentration, simplify and omitting skills to reprocess the source language, in order to effectively deal with time and space limitation of subtitling. For example:

Veronica: Do you know who did it?

Expert: No .You? People who do this kind of work are ghosts, man .The guy behind the guy, you know what I mean?

Veronica: You see any thing? Definitive cuts? Any place that proves the tape might've been doctored?

Translation: Veronica :知不知道是谁干的?

Expert :反正我不知道。干这种事的人简直就是魔鬼。一环套一环, 明白吗?

Veronica :到底被人做过手脚没有?

In the above translation cases, Veronica’s last sentence contains three successive questions, which fully demonstrated the speaker’s urgency mood. If the source language was translated into“你看到什么了吗? 有没有确定的切割痕迹? 有没有地方能证明这个带子被人做过手脚?”Which is fully faithful to the source language, but this kind of translation method for caption is not only long winded but also too lengthy. It is not allowed either in the space that the screen can provide or on the time variation of the plot development. Therefore, in the text, the translator used the deduction skills to make the audience can understand the source language connotation and the eagerness of the character.

3.4.3 Flexible using of the naturalization

Flexible using of the naturalization realizes the cultural image conversion smoothly. As a comprehensive form of art, film and television works have distinct cultural specifics. The outstanding performance of these cultural elements in the film and television subtitles mainly lies in that it contains a lot of idioms, slang, pun, word game, and so on. Based on the purpose of subtitle translation, these cultural elements should not become an obstacle for audience to understand the source language and appreciate the plot of the story. Looking the following example:

Bellick: Name and back number.

Michael: Scofield,Michael. 94941.

Bellick: You are a religious man, Scofield?

Michael: Never really thought about it.

Bellick: Good, cause the Ten Commandments don’t mean a box of piss in here .We got two commandments and two only. The first commandment is you got nothing coming. Michael: What is the second commandment?

Bellick: See commandment Number 1.

In this dialogue, the prison guard Bellick asked Scofield whether religious, in which he mentioned the "Ten Commandments" in the Bible. But for most of us, we have no religious belief. So we may know nothing about the "Ten Commandments". Therefore, the author claims to adopt naturalization method. Translating it into "Taboos", this is more convenience for the audience to understand the original text.

Translation: Bellick : 姓名和编号。

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