论文总字数：32948字

摘 要

电影作为传播信息以及文化的载体，可以加深人们对不同文化底蕴和乡土风情的理解，同时它也可以帮助人们了解到不同国家之间的历史文化和生活习俗。随着经济全球化的发展以及国际之间交流的日益增多，影视字幕翻译在人们的日常交流中起着十分重要的作用。作为传播信息的有效途径，字幕翻译一直以来都是学者研究的重要课题。本文对尤金·奈达功能对等理论进行了探析，并在此基础上，探讨了影视字幕翻译的特点和策略对字幕翻译的影响，以及功能对等理论体系就语言层面和文化层面上在电影《遇见你之前》中的应用，从而进一步论证功能对等理论对影视字幕翻译具有实践性的指导作用。

关键词：影视字幕翻译；功能对等理论；《遇见你之前》

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1
3. Subtitle Translation and the theory of functional equivalence..............3

3.1 The characteristics of subtitle translation..............................……………….4

3.2 Principles of subtitle translation…..................…………………………........5

3.3 Brief introduction of the theory of functional equivalence……………...6

4. The application of Nida"s functional equivalence theory in the subtitle

translation of Me before you……..............................................……………….7

4.1 A brief introduction of the film Me before you….............…………………..8

4.2 Application of functional equivalence theory at the language level...............8

4.3 Application of functional equivalence theory at the culture level................11

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..12

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...13

1. Introduction

Nowadays, the global economy and culture are mutually infiltrated and communications between countries are increasingly widespread. As an intuitive cultural carrier, films provide an effective way for cultural exchanges. Meanwhile, they have gradually came into people"s daily lives and become a very colorful form of entertainment. And our Chinese market has also been flooded by different foreign movies. These films help us expand our horizons and help us learn different foreign languages. As an effective method to spread culture, subtitle translation of the foreign films play an important role for the audiences who are at home to enjoy the foreign films. Subtitle translation not only spread culture and information, but also can affect the worth of English films, so as the basic position of film translation, subtitle translation should be paid attention to by the translation community.

1. Literature Review

In May 1949, the former Soviet film "An Ordinary Soldier" translated by Yuan Naichen, director of Changchun Film Studio, was the first translation film in Chinese history. In the early days of domestic film and television development, Chinese audiences often had difficulty accessing the original foreign movies. Most of them were dubbed and translated. The translation of film and television subtitles was seriously inadequate. Even the first domestically added subtitles could not be verified. In the 21st century, more and more Chinese audiences have access to foreign films and TV works. With the improvement of audiences" foreign language proficiency, more and more audiences are inclined to the mode of subtitle plus original sound, and the related theoretical research of subtitle has gradually deepened. Due to the late start of subtitle translation research in China, it is still in its infancy. Not only are there fewer people engaged in this field, but also the scope of research is scattered and one-sided. There is no systematic theory yet. At present, there are three main types of teams engaged in the practice and research of subtitle translation in China: professional translation institutions, network subtitle groups and scholars. The origin of the subtitle group is rapidly growing with the popularity of broadband Internet in China. Domestic formal film and television institutions have strict restrictions on the introduction of film and television works, which are slow and limited in number. In order to appreciate more popular film and television works, film and television enthusiasts in society spontaneously form subtitle groups to do subtitle translation of popular movies and TV plays. There are a large number of network subtitle groups, and their appearance meets people"s demand for watching overseas movies, and quietly conveys the foreign culture to everyone. However, members of the network subtitle group mostly rely on personal enthusiasm and hobbies for subtitle translation. The level of translators is uneven. In order to release subtitles in the first time, they often seek faster and more accurate translations. In the case of mistranslation, the research interest in subtitle translation theory is not very large. In addition, subject to copyright restrictions, subtitle groups have been walking along the edge of the law, surviving in the cracks, which greatly limits its growth. In general, domestic film subtitle translation research has achieved certain achievements, but it still has a lot of research space as an emerging research field, especially for subtitle translation of small language movies, and the translation level needs to be improved. Nowadays, the shortcomings of film and television subtitle translation research have formed a stark contrast with the current introduction of foreign film and television works. There is a lack of relevant theoretical guidance for film and television subtitle translation.

In 1929, the American film "The Jazz Singer" was released in Paris. For the first time, French subtitles were added at the bottom of the screen. In August of the same year, the Italian film "Singing Fool" was added in Danish subtitles when it was released in Copenhagen. Although the translation level of the subtitles of these two films is not satisfactory, as one of the important means of subtitle translation in the future, interlingual subtitles started from this and officially entered the film and television stage.

Western scholars have studied subtitles for a long time, but most of the early studies focused on the description of subtitles, which did not summarize the characteristics of subtitle translation, and it was difficult to rise to a theoretical level, which could not provide certain guidance for subtitle translation from a technical point of view. In 1974, Dolleru, a famous Danish translation theorist, first studied subtitle theory independently, and put forward the significance of subtitle in the field of teaching, pointing out that subtitle can be used to help foreign language learning. In the 1980s, with the rapid development of the European and American film and television industry, the theoretical research on subtitle translation gradually deepened. In the 1990s, Western film and television translation studies began to enter the "golden age", and the theory of subtitle translation research also had a breakthrough development, covering the specific characteristics, techniques, principles, standards and other aspects of subtitle translation. Finnish scholar Gottlieb is a leading figure in the field of film and television translation. He has conducted a detailed study on subtitle translation from the perspective of linguistics, and has a good understanding of idiom translation, translation mode conversion, subtitle translation strategies and techniques. In recent years, there have been more and more academic conferences on film and television translation in Europe. The academic focus is still on subtitle translation. The development of academic conferences has increased the exchange of relevant theories and practical experience of subtitle translation in various countries and greatly promoted the in-depth study of subtitle translation.

In general, subtitle translation has far more emphasis on the West than China, and has formed a certain research scale and system. However, compared with the rapid development of film and television works in various countries, the research on subtitle translation has a clear lag trend. The depth and breadth of research can not satisfy the audience"s craving. The research on film subtitle translation still has a long way to go.

3. Subtitle Translation

With the continuous development of the film and television industry, film and television works have become an important channel for people to contact the cultural customs of various countries, and have attracted more and more attention from the audience. Subtitle translation is different from traditional translation. Besides the text translation, it can also be regarded as the cultural translation. When dealing with the problems and challenges brought by a series of limitations in subtitle translation, we should consider them from many aspects. Using the most appropriate translation strategies to maximize the effective transmission of the original language information and meet the audience"s needs for the film. In addition, with the development of the globalization of the world economy, the continuous deepening of media technology and cross-cultural communication, the film market has also developed rapidly. In recent years, there’s a growing number of European and American films have been pouring into the Chinese market. At the same time, excellent film and television works from home have also entered the international market. As a way of cultural and artistic communication, film bears rich cultural and social connotations, and has great or small influence on people"s lives and thoughts. A good film and television work wants to be loved by audiences all over the world, and it is especially important to translate its subtitles just right. The translation of film and television subtitles has gradually become a hot issue in the circle of translation.

3.1 The characteristics of subtitle translation

Subtitle translation, it refers to the translation of the dialogue from the source language to the target language in the form of synchronic subtitles. It usually at the bottom of the screen. As an emerging field, film or television subtitle translation is quite different from some general text translation or interpretation. Spoken language can be converted into written language and it can change the way of discourse. “Due to limited screen space, subtitles generally cannot exceed two lines at a time.”（Li 39） Film subtitle translation usually has the following characteristics.

First, synchronicity. Subtitle translation, as an auxiliary tool for film and television works, it can not exist independently and must appear together with the film and television pictures and sounds, otherwise it may cause misunderstanding or ambiguity.

Second, it is ephemeral. Subtitle translation is generally a ever-changing process, it is impossible for subtitle translation to stay on the screen for a long time because it is updated from time to time. It is not like the book which can be read and controlled by the reader and carefully chewed and tasted.

Third, it is not retrospective. With the development of film and television plots, the screen changes all the time, and the subtitle translation keeps moving forward. Even if the audience has not fully figured out a certain plot, they can only give up decisively, otherwise they will miss more plots.

Fourth, it is popular. As a kind of dialogue translation, Subtitle translation tends to be colloquial. Catering to the audience with different educational backgrounds is subtitle translation’s purpose. It will inevitably have a bad effect on viewing, if the subtitle translation is difficult and obscure for audience to understand. With the continuous expansion of the film audience, subtitle translation must gradually become very easy for target audience to enjoy and understand.

The fifth is the integration, the language, pictures and music of film and television need to be effectively integrated and closely complement each other. The actors" body language and facial expressions in the film and television works convey the film and television information, which belongs to non-verbal information. Film and television works can be better enjoyed by the audience by explaining such information. So it is a very necessary process.

In addition, the differences between subtitle translation and interpretation and translation are mainly determined by the ways and channels of film and television communication. Film and television subtitles are closely related to pictures and sounds, resulting in some technical limitations, including space-time and language subjects. Film and television subtitle translation is limited by space. This space is related to the number of characters and the lines of subtitle translation that can be accommodated on the screen. Because if there are too many subtitles, the audience need to spend a lot of to the translation and too many subtitle translation on the screen will affect the viewing effect. Furthermore, if the characters speak fast, it may be difficult for the audience to take into account the information of both subtitles and pictures, which will affect the viewing effect.

3.2 Strategies for subtitle translation

When it comes to the language form and cultural background, we know that between Chinese and western countries, there is a huge differences existing between them. When introducing foreign film and television cultural works, it is necessary to comprehensively consider various factors and adopt the most appropriate translation strategy to deal with subtitle translation in different contexts. Ensuring that the language features of the source language are maximized and that the target audience can accept and accurately understand the subtitle translation. The following will summarize the research of the predecessors and talk about several translation strategies widely used in subtitle translation.

First, literal translation and free translation. When doing translation, the above two types of translations are the most commonly methods. Literal translation usually aims at expressing the original meaning while preserving the language form in the source language. This strategy can also preserve the original expression of some specific cultural images in the source language and enable the target audience to fully understand the foreign characteristics. For example, the English translation of the film “Luomajiari” is Roman Holiday. Sometimes, when literal translation may not accurately and appropriately express the meaning of certain images or words, it is necessary to adopt the strategy of free translation. The free translation has solved some of the unique meanings of idioms, proverbs and idioms that often appear in film and television dramas, and makes up for the problems of inflexible translation that may occur in the process of literal translation. The English movie whose name is "Diezhongdie" is translated into mission impossible. If the film’s name uses a literal translation method, the audience may feel puzzled and unintelligible. Therefore, it is best to take a free translation.

3.3 Brief introduction of the theory of functional equivalence

Eugene A.Nida, a famous American translation theorist in the mid-20th century, put forward the Functional equivalence theory and on this basis, he formed a series of his own translation system. The so-called "functional equivalence" means that the relationship between words and people"s tone should be handled flexibly during the translation process, so that the two languages can achieve equal balance in function. The theory of the functional equivalence is the kernel of this translation system. This theory clearly points out that to allow the target language to reproduce the source language information is the final goal of translation, the way of translation is to use the language closest to the source language and to make them equivalence in language function. The language function refers to the role played by the language itself when used. Although there are some differences among pronunciation, grammar, the form of expression and the habits of expression during use, they still have some similar functions. In connection with the problem of language functions, the translators must meet the following four conditions, including convey the information ,reflect the spirit and the style of the original, the language is smooth and natural and in line with the language habits and the audience will have the similar language response during the viewing process. Under the premise of satisfying these four conditions, try to make the target language consistent with the character"s tone, there will always be some content or form contradictions in this process. When the contradictions cannot be reconciled, we should try our best to meet the content requirements, so that the function of the translation is closer to the original text.

Second, subtraction and addition. Due to the limitation of time and space in subtitle translation mentioned above, subtitling is usually adopted in subtitle translation in order to save space. That is, to minimize or simplify some unnecessary or repetitive content information in subtitles while ensuring the integrity of the semantics, to use the most popular and understandable language to express the original subtitle meaning concisely, and to show the audience the level of subtitle in line with the quality of the film.

Third, Alienation and naturalization. In the film and television dialogue, there are often many load words with special cultural meanings or expressions with exotic cultural colors. However, we may not find some vocabularies or expressions that have the same meaning to this in the target language. So it is necessary to consider the use of foreignization and domestication to guide the translation of such subtitles when we deal with translations. Naturalization aims to convey the semantic content and the main spirit of the source language to the target audience, using conservative means to minimize the strangeness of the source text. For example, in the Gone with the Wind, scarlet: “that man looking at us and smiling, a nasty dog” subtitles translated as “the one who smiles and looks at us is really ugly.” In the words, if “a nasty dog” is directly translated into “a nasty dog”, the audience will be puzzled. Here, the translator adopts the domestication strategy and changes the metaphor in the original language to what the Chinese often say. “Ugly, ugly, it is easy to convey the meaning of the original language, but also easy to create a sense of intimacy.” The domestication strategy is frequently used in film and television subtitle translation because it is usually used in expressions that are easily accepted by the target audience.

4. The application of Nida"s functional equivalence theory in the subtitle

translation of Me before you

In conducting the subtitle translation, Nida"s equivalence theory plays a practical significance on it because it provides a theoretical foundation for translators in translation. The thesis will take the British movie Me before you as an example and analyze the guiding significance of Nida"s functional equivalence theory on subtitle translation from the lexical level, syntactic level and rhetoric level in details.

4.1 A brief introduction of the film Me before you

A young lady, Lou, from the small town applies to be a caregiver, the man she needs to take care of named Will. Will loved freedom and adventure before, but an accident destroyed his vertebral and made him quadriplegia, this means that Will"s long life can only be spent in a wheelchair. Lou started to live with Will by chance, but Will finds that Lou is different from other caregivers, she never avoid to escaping her pains, and it is this kind of courage that gives Will some different feelings. Accompanied by Lou, Will began to gradually relive the feeling of happiness. The courage of Lou also made Will start to seriously think about his future.

4.2 Application of functional equivalence theory at the language level

It is important for subtitle translation to be precise and accurate when doing language translation. Because of the space constraints and the limitation of the time, subtitle translation generally does not exceed two lines. The main function of subtitle translation is to allow the audience better enjoy the films and TV dramas. It requires that the target language and the original language should keep equivalence. No matter English or Chinese language texts, they both enjoy their own lexical features. Under the guidance of Nida"s functional equivalence theory, translators of subtitle translation can achieve functional equivalence by using target language propensity and adaptive translation strategies. “At other linguistic levels, the level of vocabulary adaptive strategies is the lowest. Translators often use Chinese phrases, idioms and four-character idioms to make subtitle translation more accurate and specific.” (Tan 27) In the subtitle translation of Me before you, there are many places where the lexical level adaptation principles are applied to achieve functional equivalence.

Example 1

Katrina: Maybe he’s like that with everyone, until he knows whether they’re gonna stick around. I mean, it’s only been ten days.(也许他对谁都这样，他又不知道你会不会留下来)

Lou: Feel like a lifetime.(简直度日如年)

Example 2

Will: So what do I owe this pleasure? （你们二位有何贵干）

Example 3

Will: You really don’t enjoy sarcasm, do you?（你不喜欢嘲讽 对吧）

Lou: Sarcasm is fine, I just don’t like superiority.（我只是不喜欢盛气凌人）

The above examples clearly show the characteristics of subtitle translation. They are very specific and precise because of the limitations. The translators can achieve functional equivalence by adopting a lexical level adaptation by following the theory guidance. In the above cases, every sentence is translated into idioms or proverbs with Chinese habits, making the translation of subtitles closer to the reader, better accepted by the audience.

When doing subtitle translation, translators prefer to select simple sentences rather than long sentences or complex sentences. The aim of subtitle translation is to promote the target audiences to better enjoy the films or TV shows and enhance their interest. Under the guidance of Nida’s theory, the translators strive to maintain the original sentence structure and reproduce the meaning of the original text, and at the same time, they try their best to use appropriate vocabulary idioms, etc, so that the audience can better appreciate the work by making the translation closer to the target audiences. However, the omission of words in the syntax among different kinds of languages is more complicated. “An indispensable part of a language is not that important in another one, translators may encounter many obstacles unless they can use the right adaption strategy.” (Tan 298) The translator needs Nida"s functional equivalence theory as a guide, only in this way can they achieve the functional equivalence between the original language and the target language.

Example 1:

Katrina: Louisa Clark, working for the Traynors. Wonders will never cease.（路易莎克拉克，为威尔家族工作，奇迹总会如期而至）

Example 2:

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