The Barriers and Strategies in English Movie Subtitle Translation

英文电影字幕翻译中的障碍与技巧

Purpose and Significance of the Study

In this rapidly developing information age ,the fast rhythm of modern life urges people to gather large quantities of information in short time. And media work is really a good choice , it is not only an important way to widen horizon, but also the communication bridge of the culture.

Movie subtitle translation is a new field of translation which has both similarities with other fields and its own uniqueness. After the Innovation Reform , a large amount of foreign media works have been imported into our country, then played on , and sold, wildly spread through China.There are two elementary methods in translating the foreign media works; dubbing and subtitle translation. Dubbing is time-consuming and complex ,compared with that, subtitle translation is more convenient that can enable the audience enjoy the movie#8217;s original flavor and can appreciate the culture rooted in the language as well.So ,subtitle translation is occupying the media market.

Language is the carrier of culture, the culture#8217;s transmission and inheritance all rely on it.It plays an important role in intercultural communication, the culture acceptor can change his or her own mode of thinking and some other kinds of things.Subtitle translation is vital to the audiences to understand the foreign culture and promote the communication of each culture.Thus,it is of great importance to research on the subtitle translation and guides it efficiently by theory support.

Literature Review

With the advent of the internet, people get more and more opportunities to communicate with each other and have more access to the foreign culture. Through media to know the world better is a good way for people to choose. In order to figure out and appreciate the media works ,subtitle translation plays an important role . Good subtitle translation is not only realized in linguistic level but also in cultural level.

What is subtitle translation? At present ,there is still no definitely authoritative definition for it.Some scholars give their own understanding of it.In a 2004 article, Routledge Baker claims that Subtitle translation can be defined as the process of providing synchronized caption for film and television dialogue. In another 2004 article, Worth Shuttle expresses that Subtitles, sometimes referred to as captions, are transcriptions of film or TV dialogue ,presented simultaneously on the screen.

Among all the articles, quite a few scholars show great interest in English movie subtitle translation. For example, Liu Ling (2008) expressed in her article that translated version should remain all the functions of the original language ,otherwise the referential function should be remained in case resection is unavoidable. Li Yunxing (2001) pointed in his article that the primary requirement of subtitle translation is to provide, within the constrains of time and space ,the most relevant information in the most effective way. He also analyzes the features of subtitle translation in terms of time-space constrains, informative function and cultural factors.Ji Fengju（2007）made an analysis of methods of subtitle translation, she introduces the methods of condensation ,reductive and paraphrasing deletion can be used in subtitle translation. Mo Fan (2008) thought that according to the conversion between the souse language and the target language ,methods of subtitle translation can be divided into Foreignizing and Domesticating.

By absorbing the achievements of previous scholars, the author comes to the conclusion that guiding principles for film subtitle translation should be conciseness ,accuracy and principle of achieving equivalence.While translating film dialogues from English to Chinese ,problems may arise.These problems can come from the translator , or film subtitle translation itself. To solve these problems , translators must adopt some strategies.

In my paper, I would focus on the detailed barriers may meet in the subtitle translation and the strategies to deal with them.

Conclusion

Nowadays ,the English movies are becoming more and more popular. So qualified subtitle translation enjoys a more important place for it can make people understand precisely what the film wants present and have no barriers and misleading of western culture.But the subtitle translation now has only accomplished the first step in the hard develop process in our country. Lots of efforts are required for us to fulfill.

Outline

1. Introduction

1.1 Statements of the subject

1.2 Purpose of the thesis

2. Literature Review

3. Barriers in English Movie Subtitle Translation

3.1 Definition of subtitle translation

3.2 Features of movie subtitle

3.3 Detailed barriers in subtitle translation

3.3.1 Cultural differences

3.3.2 Time and space limited

3.3.3 Loss and deviation

4. Strategies in English Movie Subtitle Translation

4.1 Cultural differences in translation

4.2 Improving intercultural awareness

4.3 The theories and skills of translation

5. Conclusion

Works Cited

Baker, routledge M. (2004). Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

Shuttle,Worth M. (2004). Dictionary of Translation Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

Ji, F.J. [季凤菊]等人，2007，《英雄》英文字幕翻译策略探析. 上海翻译。

Liu, B. [刘彬]，2007，英文电影字幕翻译策略初探. 辽宁工学院学报 (5)。

Lu, B. Q. [卢炳群]，2002，影视字幕翻译散论. 南京晓庄学院学报 (3)。

Liu, L. [刘玲]，2008，从影片《断背山》谈外语片的字幕翻译. 陕西教育学院学报（1）。

Li, Y. X. [李运兴]，2001，字幕翻译的策略. 中国翻译 (4)。

Mo, F. [莫凡]，2008，从中西文化差异看影视字幕. 读与写杂志。

Wang, Y. [王焰]等人，2005，电影字幕翻译的微技巧探析。

Yang, M. M. [杨苗苗]等人，2008，电影字幕中文化因素的翻译. 中国电力教育 (122)。

Zhang, C. B, [张春柏]，1998，影视翻译初探.中国翻译 (2)。

Zhao, N. [赵宁]，2005，试析电影字幕限制因素及翻译策略.中国民航学院学报（5）。

Zhang, X. Y. [张晓英]，2011，英语影视作品中的翻译要点分析.外语研究（2）。

Zhang, Y. [张媛]，2011，电影《夜宴》字幕翻译中的缩减策略.河南工程学院学报（2）。