目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译.pdf
目的论指导下的电影字幕翻译 南 阳 理 工 学 院 本 科 毕 业 设 计（论文）目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 Translation of English Film Subtitle under the Guidance of Skopos Theory 学 院（系）：外 国 语 学 院 专 业：英 语 学 生 姓 名：崔 艳 威 学 号：051109046 授 课 教 师（职称）：张媛媛（讲师）评 阅 教 师：完 成 日 期：2013 年 1 月 12 日 南阳理工学院 Nanyang Institute of Technology 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 1 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 英语专业 崔艳威 摘 要 随着全球化和电影产业的不断发展，电影，作为世界不同文化交流的重要媒介之一，越来越受到人们的欢迎；然而，对于不同语言、文化背景下的人来说，要看懂一部外语电影则须依赖电影字幕。高质量的电影字幕，不单单能使受众明白电影的情节，还能使电影的本土文化底蕴保留下来，同时又符合受众的文化背景。不同于其他主流翻译领域，电影字幕翻译起步较晚，虽然在西方相关学者及从业者的努力下，取得了一些不俗的成就，但总体而言，该领域内仍然缺乏完整的、系统的指导性理论。在中国电影字幕的翻译起步晚、发展慢、参与的人数少，翻译水平不高、无规范性的组织，这些问题的存在都大大阻碍了我国电影字幕翻译的发展进步。本文以目的论为指导理论，通过对目的论的主要原则的阐述、电影字幕的特点的分析，将目的论的主要原则转化为适合电影字幕特点的翻译策略，并通过电影实例，将这一指导的实际效果展示给读者，希望对电影字幕翻译的研究有所帮助。关键词目的论；英文电影字幕翻译；翻译 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 2 Translation of English Film Subtitle under the Guidance of Skopos Theory English Major CUI Yan-wei Abstract:With the continuous development of film industry,film,acting as one of the important communication medias of world culture,is getting more and more prevalent.However,as for the audiences with different language and background of culture,understanding a foreign film depends on the film subtitle.Film subtitles with higher level can enable audiences be clear about the plots and contents of a film,maintains the specialty of local culture in a film,and adapts to the audients culture background.Compared with other mainstream areas of translation,translation of film subtitle gets to start a little later.Though there have been some impressive achievements with great efforts of relevant scholars and practitioners in the west,systemic and guiding theories in this area are still lacked.In china,the translation of film subtitle is late developed with low quality of translation and standardized norms.Due to all questions above,the development and progress of film translation in China is deeply blocked.The intention of this thesis is,based on the Skopos Theory,to try to turn the main principles of the Skopos Theory into the translation strategies which suit for the characteristics of film subtitle through expounding the main principles of kopos Theory and the analysis of the characteristics of film subtitle.The thesis also quotes many film examples to illustrate the practical effectiveness under the guidance of kopos Theory during the translation,which hopes to be helpful to the translation of film subtitle.Key words:Skopos Theory;film subtitle;translation 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 3 Contents Chapter 1 Characteristics and Functions of English Film Subtitle.6 1.1 Definition of film subtitle.6 1.2 Characteristics of English film subtitle.6 1.2.1 Instantaneousness.6 1.2.2 Popularization.7 1.2.3 Brevity.7 1.2.4 Sense of character.8 1.3 Functions of film subtitle.8 1.3.1 Identification function.8 1.3.2 Narrative function.9 1.3.3 Aesthetics function.9 Chapter 2 General Principles of Translation of Film Subtitle.10 2.1 Immediate comprehensibility.10 2.2 Conciseness.10 2.3 Conformance of culture specificity.11 2.4 Characteristics of roles.11 Chapter 3 Skopos Theory and Strategies of Film Subtitle Translation Under the Theory.13 3.1 Overview of Skopos Theory.13 3.2 Rules of Skopos theory.14 3.2.1 Skopos rule.14 3.2.2 Coherence rule.14 3.2.3 Fidelity rule.14 3.3 Strategies of translation of film subtitle.14 3.3.1 Reduction.14 3.3.2 Expansion.15 3.3.3 Use of Simple grammar and four-character phrases.15 3.3.4 Domestication and Foreignization.16 3.3.5 Free translation.17 Conclusion.18 References.19 Acknowledgements.20 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 4 Introduction The earliest film was invented by the Lumiere brothers.（韩丹,2010:1）1December 28th 1895,they for the first time publicly displayed their films Exiting the Factory,Arrival of A Train etc.at a cafe shop in pairs.it declared the birth of the film to the world.At the early stage,films were short(duration lasted from 4 to 40 minutes)and silent and had some language texts inserted between the film images to help audience to understand the plot,which could be regarded as the early film subtitle.From then on,the translation of film subtitle has been started.That kind of translation is obviously simple and primary;however,it was the earliest practice of translation of film subtitle.Film industry has showed its vigorous life since the first film was displayed.As the engine of the film industry in the world,Hollywoods outstanding achievements are the best example of the whole industry.According to statistics,Hollywood films took nearly 75%of the film market share in china,in the 1930s and 1940s.Under the effect of foreign film industry,in 1905,Ren jingtai and Liu zhonglun produced the film dingjunshan(定军山)and displayed it publicly and freely,which marked the birth of the first film of chin.From then on,the development of Chinas film industry found its way gradually.After the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China,especially after the reform and opening-up policy,China began to introduce foreign film into domestic market with large scale.Watching foreign films became an important way for Chinese to understand foreign countrys local conditions,acquire information,and entertain themselves.Due to the increasing demand and large quantity of annual foreign film production,there were vast foreign films need to be translated.Under this circumstance,compared with the previous way of dubbing,as a comparatively inexpensive and efficient way of language transfer,film subtitle translation became more and more popular in China,because the audience did not have to wait long time for dubbed film versions.At the same time,among viewers there was a growing demand for authenticity that went hand in hand with a better knowledge of foreign languages and cultures in programs.Furthermore,translation of film subtitle met such a tendency that more and more Chinese begin to learn English.The film with subtitle in both English and Chinese became their learning materials.Last but not the least,with the development and wide spreading of internet,the audience could get their films from the internet besides theater.There also came out some organizations engaged in translation of film subtitle,such as UU bird,RenRen etc.All above have make contributions to the development of translation of film subtitle.目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 5 This thesis focuses on the aspect of Skopos Theory to study the translation of English film subtitle.The characteristics of film subtitle have natively associative property with the content and principles of Skopos Theory.Hence,this theory has practical guiding function in the process of translation of film subtitle.By analyzing the content of Skopos Theory,translator could find theoretical foundation and practical guidance,which can be used in translation process.It may be helpful to improve the present situation of translation of the English film subtitle and make the translation industry more systemic.Another advantage of Skopos Theory is that it can maintain and show the local culture of films clearly as well as be understood easily by the audience after translation,by which Chinese people could get to know more foreign culture through English film.This thesis will quote many film lines,which would be analyzed based on Skopos Theory.Therefore readers may understand the major idea more comfortably.The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the background in which the present study is carried.Chapter 2 analyzes the characteristics and functions of film subtitle.Chapter 3 reviews the contents and development of Skopos Theory and then puts forward the strategies of subtitle translation under such theory.Chapter 5 is a conclusion which summarizes the whole thesis and brings forward suggestion on the field of translation of film subtitle.目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 6 Chapter 1 Characteristics and Functions of English Film Subtitle Though we are quite familiar with film subtitle,few people can give out specific answer when asked the detailed characteristics and functions of film subtitle.It is of importance to have a clear understanding about the characteristics and functions of film subtitle when we studying the translation of film subtitle.Hence,this part will discuss these issues.1.1 Definition of film subtitle Film subtitle is a printed statement or fragment of dialogue appearing on the screen between the senses of a silent motion or appearing as translation at the bottom of the screen during scenes of a motion picture or television show in a foreign language.According to Dictionary of Film Art,(电影艺术词典（修订版）2005:220)2film subtitle is the general term of Chinese and foreign words appearing on the screen as the form of all kinds of chirography,print hand,embossment,cartoon etc,such as film title,cast,libretto,translation,dialogue,explanation,introduction of roles,place name,date and so on.Deign of the chirography,writing,words size,layout,compositional sketch are all the factors that affect the whole model of a film According to target language,film subtitle could be divided into parallel type and crossed type.The former is used within a same language;the latter is used between different languages.1.2 Characteristics of English film subtitle Film subtitle has its own characteristics,it will be impossible for a translator to finish translating successfully if he does not notice this point.Film subtitle has the following features which give rise to the special requirements for film subtitle translation 1.2.1 Instantaneousness Unlike books or newspapers which the readers can repeat when they find something difficult to understand,or something interesting,film subtitle just last for very seconds on the screen and then next picture will come out.If audience does not understand the title,what he can do is to continue this process but return them back.It is other case that you watch film at home on CD player or through internet,you can repeat it whenever and wherever you would like.But obviously,it is boring to watch a film in that way.Hence,here comes a requirement that translators must ensure that audiences could understand the translated film subtitle 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 7 immediately when they see the film picture or listen to the dialogues without thinking too much of the meaning of the dialogue.1.2.2 Popularization As we all know,film is consumed by the public,its audiences are the common people.Therefore,the language used in film must target at common people,in other word,if one film want to be understood by the mass audience,it must use popular words and expression.Sometimes,a film may involves in a specialized or academic topic as well as something local which are unfamiliar for the common people without professional knowledge,in this case,translator should use simple and understandable subtitle to make the audience accept the film.Just as professor Zhang Chunbai said:Most cases，the translator must see to it that the translated dialogue are comprehensible to most Chinese viewers with a minimum level of education or even those without any schooling such as some illiterate elderly people and preschool children.(张春柏,1998:26)3 1.2.3 Brevity Due to time limitation and instantaneousness,film subtitle must be short and concise;it requires that film subtitle should follow the characteristic of brevity to make the audience understand it immediately when film is processing.The audiences have no enough time to follow the plots of film if subtitle is too long.For instance:Rick:Itll be interesting to see how he manages Renault:Manage what?Rick:His escape.Renault:Oh,but I just told you Rick:Stop it Rick:Twenty thousand Fr says that it isnt.Renault:Is that a serious wager?Renault:Make it 10,000.Im only a poor corrupt official.Rick:OK.Renault:Done.（黄琛琪，2007:12）4 Casablanca(1942)It is easy to find the sentences with underscore are very short and concise,So that the audiences will not have obstruction when they watch film.目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 8 1.2.4 Sense of character Language is the reflection of ones feeling,opinion,values and attitude.Especially in the film,different roles have their unique characteristics,so their language will be marked by their person characteristics.Director is just in this way to shape the character image.Hence,film subtitle should keep balance with the social standing,experience of life,age,education background of a role.For instance:jack sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean,he is always give us a image with humor and wisdom,so his language is fulfilled with his owe person characteristics.Barbossa:What are you doing?Jack sparrow:What are you doing?Barbossa:No,What are you doing?Jack sparrow:What are you doing?Barbossa:No,What are you doing?Jack sparrow:What are you doing?Hmm.Caption gives the orders on the ship.Barbossa:The caption of this ship is giving orders!Jack sparrow:my ship makes me the caption!Barbossa:They be my charts!Jack sparrow:that makes you chart man!（蔡 玲，2010:131）5 Pirates of the Caribbean:at Worlds End(2007)During the process of fighting for caption,Jack Sparrow repeats Barbossas words purposely.In addition to his performance and intonation,we can find that he is so funny.He beat Barbossa by the last sentence.His wisdom is obviously showed by his words.1.3 Functions of film subtitle Film subtitle has the indispensable function of identification,which has nothing to do with the plot of film.And the narrative function that intervenes in film text to tell audiences the story of one film.As well as the modeling function which is closely related to the style of visual beauty of the whole film and the style of the author.1.3.1 Identification function Almost all of the films have head leader,tail leader and studios logo.Subtitle of studios logo is one kind of subtitle which was printed with studios name or logo.A studio logo with visual impact and representativeness could win identification from the audiences for long time.Such as 20th Century Fox,Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.Head leader is always 目的论指导下的英文电影字幕翻译 9 the first serious of images on the screen at the beginning of one film.Generally speaking,it contains film name,film cast,time,place,and brief introduction of the background.Sometimes,tail leader also contains film cast and the words indicating the end of a film,for instance:“END”,“剧终”，“完”etc.1.3.2 Narrative function Firstly,film subtitle play a significant role in organizing structure of the film.When subtitle runs through the text of a film,it will divide the whole film into several parts.It is very common in many films.For example,in film Inglourious Basterds(2009),director Quentin Tarantino use the structure that all the chapters are interlacing each other to narrate the story.Through this method,the space time and plots which are so far away from each other are connected together.Secondly,film subtitle has the essential influence in the expression of film theme.During the period of silence film,film subtitle is responsible for not only telling the actors lines but also responsible for indicating the theme.In Tom Tykwers film Run
