功能翻译理论视角下《丑女贝蒂》字幕翻译策略研究.pdf

南京航空航天大学 硕士学位论文 功能翻译理论视角下丑女贝蒂字幕翻译策略研究 姓名：章蕾 申请学位级别：硕士 专业：英语语言文学 指导教师：孙建东 2011-03 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 iv 摘要摘要 电影、电视剧是传播文化信息的有效手段。随着经济全球化和电影、电视剧市场的扩大， 尤其是互联网的普及，越来越多的国外电影和电视剧被引进国内。但是字幕翻译的质量却远不 能满足要求，这一定程度上影响了观众对电影，电视的欣赏，阻碍了字幕翻译的发展和文化的 传播。在这种情形下，提高电影，电视剧字幕翻译质量对于加强目标语观众对剧情的理解以及 推进整个字幕翻译的发展起着举足轻重的作用。 本文采用德国功能翻译理论，对网络上流行的励志美国喜剧丑女贝蒂中的字幕翻译和 翻译策略进行分析和研究，希望通过对比分析，归纳出丑女贝蒂可以让译者在字幕翻译方 面借鉴的策略和方法. 德国功能派翻译理论的提出是对传统翻译理论的重要补充，也为字幕翻译的研究开辟了新 的视角。功能派翻译理论包括四个方面：凯萨琳娜赖斯提出的文本类型学; 功能翻译理论的 核心概念“目的论” ；贾斯塔霍茨-曼塔里提出的翻译行为理论和克里斯汀娜诺德的功能加 忠诚。 影视文本属于第四文本类型，因此其翻译策略应根据其信息功能为主，表达，操作功能为 辅的特点来选择。字幕翻译的目的决定所采取的翻译策略。字幕发起人、译者的目的、译文预 期功能、目标语观众的期待决定整个字幕翻译过程中策略的选择。从目标语观众角度来说，一 方面，观看丑女贝蒂的目的在于丰富其精神生活，达到娱乐的目的。另一方面，目标语观 众中的广大学生群体以及英语爱好者希望以此来了解美国文化和提高英语水平。从发起人既制 片商和译者的角度来说，字幕翻译的目的在于通过对目标语观众期望的最大满足，获取最大的 利润。译者不仅要考虑发起人的“翻译要求” ，还要考虑目标语观众的需求、期待和背景知识， 以目的论为主导，功能加忠诚为辅为原则，最有效的传达原文的信息，实现预期功能为目的， 进行翻译策略的选择。 本文基于功能翻译理论，通过分析和研究，归纳出译者在翻译美剧丑女贝蒂的过程中 采用减译、明晰化、归化和异化等策略来实现预期翻译目的。字幕翻译在我国翻译界还是个比 较新的领域，本文采用德国功能翻译理论，对网络剧丑女贝蒂中的字幕翻译和翻译策略进 行分析是对该领域的研究尝试。本文作者会关注未来该领域的研究，希望看到更多、更新的研 究成果。 关键词关键词：功能翻译理论，翻译策略， 丑女贝蒂 ，目标语观众 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 ii abstract films and tv series are means of mass media to transfer cultural information. with economic globalization, the expansion of the market of films and tv series, and in particular the popularity of the internet, more and more foreign films and tv series have been introduced to china. however, the quality of subtitle translation is far from being satisfactory, which, to some degree, has a negative effect on the target-language audiences enjoyment and appreciation of the films and tv series, thus hampering the healthy development of subtitle translation and cultural transmission. therefore, the improvement in the quality of subtitle translation plays a significant role in strengthening the target -language audiences understanding of the plot of the films and tv series and in promoting the sound development of subtitle translation. this thesis, through the adoption of functional translation theory, conducts a research on translation strategies of the subtitles of the online american comic tv series, ugly betty in the hope that some valuable strategies and skills the translators have adopted in the process of translating ugly betty can be dug out through comparative analysis. functional translation theory of german school has broken the bound of traditional translation theories, complemented the theories of translation studies and provided a new approach for subtitle translation. functional translation theory contains four aspects: katharina reisss text typology; the core concept of functional translation theory “skopostheorie”; justa holz manttaris the theory of translational action; christina nords function plus loyalty. the films and tv series belong to the fourth text type. subtitle translators should choose proper translation strategies based on the features of the fourth text type that is informative function supplemented by expressive function and appellative function. the purpose decides the adopted translation methods. the initiators and the translators purposes, the intended functions of the translation and the expectations of the target-language audience decide the strategies of subtitle translation employed in the whole translation process. from the perspective of the target-language audience, on the one hand, they want to enrich their spiritual life and get amusement and entertainment through watching ugly betty. on the other hand, a large group of students watch ugly betty in the hope of being able to learn about american culture and improve their english. from the perspective of initiators, as a matter of fact, producers, and translators, the intention of subtitle translation is to maximize the number of the target-language audience by meeting the needs and 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 iii expectations of them in order to obtain the maximum profit. in conclusion, the translators are required to adopt appropriate translation strategies not only based on the text type and “translation brief” from the initiators but also the target-language audiences experience, expectations, background knowledge, and the intended function as the general principle supplemented by the principle of function plus loyalty. based on functional translation theory, this thesis, through data analysis and comparative study of the e-c translation of the subtitles of tv series ugly betty, has come up with the translators translation strategies and methods. they employ reduction, explicitation, domestication and foreignization to achieve the intended functions or purposes of the translation. subtitle translation is actually a new area of translation research. this thesis is an attempt to conduct a study in this new area by analyzing the translation strategies of the subtitles of american tv series ugly betty based on functional translation theory. the author of this thesis will pay constant attention to this research area and hopes to see more research findings in the near future. key words: functional translation theory, translation strategies, ugly betty, the target-language audience 承诺书 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师指导下，独立进 行研究工作所取得的成果。尽我所知，除文中已经注明引用的内容外， 本学位论文的研究成果不包含任何他人享有著作权的内容。 对本论文所 涉及的研究工作做出贡献的其他个人和集体， 均已在文中以明确方式标 明。 本人授权南京航空航天大学可以有权保留送交论文的复印件， 允许 论文被查阅和借阅,可以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库 进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。 (保密的学位论文在解密后适用本承诺书) 作者签名： 日 期： 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 research background in the twenty-first century, the society has been developing with a tremendous speed. the social development improves peoples material and cultural level, which allows people to expect a large number of tv series to enrich their spiritual life and to make their daily life more colorful and splendid. thus, introducing foreign tv series is becoming an unavoidable trend. meanwhile, the rapid development of the society brings about a great deal of pressure to people. confronted with high pressure, they are in great need to find means of entertainment to handle with and be free from it. surely enough, tv series is one of the best choices, especially those which are comic and amusing. in addition, as english has been an international language, a large number of people are studying it. in their opinion, watching english tv series with bilingual subtitles is an effective and interesting way to improve their english listening, to enlarge their english vocabulary and enrich their knowledge about foreign cultures. with globalization, the chinese government has been paying increasing attention to cultural exchanges with foreign countries. and the speed of introducing western tv series is faster than ever before since the chinese government carried out the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world. while foreign tv series are introduced at a rapid speed and in larger quantities, the quality of the tv series can not be ensured and there is a great gap between the quantity of the introduced tv series and the quality of the translated subtitles. and less qualified subtitle translation will cause the audiences misunderstanding and confusion about the tv series and will have a negative effect on language learning and the reception of the tv series. it will lead to the loss of cultural information and hinder cultural communication, for tv series have played an indispensable and important part in cultural transmission with the rapid development of mass media. in addition, subtitle translation and dubbing are two kinds of audiovisual translation. nowadays people have a tendency towards subtitle translation, because they have received high education and have some knowledge about western cultures, traditions and foreign languages. they enjoy watching foreign tv series in the source language. 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 2 besides, compared to sound dubbing, subtitle translation is less expensive and energy-saving, for subtitle translation is usually easier to produce and is cheaper than providing an alternative language audio track. from this aspect, subtitle translation can save a lot of money and effort which is welcomed by the initiators of the tv series. the initiator is “the person, group or institution that starts off the translation process and determines its course by defining the purpose for which the target text is needed” (zhao, 2008: 34). the initiators advocate subtitle translation in order to minimize the cost of introduction and production and thus make greater profits. besides, “the study of subtitle translation as an indispensable part of the whole translation study which is a large and complicated project and includes a lot of fields such as the field of technology, the field of literature, the field of news and so on, contributes a lot to the development of translation studies, which demands more attention domestically and abroad” (li, 2005: 102). apart from that, “so far, audiovisual translation has been a sub-discipline, fragmented both in organization and in the scope of research” (gambier, 2009: 17). therefore, it is very necessary to launch studies on subtitle translation to enrich the whole translation study. furthermore, the development of subtitle translation has a great impact on the spread and success of the foreign films and tv series in china. besides, the peculiar characteristics of the subtitles demand more attention and studies. from the authors point of view, the reason the author is determined to conduct a research on subtitle translation is out of her dissatisfaction with the present subtitle translation of poor quality and the promising future of subtitle translation. a good translation will make the audience understand and even anticipate the plots of tv series. it will also make the audience have a better understanding of foreign cultures. as henrik gottlieb (2001: 164) points out, “good subtitle can not save a bad film, but bad subtitle can spoil a good one.” even though subtitle translation which is the main ingredient of audiovisual translation and an indispensable subfield of translation studies plays an indispensable part in peoples daily life, language learning, cultural communication and the spread of foreign tv series, it has not attracted sufficient attention yet and is falsely considered less important than literary translation. therefore, it is in keen need of scholars and experts to conduct more studies. 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 3 1.2 research purpose the evolving functionalist approaches represent a relatively mature trend of translation theories which are well known and influential in the world. the four perspectives of functional translation theory: text typology, the theory of translational action, skopostheorie which is the most important part of functional translation theory and can provide a rather sound approach for subtitle translation to cope with a variety of problems and difficulties during the process of translation, and function plus loyalty are closely interconnected. according to functional translation theory, the source text is no longer the criterion for translation but the function of the text. translation is a kind of communicative action. all the translational actions are determined by the purposes of the translation. as regards the purpose of subtitle translation (interlingual subtitle translation in this thesis), it is determined by the target-language audiences needs and expectations and the intention of the initiators. the success of a good tv series requires proper translation strategies and methods consistent with the intentions and purposes of the initiator, the translator and the expectations of the audience. in addition, “the functional translation theory, especially the skopostheorie can provide a relatively sound methodology for subtitle translation to deal with various problems encountered” (yang, 2008: 1). therefore subtitle translation under the guidance of functional translation theory is worth and meaningful. this thesis is going to study subtitle translation by taking fashionable and comic tv series ugly betty as a case study from functionalist approaches and aims to find out what kind of strategies should be adopted in translating modern fashionable and comic tv series to achieve the same effect and function as that of source text and to satisfy the expectations of the target audience. the results of this research are trying to improve the qualities of subtitle translation and offer some guidance for subtitle translation in the future. 1.3 research method this thesis will adopt contrastive, descriptive and analytical method to study the strategies adopted in the subtitle translation of ugly betty, from the perspective of functional translation theory. it will compare the original version and chinese version of ugly betty under the guidance of functional translation theory to find what strategies are 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 4 applied and it will then describe the reason. both chinese and english subtitles of ugly betty are transcribed from the internet (). this research will further choose the version translated by famous ytet (伊甸园) translation group whose translation is of good quality, compared with other translation groups in china. 1.4 thesis structure this thesis is divided into five chapters. the first chapter is an introductory chapter, including research background, research purpose, and research method and thesis structure. the second chapter is a literature review of subtitle translation with the illustration of the definition of subtitle translation, the types of subtitle translation, the features of subtitle translation, and the functions of subtitle translation. this chapter also elucidates the present state about subtitle translation studies domestically and abroad. the third chapter focuses on functional translation theory and subtitle translation from the four perspectives of functional translation theory: text typology and subtitle translation; the theory of translational action and subtitle translation; skopostheorie and subtitle translation; function plus loyalty and subtitle translation. the fourth chapter uses ugly betty as the data to explore the strategies adopted in translating dialogues in ugly betty under the framework of functional translation theory. the fifth chapter concludes the whole thesis, pointing out the limitations of the study in this thesis and offering some suggestions for subtitle translation studies in the future. 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 5 chapter 2 literature review subtitle translation is one of the two constituent parts of audiovisual translation. the earliest study about subtitle translation was in the west. western scholars, especially the european scholars dominate subtitle translation studies nowadays. the reason for the rapid development of subtitle translation in the europe can not be separated from the advanced level of science and technology. compared with european studies of subtitle translation, subtitle translation was studied later in china. subtitle translation is at the stage of practice without systematic theories on subtitle translation in china 2.1 a brief introduction to subtitle translation 2.1.1 definition of subtitle translation there are several scholars who have defined subtitle translation. subtitling is audiovisual translation with written translation, while dubbing is an audiovisual one with interpretation (oral translation). subtitle translation can be defined as “diasemiotic translation in polysemiotic media (including films, tv, video and dvd), in the form of one or more lines of written text presented on the screen in sync with the original dialogue” (qtd. in gottlieb, 2004: 220). it is inferred from gottliebs definition about subtitle translation that gives synchronized captions for the dialogues of films and tv series is thus the process of subtitle translation as regards the subtitled films and tv series, as a matter of fact, the audiences enjoyment of films and tv series is a process of “reading ones native language while listening to the original language” (gottlieb, 1992: 165). subtitle translation is also defined the same as that of gottlieb by shuttleworth and cowie (2004: 161). in addition, mona baker points out that subtitle translation is also “a term used to refer to one of the main methods of the language transfer used in translating types of mass audiovisual communication such as film and television” (baker, 2004: 245). 2.1.2 the types of subtitle translation gottlieb distinguishes “different kinds of subtitle translation, severally from the angle of linguistics and techniques” (gottlieb, 1992: 163). from the linguistic 南京航空航天大学硕士学位论文 6 perspective, there are two main types of subtitle translation. the first one is intralingual subtitling which is translation within one cultural language. intralingual subtitling can be further divided into subtitle translation of “domestic pragrammes for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and subtitling of foreign language programs for language learners” (baker, 2004: 247). the type of interlingual subtitling is “diagonal, in the sense that the subtitler crosses over from speech in one language to writing in another, thus changing mode and language” (baker, 2004: 247). simply speaking, if the target language and the source language are the same, it can be called intralingual translation, while the target language and the source language are different, it can be named interlingual translation. de linde and kay also put forward in their book, the semiotics of subtitling that there are two distinct types of subtitling: “intralingual subtitling and interlingual subtitling” (linder, et al, 1991: 1). from the perspective of techniques, there are also two types of subtitles: open subtitles and closed subtitles. open subtitles refer to subtitles that appear permanently on screen and can not be switched off by the viewer. they include cinema subtitles which are either a physical part of the film or transmitted separately and i