目的论视角下的字幕翻译《肖申克的救赎》与《阿甘正传》的个案研究.doc

目的论视角下的字幕翻译:肖申克的救赎与阿甘正传的个案研究 摘 要随着跨文化交际以及试听技术的发展，外国电影在中国越来越受欢迎。然而，由于极少译者把字幕翻译与文学翻译放在同等重要的位置，因而，字幕翻译，作为电影不可或缺的组成部分，其质量有待提高。本文试图在目的论的框架下，分析和讨论字幕翻译，旨在提高翻译质量。 “目的论”认为，翻译是一种有目的的活动。决定翻译过程的最主要因素是整体翻译行为的目的。译文的预期目的与译文的接受者决定了翻译策略的选择。本文在目的论的框架下，比较电影肖申克的救赎以及阿甘正传的几个不同的字幕翻译版本，来分析出现这些不同的原因，以提高字幕翻译的质量。然而，到目前为止，不少研究都从目的论的视角下研究字幕翻译。大多数研究都集中分析了字幕翻译中的成功案例，一些研究也分析了字幕翻译中的错误案例，但缺乏足够数量的翻译版本，也让论文显得不太具说服力。而本文的创新点在于尽可能多地搜集两部电影的不同的翻译版本，从目的论视角下逐个研究，作出详细地对比分析，指出其优劣，并提出修改意见。本文分为5个主体部分：第一章是引言部分，主要涉及研究背景，研究问题以及研究方法三个方面。第二章文献回顾，对字幕翻译，国内外字幕翻译研究以及目的论做一个简单的文献综述。第三章主要介绍字幕翻译并从目的论的视角分析字幕翻译。第四章选取美国电影肖申克的救赎和阿甘正传作为案例进行研究，并详细分析这两部电影的几个不同版本的字幕翻译中各自存在的问题，并指出较好的译本。第五章是结论部分，对论文作的分析进行总结，指出本文研究的局限性，并对未来字幕翻译研究提出建议。关键词：字幕翻译, 目的论, 肖申克的救赎, 阿甘正传, 版本分析iiiabstractforeign films nowadays are enjoying more popularity in china in terms of the cross-cultural exchanges with the fast development of audiovisual technology. however, subtitling as an indispensable part of films being distributed in foreign cultures is far from being satisfactory and leaves something to be desired. one of the reasons might lie in the factor that translators seldom pay equal heed to film subtitling as to literary translation, thus leaving many low quality subtitles. the thesis attempts to analyze and discuss the subtitle translation within the framework of skopostheorie, with the intention to further improve the quality of english to chinese subtitling.according to skopostheorie, translation is considered to be a purposeful activity and it is the purpose of this translation that decides the translation activity, while the aim of the translation action is determined by the target text addressees. according to this theory that emphasizes target-audience oriented translation, source text has lost its dominance in the translation. skopostheorie makes a shift from equivalence approach to multi-perspective understanding of translation practice, which cannot be explained by traditional translation standards. after careful selection, the two classic and high-quality films the shawshank redemption and forrest gump have been chosen, comparisons between the similarities and differences between the films are discussed before the case study of them have been brought in for study within the framework of skopostheorie. in the case study, different translation versions of the films are collected from the shooter website and analysis is carried out to explain why the differences of translations appear and which version is better, to find improve the quality of the subtitling within the framework of skopostheorie.this thesis is divided into five parts:iiichapter one is the introduction, mainly dealing with the research background, research issues and methodology.chapter two is the literature review, which gives a general introduction to subtitling and presents an overview of subtitling.chapter three gives a general introduction to skopostheorie and studies subtitling from the perspective of skopostheorie.chapter four at the beginning presents the reasons of the selection of the two films and then a case study of the two american films has been presented, in which a detailed analysis of the different translations in them is given. chapter five is a conclusion which gives a summarized idea of this thesis with a brief account of the research limitations and suggestions.key words: subtitle translation; skopostheorie; the shawshank redemption; forrest gump; version analysisivtable of contentsacknowledgementsi摘 要iiabstractiiichapter one introduction11.1 research background11.2 research issues31.3 methodology4chapter two literature review52.1 studies on subtitle translation abroad52.2 studies on subtitle translation in china62.3 definitions of subtitling72.4 characteristics of subtitle translation92.4.1 subtitling as both inter-lingual and inter-semiotic process102.4.2 technical convention112.4.3 constraints of subtitling112.5 summary12chapter three skopostheorie133.1 the development of skopos rules133.2 three rules and their relationship in skopostheorie143.2.1 the skopos rule143.2.2 coherence rule153.2.3 fidelity rule163.3 adaptability of skopostheorie in subtitle translation16chapter four case study184.1 an introduction to the films184.1.1 the shawshank redemption184.1.2 title translation of the shawshank redemption194.1.3 forrest gump204.1.4 title translation of forrest gump214.2 the comparison between the two films224.2.1 similaritiesthemes symbolization234.2.2 differences different feelings of seeing the films narrative strategies2 language features in the two films264.3 strategies used in the subtitle translation284.3.1 reduction2content reduction30 domestication reduction4 paraphrasing condensation474.3.2 addition and explanatory translation5 addition of translation of nouns5 addition of translation of verbs5 addition of translation of explanatory sentences56chapter five conclusion605.1 summary605.2 limitations605.3 suggested areas for further study61bibliography63vichapter one introduction1.1 research backgroundforeign film, a medium of entertainment, as well as a means of communication for chinese has turned out to be acquisition of foreign languages. owing to language barriers, the audiences who cannot understand foreign languages very well have to get assistance from various means of language transfer to better appreciate foreign films.georg-michael luyken thinks that screen translation can be divided into dubbing and subtitling, which provides an effective solution to this problem. in his opinion, subtitle translation, compared with dubbing, enjoys two advantages: cost-effectiveness and time-saving. in addition, the level for subtitling practice is gradually expanded thanks to the advanced digital technology, just as henrik gottlieb points out, “with its astonishing capacity, the dvd format is capable of storing up to 8 distinct soundtracks (the original plus max. seven dubbed version), plus 32 different sets of subtitles for the same film.” (1997: 231) it is important to provide high quality subtitle translation so that the accurate delivery of audio-visual messages can be guaranteed due to the revelation of the importance of subtitle translation. however, the subtitles of low quality lead to the confusion of the audiences about what is going on in the film and at the same time cause the failure of the film, no matter how a good integration of elaborate pictures, exquisite plots and vivid sound effects. there exist a lot of translation problems in subtitle translation. based on the reduction of the existing problems and providing some meaningful guidelines for subtitle translators, it attaches realistic significance to do research on subtitling.this thesis aims to analyze subtitle translation from the perspective of skopostheorie in order to enhance the practice of subtitle translation and to be conducive to the deep understanding of translation theories. the author chooses the famous american films the shawshank redemption and forrest gump as a case study within the frame of skopotheorie. some graduates have studied the subtitle translation in many different films before: views on chinese translation of “harley bert and magic stone” from the perspective of “purpose theory” by feng wenjuan in journal of qiongzhou university in 2007 attempts to expound the chinese translation of “harleybert and magic stone” from the perspective of “purpose theory”. in the study, feng focuses on the comparison of the source language and target language and analyses the translation versions but from the perspective of target language and ignores other requirements of target readers, the intentions of the directors and the playwrights and the expectations of the audience. as a short paper less than two thousand words published in the journal, the number of examples and analysis are far from satisfaction. a functionalist approach to film subtitle translation一a case study of the shawshank redemption written by wang rujuan in 2009 from capital normal university, in which the skopostheorie is taken as instruction and the reduction and addition method are applied to analyze the film subtitle translation. but wang just collects and lists the one translation version and fails to analyze the translation versions in detail, which are regarded as the shortcoming of the thesis paper. and besides, some of the subtitle translations collected in her paper is not correct or proper in the view of skopostheorie to some degree. an analysis of the subtitle translation of the curious case of benjamin button from the perspective of skopostheorie written by zheng jie in 2011 in shandong normal university discusses three strategies including language condensation, domestication and free translation used in the process of subtitle translation. although many examples are listed and analyzed in the paper when zheng deals with the three strategies, she fails to further classify the strategies, which is a disadvantage of this paper. film translation from the perspective of the skopostheorie- the case study of forrest gump written by wang liming in 2010 in the journal of shengli college china university of petroleum focuses on discussing the advantages of skopostheorie employed in the subtitle translation from the angles of commercial values, differences between skopostheorie and traditional translation methods. this paper is absolutely not the integration of the papers mentioned above. on the contrary it has tentatively made a research in subtitle translation with a view to overcoming the failure mentioned above in the previous papers and getting more enlightenment about the improvement of subtitling. before the case study of two classic american films the shawshank redemption and forrest gump is presented within the framework of skopostheorie, the reasons of choosing the two films, the similarities and differences between the two films are presented so as to lead to a deep understanding of the two films and then the paper dwells on translation strategies and classifies the examples of the two films in great detail. the examples of the lines are equipped with different translated versions downloaded from the website. analysis will be provided to give a better idea of how these translation problems arise and of what translation should be suggested as a better rendering.to sum up, the analysis of the examples and different translated versions existing can give the subtitle translators some inspirations on how to improve the quality of the translated subtitles. this thesis attempts to make its share of contribution to this relatively new and intriguing field.1.2 research issuesthe subtitle translation of films the shawshank redemption and forrest gump has been analyzed and evaluated within the framework of skopostheorie to produce legible subtitles. before the example analysis, norms such as skopos rule, coherence rule, and fidelity rule are laid out to offer a general direction for polishing the subtitles on the basis on the skopostheorie, and then during the analysis of examples, a comparison between source text (st) and target text (tt) from different aspects of the two languages is made. to put it in another way, there are several questions to be answered.1. why does the writer choose the two films?2. what are the similarities and differences between the two films?3. how are the appropriate translation strategies chosen in dealing with the source texts according to skopostheorie? in this paper, the author will answer these questions through the analysis of the different versions of the films the shawshank redemption and forrest gump in the skopostheorie approach.1.3 methodologythe thesis adopts a descriptive-explanatory method along with a case study of the shawshank redemption and forrest gump. similarities and differences between the two films will be discussed; different versions of english subtitles extracted from the case the shawshank redemption and forrest gump will be analyzed within the framework of skopostheorie; translation problems will be identified and right or proper versions may be given through analysis of translation brief; and applicability of skopostheorie in subtitle translation will be tested and verified during the detailed illustration and analysis.17chapter two literature review2.1 studies on subtitle translation abroadle linguiste/de taalkundige, the first volume of the journal was published in 1956 and the earliest research of film translation, the magazine babel in europe was published in 1960. the first paper subtitle of television programmes was published in 1974, in which different types of the mistakes in the subtitling of television programs were listed from english to danish. then, one of marleaus article, lesous-titresun mal necessaire, provided some suggestions on the description of the subtitles by talking about economic factors.titford in his article subtitling: constrained translation introduced the concept of constrained translation, thus settling the problem confronted by most subtitle translators.through making up a film from a descriptive translation studies approximation dts for short, delabastita provided a detailed study of the different signs and channels. although he succeeded in focusing on the analysis of translation as a process, his study was mainly from the perspective of culture. in 1991, the book under the title of overcoming language barriers in television: dubbing and subtitling for the european audience written by luyken and other four european specialists of film translation studied a lot of european translated films, labor costs and audience preference in a systematic way. ivarsson the swedish subtitle translator published his book subtitling for the media: handbook of an art in 1992, which has been regarded as the first book to deal exclusively with subtitling. in the second edition of the book, many strategies for film translation were added, which has been a great progress in subtitling translation. 1995 witnessed a rapid development of the field of subtitle translation. one of the influential figures in film translation gambier made great contribution to the categories of the different film translation modes, strategies and skills and reception of film translation. at the same period, another pioneer scholar professor henrik gottlieb made a lot of researches in film subtitle translation. one of his books subtitling: a unique type of translation (1995) gives a clear definition of distinctive features of subtitling. in 2001 gambiers another book, (multi) media translation: concepts, practices and research, has discussed the reasons for various national preferences; screen transadaptation: perception and reception (2003) investigates the languagepolitical influence of subtitle translation; subtitling against the current: danish concepts, english minds (2005) has covered the strategies used in the subtitling of danish localism. in 2009 karamitroglou made in a proposed set of subtitling standards in europe a suggestion towards a standardization of subtitling practices, including layout, punctuation and target text editing.2.2 studies on subtitle translation in china studies on subtitle translation in china are still at its preliminary stage, compared with the prosperous development of subtitle translation in western countries. professor zhang chunbai (1998) made a conclusion about the nature, principles, and techniques of film translation. he believes that the translation of films should focus on the target audience, and in addition, the translator should take into consideration the target audiences language level and cultural awareness.professor qian shaochang (2000) composed an article entitled film translation-the more and more important realm in translation field. in this book the importance of translation has been pointed out and calls have been suggested on the translator to pay more heed to it. in his view, the film is a nice combination of voice and moving pictures, and to achieve aesthetic and vivid equivalence and a certain extent of faithfulness can sometimes be given up. professor li yunxing (2001) believes in his article strategies for subtitle translation that the primary demand of subtitle translation is to offer the target audience the most relevant information within constraints of time and space.zhao chunmei (2002) has made the research on subtitling translation by her personal experience. in her paper, translation into chinese of film scripts and scripts of tv drama series-four main conflicting demands, she presented an analysis of a series of conflicting demands in film translation, including length of translation and original content; word order and the sequence of moving pictures; domestication and foreignization skills.ma zhengqi (2003) stated the principles by studying the distinct features of film translation. before the summary of basic principles five points need to be considered for film translation: 1)be oral language；2)be in line with roles personality; 3)meet the emotional need in the film; 4)reach lip-synchronization; 5)use popular language. based on the above points, he concludes the principles for film translation: the translated text should be alive, or close to our life; it should show the personality of characters; it should present human feelings; it should be in line with lip movement, which may need some arrangement of the word order or syntactic structures; it should be audience-responsible, which means to use common language. china is st