功能对等视角下《甄嬛传》字幕英译研究文献综述

 2021-12-28 20:42:02

全文总字数：10745字

文献综述

1. Introduction1.1 Research backgroundWith the policy of reform and opening up, China has witnessed the ever-widening and in-depth cross-cultural exchanges since the 20th century. More and more well-crafted domestic films and television episodes have been widely spread abroad, and at the same time foreign films or movies have swarmed in China. The country has launched many translation-related projects in order to translate Chinese films and television works into foreign languages and promote them to the international market. As a vital embodiment of various culture and popular entertainment, films and TV plays are deeply adored by many people in terms of their rich content, natural form and being close to every aspect of peoples life. Being an essential part of a film, subtitles play an important role in satisfying audiences needs to watch films that are not dubbed. It is a booster to transcultural communication with the responsibility to deliver cultural context. From the perspective of language dissemination, film and television drama translation can realize the transformation of value, present the charm of the screen, and endow the translation works with the aesthetic character through the joint effect of various functions such as knowledge dissemination, cultural dissemination and art dissemination (Ma, 2012). However, different cultural backgrounds sometimes can be obstacles to understanding a foreign film. Subtitle translation may not achieve what the original film and television works convey, especially when it comes to similar reaction from indigenous and overseas audiences. In the subtitle translations of Empresses in the Palace, a very famous Qing Dynasty Palace Drama in China, these problems remain. Empresses in the Palace tells the life story of a lady named Zhen Huan, growing from a simple girl who does not know the sophisticated world to a queen who is good at the game of thrones. The theoretical basis of this article is the functional equivalence theory proposed by Eugene Nida (Nida, 1993). In order to establish a standard of the conversion between the source language and the target language, Eugene A. Nida proposed this famous translation theory from the perspective of linguistics based on the essence of translation. In this theory, he pointed out that translation is to use the most appropriate, natural and equivalent language to reproduce the information of the source language from semantics to stylistics (Nida, 1993). Nida's definition of translation indicates that translation is not only equivalence in lexical meaning, but also equivalence in semantics, text and style. The information conveyed by translation includes both superficial vocabulary information and deep cultural information. Functional equivalence theory includes lexical equivalence, textual equivalence, and stylistic equivalence. Nida believes that meaning is the most important, followed by style (Nida, 1993). The style is likely to hide the cultural significance of the source language and hinder cultural exchange. Therefore, in literary translation, according to Nida's theory, the translator should use the functional equivalence theory equivalence as the principle of translation to accurately reproduce the connotations of the source language in the target language.1.2 Need of the studyThis study has certain significance in both theoretical and practical meanings. By analyzing the subtitling of Empresses in the Palace from the perspective of functional equivalence theory, translation study theory can be enriched. On one hand, current Chinese film and television translation are in shortage of relevant theoretical foundation. The academic status of film and television translation studies still needs to be improved, and the relevant strategies and techniques of film and television translation still need to be studied in depth. The introduction of functional equivalence theory into the field of subtitle translation is popular in translation studies, which will provide a new theoretical perspective for subtitling translation studies. Up till now, most of the studies (An Hui and Zhang Baihua, 2016; Lu, 2016; Yang, 2020) on subtitling translation of Empresses in the Palace based on equivalent translation theory focus on translations of appellations. Few scholars have made studies on subtitling translation of dialogues based on given context as well as the disparity between vernacular Chinese and ancient Chinese. On the other hand, from the practical perspective, the study of subtitling of Empresses in the Palace can promote cultural exchanges between different countries and mutual communications are enhanced. Moreover, it can also provide reference for more research in the future.1.3 Research purposesAs a typical TV series with Chinese characteristics, Empresses in the Palace is regarded as one of the most successful TV series in China. However, it received mediocre response after its broadcast in the United States. One of the reasons was that the subtitle translator failed to grasp the meanings as well as some words with cultural loads when translating the subtitles. As we know, subtitle translation plays an important part in the process of cross-culture communication. The aim of this thesis is to elaborate on the feasible theoretical guidance and translation strategies, which can promote the translation of television works from the perspective of functional equivalence theory. The following three questions will be addressed in the study.1. What are the factors that influence the subtitle translation of Empresses in the Palace from functional equivalence theory?2. How is functional equivalence theory manifested in the subtitle translation and how to compensate for the loss?2. Literature reviewIn this chapter, the author will review the relevant literature including the introduction to subtitle translation and functional equivalence theory and previous studies on subtitle translation.2.1 An introduction to functional equivalence theoryEugene Nida is an important representative of the translation theory of Western language circles. He proposed the famous "dynamic equivalence theory", namely "functional equivalence theory", that is, lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, text equivalence and stylistic equivalence. Among them, Nida believes that meaning is the most important, while form is the second. The form is likely to conceal the cultural meaning of the source language and hinder cultural exchanges. If the form and content conflict during translation, the former should be discarded (Nida, 1993). For movie subtitles, the most basic thing is to convey information and let the audience understand the meaning. Therefore, the functional equivalence theory can not only help realize the idea well, but will not reduce the aesthetic effect of the film.2.2 An introduction to subtitle translation and previous studies Subtitles refers to the captions presented at the bottom of the screen. They appear and vanish on the screen as the dialogue does. Subtitles are used for films and TV shows, so that a wider audience can appreciate them. Subtitle translation is a process of translating spoken dialogue on the screen into written text of a target language and a cognitive activity for achieving special communicative purposes and carrying communication and reproducing communicative tasks. Since they are subtitled in their own languages, viewers can comprehend the dialogues better. So, conclusion can be drawn that translation is not only a linguistic activity, but a cultural activity as well and the texts function may be changed when they are translated (Cintas Remael, 2007). Translation has always been presented as the central part of communication between languages and cultures. As a field of study, translation is developed to formulate a new form of screen translation (OConnell, 2007).The research in the field of film and television translation first began in the West. Today the experts in the field are mainly Western scholars. Western film and television translation studies have developed rapidly in 1995. Related theoretical studies have increased significantly, and the research results of European scholars have been particularly remarkable. Gambier is a leader in the field of film and television translation, who is quite accomplished in how to classify different film and television translation modes, the strategies and techniques, and the audience of film and television translation. He conducted a detailed research on film and television subtitle translation from the perspective of linguistics, studied how to translate idioms in film and television works, and was quite insightful in the teaching of subtitle translation.In terms of film and television translation theory research, compared with Western countries, the beginning of domestic research is later than the practice of film and television translation, and there has not yet been a systematic theory. The number of papers and monographs related to film and television translation is very few. Professor Qian Shaochang (2000), a leader in the field of film and television translation in China, pointed out the importance of film and television translation, deeply analyzed the difference between the language of film and television works and literary works and written language, and summarized the five characteristics, namely: listening, comprehensiveness, instantaneousness, popularity and no note. Based on years of practical experience in translation, he believes that faithfulness is the most important in film translation (Qian, 2000). Professor Ma Zhengqi (2005) published《影视译制概论》（Introduction to Film and Television Translation）made a rare monograph on film and television translation research in recent years. Professor Zhang Chunbai proposed the immediacy and popularity of language (Zhang, 1998).Summary of domestic studies of the subtitle translation of Empresses in the Palace based on functional equivalence theory can be simply introduced as followed. An Hui and Zhang Baihua (2016) and Yang (2020) mainly study the translation of appellations, and come to the conclusion that the subtitles fail to indicate the different levels of the imperial concubines. Lu (2016) analyses the translation of titles levels of the imperial concubines, nouns related to Qing court, and ancient poetry translation. All the above studies are in-depth and cast light on the following studies. However, they ignore case studies concerning vernacular Chinese and ancient Chinese as well as dialogues relying on the context, which closely effect the understanding of foreign audience. That is what this thesis wants to explore.

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