On Subtitle Translation of Chinese TV Dramas from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence ---- Taking Empresses in the Palace as an Example_英语论文

摘要

《甄嬛传》是中国近年来古装剧中典型的代表作品，剧中承载着中国丰富的历史文化。随着全球化的发展，《甄嬛传》开始走向全世界。如何更好的翻译《甄嬛传》中文字幕成了翻译界的一大热点。本文以《甄嬛传》中英字幕为语料，结合功能对等理论，从词汇对等、句法对等、文体对等三个方面，将原版《甄嬛传》中文字幕与美版《甄嬛传》英文字幕进行对比分析。论文认为，美版《甄嬛传》字幕英译在句式结构处理方面比较成功。但由于中西方语言文化差异，以及译者对原文缺乏理解，导致美版《甄嬛传》在词汇翻译以及中国诗歌翻译方面存在很多失误。针对这些翻译失误，本文给出了直译、意译、音译以及译释并举等翻译策略，并给出了具体的翻译建议，以期促进中西方文化交流。

关键词:  “甄嬛传” 功能对等 字幕 英译 

Abstract

The Empresses in the Palace, which contains Chinese long history and rich culture, is one of the classical representative works of China’s costume pieces in recent years. As worldwide cultural communication becomes increasingly frequent, Chinese TV dramas also begin to enjoy popularity outside China. How subtitles of Chinese TV dramas can be translated suitably becomes a hot issue in the translation field. Guided by Nida's functional equivalence theory, this thesis attempts to compare and analyze the Chinese subtitles and its English translation of the Chinese TV dramas --- Empresses in the Palace. The analysis is conducted from three aspects: lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, and stylistic equivalence. This thesis holds that, in the American translation of subtitles of Empresses in the Palace, translators succeed in dealing with the syntax. However, because of the language and culture differences between China and America, and the lack of adequate understanding of the original text, the translators fail to translate the Chinese culture-specific items and poems well. Built on the translation failures, this thesis proposes some translation strategies, such as literal translation, free translation, annotation, transliteration etc. and some specific translation suggestions to improve translation version. In that way, this thesis hopes to promote the cultural communication between China and America.  

Keywords:   Empresses in the Palace   functional equivalence  subtitle  

English translation 

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Significance 1

1.3 Theory Basis 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Functional Equivalence Theory 3

2.2 Subtitle Translation 4

3 Methodology 6

3.1 Research Questions 6

3.2 Research Methods 6

4 Subtitle Translation Comparison 7

4.1 Lexical Equivalence 7

4.2 Syntactic Equivalence 12

4.3 Stylistic Equivalence 17

4.4 Reasons of the Translation Failures 19

5 Translation Suggestions 21

Conclusion 25

Acknowledgements 27

References 28