On Subtitle Translations From the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory -- A Case Study of Game of Thrones_英语论文

摘要

21世纪以来，随着影视产业与网络科技不断的蓬勃发展，各国观众得以跨越国家、民族与文化之间的界限，一同欣赏各国优秀影视作品，了解和学习不同国家之间的差异与特色。需求带动生产，由于越来越多的影视作品爱好者都在期待更加具有创意与新意的作品出现，各国影视产业不断推陈出新，希望可以做出令人满意的影视剧。尤其是近些年来以美剧为首的外国影视作品更是受到以青年人为主的中国观众的喜爱。与国内更倾向于结合现实生活的影视作品不同，美剧的情节不仅大胆刺激，而且充满想象力，为观众打开了另一个奇幻的世界。这也是为什么中国青少年尤其是大学生喜欢看美剧的原因。

然而，与相对较成熟的文学领域翻译研究相比，中国翻译爱好者和学者对于影视字幕的翻译研究还不是很完善，没有形成一套可供后人学习和借鉴的更加系统的理论体系。由此可见，中国翻译领域急需增加对于这方面的研究，这对促进中国观众能更透彻更好的观赏和理解外国影视作品和英语翻译教学有着重大意义。

本文以美国人尤金奈达（Eugene A.Nida）提出的功能对等理论为指导，结合美国如今大热的大型奇幻电视连续剧《权力的游戏》（Game of Thrones）的影视字幕，通过对比中英文之间的语言、文化、美学三个方面的差异，研究影视字幕翻译的翻译特点，要求与原则。其中，语言方面包括了语篇，句法和词汇三个层次；文化方面则主要对比了一些中英文之间涵盖各国文化的影视字幕翻译；美学方面主要探讨了为追求美观和对仗等完全对等的翻译理念。本文最后总结了一些本文研究的影视字幕翻译的翻译技巧与原则对于中英教学与翻译方面的启示。

关键词：字幕翻译；功能对等理论；权力的游戏

Abstract

Since the 21st century, with the vigorous development of the film and television industry and network technology constantly, the audience can cross the boundaries between the country, nation and culture, admire all outstanding film and television works together, with understanding and learning characteristics and differences between different countries. Demand drives production, due to more and more film and television fans are looking forward to creative and innovative works, the film industry all over the world strive to get rid of the stale and bring forth the fresh, namely, they hope they can make a satisfactory film and TV series. Especially in recent years, Chinese audience, predominantly youngsters, are keen on foreign film and television works which led by the US films and TV series. Compared with the domestic works that inclined to combine with real life, the US drama’s plot is not only bold but thrilling, full of imagination, and create another fantasy world for the audience, which explains why Chinese adolescents, especially college students tend to appreciate the US films and TV series.

However, in contrast to the relatively mature translation study of literary field, Chinese translation fans and scholars’ translation of film and television subtitles are not completed yet, and did not form a scientific theoretical system for successor to learn and use for reference. It can be seen that there is an urgent need to increase the research in Chinese subtitle translation field, which is of great significance to promote the Chinese audience’s appreciation and understanding of foreign film and television works and English translation teaching.

Based on the Functional Equivalence Theory proposed by Eugene A. Nida who is an American, this paper combines the film and television subtitles of Game of Thrones, a large-scale fantasy TV series which is extremely popular in the United States and China. Through concluding the differences among Chinese and English language, culture, aesthetics, the author studies the characteristics, requirements and principles of translation. In which, the linguistic aspect includes discourse, syntax and vocabulary; the cultural aspect mainly contrasts the translation of some subtitles between Chinese and English, which covers the culture and customs of each country. Aesthetics mainly discusses the perfect equivalence idea of the pursuit of beauty and antithesis translation ideas. At the end, the author summarizes a little enlightenment generated from some translation skills and principles of subtitle translation which has discussed in this essay to the Chinese and English teaching and translation.

Key words: subtitle translation; Functional Equivalence Theory; Game of Thrones

Contents

Abstract (In English) ii

Abstract ( In Chinese) iv

Introduction 1

0.1 Research Background 1

0.2 Research Significance 2

0.3 Thesis Structure 3

Chapter I  Literature Overview 4

1.1 Film Subtitle Translation 4

1.1.1 Definition of Film Subtitle Translation 4

1.1.2 Classifications and Characteristics of Subtitle Translation 4

1.2 Film Subtitle Translation Overview 6

1.2.1 Domestic Status of Film Subtitle Translation 6

1.2.2 Shortcomings of Domestic Film Subtitle 7

1.2.3 Prospect of Domestic Film Subtitle Translation 7

Chapter II  Functional Equivalence Theory 8

2.1 Definition of Functional Equivalence Theory 8

2.2 Standards and Principles of Functional Equivalence Theory 8

2.3 Influences of Functional Equivalence Theory 9

Chapter III Subtitle Translation of Game of Thrones Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory 10

3.1 Brief Introduction to American TV Series Game of Thrones 10

3.2 Analyzing the Subtitle Translation from Subtitle of Game of Thrones 10

3.2.1 Linguistic Aspect 11

3.2.1.1 Discourse Level 11

3.2.1.2 Syntactical Level 12

3.2.1.3 Lexical Level 14

3.2.2 Cultural Aspect 16

3.2.3 Aesthetic Aspect 16

Chapter IV Enlightenment 17

4.1 Enlightenment to Translation Teaching 17

4.2 Enlightenment to Chinese and English Translation 17

Conclusion 19

Bibliography 20

Acknowledgements 21