Author(s)

Mengyi Zhuang ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ China Television Industrial Group Co. Ltd., Beijing, 100038, China

Corresponding Author

Mengyi Zhuang

ABSTRACT

With the arrival of globalization, marketization, information technology in the world, the continuous development of global exchanges across time and space from the economic, scientific and technological fields to the political, cultural field. The production of documentary has entered a booming era. The development of network media gives us the opportunity to see more foreign documentaries. Watching foreign documentary helps people to understand world culture, broaden their horizons and renew their knowledge. However, language barriers restrict the transmission of TV documentaries, so the subtitles translation is particularly important. When watching the original foreign language documentary, the audience's viewing experience will be greatly affected by the subtitle translation. Based on the analysis of subtitle language characteristics and translation status of TV documentary, this paper uses BBC TV documentary "The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution" as example. The corresponding translation strategies are put forward in the hope of guiding subtitle translation, promoting friendly communication among different cultures. This study is a preliminary exploration of the English-Chinese translation strategies of documentary subtitle. This paper first introduces the research background, significance and purpose of subtitle translation in documentaries. Due to the characteristics of the subtitles of TV documentaries, such as the time limit, space limit, character number limit, line limit, audio-visual coordination etc., the subtitle translation of TV documentaries is different from that of ordinary literary works, film and television works. Firstly, based on existing literatures definition of subtitle was introduced. Then, expound the linguistic characteristics of television documentaries and principles of subtitle translation. Through the analysis of the samples, this paper summarizes four strategies applicable to the translation of subtitles in English-Chinese documentaries, namely, the method of addition and omission, literal translation and free translation, discusses its application effect in the practical translation work. The data of the current research were E-C translation of documentary subtitles. All 57 items were selected from the 1st to the 3rd episodes of BBC TV documentary The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution . From the analysis of the data, it was found that the method of addition and omission, literal translation and free translation are suitable for documentary subtitle translation. Translators may adopt flexible and mixed translation strategies to make a decent translation, satisfy the audience is interest and needs. In addition, this paper offers review and profoundly rethink to the whole process of the current study. Recommendations for future research were also be made in this thesis.

KEYWORDS

TV documentary subtitle; translation strategy; translation principle

CITE THIS PAPER

Mengyi Zhuang, A Tentative Study of E-C Translation Strategies on Documentary Subtitles. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2023) Vol. 6: 51-57. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2023.061409.

REFERENCES

[1] de Linde, Z. (1995). 'Read My Lips': Subtitling principles, practices, and problems. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 3(1), 9-20.
[2] Gottlieb, Henrik (1994). Subtitling: Diagonal Translation [J]. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 1994:61-65.
[3] Jorge Díaz Cintas, Aline Remael (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester, UK and Kinderhook (NY): St. Jerome Publishing.
[4] Nedergaard-Larsen, Birgit (1993). Culture-bound Problems in Subtitling [J]. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1993(3):55-57.
[5] Nida, E. A. and Taber, C. R. (1969). The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
[6] From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_and_formal_equivalence
[7] From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)

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