论文总字数：42783字

摘 要

Abstract iv

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Need for the study 1

1.3 Research purpose 2

Chapter 2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Definitions of Domestication and Foreignization 3

2.2 Theoretical studies on Domestication and Foreignation 4

2.2.1 Advocacy of Domestication and Foreignization 4

2.2.2 The relationship between domestication and foreignization 4

2.3 Previous Studies on Movie Subtitle Translation 6

2.3.1 History of Movie Subtitle Translation 6

2.3.2 Features of Movie Subtitle Translation 7

2.4 Research gap 8

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 10

3.1 Research questions 10

3.2 Data collection 10

3.3 Data analysis 10

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion 12

4.1 Strategies used in the movie subtitle translation to achieve domestication 13

4.2 Strategies used in the movie subtitle translation to achieve foreignization 15

Chapter 5 Conclusion 18

5.1 Major findings 18

5.2 Implications 19

5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research 19

References 20

Acknowledgments

As a graduating student, it is very crucial for me to write this thesis. In order to finish this thesis, I asked a lot help from people around me. Besides I also received a great deal of encouragement and suggestions from my teachers and friends. Therefore I’d like to take this chance to express my sincere thanks to those people who have offered me their beneficial advice and favor.

To begin with, I’d like to extend my grateful thanks to my supervisor, Hu Yuanjiang, who is a knowledgeable, responsible and respectable scholar. Thanks to his efforts and valuable guidance, I was illuminated a lot and succeeded in finishing my thesis within the schedule. Pro. Hu offered me idea-provoking ideas and inspiring thoughts in every stage of the thesis. More importantly, his keen and unique observation and responsible attitudes benefit me not only in this thesis but also in my future education. Obviously, every bit of success I have achieved in this thesis owes to his complete and patient instructions. He always carefully read my drafts and then gave me many suggestions in order to help me write a high-quality thesis. I have to admit the fact that without his suggestions, his instruction, his encouragement and stuff, I could not complete my thesis successfully. Besides, I also benefited from learning his personality, academic ability and attitudes. I believe that it will be a precious treasure for me in my lifetime.

Next, I would also like to show my gratitude to all the other teachers, from whom I learned basic knowledge about my major and important professional skills. Besides, they also taught me the essence of life, the role of dream in our life and so on in Nanjing Tech University.

Besides, I am also grateful to my dear friends and roommates for their kind help and encouragement when I encounter difficulties in my study.

Last but not least, I’d like to show my heartfelt thanks to my parents, who are always on my side, encourage me and support me whatever I do.

Quan Qingyun

中文摘要

对于当代人来说，影视作品已经成为一种文化形式，同时它也是一名合格的文化使者。随着各个国家之间的合作愈发紧密频繁，影视作品也正发挥着至关重要的作用。要想让一部好的影视作品得到全世界各地观众的认可喜爱，影视字幕就显得尤为重要。成功的影视字幕不但能传达出语言的字面含义，还能传递人物、情节、影视主题等方面的深层含义，更能够促进各国文化间的交流。

因此为了深入探究影视字幕翻译策略的发展，以达到促进字幕翻译这一行业整体的发展，本文选取了经典美剧《老友记》中的7处案例进行剖析，同时结合归化与异化的翻译理论，从译者主体性和文化因素这两个方面探讨在影视字幕翻译过程中出现的归化异化现象及其实际应用。

本文具体研究两个问题，即美剧《老友记》的字幕翻译中运用了哪些翻译策略使其字幕翻译取得了归化和异化的效果。因此本文选取美剧《老友记》进行个案研究，结合归化与异化的翻译理论来探讨英文字幕是如何在汉译过程中灵活地运用归化、异化的翻译策略。

美剧《老友记》是一部深受大家喜爱的情景喜剧,本文选取了其中7处经典的片段进行字幕翻译研究，发现译者灵活地运用了4种归化策略，如：直译与意译、换译、补偿、借译；另外还用了3种异化翻译策略，如：移译、语码转换、象译，成功地再现了原剧的精髓,充分传达了幽默的喜剧效果，给人们留下了深刻的印象。

总之，译者在字幕翻译过程中，巧妙地运用了归化与异化两种翻译策略，并将二者结合起来，相辅相成，在文化因素的处理中采用归化因素，将原作内容用最自然的对等目的语表达出来，使观众易于理解与接受，同时又保留了原作中的异域文化、人物个性与特点。而对于其中的文化难点, 译者发挥其创造力,用文化补偿和文化替换的手段创造性地弥补文化的鸿沟,促进了不同文化间的传播和交流。从而使得美剧Friends成为一部内容丰富、妙趣横生、历久弥新的现实作品。

本文希望通过对美剧Friends进行影视字幕翻译的归化与异化研究，能够对读者和译者提供帮助，从而进促进影视字幕翻译的进一步发展。

关键词：影视字幕翻译；归化；异化；翻译策略

Abstract

Film and television works are a culture form in daily life for contemporary people, meanwhile it is a qualified cultural messenger. As cooperation between countries is becoming more frequent, movies are also becoming important all over the world. In order for a good film and television work to be recognized by audiences all over the world, subtitles are especially important. Successful film and television subtitles can not only convey the literal meaning of the language, but also convey the deep meaning of characters, plots, film and television themes, etc., and promote the exchange of culture between countries.

Therefore, in order to explore the development of film and television subtitle translation strategy with the intention of promoting the overall development of subtitle translation industry, this paper selects seven cases in the classic American drama Friends to analyze and discusses the phenomenon of domestication and foreignization and its actual application in the process of subtitle translation from the perspectives of translator’s subjectivity and cultural factors while combining the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization.

This paper specifically studies two questions, namely, what translation strategies are used in the subtitle translation of the American drama Friends to make the subtitle translation achieve the effects of naturalization and foreignization. Therefore, this thesis conducts a case study on Friends and combines with the translation theories of domestication and foreignization to explore how English subtitles can flexibly use the domestication and foreignization translation strategies in the Chinese translation process.

Friends ,which is a humorous American TV show, is deeply appreciated by everyone. This paper studies 7 classic fragments for subtitle translation research, and finds that the translator has flexibly applied four kinds of domestication translation strategies, such as literal translation, substitution, compensation and loan-translation. And three foreignization translation strategies, such as transferred translation, code-switching and image translation, which successfully reproduce the essence of the original drama, fully convey the humorous effect and leave a deep impression on people.

All in all, when subtitling, translators should flexibly make use of domestication and foreignization, and combined the two strategies so as to complement them.

The translation strategy of domestication is used in the processing of cultural factors, and the original content is expressed in the most natural equivalent language, which helps the audience understand and accept it, while retaining the foreign culture, personality and characteristics of the original work. For the cultural difficulties, the translator exerts its creativity to bridge the cultural gap by means of cultural compensation and cultural substitution, and promotes the communication and exchange between different cultures. As a result, the US drama Friends becomes a rich, interesting and time-honored realistic work.

This thesis hopes to help the readers and translators through the research on domestication and foreignization of the subtitle translation of Us drama Friends, and thus promote the further development of subtitle translation.

Keywords: Movie subtitle translation; domestication; foreignization; translation strategies

Introduction

In recently years, the movie industry is becoming popular and vigorous. So movie subtitle translation is occupying people’s attention with each passing day. Hence, this paper studies the translation strategies in movie subtitle and this chapter mainly deals with the basic requirements for the study.

Research background

As the development of the globalization of the world and the wide spread use of the Internet accelerate the spread of foreign films in China, the movie subtitle translation affects audience’s understanding and acceptance. Hence, people start to pay attention to the movie subtitle translation. Nowadays, movies become a crucial part of the communications between countries. Due to the differences in language and culture, accurate and exquisite subtitle translation is often required to help audiences better understand the movies and accelerate the cultural exchanges. As a result, subtitle translation is becoming more popular among people.

1.2 Need for the study

Subtitle translation is essential for cultural exchanges among countries. By using appropriate cultural translation strategies and translation methods, foreign audiences can experience the language habits and national cultures in the film in order to promote cultural exchanges. Both domestication and foreignization have their advantages and disadvantages. Domestication can make the translation free from the form of the original text in order to preserve the content of the original text and make the translation smooth and the audience easy to understand and accept it. Foreignization helps people better understand the foreign culture of the source text. So this thesis focuses on discussing the merits and demerits of domestication and foreignization, in which case the study will in return enrich the existing translation theories and make the translation field more flourishing.

1.3 Research purpose

This thesis aims to do a research on translation strategies which are applied in the movie subtitles, taking Friends as an example. To be more specific, this paper will try to study the translation strategies of domestication and foreignzation which are applied in Friends so as to find out advantages and disadvantages of them. Besides, this thesis will discuss the translation strategies used in Friends and then offer some advice. Also it will briefly introduces what is domestication and foreignization as well as their development and advocacy. Since our science and technology is developing rapidly, movies as a kind of image-based cultural carrier are increasingly favored by people, which makes the translation of film and television works increasingly valued. On the basis of the translation theories,this thesis aims to figure out the development of domestication and foreignization in subtitle translation, in order to maximize the transmission of source language information, and at the same time to meet the audience's aesthetic expectations and realize two-way communication.

Literature Review

Movie subtitle translation is an emerging field in translation community. With the dramatic influence of globalization and the booming development of film, movie subtitle translation is playing an increasingly important role in translation study. This chapter is mainly associated with the studies on translation strategies and movie subtitle.

Definitions of Domestication and Foreignization

Friedrich Schleiermacher hold that there is two methods for translation: the one is that we should make the author keep still and make readers come close to the author when translating, and the other one is that we should keep the readers still and guide the author to come close to the readers. And then in 1995,these two methods are called as domestication and foreignization accordingly by Venuti.

Generally speaking, foreignization requires the translator to approach the author and adopt the original language to convey the content of the original text. However, domestication requires the translator to approach the reader of target language and adopt the target language used by the target language readers to convey the content of the original text.

Domestication intends to reduce the foreign flavor and help audience better understand the source text, while foreignization aims to help people appreciate the language habit, customs of the original text, that is, try to use the language form, habit and cultural tradition of the source language to highlight the "exotic atmosphere" of the source language in the translation. Especially for those images that are difficult to deal with due to cultural differences, the strategies of foreignization and domestication should be carefully considered on the premise of fully understanding the audience's horizon of expectation, aesthetic orientation and receptivity.

2.2Theoretical studies on Domestication and Foreignation

2.2.1Advocacy of Domestication and Foreignization

1. Nida and Domestication

As an eminent linguist, Nida remarkably pushed the overall development of the translation strategies around the globe. And he was in favor of domestication and proposed that translator should give priority to readers in the process of translation and the language of the translation ought to be smooth and natural. Meanwhile, he hold that the aim of translation is just to communicate. When readers cannot better understand the content of the source text, translators should adopt the strategies of domestication. Besides, it is unnecessary for translators to focus on readers’ ability and understanding.

（2）Venuti and Foreignization

Lawrence Venuti is a famous representative of foreignization school. He believed that when translating, translators should not make compromise to readers and lay emphasis on the difference among the source text style and other aspects. Those people in favor of foreignization thought that translation is a way of cultural exchanges. The introduction of source language culture into the target language culture can not only enrich and improve the the target language’s power of expression, but also provide a bridge to understand the source language culture.

2.2.2 The relationship between domestication and foreignization

Each person has his or her own thoughts about whether to apply domestication or foreignization in translation. And throughout the history, domestication is always the dominant one. However, with the closer cultural exchanges in the world, people also tend to apply strategies of foreignization.

1. The opposite of domestication and foreignization

Domestication and foreignization are two totally different translation strategies, which are supported by different schools.

People who are in support of domestication believe that the target language should be give priority to and the translators should stay close with readers.Their reasons are as follows:

1. It is unwise for translators to implant the cultural customs of the source language into the target one.
2. Generally speaking, the method to communicate in one culture does not necessarily work out in another one. Hence, when translating, it is unacceptable to apply the same way into translating another culture.

The school of foreignization advocates that the source language should be used as the basis and translators should approach the author. Their reasons are as follows:

(1) It is a must to help audience understand foreign cultures, which is also the aim of the translation.

(2) With the rapid development of the society, there are more and more cultural exchanges, and the readers have a higher level of knowledge. Hence, reader could have a better understanding of exotic cultures.

b. The unity of domestication and foreignization

For the choice of domestication and foreignization, different readers have different ideas and purposes,which are generally divided into two factions: one is that target language culture should be the destination to choose the translation of domestication and the other is that source language culture should be the destination to choose the translation strategy of foreignization.

Considering the author's writing intention, the translation strategy of domestication or foreignization should be chosen according to the situation. If the text is aimed at introducing its history, culture, political system and so on, foreignization should be given priority to so as to present the target language readers with authentic foreign culture, while for some practical text, such as publicity materials, notices, announcements, etc., focusing on passing information to the readers, domestication translation should be given priority to, which can make readers better understand the original meaning.

Both domestication and foreignization have its advantages and disadvantages. Hence, it is not advisable to use either one too much. Translators should depends on the specific circumstances to find a compromise point. Domestication should not make the translation lose the flavor of the original text and foreignization should not make the translation difficult to understand.

2.3 Previous Studies on Movie Subtitle Translation

2.3.1 History of Movie Subtitle Translation

Movie subtitle started early in the west, and has formed a certain research model and system, and its research objects and perspectives are also developing towards a diversified trend. Comparatively speaking, the study of movie translation in China started relatively late and has not formed a systematically theoretical system, of which the main task is to explore in practice.

The development of China's movie industry is a complex process, which is divided into two major stages, one is the stage before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the other is after that establishment. And the major translation form of each period is divided into the age of slide subtitles, the age of translated ideas and the age of production and subtitle translation.

At the very early stage, the translation of movie subtitle refers to translate those silent films. Then sound movies came into China, together with the emergence of subtitle translation industry, which became popular by the end of 1920s,

After the popularity of subtitle translation for nearly a decade, movie translation has taken a historic step, which is the emergence of simultaneous interpretation installation, originally known as earphone. At the middle of 19^th, dubbing movies became enjoyed by many people. At that time, the imported translated films reached a high level in terms of ideological, educational and artistic quality.

When the whole China entered the cultural revolution period, the film industry also entered the temporary low period. Thanks to the efforts of state leaders and film translators, the two most powerful producers, Changchun film studio and Shanghai film studio, finally resumed production in 1979. Till 1984, the two companies had translated over 200 movies around the globe.

By the mid-1980s, translated films had its first climax in China, and the sources of films were constantly expanding with the changes of international forms. After the 1990s, China began to introduce some blockbusters, of which Titanic and Saving Private Ryan have brought huge visual and auditory impacts to people, and triggered people's thinking on dubbing.

In the flourishing development of film and television translation, each stage has its unique characteristics, especially in today's highly developed society, the characteristics of film and television translation is particularly prominent.

2.3.2 Features of Movie Subtitle Translation

Subtitle translation refers to the process of providing subtitles that are synchronized with sound for the dialogue in film and television works. Movie subtitle translation as a special branch of translation, although has something in common with general literary translation, by contrast, there are still many differences. Literary translation pays attention to the rhetoric and conciseness of language, which is worthy of the attention of readers. While movie subtitle translation is more simple, colloquial and living, aiming to let the audience be clear at a glance.

Movie is a comprehensive artistic work combining sound and pictures. The translation of subtitles is dramatically affected by the time and space. When watching a movie, the combination of subtitles and pictures on the screen is fleeting by, so we can't consult it repeatedly like reading paper literature and think about the meaning of the translation and its cultural connotation deeply. Therefore, movie subtitles should firstly keep pace with the picture, needed to stay for 2-3 seconds on the screen in order to make sure the audience have plenty of time to read the text messages on the subtitles. Secondly, considering that the number of characters that can be contained on the film screen is limited, subtitles should be appropriately reduced to translate the essence of the original sentence and highlight the key information. At the same time, considering the different cultural levels of the movie audience, the language of subtitle translation is required to be popular, concise and easy to understand.

2.4 Research gap

In today’s society, people have many channels to associate with others around the globe and understand their cultures. In addition to newspapers and news, people can experience the exotic scenery by travelling for themselves. However, the introduction of the media is always an armchair strategist. Tourism can be immersive, but for most people, it is not easy to achieve. Therefore another channel is becoming more and more popular. That is, watching foreign movies and television. This is not only a good channel for people to learn about the exotic culture, but also a combination of entertainment and education, making it more acceptable to the public.

However, foreign films and TV programs are foreign language works after all, and the biggest obstacle for Chinese audiences to accept them is language. In order to remove this obstacle, Chinese translation can be provided for them, which involves subtitle translation. In most people's eyes, movie subtitle seems to be a very simple thing, as long as the audience can understand it, but actually, the translation of movie subtitle is very complicated. Today, even it there are so many researches on subtitle translation, most of them are scattered ones. Some studies focus on the translation of a certain film and television that involves many factors, such as the translation of humor and puns. Some theories are also used to analyze the principles applied in subtitle translation, such as functional equivalence theory, skopos theory, context theory, relevance theory, etc. However, in either case, only a specific film and television subtitle translation is used for horizontal research, and few studies on the macro situation of film and television subtitle translation are combined with horizontal studies.

This thesis intends to do a diachronic research on subtitle translation from the perspective of history. This paper discusses the historical trend of subtitle translation in the development process, and summarizes its characteristics, so as to better understand the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in the development process of subtitle translation. This research will be more conducive to our overall grasp of the historical dynamics of subtitle translation and the development trend of domestication and foreignization used in the translation, and provide us with more clear direction and guidance for the future practice.

Chapter 3 Research Methodology

As we have discussed before, this thesis intends to study on domestication and foreignization which are applied in the movie subtitle translation—taking Friends as an example and try to figure out what strategies can be used in the movie subtitle translation to achieve the effect of domestication and foreignization. Therefore, in this chapter, research questions and the data will be delineated.

Research questions

On the basis of the restrictions which is illustrated above, this thesis specifically conducts a research on the following questions:

(1) What strategies are used in the subtitle translation to achieve the effect of domestication？

(2) What strategies are used in the subtitle translation to achieve the effect of foreignization?

Data collection

The data of this study come from the well-known TV show, Friends, which is a comedy. This thesis chose seven examples from Friends to make an analysis. And then this paper will study the translation of movie subtitle through observing and enumerating the examples in Friends and compare their differences between strategies of domestication and foreignzation in order to figure out how to combine the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in subtitling.

Data analysis

This paper will study 7 typical cases chosen from the subtitle translation of Friends through observing and enumerating these examples. Both domestication and foreignization are applied in the subtitle translation according to this research, which have achieved tremendous success and benefited in preserving the exotic favor of the TV show and helping the audience better understand the culture of the United States. In addition, this paper also discusses the development of the movie subtitle translation and the specific strategies which are used in the subtitle translation to achieve the effect of domestication and foreignization through analyzing those picked examples. Lastly this paper also aims to figure out how to combine the use of domestication and foreignization to achieve the maximum effect.

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion

In the previous chapter, we have settled with the theoretical studies on movie subtitle.Therefore, this chapter will dwell on the specific discussions of the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization and will be committed to find out the answers to the research questions.

Domestication is to localize the source language, aiming at the target language or the target reader, and adopting the expressions that the target language reader is accustomed to to convey the content of the original text. Domestication requires that translators should come close to readers of the original language, helping them understand the translation. Foreignization means that the translator does not bother the author as much as possible, letting the reader move closer to the author. The translator is required to move closer to the author and adopt the source language expression to convey the content of the original text, that is, to use the source language culture as the destination. The use of foreignization translation strategies can preserve national cultural differences and allow readers to appreciate the exotic customs and unique cultural connotations of the original works. Venuti is a representative of foreignization translation strategies,who believes that translation is a purely game of difference ,which always involves differences and also masks differences, while occasionally revealing differences and sometimes even highlighting differences."

Although domestication and foreignization seem to be opposite but not opposite, the two are the same, and the purpose is to make readers better understand the meaning of the source language. Absolute foreignization and absolute domestication do not exist. In order to faithfully reflect the style and cultural characteristics of the original text, it is inevitable to adopt foreignization translation strategies. But at the same time, we must also take into account the reader's expression habits and ways of thinking, especially when it comes to specific cultural factors, it is necessary to adopt domestication translation strategies. Although at present, China's subtitles mainly adopt the stratefies of domestication and foreignization is supplemented. In conclusion, the combination of domestication and foreignization according to different situations can achieve the win-win results between the author and the audience.

As people know more about domestication and foreignization which can help them better understand Friends than before, this paper will introduce several translation methods to tackle different translation problems, which can help the Chinese vision of subtitle achieve the effect of domestication and foreignization.

Strategies used in the movie subtitle translation to achieve domestication

The use of domestication strategies in subtitle translation is more common in the treatment of specific cultural factors, including historical allusions, folklore, idioms, idioms and so on. Language is an important carrier of culture. Some fixed expressions formed by a nation in its long history often have its unique historical origins. It is a accumulation under a large cultural background and has its national characteristics. Therefore, there is very little expression in the target language, and the audience will be ignorant. At this time, in order to enable the audience to accurately grasp the connotation of these words or sentences, it is necessary to use a domestication strategy to relay them.

请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：42783字