论文总字数：33720字

摘 要

A List of Abbreviations iv

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Literature review 2

2. Nida’s Theory on Functional Equivalence 4

2.1 Origin and development 4

2.2 Definition and types 5

2.3 Principles and functions 6

3. An Equivalence-based Approach to the Translation of Subtitles in Zootopia 8

3.1 Semantic equivalence 8

3.2 Textual equivalence 10

3.3 Stylistic equivalence 12

4. Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgments

In a twinkling of an eye, my four-year university life is coming to an end. In order to successfully complete this paper, I spent a lot of energy and consulted a lot of literature. Although it is no easy task to finish such a thesis, my heart is full of deep gratitude. Here, I need to say “Thank you” to all the people who have helped me in this process. Without their heart-to-heart help, I could not have finished this thesis within so short a time.

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and great respect to my dear supervisor, Professor Hu Aihua, for giving me whole-hearted guidance in my thesis writing. Professor Hu spent much time reading my drafts and provided me with a lot of useful suggestions, and I really appreciate her kindness.

Second, I would like to thank all the teachers who taught me during my college years, under whose guidance I have accumulated necessary knowledge and rich experience for my study and thesis writing. In addition, I am grateful to my friends, who have offered me advice in this thesis.

Lastly, I would like to convey my thanks to my parents for their encouragement and support.

Abstract

Having enjoying much popularity for its humorous language and profound cultural connotations, Zootopia was translated into Feng Kuang Dong Wu Cheng by Song Ruixue in 2017. This thesis analyzes within the framework of Nida’s functional equivalence how the translation of subtitles in Song Ruixue’s Feng Kuang Dong Wu Cheng achieves functional equivalence. As to semantic equivalence, the adoption of free translation in Feng Kuang Dong Wu Cheng conveys the background information that Judy saves Mr. Big’s daughter and portrays Mr. Big who shows rational kindness and will never kill Judy, his daughter’s benefactor. As to textual equivalence, the use of addition and free translation in Feng Kuang Dong Wu Cheng delineates the context about Nike’s miserable childhood on the telpher and conveys the implications that Nike wants to release the tension at that moment whereas Judy misunderstands his words. As regards stylistic equivalence, the use of free translation retains the colloquial characteristics and highlights the characterization of the drillmaster, a man of impoliteness and dominance who always curses Judy with rude words. This study can, on one hand, provide some referential value for the translation and retranslation of foreign films into Chinese. On the other hand, by combining Nida's theory of functional equivalence with the subtitle of specific films, this thesis can offer a new perspective for translation studies.

Keywords: Nida’s functional equivalence; Zootopia; translation of subtitles

中文摘要

Zootopia以其幽默的语言和深刻的文化内涵而深受人们喜爱。2017年，宋瑞雪将其译为《疯狂动物城》。本文以奈达的功能对等理论为指导，从三个方面分析了宋瑞雪的《疯狂动物城》如何在字幕翻译方面达到功能对等。在语义对等方面，《疯狂动物城》采用意译法传达了朱迪救大先生女儿这一语境信息，塑造了大先生这一人物形象。大先生理智善良，不会杀害女儿的恩人朱迪。在篇章对等方面，译文采用意译和增译两种方法，分析了尼克在缆车上讲述其悲惨童年这一语境，传达了尼克想在那一时刻释放紧张气氛而朱迪却对此产生误解这一意涵。在文体对等方面，译文采用意译法保留了原文口语化特征，突出了教官毫无礼貌，而且喜欢主宰别人，他在责骂朱迪时总是脏话连篇。本研究可给外国电影的汉译工作提供一定的参考。另一方面，本文将奈达的功能对等理论与具体电影字幕结合进行分析，能够为翻译研究提供新的研究视角。

关键词：奈达的功能对等；Zootopia; 字幕翻译

A List of Abbreviations

FKDWC: Feng kuang Dong Wu Cheng

SL: source language

ST: source text

TT: target text

TL: target language

Introduction

1.1 Research background

The term “equivalence” was first proposed by A. F. Tytler in 1790, who pointed out in a brief introduction to the principles of translation that a good translation is to transfer the merits of the source text (ST) to the target text (TT). That is to say, a good translation should produce the same effect between the two texts. German Translator Paul Cauer (1896) later called it “comparable effect” in his book Translation Art. As an American linguist and translator, Eugene A. Nida is known for his theory on equivalence. He was engaged in linguistics, semantics, anthropology, and other research such as Bible translation. The key point of Nida’s theory is functional equivalence, which emphasizes that the target reader's responses to the TT (target text) is the same as that of the source reader to the ST (source text).

Zootopia, a 3D animation produced by Disney film industry in 2016, was codirected by Rich Moore, Byrne Howard and Gerard bush. The film was released on March 4, 2016 on the mainland of China. The film centers on Judy, a rabbit who works hard to fulfill her childhood dream and becomes an animal policeman in an animal city where all animals live peacefully. The film is popular with audiences of all ages for its humor, and its positive film style has achieved high box office and public praise in China. The reason why the film enjoys much popularity in China is that it is well produced and subtitled. First of all, the humorous plot catches the audience’s eyes. Second, it constructs the animal world with the human society, which reflects profound themes such as the pursuit of dreams and the desire for freedom and equality.

There are two Chinese versions of Zootopia up to now. The 2017 version entitled Feng Kuang Dong Wu Cheng（疯狂动物城); hereafter referred to as FKDWC）was translated by Song Ruixue, famous for its humorous language and literal translation of the subtitles considering its context. The other version Dong Wu Fang Cheng Shi (动物方城市) was translated by Zhuo Yunxuan in 2017 and produced in 2017 by Taiwan Animal Square City and has been enjoying much popularity among many audience for its taking into account people’s mentality, cultural factors, religious beliefs, etc. This thesis aims to elaborate the translation of subtitles in FKDWC from the perspective of Nida’s functional equivalence.

1.2 Literature review

1.2.1 Previous studies on the Chinese translations of Zootopia

As far as the author of this thesis can find, there is little research on the translation of subtitles in FKDWC in the international translation arena; however, it has become a heated topic in China.

Ling (2017) analyzes the communicator, media and content, the theory of communication in the translation of subtitles under the framework of the communication theory. She believes that the translation of subtitles is a cultural exchange and should apply advisable translation methods such as omission. Yang (2017) studies the subtitle translation methods and strategies from the perspectives of synthetic theory on multimodal discourse. She reasonably integrates sounds, language and images to present the complete meanings of the TT, suggesting that TL should consider the social factors of the TL rather than be constrained to traditional translation principles. Liu (2018) suggests that translation should meet Chinese audience’s language habits and psychological needs. Jiang (2018) compares the two Chinese versions within the framework of Lefevere’s rewriting theory, stressing that translation undertakes the mission of not only transferring one language into another but also conveying culture-and-value-oriented information.

As to the problems concerning the previous studies, on one hand, scholars focus too much attention on the translation strategies and methods in the translation of subtitles in FKDWC. On the other hand, they fail to interpret why FKDWC is an excellent version if examined from the perspective of functional equivalence. Therefore, this thesis will discuss the translation of subtitles in FKDWC in three aspects: semantic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence, and analyze the relevant characteristics and translation strategies so as to help readers have a thorough comprehension of functional equivalence and appreciate the charm of Zootopia.

As to the need, the study of appropriate translation strategies and methods can provide referential value for the re-translation of Zootopia. In addition, to apply Nida’s theory of functional equivalence can improve the translation quality of subtitles and help the Chinese audience understand FKDWC better.

Nida’s Theory on Functional Equivalence

2.1 Origin and development

The theory of functional equivalence, emerging in Germany in the 1970s, has been introduced into China for over 50 years. As an important breakthrough in the translation field, it has been well accepted by many people in recent years. The term “equivalent” in translation firstly introduced in J. R. Firth’s writing. Then, Nida amp; Taber (1982) propose equivalence in The Theory and Practice of Translation, which has made contributions to the translation studies.

Generally speaking, the development of Dynamic Equivalence goes through three stages. In the first stage (from 1959 to 1964), Nida puts forward two types of equivalence in Translation: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. In the second stage (1969-1982), he points out that the new focus of translation has shifted from “the form of information” to “he response of the receiver”. In the third stage (form the mid-1980s onwards), he replaces dynamic equivalence with functional equivalence. Functional equivalence is divided into two levels: the highest and the lowest. The former requires readers to understand the ST; the latter shows that the target readers read the TT as if they were the ST readers who understand and appreciate the ST (Nida, 1993).

Over the past fifty years, R. Jakobson, J. C. Catford, and M. Baker have focused on studying equivalence, thereby providing a useful theoretical and pragmatic foundation for translation studies. W. Wilss (1982) believes that the concept “equivalence” not only plays an essential role in the theory of translation over the last 38 years, but also influences the modern translation studies to great extent. Some other scholars favor functional equivalence, believing that translators opt to find functional equivalence which preserve the context-sensitive communicative value.

2.2 Definition and types

According to Nida (1984), functional equivalence means that translation should convey the ST implication in a most advisable and natural language, including the recurrence from the semantics to the style. He propounds four types in equivalence: Lexical equivalence, semantic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence.

Lexical equivalence can be the exact or perfect correspondence of words such as rendering“太阳”into the sun; incomplete correspondence of words such as“舅舅” and “叔叔”into “uncle” in the specific context and for specific purposes; imperfect correspondence of words such as the transliteration of sofa into“沙发”; correspondence of untranslatable words in one language whose meaning does not exist in another language such as in“我爱麦克”translated from the same sentence pattern “I like Mike" or "I lick Mike”. In short, to realize word equivalence, we should grasp the relationship between words and their associative images, and convey their associative meanings.

Semantic equivalence refers to the equivalence of the components of a sentence and the order in which they are arranged. According to Nida, semantics can be divided into two parts: (1) the words as symbols which refer to objects, events, and relations (the referential meaning); (2) the words as prompters of reactions of the participants in communication (the connotative meaning). In most instances, the surrounding context points out quite clearly which of the basic meaning of a word is intended (Nida, 1982: 56). Therefore, when discussing semantic equivalence, we should consider the ST surrounding context and check whether the ST characters’ reactions consist with TT’s. Chinese scholars improve Nida’s idea as to how to achieve semantic equivalence. For example, Hao (2019) contends that the translator should consider the structure, background information and cultural factors of both TL and SL. Second, he should take into account the gender, number, other grammatical markers, and the consistency of tenses in adjusting the sentence structure. Finally, if it is an attributive clause, he should consider its order and reorganization. Mi (2011) further states that semantic equivalence breaks through the forbidden area of “untranslatability” in translation, faithfully and accurately conveying the cultural meanings of the SL and achieve the purpose of cultural communication.

Textual equivalence (also called linguistic equivalence) means a number of sentences and sentence groups are combined for certain purposes and specific meanings. In a definite context, the adjustment of the ST structure enables the TT to convey the same implications. It can on one hand maintain cohesion and coherence between the ST and the TT, and on the other, retain some features of the SL and respect the language habits of the TL. Therefore, we should not only adjust the TL according to its expression habits but also analyze the relationship between the ST and the TT contexts, seeing how the TT reflects the ST implication in the specific context (Li, 2019).

Stylistic equivalence is defined as the equivalence between ST and TT to achieve the semantic consistency and invariance in the same sense (Popvoic, 1976). It involves preserving both the ST semantic content and expressive characteristics, whose stylistic analysis can be conducted in aspects of vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric, narrative perspective, etc. Nida (1993) proposes that stylistic equivalence is mainly reflected in the language style and characterization. It requires that the TT be similar to the ST in word order, the form, figurative speeches and structure, which requires the translator to reorganize the ST language style and make the TT equivalent. Second, we should the speaker’s character and attitudes in the TT should be equivalent with those in the ST.

2.3 Principles and functions

A number of relevant principles control the types and degrees of adjustments, which may be essential to produce an acceptable TT that achieves functional equivalence. The following principles can be helpful in producing the closest natural equivalence:

1. If the TT is close to the ST form and the audience misunderstands the TT in the sense of reference, then it is necessary to mediate the translation or add footnotes to the reference that causes misunderstanding.
2. If the TT is close to the ST form, but hard to understand in semantics, it is essential to adjust the ST so that the target reader can better understand the TT.
3. If the TT is close to the ST form, but does not retain the ST style, readers misunderstand the associative meaning of the ST, then the TT needs to be adjusted to reflect the associative meaning of the ST.

As to the functions of Nida's functional equivalence, first, the concepts like part of speech, core sentence patterns and isomorphism can provide theoretical support for the translation. Second, functional equivalence points out the way for translation practice, especially for the translation of long and difficult sentences. Third, functional equivalence makes the conversion between the SL and the TL have a standard and reduce their differences by reproducing equivalence semantically and stylistically. Last, functional equivalence carries out communication by finding translation equivalents and reorganizing the formal and semantic structure of information in the TT.

3. An Equivalence-based Approach to the Translation of Subtitles in Zootopia

With the implementation of China’s reform and opening up since 1978 and the global integration in recent years, social and cultural exchanges have penetrated into each corner of different countries. Among them, films have become one of the main artistic productions and entertainments in our daily life; however, the introduction of foreign cultures in film production cannot be separated from the translation of subtitles, a means of cross-cultural communication, which has been playing a vital role in boosting film exchanges across the world and transmitting foreign cultures all over China. As a matter of fact, good subtitle translation enables the Chinese audience not merely to grasp the ST information and cultural implications but also to overcome language barriers and cultural differences. Therefore, in this chapter, the subtitles in FKDWC will be analyzed in three respects: semantic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence.

3.1 Semantic equivalence

Semantic equivalence refers to the equivalence obtained by the surface structure in the target language based on the semantic content shared by the forms of two different languages (Nida, 2000). Simply put, semantic equivalence is the closest equivalent in meaning and plays a very important role in translation. For the translation itself, it is particularly important to accurately express the meaning of the ST so that the audience can easily understand it although we must change the relevant vocabulary and grammar. In different situations, it is necessary to make appropriate trade-offs and adjustments in TT. So the translator should consider SL implications when translating a text. This treatment can help the target audience to understand the film and retain the same implications and emotions as the ST audience. Example1will interpret how FKDWC1 achieves semantic equivalence with Zootopia1.

Example 1

Zootopia1: (Mr. Big): “You’ve done me a great service.”

FKDWC1: (Mr. Big）:“你帮了我大忙。”

Judy (a rabbit) and his partner Nick (a fox) are unfortunately arrested in a case investigation by Mr. Big, A few years ago, Nike sold to Mr. Big a very expensive wool rug made from the fur of the skunk’s butt. Later, Mr. Big knows the fact and believes that Nike insults him so he wants to kill Nike and Judy. When Mr. Big’s daughter comes out from the wedding scene, she immediately stops him from doing that, telling him that Judy saves her life in an accident. Then in Zootopia1, Mr. Big decides to show mercy on Judy rather than kill her, who, he believes, has “done [him] a great service”, that is, rescuing his daughter.

In FKDWC1, “done me a great service” is liberally translated into “帮了我大忙” and achieves semantic equivalence in conveying the Zootopia1 surrounding context and Mr. Big’s reaction toward Judy. On one hand, the free translation “帮了我大忙” reproduces the contextual information. Movies reflect our daily communications whose major features are usually colloquial and conversational. Zootopia1 is a conversation between Mr. Big and Judy. Mr. Big has known the fact that Judy saves his daughter; therefore, he says to Judy “你帮了我大忙”, which provides the background information and produces a naturally fluent and colloquial translation that is in line with the Chinese expression habits when we want to express our deep appreciation of what others have done for us. However, the word “service” literally refers to “服务”. If “done me a great service” is literally rendered into “给我做了很好的服务”, it is inappropriate to describe the relationship between Mr. Big and Judy. They are not the employing and the employed, or the customer and waiter/waitress. On the other hand, “你帮了我大忙” conveys Mr. Big’s reaction to Judy. Judy saves his daughter, so he decides to express his heartfelt thanks rather than kill his daughter’s savior. It is obvious that his “帮了我大忙” depicts him as the person who requites kindness for kindness and will never kill his daughter’s benefactor, portraying a loving and rational father and therefore achieves semantic equivalence.

3.2 Textual equivalence

Textual equivalence consists of cultural equivalence, situational equivalence and contextual equivalence. Cultural equivalence refers to the transformation of the SL cultural background into the TL on the condition that the target audience fully understands the SL culture. Situational equivalence refers to the situation that specific people and things of the ST who participate in the communication are fully depicted in the TT. By contextual equivalence is meant to consider the analysis of the ST is based on contextual discourse, whose effect should be reproduced in the TT. Therefore, when conducting an analysis of textual equivalence, we should analyze not only the superficial meaning of the ST but also how the TT reflects the ST implications in the specific context, which will ultimately determine whether there is any equivalent relationship between the ST and the TT.

Example 2

Zootopia2: (Nike): “Buddy, one predator to another”

(Nike): “ I learned two things that day, one , i was never gonna let anyone see that they got to me”

...

(Nike) : “Boy, look at the traffic down there”

(Judy) : “Seriously, it’s okay”

FKDWC2: (Nike)：“哥们，咱食肉动物说句心里话”

(Nike) ：“那天我学会了两件事，我绝不会再让人看到我脆弱的一面”

。。。。。。

(Nike) ：“天呐，你看下面的交通”

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