Theor App Lit EN 3

3 詹若萱 Chinese Translation of Subtitles of "Jane Eyre" from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss subtitle translation from the aspect of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory by meticulously selecting many fresh examples from a film “Jane Eyre” adapted from the well-known book “Jane Eyre”. Literary works are important subjects for film and TV dramas, and many of them are based on literary works. ”Jane Eyre” has attracted tens of thousands of readers, and its research value has been continuously shown. The subtitle translation of its adapted film“Jane Eyre”also contributes to the literary work’s popularity.

This paper has 3 parts which carefully discusses subtitle translation, Functional Equivalence Theory and the translation methods of functional equivalence in subtitle translation. The research is of great significance to the development of subtitle translation. This paper provides a more scientific reference for film subtitle translation, making the Functional Equivalence Theory more mature in the practical application of subtitle translation, and provides a more effective explanation for the application of Functional Equivalence Theory in subtitle translation. It contributes a lot to promoting the vigorous development of film subtitle translation.

Key words

"Jane Eyre";Subtitle trabslation; Functional Equivalence Theory

摘要

本文根据奈达的功能对等理论，从电影《简爱》中精心挑选了大量新颖的字幕翻译实例，论述了如何根据功能对等理论进行字幕翻译。文学作品是影视剧拍摄的重要题材，很多影视剧作品都是根据文学作品改编而来的。《简爱》自问世以来，吸引了数以万计的读者，其研究价值也不断地显示出来。字幕翻译也促进了文学作品的传播与受欢迎。

本文分为三个部分，分别对字幕翻译、功能对等理论以及功能对等理论在字幕翻译中的应用进行了详细的论述。本文为电影字幕翻译提供了更为科学的参考，使功能对等理论在字幕翻译实践中的应用更为成熟，并为功能对等理论在字幕翻译中的应用提供了更为有效的解释。

关键词

《简爱》；字幕翻译：功能对等理论

Introduction

With the implementation of the Chinese economic reform and the development of the trend of global integration, the commerce and trade cultures of different countries have more chances to intermix with each other. Where movies and TV shows have become one of the main art forms in daily life, it makes sense as an important carrier of culture. In recent years, more and more English movies and TV plays have been introduced into China, which not only play the role of entertainment products, but also become a window for Chinese audience to understand English-speaking countries. Because of the language barriers, the audience often needs the help of subtitle translation to understand the dialogue, background and other information of the specific film and TV show, which is the foundation for audience to understand the direction of the plot, characters and other contents. If the translator cannot convey this information to the target audience properly by subtitles, it will make the target audience can not enjoy the same fun as the native audience.

Nowadays, people are eager to watch more movies and TV series which have their own unique characteristics. And people’s need for subtitle translation is larger both in quality and quantity. The quality of the subtitle translation has large influence on people’s watching experience and their perceptions of the cultural and social connotations the film conveys. Therefore, the importance of film translation is self-evident. Although film translation has a great influence on today's society, it is different from other forms of translation. The history of film and television translation is still very short. While subtitle translation, seen as the most direct way of film translation, has not yet formed the systematic and theoretical system, it still relies on experience and perception in translation.

With the help of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory, this paper chooses Jane Eyre,a film adapted from the famous English novel Jane Ayre. This paper analyzes the translation strategies by listing many representative practical examples, and concludes whether the translation meets the objectives of TV drama translation and the audience's expectations. This paper hopes to provide some examples to better promote the development of subtitle translation of literary works from the perspectives of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory. In addition, this paper also hopes to arouse more scholars’ interests to explore the subtitle translation based on the Functional Equivalence Theory, and this paper also serves to enrich the studies of subtitle translation in E-C translation to promote the cross-cultural communication.

Subtitle translation

This part will present a brief introduction of subtitle translation including its characteristics and strategies.

Characteristics of subtitle translation

Firstly, subtitles should be easy to be understood because they have to show the main content of the all in a relatively simple way. Zhang Chunbai points out “with rare exceptions, film dialogues must be simple to be understood at first hearing because it is difficult for audience to hear it twice.” Subtitle translation is rarely using very obscure words and complex sentences. In particular, the instantaneity of the film makes the subtitles stay short. Therefore, the subtitles often need to present the plot, the actors’ emotion and the story background in a short time to achieve a clear effect. It includes two parts. On the one hand, choose simple sentence patterns. On the other hand, choose simple words. In addition to simple sentence patterns, words in sentences are usually translated into language easy to be understood.

Secondly, subtitle translation is supposed to be in accordance with the context and takes the audience's language and cultural background as the standard. Subtitle translation will consider different language, cultural characteristics and make the conversion according to the context. By watching this kind of subtitle translation, audience can have their best watching experience. For example, English language pays more attention to the structural beauty of sentence patterns, long sentences such as conjunctions and master-slave compound sentences, and the overt cohesion of the internal components of sentences, while Chinese language pays more attention to the beauty of artistic conception and the modification of adjectives. The sentences of Chinese are loose but the meaning is not scattered, and the internal components of sentences are mostly covert coherence.

Strategies of Subtitle translation

There are two kinds of translation strategies that we often use—domestication and foreignization.

The first one is domestication. Domestication translation advocates putting the audience first and emphasizes the importance of natural and fluent translation of subtitle translation in language, focusing on bringing the source language culture into the target language audience. In the category of culture, it mainly centers on the language of its own nation and makes foreign language as much as possible in line with the national language habits and cultural value system. On domestication translation strategies, the specific steps are as follows: skillfully choose domesticated translation style; take the aim of natural flow Chinese style; let the translation be adjusted in real time according to the target language; insert notes appropriately; delete the factual materials attached to the original text if necessary; keep the features of the translation and the source language in harmony.

The other strategy is foreignization. Foreignization requires the target audience to accept the language expression habits of the source text and cultural differences, leading the audience into the foreign situation. The important representative is Venuti, who advocated that “translation should face the differences and cover up the differences at the same time, and when necessary, differences can be highlighted.” [4] On the whole, in foreignization, translation is necessary to choose one of the original author or the source language as the main axis in order to retain the film atmosphere. The purpose of the original features of the content is to spread the source language culture to the audience of the target language. Especially, to achieve the purpose of translation, the translator can better understand the film works according to the language function of the film. Based on the needs of the audience in the target language, translators do some adjustments to analyze the source information in the film especially when encountering more difficult cultural factors. Translator makes the subtitle translation according to the target language audience's expectations, aesthetic experience, cultural values and psychological acceptance.

Brief Introduction to Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory

Enlightenments of Functional Equivalence Theory

===Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in subtitling "Jane Eyre"