Subtitle Translation Of Open Courses From The Perspective Of Interpretive Theory

This thesis aims to investigate how to improve the translation quality of open course subtitles under the guidance of interpretive theory, based on the case study of Harvard open course "national challenge:wither the gatekeeper."1In2001, Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched a program named OCW(open course ware), and then Yale, Harvard, Oxford and many other famous universities all joined in this great team which is thriving day by day. Thanks to the knowledgeable teacher, harmonious and interactive teaching atmosphere, open and motivational mode, these courses attract numerous fans all over the world. In China, the spread of open courses is limited to the group who reads China daily or New York Times every day because of language barriers, until2011when many web portals, including Netease and Sina, start to launch the project of "translation of open courses in world’s famous universities." The case "national challenge:wither the gatekeeper"1, is a translation project commissioned by Netease. It is a highly professional lecture delivered in Journalism School of Harvard University, in which four scholars express their opinions about radical transparency in a new media era with "WikiLeaks issue" as common ground.The open courses are precious resources for all learners, however, the translation quality of open courses is an embarrassing barrier to the popularization of open courses. Currently, most course subtitles are translated by fan-sub groups on the Internet, such as YYets, TLF and MYOOPS. Many audiences reflect that the translation quality is far from satisfactory, and that the frequent appearance of errors, omissions, and obscure sentences exposes the insufficiency of professional knowledge and systematic guidance.The main difficulties of open course subtitle translation lie in the understanding phrase, such as the segmented sentences, ambiguity of pronouns, as well as numerous terminologies and big issues mentioned by the speakers in the video. Besides, the expression difficulties, including the translation of non-correspondent components, the balance between colloquialism and formality, should not be ignored, either.Owing to the particularity of form and content, the translation of open course subtitles, while finishing language transformation, must take full consideration of such factors as colloquialism, time and space restraints, ideology, culture as well as target readers’acceptance. Considering the unique characteristics of open course subtitles, the interpretive theory is quite appropriate for its translation, for this theory highlights sense equivalence and communication sense of translation. Besides, the cognitive complements proposed in this theory are very essential for the translation of practical and professional texts like open course subtitles. Moreover, the de-verbalization process, a creative part of this theory, could effectively help translator get rid of the fetters caused by cultural differences.According to interpretive theory, the translator is required to distinguish sense from the linguistic meaning or the author’s intention, to obtain a comprehensive understanding with the help of cognitive supplements, appropriate hypothesis and inference, and then to choose appropriate forms in the target language to re-express the idea without succumbing to the influence of original text. Besides, fidelity to the target audiences’ acceptation is an indispensable criterion in translation.The thesis is divided into4chapters, among which the first chapter analyzes the characteristics of open course subtitle translation and general translation principles, while the second chapter lists out the main verbal and non-verbal translation difficulties, both in the understanding phrase and in the expression phrase. The third chapter illustrates core concepts of interpretive theory, which is proved to be valuable for the promotion of subtitle translation quality. The fourth chapter analyzes the application of interpretive theory based on the case "national challenge:wither the gatekeeper"1.In this chapter, the author gives many examples about how to overcome the difficulties in the translation process under the guidance of interpretive theory. Besides, some specific translation methods and skills under the guidance of interpretive are also listed out. The last chapter is the conclusion, which demonstrates the major findings and limitations of this study.