A Relevance-Theoretic Approach To Subtitling Translation

In terms of communication in our everyday sense, it has several concepts. For example, it may refer to the political, economic and cultural interflow between one country and another. It may also refer to the same interflow between one district and another. And again it may refer to the interaction of one person with another, etc. All those may be included by the word "communication". However, from the perspective of linguistics, communication means the imparting or exchanging of information and it involves a complex process. Complex as it may be, communication mainly boils down to two major issues: first, what is communicated, and second, how is communication achieved. Communication is carried out by several methods, for example by speaking, writing or by some other media.In the sense of general linguistics, communication is based on two models: the code model and the inferential model. According to the first, communication is a process of coding and decoding. And according to the second, communication is achieved by producing and interpreting evidence. Sperber and Wilson, the two contemporary pragmatists, have made further study and what achievement worthy of our attention is a new concept, their concept of relevance.According to that concept, communication involves the communicative intention and the ostensive-inferential process of that intention. As to the information producer, communication is an ostensive process, in other words, to make the information manifest to the audience. As to the receiver, communication is an inferential process. That is to say, the audience would finally understand the producer's intention by means of the latter's ostensive behavior in combination with the contextual assumptions and results.The film is the universally-known kind of communication mode. How should we deal with such a communication mode in the perspective of relevance? What are the special features in this communication mode? Those are the major issues for which the present thesis tries to approach. As films have been increasingly become our everyday need, the author thinks that it is necessary and realistic for us to study those issues in question. The subtitle translation is a key in the interflow between China and other part of the world in the communication through films. Basing himself on the relevance theory, the author of the present thesis has made some inquiries into the subtitle translation. On the basis of his inquiries, the he tentatively put forth a principle in dealing with the subtitle: "ostension first and inference second". Persisting in this principle he furthers his study in analyzing the Chinese version of the subtitle of Titanic and found three methods used in translation: omission, conciseness and plainness. The present thesis is what the author has achieved after his study and discovery. Naturally, the so-called principle and methods mentioned here are quite tentative and the author would convince the readers as well as himself of its truth by further study and research.