An Analysis Of Subtitling Translation Through Relevance Theory

With the development of mass media and globalization, international culture exchanges have penetrated into every field of our life and every part of the world. Apart from the traditional concepts of culture exchanges, audiovisuals exchanges have become the latest dominant form of communication. Facing the influx of information in the form of foreign languages and the fact that not everyone understands a foreign language, audiovisual translation plays an important role in the cultural exchange and mass entertainment. The translation of films and teleplays, among them, are very popular because movies and teleplays are the most direct and acceptable form by Chinese people. The most widely used translation methods for films and teleplays are subtitling currently.In the 1980s, cognitive pragmatics arose when the cognitive study of language in communication became increasingly important in the field of the present linguistics. Relevance Theory (RT), put forward by Sperber and Wilson and as the basis of cognitive pragmatics, is generalization of human communication and utterance interpretation, which is mainly concerned with cognition and communication.The whole paper is guided by two major research questions that we think are essential to achieving a better understanding of the objective under investigation:(1) If RT can be used for subtitling translation, how powerful RT is for subtitling translation?(2) How to evaluate the effect of RT for subtitling translation and what strategies can be employed in the translation?By focusing on subtitling translation which is a particular type of communication from the perspective of RT, the paper will make the theory more substantiated and thereby apply it to practical application. On the other hand, more space can be provided for, which will further promote cross-cultural communication.The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter 1 is a general introduction about this thesis.Chapter 2 is the Literature Review, which involves the knowledge about the survey of relevance theory and the definition and characteristics of subtitling, and then the feasibility of an ostensive-inferential approach to subtitling translation under the framework of relevance theory.Chapter 3 is the major part of this thesis. Under the framework of relevance theory, a case study about the subtitling translation of House M.D. is analyzed in detail, and translation strategies proposed.Chapter 4 states the role played by the translator. The translators should have not only the knowledge of the source culture but also the target text, then they will decide the target recipient.Chapter 5 is the conclusion of this thesis. The author summarizes the subtitling translation strategies under the relevance theory, which is the principle "ostension first and inference second", and three methods used in subtitling translation:condensation, brevity, and plainness.