A Contrastive Study Of Subtitle Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As a relatively new and special translation field, film subtitle translation with its own uniqueness, sharing the common nature with other translations has become an increasingly important and inseparable branch of translation. It is necessary to have a more profound understanding of subtitle translation. Relevance theory emphasizes the importance of intention and inference in communicative activities, that is to say, the original intention of communicator should be conveyed to the listener completely. During this process, the original information must be explicit enough for the listeners or readers to infer the original meaning and intention with the least effort to spare. As for the subtitle translation, firstly, the subtitle translator must understand the original intention and related information based on his or her agreement with the original writer on mentality and cognition. Secondly, the translator must take into consideration the cognitive structure and expectations of the target viewers, and then integrate cognitive context; meanwhile, the translator should have a good mastery of these two languages and deep understanding of cultures concerned, so as to ensure the optimal relevance can be realized. The translator also should produce the optimal contextual effects to make the original intention and meaning explicit enough for the target viewers to understand with the least processing effort.Based on relevance theory, a tentative attempt has been made to make a contrastive study of subtitle translation of two Chinese versions of the English film The Terminal from the perspective of ostensive-inferential, context (linguistic context and non-linguistic context) and the optimal relevance in order to test the feasibility and explanation power of relevance theory in subtitle translation. The two versions used in this paper are DVD published by Beijing Orient Video Company and the version from BBS.UUniao.COM. By comparison, the author finds that the subtitle translations in these two versions reach the optimal relevance from the three aspects of relevance theory--ostensive-inferential communication, context and the optimal relevance. The smoothly translated subtitles facilitate the film viewers whose native language is not English to understand the plots and appreciate the art of the film. However, some differences are still found in the target language styles, and in translation strategies in these two versions because of the different background of their subtitlers. Take the DVD version as an example. Its subtitler uses shorter, simpler, and plainer sentences instead of long and complicated sentences, avoiding difficult words for expressions. The translator takes priority to convey the main and primary information on the basis of not influencing the viewers’film appreciation. On the other hand, the subtitle translation in the Web version is more faithful to the original conversations, aiming at transmitting as complete and rich cultural information as it can in the limited subtitle space. The subtitle translations in both versions are regarded as successful attempts from the perspective of relevance theory.In the last part of this thesis, suggestions are made that more future studies concerning the subtitle translation should be done. It is hoped that more and more translators will engage in the subtitle translation field, and a deeper and fuller analysis of subtitle translation is expected to be made to facilitate the cross-cultural communication.