Chinese Subtitling Of The Western Online Open Courses From Rhetorical Perspective

Subtitle works as a special carrier in audiovisual products, containing relevantinformation and cultural background. The subtitle of online open course not only carriesrich knowledge, but also bears the responsibility to express the lecturer·s thoughts. Somesubtitles of popular online open courses have been edited and published in the form ofbooks, so learners can study those courses by reading the texts. Rhetoric is a means ofartistic expression strengthening the effects of words or phrases. Since human languagecame into being, human beings have used rhetoric to modify their own discourses, attractothers· attention, impress others with lyrical effect. So, the study on the Chinese subtitlingof the Western online open courses from rhetorical perspective cannot only improve thequality and aesthetics of the subtitle translation of online open courses, but also helpChinese audience have a better understanding of knowledge offered by the Western onlineopen courses.Through an analysis of the Western online open courses, this thesis finds out that in theprocess of the subtitle translation of the Western online open courses, the rhetoricalfunctions are ignored by some subtitle translators to some degree, resulting in theineffective expression of rhetorical features, connotations and atmosphere of the originaltexts. In addition, the emotional expression, identity construction, storytelling, attractiveness,persuasiveness, aesthetics and philosophy of the translated subtitles are all weakened andeven overlooked completely. So this thesis applies the framework of Tan Xuechun·s rhetoricin its broad perspective and Aristotle·s three rhetorical appeals, with reference to theWestern online open courses Positive Psychology and Justice offered by Harvard University,to study the rhetorical problems in the subtitle translation, emphasizing the role of rhetoricin the subtitle translation of the Western online open courses.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter introduces the researchbackground, research methods and the structure of the thesis. The second chapter reviewsthe studies on subtitle translation at home and abroad. The third chapter presents thetheoretical perspectives of analysis in the thesis. The fourth chapter is the detailed analysisof subtitle translation of the Western online open courses on the basis of Aristotle·s threerhetorical appeals. The fifth chapter uses Tan·s rhetoric in its broad perspective to study therhetorical poetics and rhetorical philosophy in the process of subtitle translation. The sixthchapter is the conclusion of this thesis, which summarizes the research results, points out the limitation of the thesis and the issues to be further studied in future.