On The Research Of Film-video Subtitle Translation Based On Language Economy Principle

This paper, which is based on the author’s interest in film-video works and concern over subtitle translation, belongs to translation research field. Chinese film-video translation is an emerging research subject pioneered by Professor QIAN Shaochang in 2000 with an article named Film-video Translation-A More and More Important Realm of Translation. With the deepening of globalization and the ever-changing of media and information technology, the broadening of China’s opening up and the implementing of bring-in and go-out cultural policy, the emphasizing of cultural soft power and the spreading of domestic culture, multi-media market in China has gradually showed its vitality and become more and more prosperous. Another crucial reason is people’s eagerness to know the outside world and their curiosity about foreign cultures. Chinese English-learning fever and Young students’ chase after foreign film-video works have made international films and TV series continuously popular in China. Hence, film-video translation has become an urgent demand and more attention is paid to relevant research.Through the analysis of subtitle constraints and its influence on target audience, the author discusses and proves the feasibility and necessity for Language Economy Principle (Least Effort Principle) to guide subtitle translators. To make the conclusion more convincing, the author conducted a statistic survey about foreign film-video works in Chinese multimedia market, which generally quantified the application of Language Economy Principle to subtitle translation. In the end, combining the translation practice of American sitcom I Love Lucy, the author further illustrated that Language Economy Principle helps improve subtitle translation quality and minimize the gap between different cultures, which, to a large extent, facilitate the target audience to appreciate foreign films and TV programs. In order to be systematic and pertinent, the research subject in this paper is limited to subtitle translation of film-video works, while the function of Language Economy Principle does not end here. It also applies to translation of other media programs or other languages, and can be used as an enlightenment and reference to enrich the general translation theory and practice.