The Study Of English Film Subtitle Translation In The Perspective Of Constructivist Theory

Nowadays with the ever increasing interaction between different cultures, more and more attention is paid to film translation which forms an important aspect in the field of translation studies among translation circles. Besides, as the international exchanges intensify and foreign films get prosperous in Chinese cinemas, the necessity of film translation is becoming more and more evident. Film translation is not only to accomplish the language conversion; it is more a process of trans-cultural communication, namely introducing the source culture to target audience. Film translation is different form literature translation, it has its own special characteristics, which requires translators to take lots of factors into consideration, like content, individuality, style, as well as the personality, emotion, background of the characters in the film. Besides, it is also limited by the lip matching.This thesis mainly takes the of subtitle translation of “Frozen” as the research object under the guidance of the constructivist theory. It adopts the research method of the combination of comparative analysis and induction and summary, combining with the typical subtitle translation language of “Frozen” to carry out research.This thesis consists of five parts:The first chapter briefly expounds the research background, significance, research questions, research methods, and way of data collection.The second chapter mainly introduces the research object and the current studies of film subtitle translation. It includes two forms of film subtitle translation, namely pure film subtitle translation and film dubbing. Subtitle translation is used in film and television media fields, which is a process of translating source language into target language. Film subtitle language is characterized with oral speech, lip matching, character personality, popularity, uniformity and so on. The process of translating is subject to the content of text, time, space and other factors. Besides, this chapter also gives comprehensive overviews on the domestic and overseas studies as well as the particularities of film subtitle translation.The third chapter mainly lays a theoretical basis for this thesis, introducing the development of constructivist theory and representative personage. It gives a detailed discussion on the constructivist, with the view that it would guide the translation of film subtitle after comparing it with the traditional structuralism(constructivism paradigm). The core of this chapter focuses on three translation principles under the concept of constructivist theory, namely compliance with the objectivity of knowledge, rationality of understanding and universal validity of explanation as well as the directionality towards original text, which is endowed with openness, diversity, and is liable to realize the combination between subjectivity and objectivity.The forth chapter is the core of this thesis; it involves the combination between subtitle translation theory and practice. Under the guidance of constructivist theory, it discusses and proposes the corresponding film subtitle translation thinking path and strategies through lots of examples in the English film “Frozen”, including three aspects namely a good command of English-Chinese language skills, familiarity with both English and Chinese cultures, proficiency in knowledge of movie and art.In the conclusion part, it summarizes the key points of this thesis, emphasizing the guiding significance of constructivist theory to the translation of film subtitle. It also lists theoretical findings and the limitation of this study as well as some advices to the future study.