Information Gap In Subtitle Translation And Regulating Strategies

Subtitle translation, in the era of globalization, is playing a more and more important role in both the practice of translation and promoting the eastern and western cultural communication. Over the years, there appears a hot tendency of subtitles translation research in China. But it is a new attempt to study the subtitle translation from the perspective of information gap. Information gap refers to the information decoded by the information receivers does not go with the information encoded by the senders. Therefore, information gap in subtitle translation can be understood as a phenomenon that the information translated by the translators is not equivalent to the original language information from the source subtitle.This phenomenon deserves a careful study since it will affect the cross-cultural communication. By analyzing manifestations and causes of information gap of subtitle translation, the thesis puts forward the strategies for adjusting information gap.Through analyzing numerous translations of texts of films and film lines, the thesis finds that information gap of subtitle translation shows five forms: information loss, information redundancy, information deviation, information vagueness and information inaccuracy. By a further research of the causes for information gap,we find the main causes are the interactions between the contextual and non-contextual factors in cross-cultural communication, such as the different political systems, history, ethical concepts of value, culture, language, context and translators’ aesthetics between the orient and the occident, which will cause information gap.Translation is a purposeful intercultural interaction. To achieve this aim of successful intercultural interaction, translators can adopt whatever methods and strategies. Therefore, the thesis suggests that translators adopt translation variation and context adaptation strategies, especially, more angles to regulate information gap in subtitle translation. The research finds that translation variation and context adaptation strategies are helpful for translators to translate flexibly and reduce information gap. Information gap can be regulated. When translators cultivate their contextual consciousness, and improve pragmatic translation competence and cross-cultural awareness, as well as some basic translation skills.