| Ever since the opening-up policy in China from the 1970’, there has been a large importation of foreign TV products in Chinese market. As a consequence, both the Chinese society and people’s daily life are influenced by the western culture as well as western values that are carried in the foreign TV products watched and learned by the Chinese. Besides, due to the fast-pace exchanges between different countries in recent decades, Chinese TV products are trying to explore its international market overseas as well. Therefore, subtitle translation is now catching more attention in the translation field by both scholars and subtitlers than ever.TV products are quite different from other literary works for its unique characteristics’ for they are capable of describing a whole story to the audience only in a short time by the combination of vivid screen frames and sound both clearly and accurately. The TV products are not just some literal text information but multiple-symbol carriers which consist of both images and sounds. Thus, the transverse of subtitle translation is not just a transfer from the source language to the target language. And subtitlers need to take a comprehensive consideration of its unique features of the language in TV products and also the technical constraints of subtitle translation when translating. All these characteristics make the subtitle translation for TV products a much more challenging job when compared with the other literary works.On the whole, dubbing and subtitling are the two primary modes in TV products translation. Dubbing is so universally applied at the start of TV products translation. Dubbing is referred as a replacement of the original conversation with a voice track intended to correspond as closely as possible with the original dialogue given by the characters in the TV products. However, globalization has promoted language and culture exchange between countries and with the high educational levels for the audience nowadays, a large number of viewers prefer to entertain the foreign TV shows in source sound-tract and meanwhile, have the target language subtitles unfold right at the bottom of the screen. In addition, one advantage of the subtitletranslation is that it is more than ten times lower in price than dubbing. Consequently,the study of subtitle translation starts to gain more and more popularity from both scholars and translators and soon it has become an essential portion in translation area.However, since there are so many restrictions existing in subtitle translation due to its unique features, we need to focus on how to provide high-quality subtitles for the target language audience to help them achieve a perfect unity of both images and sounds from reading the subtitles.This thesis summarizes some practical strategies that account for the successful translated subtitle through the analysis of the 2 Broke Girls’ subtitles. The research questions are: 1. What are the subtitle translation strategies under the guidance of Relevance Theory? 2. What translation strategies can we use in subtitle translation in American sitcom 2 Broke Girls to comprehensively deliver the original context? This thesis concludes that translation strategies such as addition, deduction,domestication/foreignization and colloquialization from the perspective of Relevance Theory can give the audience a better understanding of the resource language. At the end of the thesis, it puts forward some suggestions and implication on subtitle translation of foreign audiovisual production. It is expected that there will be more subtitlers and researchers to go in for the translation activity to improve the skills of subtitle translation to provide convenience for the target language audience.The thesis is made up of five parts.The first part is the introduction. Since there is a widely culture exchange all over the world, more and more foreign TV products whose lucrative box office sales are high in China are introduced to our homeland, a growing number of Chinese people tend to choose a foreign program in their spare time. However, the subtitling is firstly studied in European countries and the situation in China is still far from optimistic. It is inevitable to say that the inaccurate translation will affect the viewers’ appreciation when they enjoy the foreign TV products. Therefore, the thesis is trying to figure out the feasible strategies that can be applied to the subtitle translation to bring more happiness and comfortableness for the viewers when they watch the foreign TV products.The second chapter is the literature review. The author firstly introduces the subtitling definition, subtitling categorizations, subtitling characteristics, subtitling functions and subtitling constraints. Then the author gives a brief review of therelevant literature on the application of Relevance Theory both abroad and at home.Relevance Theory was proposed by the French linguist Dan Sperber and the English linguist Deirdre Wilson. And it is their student, Gutt, who puts forward the Relevance Translation Theory that widens a new outlook for translation area. In domestic situation, Shen Jiaxuan is the first scholar who draws Relevance Theory into Chinese readers and Zhao Yanchun is regarded as the primary Chinese scholar who makes a thorough exploration of Relevance Translation Theory. What’s more, the author concludes the significant previous researches on subtitles as well as subtitle translation comprehensively, among which are Professor Qian Shaochang’s outstanding studies in subtitle translation.The third part is the theoretical framework of the thesis and research methodology. Relevance Theory consists of two main principles: the Communicative Principle of Relevance as well as the Cognitive Principle of Relevance. The communication is an ostensive-inferential course according to the Relevance Theory.And the communicator generates an ostensive stimulus on the basis of the cognitive context of the viewers to produce the accurate inference on the objective meanings of his/her utterance. For a successful conversation, the communicator needs to assist the communicatee to generate the optimal contextual effects by conducting the minimum efforts, while obtaining the optimal relevance.The fourth part is the case study. In this thesis, the author chooses the American popular sitcom 2 Broke Girls as a case study. Through a descriptive-explanatory anatomy of the subtitles in sitcom 2 Broke Girls from the perspective of Relevance Theory, the author explores and concludes the feasible strategies in subtitle translation that accord with the Relevance Theory to obtain the optimal contextual effects? in order to enable the Chinese-speaking audiences to have the equal contextual effects?as the English audience by conducting the minimum in the process.The last part is the conclusion. The author makes some major research findings and also points out the limitations of the thesis. Besides, the author lists some suggestions for future study and implications. Since the 2 Broke Girls is an American sitcom which largely focuses on the daily lives of the two girls in the plot, the translation strategy of colloquialization is obviously the leading role in subtitle translation. Besides, domestication and foreignization are the strategies worth taking into consideration when there are cultural factors involved. To sum up, the success of subtitle translation is based on the fulfillment of the optimal relevance between theoriginal language text and the target language text on the receptor language audience’s side, which will let the audience enjoy the entertainment and relaxation of watching program by understanding the plot accurately and clearly.At last, the author hopes that subtitle translation will be able to catch a greater attention of the translators as well as relevant scholars in the field. Subtitle translation of TV products need be discussed from a different angle in the future to better the effects of subtitle translation, thus to achieve the purpose of promoting cross-cultural communication as a means of medium. |
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