A Corpus-based Study Of Explicitation In Chinese Translation Of Subtitles In English Animated Films

In recent years, explicitation-related studies have been carried out and drawn a considerable amount of scholarly attention. Numerous corpus-based studies on explicitation have been conducted, most of which focus on literary translation. With more and more films entering the Chinese market, translation of subtitles, as an important type of non-literary translation, has been of great concern to scholars. Unlike adults, children are a specific audience with a rather limited ability of understanding, accepting and transforming the language. Therefore, conciseness is often a leading principle in the translation of subtitles in animated films. In China, contemporary studies on subtitling in animated films mainly focus on translation strategies, characteristics and the educational function. Less attention is paid to corpus-based studies on features of translated subtitles in animated films.In the present thesis, on the basis of the self-built corpus of the translation of subtitles in animated films, with the quantitative and qualitative methods, the author analyzes explicitation in Chinese translation of English subtitles in animated films by investigating the intralingual texts and interlingual texts. The present research intends to explore explicitation in English-Chinese translation of subtitles in animated film and to analyze it from the following three aspects, namely ideational explicitation, interpersonal explicitation and textual explicitation.In general, there is an evidence of explicitation in Chinese translation of subtitles in English animated films. Firstly, concerning ideational explicitation, translators explicitate the cultural information to avoid misunderstanding by means of adding explanatory notes; translators explicitate the lexical meaning by rendering the superordinate nouns into the concrete meaning in accordance with the original context. Secondly, comparing the modal adverbs in translated Chinese texts with that in original Chinese texts, there is no evidence of intralingual explicitation of modal meaning in Chinese translation of subtitles in English animated films. Nevertheless, interlingual explicitation of modal meaning is more prominent. In addition, there is a tendency toward explicitating the evaluative meaning, though it is not prominent. Thirdly, the author studies textual explicitation by investigating pronouns and conjunctions, and finds that intralingual explicitation of personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns are more prominent, especially with regard to the use of third personal pronouns and first personal pronouns. By means of investigating conjunctions, intralingual explicitation of conjunctions is found to be prominent, which is achieved by adding conjunctions and by transforming conjunctions from one kind to another.Three major factors contribute to the explicitation in Chinese translation of subtitles in English animated films: firstly, on account of cultural differences, it is necessary for the translators to explicitate some cultural information, which can help avoid misunderstanding by the target audience; secondly, compared with adults, children have relatively weak ability of comprehending and transforming the information. Hence, it is necessary to explicitate some vague or implicit information; the third reason for explicitation is the linguistic differences between English and Chinese, which can be best illustrated in the explicitation of pronouns and the explicitation of conjunctions.