目的论视角下的中英电影字幕翻译 ----以《私人订制》为例摘要字幕翻译作为文学翻译的一部分，仍然是一个新的翻译领域。
然而，作为重要交际工具，字幕翻译已占据重要地位。
在经济全球化趋势逐渐增强的今天，中国电影不仅期望在全球电影市场占有更多份额，同时也承担着对外宣传中国文化的重要使命。
为了使外国观众能够观赏中国电影并从中了解中国文化，除了电影配音外，电影字幕成为最重要的沟通手段。
如果没有优秀的字幕翻译，影视作品中所要展示传达的精神理念则无法传递给观众，或者传递的信息支离破碎。
可见，字幕翻译在沟通不同文化、增强各国人民之间联系方面起着非常关键性的作用。
然而，国目前的字幕翻译存在着良莠不齐的问题，也没有受到足够的重视.本文在目的论视角下研究字幕翻译,目的论认为，翻译是一种有目的的行为，字幕翻译也不例外，它的主要目的是在时间和空间的制约下，向处在特定文化背景的观众最有效地传达电影的相关信息，使其能更好地理解和欣赏电影作品。
本文以《私人定制》这部电影为例，讨论了发生在影片当中的翻译行为策略。
本文认为，意译翻译策略对中英电影字幕翻译的影响较大。
从跨文化交流的角度来看，由于中外观众知识面和文化背景方面存在着巨大差异，电影翻译工作者应该尽可能帮助观众去理解与一个民族文化有着密切相关的语言现象，包括特色的文化词汇，和习惯与常用的口头语表达等，如果把这些词汇都直译出来，不仅会使译文显得繁复冗长，还会增加国外观众的阅读和理解难度。
因此，经过本文研究，意译法是在中英电影字幕翻译中较为普遍与广泛应用的一种翻译策略。
关键词：字幕翻译目的论翻译策略意译法私人定制AbstractMovie subtitling translation is a new field of translation. As an important tool for modern communication, subtitling translation has become quite an important phenomenon in the contemporary world. As globalization speeds up, Chinese films are expected not only to take more market shares in world screen-land, but also to shoulder the great responsibility of introducing a splendid Chinese culture. To make English-speaking audience watch Chinese movies and understand it, besides movie dubbing, subtitle translation is an important communicative method. Without good subtitle translation, the message movie sends is difficult for audience to understand, so, subtitle translation plays a very important role in communication between different countries, however, people pay little attention to this field.This paper is the research of subtitle translation from the perspective of Skopos Theories. The purpose of film subtitle translation is to provide, within the constraints of time and space, a well-translated subtitle which can contribute to a good understanding of what is happening on the screen. This paper takes Personal Tailor as a case, talking about the transitional version and strategy. Based on this thesis, the literal translation is very useful in the C-E film subtitle translation. From the perspective of cross-culture communication, different audience comes from different countries; they should have great different view in the aspect of culture and background. The subtitletranslators need to help the target audience to understand linguistic phenomenon about a country or its people, including the distinctive cultural words and the expression of spoken words. If we translate these words directly, it may make the version too long and too difficult to understand. Namely, the target audience will have difficulty in reading and comprehending the subtitle. Therefore, under the research of this paper, the free translation strategy is the more common and widely used in C-E film translation.Keywords: subtitle translationSkopos Theories free translation Personal TailorContentsAbstract(in Chinese)1Abstract (in English) (ⅱ)Chapter I Introduction71.1Film Subtitle Translation71.1.1Definition of Subtitle71.1.2 Features of Subtitle Translation71.2 Research Significance91.3 Organization of the Thesis10Chapter II the Analysis of Subtitle Translation under the Guidance of Skopos Theory112.1 Concepts of Skopos Theory112.2Three Rules of Skopos Theory142.2.1 Skopos Rule142.2.2Coherence Rule152.2.3 Fidelity Rule162.2.4 Summary172.3 Application of Skopos Theory to Subtitle Translation18Chapter III Study on Strategies from the Perspective of Skopos Theory Based on PersonalTailor203.1 A Brief Introduction on Subtitle Translation of Personal Tailor213.1.1The Introduction of Personal Tailor213.1.2 A Brief Introduction on Subtitle Skopos of Personal Tailor22 Chapter IV Methods in Subtitle Translation of the Personal Tailor254.1 Omission254.2 Literal Translation284.4Rewriting304.5 Reduction32Chapter V Conclusion345.1 Overview of my study345.2 Signification of my study355.3Limitation of my study355.4Suggestions of future study36 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………. .21Chapter I Introduction1.1Film Subtitle Translation1.1.1Definition of SubtitleSubtitle, according to the Ox ford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, refers to the words that translating what is said in the film into another different language and appears at the bottom of the screen. Also, subtitle is used on television to help deaf people.Subtitles to most people, are the words printed or superimposed on a screen in a foreign language to tell the audience. What is being said on the sound track. (Ashen 1994:4398). Jacobson thinks subtitle is an explanatory of verbal symbols by other languages. Though different views also have something in common and their special aspects.(Jacobson 1959：233）Generally, subtitle can be divided into two classes: Intro-lingual subtitle and inter-lingual subtitle. Intro-lingual subtitle means that the subtitles are presented to help audiences who are deaf or have difficulties in hearing in the voices. Such as the Southern Fijian Dialect was translated into mandarin Chinese through subtitle. Inter-lingual subtitles are translated subtitle from other language. For example, a Chinese film popular in western countrieswas added English subtitles at the bottom of screen to help foreign audiences to understand the dialogues in it.This thesis mainly focuses on inter-lingual subtitles.1.1.2 Features of Subtitle TranslationSubtitle is part of literary translation, different from the other textual translation. It can be defined as the following points:(a)Instantaneity. The instantaneity of subtitle refers to thatthe subtitle and dialogue will be presented at the same time. They willdisappear soon which gives the audience little time think.(b)Popularity. The audience has different background and theirlevel ofeducation also different. The language of subtitle shouldconsider all kinds of the audience. Therefore, the subtitle translatorshould use the concise language to makethe mass audience understandthefilm.(c)Synchronism. Subtitle must go hand in hand with pictures andsound. The subtitle must be matching with the picture in the translatingprocess. This will involve the transformation of the spoken languageand written language which consists of deletion or addition of thesource language. So it inevitably will be the condition of the missinginformation.(d)Without annotation. In the process of literal translation, thetranslator can add their comments if the readers have questions. Butsubtitles due to restricted time and space, the translator can not addcomments. Because of this, there is no guarantee that subtitles andimages and sound synchronization, which will affect audience’sunderstanding of the film by distracting their attentions.1.2 Research SignificanceThis thesis focuses on the Chinese-English translation of filmsubtitle from the perspective of Skopos Theories. Translation scholars have favored traditional subjects，such as songs and poetry translation in the literaryfield. The Chinese subtitle translation is falling behind other countries on the practical operation, theoretical construction and quality controlling. Some readers think the literary translation is the foundation, and other translation is churning out inferior products or less important. （New mark，2001：5-6）And few of them think that the subtitle translations need theoretical guidance. In their opinion, subtitle is a kind of skill rather than an art.In view of neglection of subtitle translation in China, Domestic filmsubtitle translation always has a long way to go. Firstly, Chinese film has its own unique cultural connotations, in reflecting China’s splendid culture. Film is as an important way of cultural output. The study of subtitlecan promote cultural exchange between China and other western countries. The subtitle translation is a basis. Therefore, the study of subtitle translation can explore the skills of subtitle translation, improve the quality of the translational works, helping the audience understand the film easily and strengthening the communication of culture. Secondly, the study of subtitle translation in the area of C-E translation expedites the development of Chinese film in the external market. To make the world reallyknow about China, needs more promotion of Chinese native filmsResearch on the C-E translation of Chinese film has great significance of spreading Chinese culture as well as the promotion of Chinese films.1.3 Organization of the ThesisThere are four chapters in this thesis. Chapter one is introductionwhich consists of a general description of the subtitle translation, consisting of its definition, types, and features. The significance of the paper and organizational structure of the thesis are also included. The second chapter is about the general description of Skopos Theory, including its concepts and three rules in practical translation with some examples chosen in this movie Personal Tailor, in order to analyze and understand the rules.And finally is theapplication of it in the subtitle translation is talked about. Chapter three is the key of this thesis, it mainly talks about strategies of subtitle translation from the perspective of skopos based on the film—Personal Tailor.Some authentic examples are taken from the film to be analyzed and categorized. The strategies are omission, literal translation, free translation, rewriting, and reduction. Chapter four is the conclusion part, which concludes the introduction of major findings and the limitations and the further study of the research.Chapter II the Analysis of Subtitle Translation under theGuidance of Skopos Theory2.1 Concepts of Skopos TheorySkopos Theory is an approach to translation proposed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Reiss＆Vermeer. Skopos Theory stresses the interactional, pragmatic aspects of translation. Skopos Theories have already been born for more than 30 years, which had been translated into many foreign languages and spread all over the world. In the late of 1980s, Skopos Theories entered into China and had great affection on China’s translation studies.Katharina Reiss, who was Vermeer’s teacher, firstly proposed Skopos Theories in her book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism. Shefirstly introduces the functional category into translation criticism, she made the language functions and texture types and translational category associate. Katharina Reiss developed a translation criticized model based on relationship between original and translational function. Consequently, she proposed the prototype of functionalist approach. Reiss thought that translational ways were decided by the main functions of the original texts. Therefore, the suggestions Katharina Reiss gave is that translator should use the certain translational ways according to the text type. Before this, translational circle generally think the equivalents as the primary standards. Reiss considered the integral communicative performance, i.e. conceptual content, linguistic form, and communicative function should be equal to the source text. And the most important is the functional characteristics should be firstly considered in the practical translation.Hans J. Vermeer (1983), Reiss’st udent, has gone further. He breaks the limits of equivalence-based theory and considers translation (including interpreting) to be a type of transfer where communicative verbal and non-verbal signs are transferred from one language into another (other types would include the transfer from pictures to music, or from a blueprint to a building). Based on the principles of actionable theory,in the 1970s, Vermeer tried to bridge the gap between the translation theory and practice. His proposed Skopos Theory getting out of domination of source-text-oriented in the study of translation. This theory defines translation as an action which must be accomplished withpurpose and consequence based on source text, and this action should be finished by consensus. That is to say the translational action may involve actions like a consultant giving information. Since any action has an aim, or a purpose, translation as a type of human action is no exception. Then Vermeer uses skopos as the technical term for the aim or purpose of a translation Vermeer (1983b: 49) defines human action as intentional, purposeful behavior that takes place in a given situation; it is part of the situation at the same time as it modifies the situation. Further, since situations are embedded in cultures, any evaluation of a particular situation, of its verbalized and non-verbalized elements, depends on the status it has in a particular culture system. Manttari went on with the further research of Skopos Theories. (Holz-Manttari.1993, 301-320) This theory is also based on the principles of action theory, but Manttari prefers to name translator “message transmitters” (Holz-Manttari.1993, 301-320), which consist of textual material combined with other media such as pictures, sounds and body movements. In her model, translation is defined as “a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose”. The generic term for the phenomenon is “translational action”. The purpose of translational action is to transfer messages across culture and language barriers by means of message transmitters produced by experts (Nord. 2001:13). She places special emphasis on the action aspects of the translation process, analyzing the role of the participants (initiator, translator, user, message receiver) and the situational conditions (time, place, medium) in whichtheir activities take place.In the early 1990s, Reiss’s student Christiane Nord had summarized the functionalist theory comprehensively. Christiane Nord had formulated the internal and external factors of text analysis in translation for the first time. Christiane Nord also had developed appropriate translation purpose and strategy which is based on prototext function. In her work Translating as a Purposeful Activity, Christiane Nord points out two interdependent limitations to the Skopos model. Nord raises the Loyalty principle of Skopos Theories: the responsibility translators have toward their partners (initiators, target receivers and original authors) in translational interaction. Loyalty means that the target-text purpose should be compatible with the original author’s intentions (Nord, 2001:32).2.2Three Rules of Skopos Theory2.2.1 Skopos RuleSkopos is a Greek word for"aim"or"purpose". "The top-ranking rule for any translation is thus theskopos rule, which means that a translation action is determined by its skopos; that is, ‘the end justifies the means, by Reiss and Vermeer. Vermeer also stresses on many occasions that the skopos rule is a general rule, and translation strategies and methods are determined by the purpose and the intended function of the target text. Vermeer regarded the skopos rule as the primary one, that is to say a translation action as determined by its skopos. Vermeer (1986: 20) explains the skopos rule in the following way: Each text isproduced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The skopos rule thus reads as follows: translate/interpret/speak/write in away that enables your text/translation to function in the situation in which it is use and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function. The use of principle of Skopos rule in translation should be in the target language context and culture, according to the target language recipients expected function types. The purpose of translation action decided the process of the translation action, namely the result determinate method. That is to say, as long as to achieve the intended purpose, the translation is not necessarily equal to the source text. The framework of translation strategy is decided by many factors both within and outside the text. One of them is address design, which reflects the way that the target text was expected to be accepted. Different translation strategies serve the different purpose. Translation proper, paraphrase and re-editing can concern the different demand of communication.（Hatim，1997：34） In a word, the whole process of translation, including the translation methods and translation strategies, is decided by purpose of translation. Skopos Theory summarized the three kinds of purposes the translation action achieved, namely the purpose of translator, communicative purpose of the translational text, and the purpose used some particular methods achieved.And the most import is the purpose of the version, and the communicative objective is decided by the translation action sponsors.2.2.2Coherence RuleCoherence rulemeans that the target text should meet the standard of intra-textual coherence. It is the second essential rule of Skopos Theories, stressing that a translation should be acceptable to the receivers. The coherence rule states that the target text must be interpretable as coherent with the target text receivers. In other words, the target text must be translated in such a way that it is coherent for the target text receivers, given their circumstances and knowledge. In terms of coherence rule, the source text is no longer of most authority but only part of the translation belief. It is only an offer of information for the translator, who in turn picks out what he considers to be meaningful to the receivers. According to Vermeer, the source text is an offer of information that is partly or wholly turned into an offer of information for the target audience. However, the target text is expected to bear some relationship with the corresponding source text. Inter-textual coherence refers to the coherence between the target text and source text. Namely the translation must be closely related to the original meaning. Inter-textual coherence depends on how the translators understanding the original text as well as the skopos of target text. The existence of Inter—textual coherence depends on the consistency of following points: (a) the original message of the source text which the author wants to convey, (b) how the translator interpret the information, (c) how the translator translate for the target receivers.2.2.3 Fidelity RuleFidelity principle was presented by Nord. She found the skoposTheories havetwo defects: firstly, due to the differences in cultural pattern, people of different cultural backgrounds have different opinions on good translation. What’s more, if the communicative purpose of the translational text is opposite to the original text’s author, we should follow the skopos rule instead of the faithfulness. Therefore, Nord had put forward this fidelity rule to solve the problem of culture differences and the relationship among these participants in the translation action. In Nord’s opinion, the translators have moral responsibility for the target receivers; they need to explain how they do and why they do this. Above all is one of the part fidelity rules. And another part is that the fidelity rule asking the translators to be loyal to the original authors. The translators should respect the original authors so that they could coordinate the target language and the author’s intention. (Nord：1997).Hence, the fidelity rules focus on the relationship between the translators and authors, clients, TT receivers. Nord presents that the translators should follow th e guiding principles of “function plus loyalty”. Translation is a preceding offer of information. It is expected to bear some relationship with the corresponding source text. Vermeer calls this relationship "intersexual coherence" or "fidelity". This is postulated as a further principle, referred to as the "fidelity rule" by Reiss and Vermeer in 1984.The fidelity rule merely states that there must be coherence between the translated version and the source text.2.2.4 SummaryThis section has reviewed the concepts of and introduced the three basic rules. In brief, the basic principles of translation Skopos Theories are constitute by these three rules. But the first principle is the Skopos Theory, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule must be obeyed in purpose. In other words, both the fidelity rule and coherence rule are subordinate to skopos rule. Hans J. Vermeer has tries to bridge the gap between theory and practice. He states that linguistics can not solve all translation problems. Vermeer holds that translation is a form of translational action based on a source text, which involves verbal and non-verbal elements. Therefore, the theory is called Skopos Theories, a theory of purposeful action. As for the translation standard, the Skopos Theory uses adequacy and equivalence as the standard. The three rules of Skopos Theories are very crucial in this theory, which can be used to explain and analyze the connections between source text and target text. It can be concluded that it is feasible to apply Skopos Theories to the study of subtitle translation. It can be learned from the above analysis; the fidelity rule and the coherence rule are not universally applicable. We should be guided by the Skopos Theory and fidelity rule in the process of translation, appropriation is the best criteria.2.3 Application of Skopos Theory to Subtitle TranslationTranslation is an important communicating skill between different languages. In modern society, audiovisual products distributes to a worldwide area as a popular means of mass media. As the globalization of economy and culture isincreasingly developing in the new century, the audiovisual subtitle translation, accordingly, is playing a more and more important role. Good subtitles can enhance the audience’s experience of appreciating foreign films and make the culture communication more effective. Subtitling, as a specialized area of translation, is not only guided by translation studies, but also under constraints of film properties. In Skopos Theory, translation is regarded as a dynamic communication with interplay of source text, translator, addressee, etc. The translator is expected to take the translation purpose (skopos) as guidance, to choose the appropriate methods with consideration of all relevant factors. Therefore, during the process of subtitle translation, the subtitle translators should take all the factors into consideration to identify the translation purpose, and then adopt corresponding translation strategies. From this perspective, the author takes the Skopos Theory as instruction and applies the reduction and addition method to analyze the film subtitle translation.In the application of Skopos Theory to the process of subtitle translation, it first needs to determine the objective of the film translation. According to the translation purpose, translation strategy and methods can be decided then. In particular, the practical subtitle translation should be conducted in accordance with following steps：first of all, being familiar with the type of the film and the content of this film. Before the translation, the translator should watch this film andmust have a comprehensive and deep understanding of the film. Only after knowing about the movie characters, theme, and thelanguageand images characteristics, one can know which information should be conveyed to the audience by subtitling. If the translator to preempt the market opportunities without watching the film, it is hard to avoid bad quality of film subtitle translation. Secondly, knowing about the director and the audience. Translators also should know about the director’s style and intention. At the same time, the translator should also analyze the characteristics and expectation of the target audience, in order to achieve film translation purpose. Then, on the basis of understanding the all the factors of the film, it is necessary to make sure what is the translation intention. According to the intention, set out the translation strategy, methods, and skills. Finally according to the actual situation of the film, a subtitle translation should have modifications and adjusting. The main purpose of subtitle translation is to convey information to the target receivers under the restriction of time and space, in order to make them better understand and appreciate the film. Therefore, the subtitle translation should be according with the objective principle, the purpose of the coherence rule and loyalty principle as a guide, a good grasp of limits of time and space, with the most simple and coherent translation to transmit the source language culture to the target language audience, so the audience can appreciate foreign films without any obstacles, to achieve the purpose of cross-culture communication.Chapter III Study on Strategies from the Perspective ofSkopos Theory Based on PersonalTailor3.1 A Brief Introduction on Subtitle Translation of Personal Tailor3.1.1The Introduction of Personal TailorPersonal Tailor is a comedy, produced by “Huayi Brother” what do you do not dare imagine, we dare to do.”----- The slogan of Personal Tailor, Feng Xiaogang’s latest comedy project, not only introduces the film’s basic idea of “living a dream”, it also expresses the director’s ambition. In that context, Personal Tailor takes me back to an earlier Feng. The ingenious premise involves a small group of four people —Yang Zhong (Ge You), the “director of dreams” and his resourceful employees Miss Bai (Bai Baihe), the “fantastician” who designs dream scenarios, Lu Xiaolu (Li Xiaolu), the “caterer of whims”; and Ma Qing (ZhengKai), the “spiritual anesthetist”. For all their elaborate titles, however, they’re essentially members of a high-concept company, which provides regular —wealthy —clients with a taste of the lives they have always wanted. In a series of separate segments, the team comes to the aid of a chauffeur (Fan Wei) who yearns for a taste of power, a “vulgar” film director (Li Chengru) who wants to become a high-culture artist, and a middle-class woman (Song Dandan) who dreams of becoming a billionaire. Either as a therapeutic experience or something of a moral test, there are elements of satire and farce in each segment. Much of that is thanks to novelist Wang Shuo, who wrote the screenplay. The last 15 minutes of the film take a 180-degree turn and become almost a public service announcement — an odd andunexpected ending to a consistently surprising comedy.“This research focuses on the words this film characters used. The Personal Tailor consists of lots of Chinese culture elements, including some idioms, Proverbs and Chinese Two-Part Allegorical Saying. These elements are difficult to translate. But translators have done a great job on these content processing. They not only make the audiences understand the film easily, but also achieve the intention of cross-culture communication. They let the traditional culture spread to the foreign audiences, but there are very few translation processing is undeserved, and this is also the difficulty of subtitle translation.3.1.2 A Brief Introduction on Subtitle Skopos of Personal TailorSubtitling is not as easy as the other translation kinds to be translated. In addition to the limitations of time and space, it can be determined by the skopos of the translators. Before dealing with subtitling, translators should completely consider the best way of translation, which can be influenced by several aspects, such as the intention of the directors, the expectation of target audiences and the aesthetic aspect of the language. In this part，some introduction about the three affecting aspects will be discussed. According to Skopos Theories, every translation has its purpose. Only if the acceptance and appreciation achieved, the subtitle is a proper one, no matter what methods and skills the translators used in this process.First thing we want to talk about is the intentions of director. Directors produce the films with certain intentions. Taking the Personal Tailor as an。
