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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

On translating Chinese culture-loaded terms into English : a case study of subtitling tactics for Red Cliff and Red Cliff II

English Abstract

Film as an influential mass media product, not only brings amusement to people but also acts as a bridge between different cultures and countries. When films travel across cultures, translation is needed. Being an effective and popular aid of intercultural communication, subtitling has been the commonly accepted norm of audiovisual translation (AVT). As an active research area, AVT has claimed its increasingly important place in translation studies over the last quarter of a century. Since there are special features and requirement about AVT that distinguishes from other forms of translation, it is always a challenge for translators to work under space and time constraints. Therefore, when translating films, especially those bristling with culturally-loaded terms, adopting the correct translation strategy is deemed crucial. The present study focuses on the translation of culture-loaded terms (CLTs henceforth) in subtitles from Chinese to English extracted from the Chinese epic films Red Cliff and Red Cliff II. Instances of CLTs are collected and categorized according to five categories viz. ecological, linguistic, material, religious and social culture. The investigation proceeds by Mona Baker’s theory on the frequently used translation methods pertinent to CLTs in general to examine the application of them in the context of Chinese-to-English subtitling. It has been found out that the translation methods used are consistent with the general concept of domestication, which is the predominant approach adopted in this case. In general, the results of the study show that the translated version is target-language-oriented while paraphrasing and generalization are the two most frequently used methods in translating the CLTs in the two movies. The foreignness of VI those terms in the ST is minimized in the TT. Detailed discussions are made on investigating the possible factors that affect the translation strategy and methods in rendering them in English subtitles.

Issue date

2015.

Author

Fong, Man Wai

Faculty

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Department

Department of English

Degree

M.A.

Subject

Motion pictures -- Translating -- China

Motion pictures -- Titling

Chinese language -- Translating into English

Supervisor

Li, Jian

Files In This Item

Full-text (Intranet only)

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991000795609706306