關聯理論下的電影字幕翻譯策略

Film Subtitle Translation Strategies in the Perspective of Relevance Theory

A Study on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

四川成都西南交通大學外國語學院 610031

Abstract： This thesis tries to apply the relevance theory to guide the subtitles translation of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon.Based on the analysis of relationship between relevance theory and the subtitles translation， the thesis proposes corresponding translation strategies and explains the feasibility of relevance theoretical account of film subtitles translation.

Key words relevance theoryCrouching Tiger Hidden Dragonsubtitles translation

【中圖分類號】H315.9

【文獻標識碼】A【文章編號】1002-2139（2009）-05-0172-2

1.0 An Overview of Relevance Theoryt

Relevance Theory was first put forward in Relevane” Communication and Cognition by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson. Relevance Theory is never meant to be a linguistic theory alone. It is meant to be a theory of cognition and communication. Opimal relevane is the centra concept in Relevance Theory. Accordig to Sperber and Wilson， for a presumtion to be optimally relevant， the presumption has to meet the following two standars: (a) the set of assumptions which the communicator intends to make manifest to the address is relevant enough to make it worth the addressee’s while to process the ostensive stimulus (b) the ostensive stimulus is the most rele vant one the communicator could have used to communicate.(158) Based on the a bove theoretical development， Sperber and Wilson conclude the principle of relevane: “every act of of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance”(Ibid: 158)

2.0 Relevance Theory Applied to Translation

In 1990’s Ernst-August Gutt first applied relevane theory to translation field and pointed out relevane-theoretic account of translation is neither descriptive nor prescriptive but explanatory.(Gutt， 1991:190). Relevance is not a translation theory， but it plays an important part in explaining and guiding translation， thus laying an ontological and methodological foundation for translation. Relevance theory claims that there are two psychologically distinct modes of using language: the descpritive use and the interpretive use， and Gutt holds that for those instances， where the relation， descriptive use plyas the key role and for those， where resemblace with the orginal is important， they are accounted for the relevance theory in terms of interpretive use. Furthermore， Gutt also develops the idea that interpretive use can account for the concern to deserve both meaning content and style.(Gutt， 1991: 188) “The translation is intended to restate in one language what someone else said or wrote in another language”(Gutt， 2001) and relevance theory provides a fairlyy explicit account of translation as instances of the interpretive use of language accoss language boundaries.(ibid).

3Subtitle Translatinn Strategies: A Case Study

In this section， the author picks out some examples of translated subtitles from Ang Lee’s film Crouching tiger， Hidden Dragon and analyze them from the viewpoint of Relevance Theory.

3.1 Direct Reduction

Direct reduction means the omission of some trivial messages， leaving the crucial messages to meet the requirements of technical constraints of films.

Example 1

李慕白: 我破了戒， 提早出關。

俞秀蓮: 什么? 道人說這次的閉關， 對你非常重要。

李慕白: 這次閉關靜坐的時候， 我一度進入了一種很深的寂靜。

I leftt the training early.

Why? You’re a wudang fighter， Training is everything.

During my mediation training， I came to a place of deep silence.

Three parts are involved in this translation: the author， the translator， and the audience. In the first ostensive-inferential process， the author conveys her communicative intention to the translator by applying the original contextual assumptions. Here Li ’s utterance 提早出關 shows the first ostensive-inferential process， that is to say ， the translator received the message that as a Wudang fighter ， it is forbidden to give up close-door training earlier， so there is something accidental for Li. However the westerns know little about the rules of school in martial arts in china ， so it is hard for them to understand “閉關修煉’’. So the translator plays the roles of the communicator/speaker of the second ostensive-inferential communication process. They convey their interpretation of the author’s intention to the reader. In this way， the translator plays both roles of communicator and receptor in the process of the translation. That is the typical case of ostensive-inferential communication.

3.2 Condensation

The time and space for subtitles are rather limited， therefore， condensation is always applied. Therefore the subtitler needs to distinguish the vital or important information from some supplementary or padding information.

Example (2):

魯老太爺是朝內的大官，又是三代翰林。

The Gous are a very powerful family.

Hanlin（翰林） is a title of the imperial academy， which is alo title of winners in nation-wide examination in ancient China. According to relevance theory， these culture-loaded words and expressions will put a lot of processing efforts on the part of the target audience， which is worse in the subtitles. If we translated this sentence literally as “Master Gou is a high-ranking official in the court， and the Gous are members of the imperial academy for three generations.”， the viewers have to devote too much effort in reading the subtitles. By condensing the information into “a very powerful family”， the subtitlers offered the information with the optimal relevance to the viewers.

3.3 Direct Translation

Word –to –word translation often happens in the situation that the meaning of a new word had frequently appeared based on the images or being highlighted as the essence.

Example (3)

貝勒爺：玉大人整治京城， 不能只眼看著朝廷。

江湖上也要有所聯絡，九門提督才能坐穩

剛柔相濟， 方得治道。

Precede its caution. Don’t depend only on the court.

Contacts in the Jiang Hu (under world) can ensure your position.

Be strong yet supple .This is the way to rule.

The literal meaning of 江湖 is “river and lake”. Whenever it is touched upon， it unrolls a rich picture of heroes and fighters. James Schamus said， “There are Wuxia novels， a genre based on these kinds of heroes. These heroes inhabit what is called the Jiang Hu world.” (Kaufman2006:76)

In example (3)， the translator chooses to translate the word directly and add the attached meaning to help audience to make the least efforts， so as to achieve the optimal relevance.

3.4 Domestication

Example (4) 貝勒爺一直是關心我們的人。

Sir Te has always been our protector

The word “protector” has its long tradition in western culture， in this adapt， the translator have put the audience at the first place in giving full consideration to their readiness in cultural association.

So in order to make audiences understand culture-loaded words and expressions in limited spaces， subtitlers either totally discard or domesticate the expressions according to relevance theory. Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon is especially claimed to be successful in domestication. They always bear the target audience in mind， or， they have a very clear vision of audience design based on the cultural disparity.

4 Conclusion

This paper focuses on the translation of the subtitles of Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon from relevance theoretical approach. The strategies are listed under the categorizations to support relevance theory’s feasibility in guiding subtitles translation.