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solve the far-reaching national-scale conspiracy that landed his brother there in the first place.

As a matter of fact, this TV play does not enjoy very good audience rating in America. But it becomes a blockbuster in China very soon after it is transmitted on the Internet, especially among the young netizens, which should be obliged to those voluntary subtitle translation contributors.

3.2 Losses: Identified Problems

Before touching upon the losses in translating the subtitle of Prison Break, the author takes it as a necessity to clarify what the author means by using the word “losses” in this thesis so as to avoid any possible misunderstanding. Actually, “losses” refer to the problems that more often than not occur in subtitle translation due to the technical constraints confronting subtitle translation and multi-level translators as discussed in Chapter One. To be specific, the “losses” in this thesis refer to the linguistic problems and culture-bound problems which have been identified by the author of this thesis through a careful study of the three selected sources of the subtitles and their Chinese versions.

Although Prison Break is a blockbuster in China and enjoys a high audience rating, problems of this or that kind still appear in the translated subtitles because of many reasons. As we all know, all translation processes mediate between the source-text and target-text situations. Therefore, some pragmatic problems arise from the differences between these situations and can be identified by checking on the extra-textual factors such as sender, receiver, medium, time, space, motive and text function. Just as classified by Christiane Nord, there are normally two kinds of

与美剧越狱有关的论文,学校内部资料库下载

translation problems in subtitle translation, namely, linguistic problems and cultural problems.

Before the discussion of specific translation problems, it is necessary to distinguish translation problems and translation difficulties. Translation problems are here considered to be objective or at least inter-subjective and they are not to be equaled with translation difficulties. Translation difficulties are subjective ones that a subtitle translator might encounter in the process of translating subtitles because of his or her unqualified linguistic, cultural or translational competence or because he or she has not got appropriate documentations. Actually, many of the difficulties existing in current subtitle translation work are a result of inability of translators, which can be changed and improved through personal endeavor. However, translation problems will remain problems even when a translator has learnt how to deal with them rapidly and effectively. In this sense, the same translation problems appearing in different contexts should be treated differently so as to most effectively serve their respective communicative functions.

One important reason for most of the translation problems in subtitle translation is more or less relevant to the space and time constraints. As has been discussed in 2.2.1.2, subtitle is of a special text typology and it is quite different from literary texts. Many problems arise just because of the constraints of the new medium. Translators, confronted by these constraints, have to choose from a variety of possible strategies to best deliver the messages needed in terms of functionalist equivalence and Skopos rule. Of course, there are also other problems inherent in cross-cultural and cross-lingual communication. Therefore, it is better for us to discuss them in detail in the following section. .

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3.2.1 Linguistic Problems

Linguistic problems refer to structural differences in terms of vocabulary, syntax and suprasegmental features of the two languages. More often than not, the linguistic problems are caused by two factors, one of which is that subtitling is constrained by two bottlenecks, namely time constraint and space constraint and the other is the incompetence of multi-level subtitle translators. Let’s look at the following examples which will show us the linguistic problems.

Original:

Sid: That’s it. Can I just, you know, look at it for a moment?

Michael: You are an artist, Sid.

Subtitle Version:

Sid: 大功告成了。能不能让我，你知道，看上一会？

Michael: 你真是个艺术家，Sid.

This dialogue happens at the very beginning of the First Season of Prison Break when Sid who is a tattooer just finishes her work on Michael’s body. As we all know, “you know” is a piece of redundant information in the original speech. It is actually unnecessary to translate it in the subtitle version. Besides, due to the space constraint on the screen, the number of words as well as the punctuations appearing at the bottom of screen should not exceed thirteen. Otherwise, the audience might have difficulties in finishing reading this long subtitle before the next moving images and utterance appear. In other words, the informative function of the subtitle and the communication purpose of subtitle translation cannot be

与美剧越狱有关的论文,学校内部资料库下载

realized. Therefore, it is suggested to delete the redundant information from the subtitle version. When Michael is saying “You are an artist, Sid”, he is not really meaning to express that Sid is an artist. As a matter of fact, he is appraising her for her excellent work so that the original may not be translated literally into “你真是个艺术家”. Instead, the implied message should be provided to the viewers so as to let them fully understand what is going on there. Only by so doing, the translator can well serve the purpose of subtitle translation. A revised version is as follows.

Sid: 搞定了。让我再欣赏一下？

Michael: 你太厉害了，Sid.

Take a look at another example:

Original:

Veronica: I’ve known you my entire life. You don’t have a violent bone in

your body. And I know you don’t need the money.

Michael: Veronica.

Veronica: Why won’t you let me help you?

Subtitle Version:

Veronica: 我整个一生都了解你。你的骨头里没有打打杀杀的影子，况

且我知道你又不需要钱。

Michael: Veronica.

Veronica: 你干嘛不让我帮你啊？

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This dialogue happens at the cell when the judge retires to her chambers to determine sentencing while Michael refuses to contest for his “bank robbery”. It is obvious that “我整个一生都了解你” is a literal translation of “I’ve known you my entire life”. As we all know, literal translation sometimes does no good to communication. Besides, the translation of “你的骨头里没有打打杀杀的影子” for “You don’t have a violent bone in your body” is also not proper because “你的骨头里没有打打杀杀的影子” is too formal like a written text. Similarly, if the above original subtitle is translated into the long Chinese subtitle, the purpose of subtitle translation can not be served. Theoretically speaking, this goes against the “Skopos rule”. A suggested version would be like the following:

Veronica: 我们打小就认识，你不是那种会犯法的人。

况且我知道你又不缺钱。

Michael: Veronica.

Veronica:你干嘛不让我帮你啊？

Another convincing example:

Original:

Policewoman: Back away and put your hands up.

Michael: Just go easy.

T-bag: Go nothing. She ain’t the one carrying the cards here.

Policewoman: Back away and put your hands up. T-bag: I put my hand up. I’ll take her jugular with it.