On The Translation Of Metaphorical Film Subtitling: A Norms Theory Perspective

Subtitling translation is a burgeoning research field in resent years. With the tendency ofglobalization in economic and cultural exchange, subtitling translation has been arousing muchattention from scholars at home and abroad. Subtitling translation has occupied a decisiveposition of the video transmission on the Internet and the screen film for its features of economyand effectiveness. Western subtitling translation research starts from the seventies of last centuryand has formed certain research scale and system. The techniques and perspectives of studieshave presented a multi-tendency. Many European scholars, such as Henrik Gottlieb and FotioKaramitroglou have written quite a number of essays devoting to the discussion of the definition,features and classification of subtitling translation from theoretical perspective. However, inChina, subtitling translation study is still in the initial stage. Except for some introductorycomments and brief summaries of translation practice, there are few academic researchespertaining to this subject. Furthermore, there seems to be no exploration from practice to theoryabout metaphor translation in subtitling.Toury’s norms theory is one of the most important theories for descriptive translationstudies. In Toury’s opinion, translation is a norm-governed activity. However, these norms arenot changeless but changeable along with the changes of social and cultural factors. From theperspective of descriptive translation studies, Toury classifies norms into three types: preliminarynorms, initial norms and operational norms. Preliminary norms determine the translation strategyin the overall multisystem and the choice of which text to be translated; initial norms govern thetranslator’s individual inclination to adhere to the source text or to the target culture; operationalnorms, which influence the actual detail factors during the process of translation practice.Toury’s norms have the cultural relevance in the framework of the target culture upon which thetranslators live. Conducting research on the translation norms from the perspective of descriptivemethod, Toury’s ultimate aims are that he wants to establish these potential norms and figure outhow these norms influence the choice of which text to be translated and what translationstrategies to be chose.This thesis, taking the popular film If You Are the One as an example, aims at exploringnorms mechanism influence on the selection of translator’s strategy and discussing some feasibletranslation methods with self-built small corpus in light of the framework of Toury’s normstheory. In the studies of subtitling translation, how and why the translations (target text) deviatefrom the source text and how translators manage to make the translations acceptable, how andwhy the translation is apt to source text and how translators manage to make the translation with adequacy, these issues can be explained by Toury’s three norms. While in the specific translationpractice, all the translation can not be absolute acceptable or adequate, for this reason adoptingthe method of transformation is unavoidable. Applying Toury’s norms theory to the study ofmetaphorical subtitling translation not only broadens the norms theory’s applicability, but alsofinds new theoretical framework for subtitling—a promising branch of translation studies.Meanwhile, subtitling translation studies can enlighten and guide the practice in subtitling fieldas well as second language education with this new approach.