Translation Of Taboos In English Movie Dialogues

Taboo, universal in every culture, is such a unique social and linguistic phenomenon that it is unavoidable for people to encounter English taboos in frequent intercultural communication. Broadly speaking, English taboos fall into six categories:taboos on religion, taboos on death and disease, taboos on sex and bodily excretions, taboos on physical appearance, taboos on discrimination and taboos on social status and professions. As culture-loaded words, English taboos reflect the tradition, customs, ethics, values and common psychological features of the English-speaking communities.English movies, a popular form of mass culture, have not only entertained the public but also promoted intercultural communication. These movies provide an effective way for English learners to experience the authentic English language and culture in varied and vivid situations. Many taboo words are widely used in English movies to describe specific contexts or certain persons’personalities. Any misunderstanding of these words could lead to mistranslation and spoil the effect of the movies. Hence, it is necessary for us to study the translation of English taboos with a view to improving intercultural communicative competence. Previous studies on English taboos, however, are for the most part from the sociolinguistic perspective. Undue academic attention has been given to the translation of English taboos from the contextual perspective and virtually no complete theoretical system has been put forth.Based on Jef Verschueren’notion of the communicative context, the present thesis studies the translation of English taboos with exemplifications from English movies. With careful case studies on the translation of English taboos in movie dialogues, the author has reached the following conclusions:(1) The translation of English taboos will make no sense if context is not taken into account. The translation of taboos in English movie dialogues is closely related to the communicative context. Without careful analysis on the communicative context, translators can not understand the specific contextual meaning of the taboo words. Dynamic equivalence can be reached only if the communicative context has been understood correctly and the relevant translation strategy has been adopted appropriately.(2) The mental world, as well as the social world of the utterer, determines the pragmatic meanings of the taboos. The same taboo word may imply different pragmatic meanings when used to different persons in different settings, meanwhile the mental world as well as the social world of the target audience (interpreters) should also be taken into account. During translation, translators should analyze the specific context first, and then choose the closest equivalent in Chinese according to its pragmatic function and emotional color.(3) When it comes to translation strategies, literal translation is proposed in the case of complete equivalents in the target language. For partial equivalents or zero-equivalents in the target language, domestication is the preferred strategy, which can be further divided into the following categories:substituting, euphemizing, non-taboo translating, omitting and interpreting with annotation.The tentative study on the translation of English taboos is far from being satisfactory. It is the sincere hope of the author that the study will be of some help for further studies on the translation of English taboos and the promotion of English learners’intercultural communicative competence.