A Report On Movie Subtitle Translation Of Lost On Journey

With the advance of globalization, films and teleplays have become the window and culture carrier for mutual understanding between different countries all over the world, as they can reflect different characteristics of language and culture. The fast development of cross-cultural communication makes more and more domestic films and teleplays open to the international markets. In the meantime, western ones are flocking into China continuously. Therefore, subtitle translation has got more attention in the translating industry. By carefully studying relevant literatures on Relevance Theory and subtitle translation, and many scholars’study reselts as well, the author has learned that Relevance Theory has more explanatory forces on subtitle translation and its Optimal Relevance Principle can be taken as the theoretical foundation and evaluation criterion as well in subtitle translation.This report discusses about the movie subtitle translation of Lost on Journey. After introducing the plots, main characters’features, and language styles etc., it summarizes five subtitle features:Instantaneity, Popularity, Complementarity, Irreversibility and Culture-specificness. As Relevance Theory is more explanatory in subtitle translation, the author first gives a brief account of the theory and its following translation theory, proposing subtitle translation to be guided by Optimal Relevance Principle. Then the author chooses several appropriate translating strategies according to the features of the subtitles concerned and conveys the source-language information in a more flexible manner, in order to achieve optimal relevance and maximal contextual effects, so that target-language audiences could obtain the best dramatic effects with the least processing efforts, thus better understanding and appreciating this film.During the translation, the major translating strategies the author adopted include Cooperation of Literal Translation and Free Translation, Cooperation of Domestication and Foreignization, Reduction, Ostension, and Annotation. It is hoped that these translating strategies could provide some insights and enlightenments for subtitle translators so as to make target-language audiences enjoy outstanding foreign films and teleplays better via subtitle translation.