A Report On The Subtitle Translation Of The Scientists’ Speeches On The World Laureates Forum(Excerpt)

Against the backdrop of growing globalization and fast-developing science and technology,cultural exchanges among countries across the world have become increasingly frequent.Therefore,subtitle translation has received more and more attention from the translation field.Many experts and scholars have conducted studies on subtitle translation,covering various kinds of texts,among which literary and artistic films and television programs are the most popular.Up to now,some achievements have been made in the field of subtitle translation,including translation principles,translation strategies and translation techniques in case studies,but a more systematic translation theory has not yet been formed.The translation materials selected in this report come from subtitles of several scientists’ speeches on the World Laureates Forum,which mainly discusses the frontier issues in the field of science and technology,thus involving more specialized and difficult contents.When searching for parallel texts,the author finds very limited examples for reference,indicating that the number of studies on this type of text is relatively small and it is worthy of further research.When doing translation practice,the author analyzes and solves the difficult problems under the guidance of Relevance Theory.The Relevance Theory points out that the degree of relevance is determined by processing effort and contextual effects and optimal relevance is achieved when the addressee can acquire adequate contextual effects at the minimum cost of processing effort.How to enhance the contextual effects and reduce the processing effort is a test for the translator,who has to not only fully understand the original text,but also predict the possible cognitive barriers faced by the viewers,and then take advantage of various translation techniques to help the viewers acquire relevant information.Through practice and reflection,the author summarizes the features of the scientific and technological speech subtitles,and analyzes some examples from lexical,syntactic and textual levels.Various translation techniques are applied to solve all kinds of translation difficulties.The translation materials are characterized by a large number of scientific and technical terms,attributive clauses,passive sentences and abundant cohesive devices.In order to achieve optimal relevance,the author ensures accurate and consistent translation of technical terms,adjusts the order of attributive clauses or makes them independent clauses,converts passive sentences into active ones,and keeps or removes cohesive devices.The report specifies how to flexibly use translation techniques to make the original intention successfully conveyed and produce optimal relevance to the viewers.The author hopes the report can provide some enlightenment for the translation practice of the same type of text.