A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Subtitles In Documentaries

With the continuous innovation and development of technology,the way people obtain information has undergone great changes: people have experienced the early age of text reading and picture viewing,and now entering the era of video.Video has become an important channel and medium for information transmission and acceptance in today’s world.However,due to language differences in a large number of videos,people cannot fully understand the content conveyed by the video,and the transmission of the video is affected accordingly.Therefore,it is of urgent practical significance to study video subtitles translation.In this report,the author chooses documentary,a kind of video,as the research subject.Guided by Newmark’s communicative translation theory,the author analyzes the precautions and possible translation skills in documentary subtitle translation to study the application of communicative translation theory to it.The practice finds that in the translation of documentary subtitles,the feelings of the target language audiences should be put first.Also,translators should try to ensure that information acceptance and emotional experiences of target language audiences have a resonance for target language audiences as for source language audiences.The communicative translation theory is suitable for subtitle translation.Communicative translation theory takes the feelings of the target language audiences and linguistic norms into consideration,which is consistent with the ultimate goal of subtitle translation.When translating subtitles,translators should learn to choose the right words by analyzing the standpoint and status of the speaker.Comprehending the background knowledge of the documentary and cultural differences between China and the West also matters.Translators also need to adopt proper translation skills according to the specific situation.In addition,drawing on pictures skillfully plays a great role in guessing the meanings of words or sentences which cannot be recognized or determined.