A Study On E-C Translation In English Film Subtitles From The Perspective Of Register Theory

As an important carrier of cultural communication among countries under the background of economic and cultural globalization,the translation of subtitles is an important channel of cultural communication.As a bridge between audience and film works,subtitles can promote the wider dissemination of film works.The concept of register refers to the combination of meanings closely related to the three situational variables of register which are field,mode and tenor.These three situational variables can make the translation of film subtitles controlled.On the basis of previous studies,this paper analyzes the subtitle translation of The Love Trilogy from the perspective of Register Theory and explores the register equivalence of English film subtitle to Chinese,which can provide some reference for the current translation of English film subtitle to Chinese.Register Theory is used as the theoretical framework for the study of film subtitle translation in this paper,and the classic English film-The Love Trilogy(“Before Sunrise”,“Before Sunset”,“Before Midnight”)are employed as the research corpus.Through the methods of corpus analysis and quantitative research,three situational variables of the register theory in the subtitle translation by interpreting the translation characteristics of the subtitles in The Love Trilogy will be analyzed as well as the translation methods used in subtitle translation.By comparing the degree of reproduction of the three situational variables in the translation of the language register,the aspects that need to be strengthened in the subtitle translation under the guidance of the language register theory are derived,and the subtitle translation in The Love Trilogy is further optimized.The case analysis shows that the subtitle translation of The Love Trilogy achieves the reproduction of the three variables of the language register,but at the same time there are cases of incomplete reproduction.Among the 788 collected corpora,728 subtitle translations achieved register parity and 60 subtitle translations did not achieve register parity.Based on the research on the register of the translations and the situational variables,this paper summarizes the translation methods used in the translations.In the translation of subtitles that achieve full parity,the translations are mostly translated by means of additions and omissions,division,and compounding,adaptation and borrowing,and explication and implication.There are 259 subtitle translations using addition and omission,which are the most commonly used subtitle translation methods.Meanwhile,the methods of addition and omission can better reproduce the language field,the methods of adaptation and borrowing can better reproduce the language tenor,and the methods of implication and explication can better reproduce the language mode.For the subtitle translation without register equivalence,the comparison of the number of subtitles reproducing the three situational variables in the translated subtitles shows that the reproduction of the tenor is the lowest and translators need to pay more attention to the reproduction of the tenor in the future subtitle translation.Due to the characteristics of the subtitle language,the deviation in the reproduction of character’s emotion in the context is the largest,reaching 64.9% of the deviation in the reproduction of the tenor.The translators can reduce the deviation of tenor in subtitle translation by choosing the words properly and taking into account the influence of cultural differences.The results show that,under the guidance of register theory,translators can reproduce the subtitle register of movies to the maximum extent through appropriate translation methods and consideration of relevant influencing factors.In this way,register deviation can be further reduced,so as to provide reference for the translation of film subtitles in the future.