Title: The translator as editor: Subtitle translations for Chinese films
Abstract: Much has been said about the features, constraints and guidelines for film subtitle translation. It is commonly acknowledged that subtitle translations are influenced by factors such as time, space on the screen, and speed of dialogue. Some research in this field has therefore suggested that film subtitling is really a combination of translation and interpreting, or more interpreting than translation (or even sight translation), as it is claimed that some subtitle translations bear more similarity to interpreting methods than to translation. However, in practice, the subtitle translator works with retrievable material, be it written scripts in print, subtitles on the screeen or movie dialogue. The translator has plenty of time and opportunity to retrieve such material in the source langauge in order to change, modify, correct and polish his/her translation. This situation is therefore completely different from interpreting, where the interpreter has essentially only one immediate chance to deliver an interpretation of the speaker's words. The research presented in this article looks into the practice of subtitling for Chinese films as well as the practices of a Chinese film distributor in Australia in dealing with subtitle translation before screening Chinese films. The result of the research suggests that film subtitling exhibits the characteristcs of editing. This editing role is played by either the translator or the film distributor.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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