The translation of community terms in Singaporean Chinese : a study based on the translations of Queyue Fanyou Zongshi Yu and Chang Duan Hechun Yuan

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the types of translation strategies in the subtitles of the movie entitled ‘Zootopia’ and also to describe the techniques applied in translating the subtitles. This study is a qualitative descriptive study. The data (subtitles) was directly collected from Zootopia. The theoretical framework of this paper is built on the basis of Jef Verschueren’s (1999) four perspectives of linguistic adaptation theory. More specifically, this paper attempts to pinpoint that whether the translation strategies and techniques applied in Zootopia show the visibility of the translator and whether the Chinese audience can feel the existence of the translator when they enjoy the movie.

Research methods of case study, data (film subtitles) analysis will be undertaken to investigate the research results. Jef Verschueren’s linguistic adaptation theory will be applied as a basic theoretical framework and a philological approach to conduct the analysis of Zootopia subtitles translation in three perspectives: contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, cultural background of adaptability.

With the above three perspectives analyzing the selected subtitles, results indicate that various translation strategies and methods used in processing subtitles shows the translator’s visibility and subjectivity, and help language and cultural messages in Zootopia more easily accepted and understood by the Chinese audience.

Therefore, the author can get a conclusion for the research. That is, watching a foreign movie is a dynamic communication process between the ST and the TT audience. To achieve satisfactory communication effects, the subtitler has to put in considerable efforts in translating it in an explicit or implicit way. Besides, the subtitles translation is a dynamic process of adaptation and selection, the translator needs to continuously choose the best solution in translating Zootopia in order to adapt to the language, culture and situational context of the target language, which proves his or her visibility and subjectivity in film subtitling.