Domestication and Foreignization in Subtitle Translation of The Big Bang Theory

【Abstract】Nowadays with accelerating process of globalization， as the carrier of culture， film and TV works play a more and more important role in societies， and attract a remarkably increasing number of audiences. So it has become an urgent task to improve the quality of audiovisual translation. Based on Lawrence Venutis theory of domestication and foreignization， and the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory， this paper attempts to explore the possibility of combining the two translation strategies in translating English subtitle into Chinese.

【Key words】subtitle； domestication； foreignization

Features of Subtitle Translation

The translated text usually appears in one or two lines at the foot of the screen simultaneously with the dialogue or narration going on in the source language. This simultaneously provision of meaning in two languages， one in oral and the other in written text. It is thus a new form of language transfer originated by movie and further developed by television. It could help the audience to better understand the obscure contents or segments in the film. For the hearing disabilities people， subtitle undoubtedly plays a key role.

Domestication and Freignization

Domestication is target-language-culture oriented translation in which expression acceptable in target language culture are exploited in order to make the translate texts intelligible and suitable for the target text reader. Fluency and coherence is what domestication stresses on. People who prefer domestication believe that the best translation is read by readers as smooth as their mother tongue. Foreignization refers to source language –culture oriented translation， and it aims to keep original element of the source language and break target conventions. It tries it best to bring structures translation strategies and words of source language culture to target language culture.

Application of Domestication and Foreignization

Different kind of dialogues needs different kind of translating strategies. So the translator must be bi-lingual and bi-cultural. He should choose the best words and sentences to make sure the target audience can easily understand the plot and get the full enjoyment. Most accepting way of translating is to flexibly use the Domestication of Foreignization and makes them complement each other. Here are some examples from The Big Bang Theory.

As we all know， Christianity has a very long history in west world. The Old Testament together with The New Testament affect westerns life deeply and lasting. Everyone says “God”， “Jesus Christ” almost thousands of times. Most Americans are faithful to religious. They like to quote the stories， characters and places from the Bible to describe the things， the person， and the place they know. So the translation of religious sentences must try to preserve their religious characteristics. Then the Foreignization is preferred. We can know it from the following examples of The Big Bang Theory. Eg：Penny： Jesus， I cant believe that. （耶穌啊，我不敢相信这是真的。）

In this show， many historical figures and events appear. Some of them we may know， such as pizza， Washington， Lincoln and so on. But most of them are not familiar with us. We can imply that they are all important parts of their culture， such as chocolate， Star Terk， Christmas， etc. So have a good knowledge of them will certainly help the target audiences to understand the English history and its culture. In this way， Foreignization should be applied to make sure the cultural communication realized.

There is another situation that Foreignization is always be favored， that is the translation of names. As we can see Sheldon translated as “謝尔顿”，Leonard as “莱纳德”，Penny as “佩妮”， Howard as “霍华德”， Raj as “拉杰什”. Also place names such as “New York” to “纽约”，“Ohio”to “俄亥俄州”， “Mississippi” to “密西西比”. According to UN， the transliteration is the way to show respect to the sovereignty of a nation and can not be innovated personally. Most of the names have their fix translation， for instance， “Saint” as “圣”，“burg” as “伯格”. Transliteration is belonged to Foreignization， and translators can always look up dictionaries to find out the most acceptable translations that close to their pronunciations.

Conclusion

To sum up， domestication and foreignization， the two main translation strategies， cannot function well without each others company in audiovisual translation practice. They in the practice co-exist and complement each other to a certain degree. On the level of language and words， domestication is preferred while it comes to cultural level foreignization is better. A film is the combination of various language factors as well as the style， traits of the characters. Only by integrating all these factors can we help produce a faithful， fluid and comprehensible translation for the target viewers.

References：

[1]范星星.中国电影字幕翻译的归化选择[D].广东外语外贸大学，2006.

[2]朱玉敏.从归化与异化谈影视翻译[D].厦门大学，2006.

作者简介：杨屹卓（1993-），女，陕西商洛洛南县人，本科毕业于西安理工大学，获得学士学位，现系西安理工大学人文与外国语学院英语翻译方向、研一在读学生。