Analysis of the Chinese subtitles in the film of Annie Hall

Abstract：The famous American film --Annie Hall is popular to many watchers all over the world. It has achieved a lot of prizes in the past.But there are lots of problems in the Chinese subtitles in China .This paper aims to analyse them and  illustrate the mistakes in the Chinese subtitles.

Key words： analysis， subtitles， film， Annie Hall

In the film of Annie Hall， the Chinese subtitles that dont correspond to the meaning of the dialogue – being wrong， too short and simplified， or revised too much so that the original meaning is lost or changed， are as follows：

1. Ommited Subtitles：

When I read the subtitles of these selected parts，  I found that some subtitles are omitted in the film as follows.

Explanation： Most of the subtitles here are omitted as shown in the table above. Although we learn the guideline “Subtitling can never be and should not be a complete and detailed rendering of the ST” ， in my opinion， it shouldnt be deleted so much. If too many details （including tone and style） were omitted， ， it becomes uninteresting and bland and difficult for the audiences to understand. Such as the example of （00：42-00：50）（1）， there are no subtitles on the screen at all. If I were an audience who doesnt know English， I think I would have looked forward to reading the Chinese subtitles. But absolutely there are no subtitles which cant catch up with the flow of the film， which makes me wait and blank for a while.

Besides， we learn “Subtitles should be able to be read standing alone” in our course.The subtitles here are not coherent and overall， they become fragment and messy because of the omitting subtitles. So I think we should keep more meanings of the subtitles and  endeavor to choose the most appropriate， clean and precise words to translate in order to maximam the appreciation and comprehension of the the target film.

2.Subtitles that have been simplified so well that even complicated meaning appears clear.

I think the translator render the phase of “send somebody to the showers ”very well.

send somebody to the showers：

用作動词的意思：（美国俚语）

1. （棒球用语）撤换某队员或罚其出局

Eg： The roach sent a pitcher to the showers in another who is more effective.

Ref： http：//www.yiym.com/send-somebody-to-the-showers

Explanation：Compared with the other two versions of Chinese subtitles， I think the translator uses “打败”phrase which is simplified so well to  express the complicated and internal meaning .

3. Special translations for differences in culture. Or ways they handled the translation， i.e. added words to explain， explain the meaning but omitting the object， omitting it altogether.

In the translation field ，there are two kinds of main translation strategies ： foreignization and domestication（naturalization）：

Note：“Norman Percevel Rockwell” （February 3， 1894 – November 8， 1978） was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. （ref： http：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell）

Explanation：  Among these three translation versions， the original one is the most common one.“红楼梦”in Terasas version adopts the translation strategy of domestication（naturalization）， which uses “红楼梦” to translate the proper noun “Norman Rockwel”. It orients on target source and replace with more familiar target cultural elements. It is a very excellent translation for the Chinese readers. Besides this way，  I think it can also adopt the translation strategy of foreignization to translate as “你还生活在诺曼的风俗画里？” which is a more faithful one. It orients on source culture and preserves the cultural elements-- Norman Rockwell painting in ST. In this way ， the audience can acculturate into the movie world.

4. Special usages of subtitles.

In 01：01-01：53（3） part， when Annie and Alvy speak， subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts： the likes of "I'm not smart enough for him" and "I sound like a jerk." Moreover， it can help us viewer to know the psychological thoughts and describe from other aspects for the main roles .  I think this is one of the special usages of subtitles.

5. How did it handle the spatial constraints？

Explanation： The standard of subtitles for Chinese words and characters is 13-15 characters. Doing subtitles is often an art of compromise. There are too many constrains， for example， spatial constraints and temporal constraints. So we have to keep some and give up some. We should know

that we should grasp the main content.

References

[1] Baker， Mona. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies[M]. London， New York： Routledge， 2008 .

[2] Daniel Gouadec. Translation as A Profession. Philadelphia[M].John Benjuamins Publishing Company， 2017.

作者簡介：林晓玲（1980-），女，广东汕尾，硕士，讲师，研究方向：英语教育、英语翻译、英语文学等