3.5.1　Expansion

As stated above,the main challenge facing AVT subtitling is presumably to convey meaning effectively and comprehensively within the technical constraints of film subtitles.This challenge is more onerous when translating from English,an alphabet-based language system,and Chinese,a hieroglyphic system.

In Luyken’s book Overcoming Language Barriers in Television: Dubbing and Subtitling for the European Audience,he made the following points: The “average reading speed is generally considered to be between 150 and 180 words per minute.At the Stockholm EBU conference in 1987 there was considerable discussion about the display time for subtitles.In the end,there was agreement that 6-8 seconds was the optimum for two lines and 4 seconds for one line” (1991: 44) and “the number of characters per line is between 32 to 40 for 35mm film,24 to 27 for 16mm film.It should be noted that the number of permissible characters per line on the actual cinema screen does not change since the width of the film frame remains constant” (ibid: 43).According to these data,it is advisable that there should be no more than about 35 characters or 13 words in a line in English.But,in Chinese,given the very different hieroglyphic-based alphabet language system,the recommended number of characters per line is about five to eight because of the complexity of spelling in Chinese.

For subtitlers working on E-C film products,therefore,the opportunity to make the translation more understandable by adding more information,for example to enhance appreciation of specific cultural contexts,is highly limited.Gottlieb called this strategy “expansion”,and it is usually employed when the original subtitle or expression is beyond the cultural comprehension of the target audience.For instance,in the English-language films that feature Western festivals such as Halloween,the subtitler can add several words to explain this festival to the audience.In turn,this strategy may help the target audience better understand the purpose of the particular festival mentioned and the attendant customs involved.However,in practice,this strategy is not generally suitable for translating a film subtitle,particularly where two very different language systems are concerned,because of the technical constraints of film subtitles.The main reason for this phenomenon is explained by the features of Chinese expression such as repetitiveness,and preference of explaining things in a profound way that inhibits a more economical mode of expression.Moreover,in the process of analysing the sample film’s subtitling,it can also be seen that some translations use the strategy of condensation rather than expansion,whereas visually,the translated Chinese subtitles are nonetheless longer than the original ones.Put another way,the difference in how these two languages are expressed is significantly highlighted by the greater length of translated subtitles compared with that of the original text.

In the sample film Despicable Me 1,only six subtitles were translated using this strategy.In the process,it was discovered that the translated subtitles were considerably longer than the original text.As a consequence,the audience may not have had sufficient time to comprehend the translation; for instance,one line of original text may have resulted in a two-line subtitle.To this end,the following examples highlight instances where the Chinese subtitles are noticeably longer than the original English text:(https://www.daowen.com)

It is important to note that Gottlieb’s typology comes from a linguistic,rather than an AVT,perspective.However,as can be seen in relation to the sample movie,this strategy is not generally suitable for translating a film subtitle,particularly where two very different language systems are concerned,because of the technical constraints of film subtitles.The main reason for this phenomenon is explained by the features of Chinese expression such as repetitiveness,and preference of explaining things in a profound way that inhibits a more economical mode of expression.Moreover,in the process of analysing the sample film’s subtitling,it can also be seen that some translations use the strategy of condensation rather than expansion,whereas visually,the translated Chinese subtitles are nonetheless longer than the original ones.Put another way,the difference in how these two languages are expressed is significantly highlighted by the greater length of translated subtitles compared with that of the original text.