3.5.2　Paraphrase

The written form of the Chinese language often makes use of fourcharacter idioms or words.This linguistic phenomenon is particularly useful in E-C film translation,because these idioms can explain or replace an English sentence or phrase.The researcher would argue that this approach is consistent with Gottlieb’s strategy of “paraphrase”.In the film Despicable Me 1,there are in total 930 subtitles,and this particular strategy of paraphrase is used in 25 subtitles:

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Inevitably,the widespread prevalence of four-character idioms in the Chinese language means paraphrase will be a key strategy for briefly conveying or simplifying some expression,especially ones for which it is difficult to find equivalent items in the target language.In this kind of situation,the audience may not be able to understand its actual meaning or may be confused by the translation if the translator translates a particular expression word-for-word (a literal translation).Therefore,in E-C films translated,paraphrasing that uses Chinese idioms not only shows the equivalent characteristic in Chinese but also technically meets the time and space requirements in film subtitle making.