5.3.1 Data Analysis
The 15 pairs of bilingual subtitles in this film are composed of the first part of the questionnaire; see Part I below:
Result of Part I
Related to the first hypothesis,the above content can be plain data as well.From the numbers of words labelled in each pair,it is obvious that all of the 15 Chinese translated subtitles are greater in length than the corresponding English text.Within these 15 pairs of subtitles,I found that two pairs of released Chinese translated subtitles can be improved and become shorter than the current given ones.The following discussion on each of these pairs of subtitles illustrates a better way of translating these subtitles.
For the first pair:
Outrage in Egypt tonight as it was discovered that the Great Pyramid of Giza had been stolen.(17 words) (Original subtitle)
今晚埃及爆出特大新闻——吉萨金字塔被人偷了。（19 characters）（Released translation）
(Back translation: Tonight,Egypt announced huge news — someone has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza.)
Observations： Option C gives respondents a chance to recommend their own translation.One respondent gave his translation thus： “吉萨金字塔发现被盗！愤怒席卷埃及！（更符合新闻语言）（It was found that the Great Pyramid of Giza was stolen！ Outrage all over the Egypt！）（More like news language）”.As the respondent，himself labelled his translation as being more akin to news language，therefore，this translation accords with the background of this subtitle： this subtitle appears on the screen when it was reporting the news.I agree this translation is better than the released one because the respondent separated the original subtitle into two short sentences，using the passive voice and an exclamation mark in the first sentence in order to imitate a journalist’s voice and tone for emphasizing the news as being appalling to the whole country.The translation of the second short sentence was also finished with an exclamation mark in order to strengthen the emphasis.The use of media phrasing makes the translation brief and even shorter than the released one.Therefore，the translation from this respondent is innovative on account of its use of incisive media phrasing.
For the other subtitle in Question 7,the original text has 10 words,while the corresponding original text has 13 words.Although,in line with the previous review about the ideal length of a single-line subtitle,10 original words and 13 translated words are ideal,I still think there is a better way to translate this subtitle,which not only makes the translated subtitle shorter than the current length but also makes the language more appropriate.
They’re saying he makes all other villains look lame.(10 words) (Original subtitle)(https://www.daowen.com)
他们都说跟他相比，其他坏蛋都算是太菜了。（22 characters）（Released translation）
(Back translation: They all said,compared with him,other badass are rookies.)
Observations： There are three expansions and one popular expression in the given translated subtitle.The word “都” is an emphasis in order to show the speaker’s “admiration” to “him”，that is，Vector，the main protagonist of the film.The background information is that Vector has stolen a pyramid，which shocked the whole world，with people regarding him as the number one thief in the world，while other criminals are much more inferior to him.Then the subtitler translated the following sentence pattern separately by using a comma to divide the subtitle into two parts： the first pattern “跟他相比” （compared with him） and the second pattern “其他坏蛋”in the translation； the purpose here in separating these two patterns was to complete the expression in Chinese.However，I also considered “他让其他所有坏蛋都显得很菜” （he makes all other villains look lame）.This translation has nine characters，which is shorter than the given one and can be considered as a more applicable translation.Therefore，the given translation with expansion is not necessary in this case.
In the second part of the questionnaire，there are five multiple choice questions.The second question asks about the length of translated subtitles： “Do you think the length of Chinese translated subtitles is readable？” A high number of respondents，90 out of 97 （93%），agreed that the length of the official subtitling was readable，5% agreed partly and only 2% of respondents said they could not read the subtitling in time.This was a significant result because the majority of students showed their capacity to read the Chinese subtitles at an adequate speed，assisted by their aural comprehension skills in English.For some reason，a minority of students said that they sometimes felt it was difficult to follow the subtitling，with 2% of the others feeling that it was hard to keep up in time.The reasons may vary： some students’ listening skills in English may not be developed enough to follow the soundtrack in the film’s original language，others’ reading speed may not be fast enough，and some of them may simply be unable to keep up with the subtitling because of poor eyesight.However，this result generally reflects the practical English level of this group of respondents.According to the requirement to the graduates in English majors in university level of education background，Chinese Education Bureau requests their English vocabulary to be more than 8，000 words [《英语专业四、八级词汇表》Vocabulary of Test for English Majors （TEM） Band 4 and Band 8] and their reading speed to be more than 120 words per minute （Ye Changqing 2016： 36）.As each frame in a film averagely takes 2-3 seconds，the average reading speed of English original subtitles of these respondents is theoretically 4-6 words，and as the data of Despicable Me 1 shows，its average length of English original subtitles is 7.13 words，I think the result of this question is reasonable.Moreover，in the selected 15 films，Madagascar 1 has the greatest length in English original subtitles as 7.63 words； I consider that the majority of respondents and the similar level of other Chinese audiences may be able to get adequate information not only the Chinese translated subtitles but also the English original subtitles among the selected films.In other words，their comprehension of the selected films will be generally successful.
The main finding of this section is that people from a young age group generally find that the current lengths of subtitles in Chinese are appropriate and readable in the timeframe allowed.The inference from the 7% (5% +2%) who have difficulty in following the subtitles in Chinese is that subtitling companies should continue to ensure that subtitles are concise and do not extend them beyond their current standard lengths.
Then Part 3 of the questionnaire is an open-ended question: “In your opinion,what have been the main problems and weaknesses that have emerged in the subtitles of recently released animation films?” I collated and categorized the main elements or the keywords from the 97 participants’ responses,as shown in the following table:
Table 4
In order to see each proportion of the six influencing factors,I generated the above form to a bar chart in Excel:
Figure 3
As the above charts show,six main elements or keywords were found in the 97 correctly completed questionnaires.These were: cultural barriers; the speed of the original subtitles — fast; the different ways of thinking in English and Chinese; proper nouns; translation quality; and,the story of the film.Amongst these elements,different ways of thinking in English and Chinese is also a kind of cultural barriers.“Proper nouns” and “the story of the film” also require the audience to possess a certain level of cultural knowledge.Therefore,we can see that 46% of respondents directly reported that the main problem in the current crop of animation films concerns cultural barriers.To eliminate this kind of obstacle,the subtitlers need to add extra information or explanations to help the audience.However,in practice,with the limited time that a viewer has for reading film subtitles,subtitles that are overlong will not be readable.In the earlier evaluation of the lengths of two versions of subtitles and the length difference between the two tested languages in this current research,the researcher recommends that the number of characters within a Chinese translated subtitle should be within 23 characters,and that the average value of difference between the two language subtitles should be around 2.33.Indeed,64% of the 97 respondents specifically felt that the problem is about different ways of thinking in English and Chinese.As the largest one of the six factors that were cited by the respondents,it means this factor is the main factor to consider during the process of subtitling.From the perspective of translation studies,the most effective and best quality translations are those that convey original English thoughts and concepts into the Chinese target culture.In this process,translators and subtitlers even need to rewrite aspects of the original work and this makes the language proficiency and cultural awareness of a translator an important requirement.
Apart from these issues relating to cultural difference,“the speed of the original subtitles” was a notable problem for 43% of respondents.From a teaching perspective,this is significant because the respondents were in the senior year of an English major programme.
Therefore,the discovery that nearly half of them think that the speed of the subtitles,prepared for commercial animated films by professional subtitling companies,is too fast suggests that their aural comprehension skills in English are not sufficient to assist them in following the subtitles in Chinese.This is the logical inference,bearing in mind their responses to the second question of Section 2,where 90% of the respondents felt that the length of the official subtitles in Chinese was appropriate.On the one hand,it might be argued that more needs to be done to improve the language skills of students of English at all levels,because it is well documented that the speed of subtitles,as well as dubbing,is consistent with authentic verbal communication in real life.Animated films in English are appropriate learning materials for these students to foster their professional abilities and language skills,and the comprehension problems alluded to by an elite group of language students at a Chinese university shed light on the scale of the initiatives that will be required to improve the foreign language skills of the population as a whole.Lastly,the element of “translation quality” should also include the criterion concerning the ideal length as one of the standards when one comments on the quality of the translated subtitles.
Generally,for the subtitles with cultural elements,the cultural barriers should be overcome by the subtitlers.A useful method is to give much more in terms of explanations; however,the degree to which cultural information in subtitling is enlarged is a key challenge for subtitlers.They have to consider the readable length of the subtitle and,at the same time,make their translation acceptable to the target culture.Given that nearly half of the respondents had difficulty with “the speed of the original subtitles”,this confirms that most of them prefer to read Chinese translated subtitles,with 90% responding to Question 2 in Part 2 that they find the current length of the released translated subtitles acceptable.However,considering that they are young adult people with a higher level of education in China,I think that the current length may have more possibilities to be improved.In other words,if the expression in the translated subtitles is studied more carefully,the length may be shortened or the characters changed to involve more simplified spellings,thereby enabling an audience with a wider range of education levels to have better understand the translated subtitles.The “different ways of thinking in English and Chinese” is another factor that may also influence the length difference between these two versions of subtitles because of the different customs in terms of expressions.For example,in terms of formal expressions,the Chinese approach to a noun phrase is “attribute+noun”,while the English form of expression is normally “the+noun+of+noun”.Lastly,“translation quality” is a general concept,which indicates whether the translation is acceptable or not.Typically,the levels of acceptance may involve one of the following: 1) if an average audience can make sense of the translated subtitles,they will agree that the translation quality of the subtitles is good; 2) an audience with a good educational background in English,e.g.,young people who are college students,will read the translated subtitles and,if they find them to be understandable and accurate,they will think the translation quality of subtitles is good.The length of the translated subtitle is,of course,included in this general idea.In other words,the length of the translated subtitles is an important criterion when creating translated subtitles.
The following section will examine the factors that determine whether translated subtitles are of an acceptable length.