8.1.3 Main Issues in the Given Data
Besides the investigation into the three hypotheses,I also found and concluded that there are several main issues in the subtitling in the 15 selected animation films.They are:
1) There is not a unified standard or requirement for the translation of characters’ names,the names of places,landmarks and some specialized terms in different kinds of scientific areas as well as some loan words from other languages.This makes the translation of all the above-mentioned types of names chaotic; some film subtitling has been translated with similarly pronounced Chinese characters,but without the same meaning.
2) The inappropriate or excessive use of some unsuitable translation strategies,such as “expansion” in film subtitling,when the inappropriate use of traditional expressions or popular expressions occurs; the reason behind this expansion in the given translation is usually occurs when the subtitlers tried to use these culturally loaded expressions to engage the audience,on their terms,with more amusing phrasing within the dialogue.This phrasing,however,went beyond the film’s original scripted dialogue.It is appropriate to reiterate here that,the three most important criteria for judging the quality of subtitle translation should be,in order,faithfulness; brevity and simplicity; maximizing the comic potential of the dialogue.It is arguable that subtitlers should not venture beyond the intrinsic meaning of a film’s original dialogue by adding their own material,no matter how potentially humorous it may be or only attaching importance to get higher compensation;(https://www.daowen.com)
3) In the use of traditional expressions,some subtitlers used uncommon idioms or terms with difficult characters.Considering the type of film concerned,and the potential audience (they may be children),using such difficult expressions should be avoided.In most cases,the notion of “simple is good” should be at the core of the subtitle translation.
To sum up,according to the collected data and data analysis,the study’s findings are as follows: 1) the length of film subtitles translated into Chinese is generally longer than the corresponding dialogue in the original English; 2) uses of the two discussed types of expressions are present in the data and most of them are effective in the collected data; 3) several issues in using these expressions were highlighted by the data (e.g.,unnecessary,erroneous or inappropriate use); 4) the frequency of using popular expressions is higher than for traditional expressions; 5) there are four typology strategies (paraphrase,transfer,condensation and transcription) that are used effectively and with a high frequency in the given data,along with two newer strategies (globalization and localization).Based on these findings,culturally loaded expressions (traditional expressions and popular expressions),as forms of cultural elements,can be found in the collected data,which is in line with what the researcher expected in the ideation of the research hypotheses.That said,the high frequencies of using these expressions in the data are beyond my expectation.In response,I carried out a further survey on the tendency towards using these types of expressions,with the findings as follows: 1) the films released after 2011 are generally use these two types of expressions to a higher degree than those distributed to the public before 2011; 2) in each of the serials,the latest episodes generally use a higher frequency of these two types of expressions than their previous ones.These phenomena confirm that,with the development of globalization,translated film products,as a means of intercultural communication,display a tendency towards using more culturally loaded expressions in the translated version of subtitles in order to successfully deliver and exchange intercultural communications between the foreign films and their target audience.