SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Name:

Fan Yang

Email address:

256296@soas.ac.uk

Thesis title:

Norms in English-Chinese Subtitling

PhD Research

Research on audio visual translation (AVT) has been gaining momentum in recent years. However such research has not yet received due attention in China despite the fact that the country is probably one of the biggest importers of foreign films and it is said that the number of imported audio-visual products far exceeds that of imported books.  Therefore, research on how subtitle translation between English-Chinese is very much warranted.

The present dissertation is to detect the norms that regulate translator’s behaviours in English-Chinese movie subtitle translation. In the research, the norms are presumed to be obtained by analysing the tension between the adequacy and the acceptability of translation. To be more precise, the translated subtitles will be explored with other signs in the movie to identify why a particular equivalence has been reached in a particular context. Also, questionnaires and think-aloud protocols will also be used to identify the norms.