从归化异化视角下分析影视字幕的英译汉研究 ——以《寻梦环游记

从归化异化视角下分析影视字幕的英译汉研究——以《寻梦环游记》为例
摘要
中国翻译的历史源远流长，但影视字幕翻译却是一个新的领域。电影作为一种文化载体，象征着一个国家和地区文化的发展。本文以电影《寻梦环游记》为例，以归化异化翻译策略为理论指导，研究了其在字幕翻译中的应用。字幕作为理解电影情节的辅助手段，在信息的传播和文化的交流中起着至关重要的作用。影视字幕的质量直接影响观众对影片的理解程度。
在任何一项翻译实践中，无论是纯粹的归化或者纯粹的异化都是是不可取的，就电影来说，彻头彻尾的归化会失去原文特色；而绝对的异化追求的只是字面上的忠实，忽略了语言分割，导致观众理解困难。只有将这两种翻译策略相结合，具体问题具体分析，才能够最大程度上地满足观众的需求。既增强了译文的可读性和欣赏性，又真实地展现原片的风貌，为读者保留了异国风情，促进观众对影片的理解，增强影片的感染力.
通过对本课题的研究，希望能够对自己在以后的实际生活中做好翻译实践具有借鉴意义。
关键词：归化；异化；字幕翻译；寻梦环游记 
The Analysis on E-C Translation of Film Subtitle from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization
——A Case Study of CoCo
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of Research
With the strengthening of the globalization of the international economy and the deepening of China's opening up to the outside world, the links between countries have become increasingly close and cultural exchanges have become more frequent. While calling for cultural pluralism and respect for cultural differences, countries also advocate the preservation and reflection of their national customs. As a modern art, the film combines performance, vision and hearing, and integrates politics, economy, and culture. It has penetrated into all aspects of people's lives and become an indispensable part of popular entertainment. As an important tool for obtaining video information, subtitles play an crucial role. It allows viewers who do not understand the foreign language to both hear the original vocal cords and understand the content of the film. High-quality subtitles not only add brilliance to the foreign film, enable the audience to enjoy better, but also better promote the spread and communication of different cultures. Through the research of this subject, analyze the application of Domestication and Foreignization in subtitle translation, so as to help myself to flexibly combine these two strategies according to specific situations in actual translation practice.
1.2 Significance of Research


Translation is a special form of information transmission. It is not only the transformation of the content and form of the two languages, but also the bridge between the two cultures. Domestication and Foreignization are two translation strategies. In actual translation, neither completely domestication nor completely foreignization is advisable. It is necessary to pursue interdependence and harmony between the two. Only by uniting these two strategies concretely and dynamically can we reflect the national characteristics and language styles of different countries, so as to better promote exchanges and penetration between countries. This topic takes the two translation strategies of Domestication and Foreignization as the theoretical guidance, and takes the film CoCo as the research object, which can be used as a reference for how to do a good translation practice in the real life.


1.3 Organization of this Paper


This paper includes five chapters:
Chapter one is the introduction of the paper, including the background of the research, the significance of the research as well as the organization of this paper. 
Chapter two is the review about the previous studies. 
Chapter three is mainly aim at illustrate the theoretical basis for this paper in terms of Domestication and Foreignization. 
Chapter four as the main part of this paper focus on the analysis on the application of Domestication and Foreignization in E-C subtitle translation of CoCo. 
Chapter five is the conclusion of the present study, summarizing the major findings.
Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Foreign Review
Domestication or Foreignization, these are two major translation strategies that the translation world has been arguing about, and everyone has different opinions or views. The controversy is focused on whether domestication or foreignization is better, or whether to be mainly domesticated or foreignized.
German translation theorist Schleiermacher (1813) proposed in “On the Methods of Translation” that there are only two methods of translation, one is the translator draws closer to the reader, and the other is the reader moves closer to the translator. But he only explained these two methods, and did not define them by specific names. There are many complex factors involved in languages, to comprehend the complexity of these factors, translators must have a certain understanding of the basic structure of communication. As a foreign representative of domestication translation, Nida (1969) proposed the Functional Equivalent Translation Theory. He believed that translation meant communication, and it depended on what the reader could understand. Vermeer (1978) proposed the Skopos Theory, which is considered to be a landmark breakthrough in functional translation theory. Translators can decide whether to mainly focus on domestication or foreignization according to the propagating purpose of the source text, so as to achieve the overall shift between cultures. Newmark (1981) pointed out in “Exploring Translation Problems” that different translation methods should be adopted for different types of texts. Semantic translation should focus on foreignization, while communicative translation should focus on domestication. Venuti (1992), the representative of foreignization, proposed the concept of "anti-translation". He formally proposed domestication and foreignization in the Translator's Invisibility (1995). Domestication refers to the localization of the source language, taking the target language or the target-text readers as the destination, and adopting the means of expression used by the target reader to convey the content of the original text. Foreignization means that the translator does not bother the author as much as possible, moves the readers closer to the author, and to accommodate the linguistic characteristics of foreign cultures in translation.To some extent, it also shows respect to the cultural differences, keeps and reflects the characteristics and language styles of foreign nationalities, and preserves the exotic atmosphere for the readers. 
Regarding the domestication and foreignization of subtitle translation, Geraldine (1991) believes that in the process of producing movie subtitles, successful cultural adaptation depends on the cultural adaptation strategy chosen on a case-by-case basis, rather than always sticking to one strategy in a movie . The same is true for subtitle translation. If only one fixed strategy is adopted, the ideal goal cannot be achieved. Extreme faithful translation will seriously affect the readers' understanding, and extreme accessible translation will lose their authenticity. Tatsuya (2002) believes that the ultimate goal of film translators is to translate movies that can retain the culture of the source language as well as be understood by potential audiences. In order to achieve these two seemingly contradictory goals, translators need to chose different cultural adaptation strategies depending on the specific situation.
Different text translations have different standards of domestication and foreignization. There are many foreign research articles on domestication and foreignization, but there are very few researches on the application of these two strategies in film subtitles.
2.2 Domestic Review
The translation industry in China has been around for more than 2,000 years. Historically, domestication and foreignization can be regarded as extensions of the concepts of free translation and literal translation, but they are different from free translation and literal translation. Free translation and literal translation focus on how to deal with form and meaning at the linguistic level, while domestication and foreignization extend the horizon to linguistic, cultural, and aesthetic levels.
In a real sense, the rise of China's translation industry originated from Yan Fu (1898), who proposed the "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" translation standard in the "Legend of Translation" at the beginning of the Tian Yan Lun. "Faithfulness" refers to the meaning that does not contrary to the original text; "Expressiveness" refers to not being bound to the original form; "elegance" refers to the pursuit of classic taste of the translation itself. His translation of Tian Yan Lun is the embodiment of domestication translation. Lu Xun can be regarded as the representative of domestication translation. He put forward the concept of "rigid translation". He believes that when it comes to translation, it must take into account both sides, one is to seek to understand it, and the other is to preserve the style of the original work. These are the real connotations of Lu Xun's literal translation. Liu Yingkai (1987) strongly advocated the method of foreignization translation in "Domestication--The Divided Way of Translation". He believed that domestication obliterated the cultural traditions and customs of the original nation and distorted the original text. Professor Sun Zhili (2002) said in his dissertation "The Domestication and Foreignization of Translation" that domestication translation has dominated the majority of the 20th century. By the 21st century, foreignization translation has become the mainstream. He believes that only foreignization Translation can translate the "heterogeneous factors" of the original text. Professor Cai Ping (2002) refuted Professor Sun Zhili's point in his dissertation "The translation method should be based on domestication." He believes that the essential purpose of translation is to communicate, and to allow readers in the country to understand the culture of other countries through their own languages. Let the target reader understand the meaning of the original text. Subtitles are a form of text, but they are different from traditional written texts. They are more concise than written texts in expression and carry a lot of cultural information. Qian Shaochang (2000), an expert in film translation in China (2000), analyzed the differences between the language of film and written language in his thesis "Video Translation-An Important Field in Translation", that is, listening, comprehensiveness,instantaneity, Popularity and non-annotation；And emphasize the importance of film and translation. For research on domestication and foreignization and subtitle translation, Bao Zhikun (2012) used domestication and foreignization strategies, combined with the movie The Millionaires in the Slumsto analyze how to handle culturally and religiously vocabulary in subtitle translation. Zhang Yifei and Zhao Yuhong (2012) used the method of illustration to highlight the choice and application of domestication and foreignization translation strategies when dealing with different language expressions and cultural background factors. Li Suzhen (2013) explained the different characteristics of domestication and foreignization by taking the subtitle translation of several western film and television dramas as an example, and analyzed how to distinguish and use these two translation strategies.
Chapter 3 Domestication and Foreignization
3.1 Domestication
Nida is a representative of domestication translation strategy. He advocates putting the readers first, thinking that the expression of the translation should be natural and smooth, and the source language behavior pattern should be incorporated into the target readers' cultural category as much as possible. At the same time, he also proposed that the purpose of translation is to communicate, and it is unrealistic to impose one culture on another. Through domestication translation, readers can better understand the original text, avoid cultural conflicts, and ultimately achieve the purpose of cultural exchange.
Domestication is a strategy we often use in translation practice. It has the following advantages:
(1) It helps translators to avoid the occurrence of cultural conflicts and misunderstandings when translating the source language into the target language, and to convey the meaning of the source language culture to the target language culture readers;
(2) It can enable the readers of the translation to better understand the form and content of the translation within their own knowledge;
(3) It does not force the target language culture readers to understand the world of the source language cultural authors, and does not place excessive demands on readers' intelligence and imagination; 
(4) It  does not impose the language specification of the source language on the target language. To some extent, naturalization enables translation to achieve "cultural equivalence" between the source culture and the target culture.
However, domestication also has many disadvantages:
(1) Abuse of four-character idioms;
(2) Abuse of quaint words;
(3) Abuse of the "Abstract Law";
(4) Abuse of "alternative law";
(5) Visualization or allusion without foundation.
Therefore, some scholars in the translation industry in our country believe that our reading of domesticated translation works is just a review of our own national culture and we have lost the meaning of understanding and appreciation of other countries and national cultures.
3.2 Foreignization
Venuti is a representative of the strategy of foreignization translation. He proposed the concept of "anti-translation", that is, in the process of translation, the translator does not compromise the reader and resists the trend of the target language to occupy the guiding position. Highlight the differences between the original style and other aspects, and propose a translation strategy that opposes smooth translation. He believes that domestication translation is a cultural invasion of the source text and a manifestation of cultural colonialism, while foreignization translation can respect the source culture and can resist ethnocentrism, racism, and cultural hegemonism.
There are huge differences between the cultures of various countries and nations, which is the subjective reason why we use the method of foreignization in translation. The method of foreignization can contribute the information in one culture and its language to another culture and language in a way that maintains its original purpose, bringing new elements to the latter, which is conducive to the fusion of the two cultures and languages. Foreignization has the following merits:
(1) It enriches the target language and culture to a large extent, bringing new vocabulary and some special expressions to the target countries;
(2) It can maximize the retention of foreign cultural characteristics contained in the original text, so that readers can understand the foreign culture and broaden their horizon;
(3) It can convey the phenomenon of the world of source language and is faithful to the original;
However, foreignization method also has its deficiencies:Only keep literal fidelity to the source language,whether the structure of the source language or the expression mode conforms to the expression habit of the target language is not considered.This type of translation will distort the cultural information of the original text, making the meaning unclear and unable to convey effective information.
Chapter 4Analysis on the Application of Domestication and Foreignization in Subtitle Translation of CoCo
4.1 Translation of Film Subtitle
4.1.1 The Features of Subtitle Translation
(1) Conciseness of language.That is, simplifying expressions so that everyone can keep up with the display speed of subtitles, and the sentences should not be too long. The time that subtitles stay on the video is very limited, and often flashes over, which has certain requirements for reading speed. Therefore, the subtitles should not be too dense or too long, otherwise the audience will not be able to keep up with the speed of the subtitles,leading to comprehension difficulties.
(2) Sentences should be easy to understand and easy to read. The film itself bears the responsibility of cultural communication. It has a strong regional culture, and it is the most important purpose for the audience to understand. For this purpose, when translating, in order to make foreign audiences accept this culture, the translator should understand the sentence and what it wants to say, then expresses it in a way that the audience can understand. 
(3) In line with character characteristics. Film is a comprehensive art, so subtitle translation should adhere to the comprehensive principle. When interpreting and translating characters' dialogues, we should pay attention to the character's inner world and the transfer of action expressions in order to fully display the characters and the storyline.
4.1.2 The Factors Affecting Subtitle Translation
(1) The space
This is the first factor that restricts subtitle translation, including the number of words, lines and screen size. Film subtitle translation must be based on the actors mouth shape and screen size to determine the number of lines and font size. The time when the subtitles appear in the movie is exactly the same as when the actors speak. Therefore, the length of the subtitles has a great impact on the audience's appreciation of the film. Too long or too short will affect the expression of the film. In addition, it is not easy for the audience to quickly browse the subtitles while enjoying the picture, so that the audience will not be comprehensive enough, not focused enough, and lack of overall effect when enjoying the film.
(2) The time
The second constraint is time. The time factor includes the time it takes viewers to read the subtitles, and the duration of the images in the film. The second constraint is time. The time factor includes two factors: the time it takes viewers to read the subtitles, and the duration of the images in the film. The length of the dialogue is the same as the duration of the film.Different comprehension abilities, cultural differences and knowledge range all affect the time of browsing subtitles, so that the audience will get different information and have different feelings when browsing the same line of subtitles at the same time. Therefore, this requires the film subtitle length to be appropriate.
(3) The culture
The third constraint is culture.Language is the carrier of culture, and films are a carrier for the mutual transmission and absorption of various cultures. And subtitle translation is the bridge. We're going to meet some cultural differences in the process of translation, some culture phenomena, such as idioms, proverbs, customs, etc.. When confronted with these problems, the translator should transform them into easy-to-understand sentences according to the film's story content, so that the audience can better understand the theme and connotation of the film.
4.2 The Application of Domestication
Example 1:
And the mama…She didn’t have time to cry over that walk-away musician.
译文：而这个妈妈根本就没有时间为那个出走的负心汉而伤心。
In this sentence, “that walk-away musician” are not directly translated into “那个出走的音乐家”, but are translated as “那个出走的负心汉”. In Chinese, “负心汉” refers to the man who betrayed his love and abandoned his beloved. At the beginning of the story, the great-great-grandfather's image is not plump, and it can be said to be very one-sided. "A man who abandoned his wife and daughter for music" is a summary of him. The great-great-grandfather was hated and rejected by the whole family, not even mentioning.
Example 2:
Aw, you’re a twig, mijo. Have some more.
译文：瞧，你瘦得跟猴似的，多吃点。
In English, "twig" means that a person is as thin as a lath, like a branch, and can be broken at any time. Choose the image of "monkey", because in Chinese culture, monkeys are small and agile animals, more in line with miguel's character settings, a nimble and small boy.
Example 3:
I’d move heaven and earth for you, mi amigo.
译文：我的朋友，我愿为你赴汤蹈火，在所不辞。
“赴汤蹈火，在所不辞” is a common expression in Chinese culture. It is a metaphor for the characters who are not afraid of hardships and dangers and do not care about themselves. In the movie, the great-great-grandfather is a loyal person to his friends. The translator chooses an idiom according to the context of the story, which adds a sense of “loyalty” and is more in line with the expression habits of the Chinese people and makes the translation full of folk culture. 
Example 4:
You took evevrthing away from me! You rat!
译文：你夺走了我的一切，你这个小人！
The original meaning of “rat” is "老鼠". Instead of translating it literally, the translator translated it as “小人”. This can better express Hector's anger at de la Cruz's previous framing of him. "小人" in China refers to those people who are sinister, scheming, and brazen. And it was more in keeping with his mean character.
​Example 5:
How wonderful!
译文：慢慢享用！
This is what the security guard says when the dead return to the world of the dead. If the phrase is directly translated as "多么美妙啊", the audience may be confused. Therefore, according to the setting of the scene, this translation is not advisable. The dead explained to the security inspector that what he was holding was the deep-fried dough sticks offered to him by his family, so the security inspector's answer should be "慢慢享用".
Example 6:
You want it? You’ve got to earn it.
译文：你想借我的吉他？你必须给我弹奏一曲。
Before Chich disappear from the dead to the world, he promised to lend Hector his treasured guitar, but the premise condition is Hector must play a song for him。But Hector had made up his mind never to play guitar again, so Chich used this phrase to ask him. From the context, here “earn it” refers to the premise of borrowing a guitar, Hector to play a song.
Example 7:
He and his family would sing and dance and count their blessings.
译文：他和他的家人总是载歌载舞、知足常乐。

Four-character words are an important part of Chinese culture. If the translator literally translated “sing and dance and count their blessings” as “唱歌、跳舞、数着他们的幸福”, it is true that the audience can understand the meaning of this sentence, but this translation only pursues literal fidelity, ignoring the language style. The use of four-character words not only conforms to the expression habits of Chinese people, but also promotes cross-cultural communication, better satisfies the characteristics of subtitle translation, and makes the film even better.

4.3 The Application of Foreignization

Example 1：
I asked if you would like more tamales. 
译文：我问你要不要多来点玉米粉蒸肉呢。
Tamales, known locally as "vitamin T," are an essential part of everyday life in Mexico. It can be said to be a symbol of Mexican food, is the original restoration of Mexican folk culture.
Example 2:
Alebrijes!
译文：亡灵怪！
Inspired by the day of the dead in Mexico, coco features colorful scenes with musical elements. The colorful little monster featured in the film, "Afebrile" is a colorful fantasy and mythological creature. In this way, the audiences can not only understand the film well, but also it retain the original features and flavors, so that readers can appreciate the deep exotic customs and better understand the Mexican culture.
Example 3:
When there’s no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world, we called it “The Final Death”.
译文：当活人世界没有人记得你的时候，你就会从这个世界消失，我们叫它“终极死亡”。
This sentence is a typical direct translation, but it does not detract from the film. In the film, Miguel touches a guitar and magically enters the world of the dead. In this world, the dead live together. As long as there are people in the living world who have memories of them and place their photos in their homes, they can live forever in the world of the dead and cross the petal bridge to reunite with their families on "the day of the dead". The day of the dead is a traditional festival in Mexico, so the translation better conveys the characteristics of Mexican culture to the audience.
Example 4:
You are a real spirit guide.
译文：你还真是一个灵魂向导。
“Spirit guide” in this refers to the dog Dan Dan. This beloved Mexican hairless dog has a special meaning. It is said that Mexican hairless dogs accompany the spirits of the dead to the underworld. Mexicans see them as guides to the soul, and the path to the grave is thought to be dark, so dogs must be in the gray zone between black and white to be able to guide.
Chapter 5 Conclusion
With the rapid development of economic and sino-foreign exchanges, film and television cultural exchanges are becoming more and more frequent, and more and more foreign language films will enter China. In order to make Chinese audiences understand the cultural products produced by different cultural backgrounds, subtitle translation is of great importance, and the translation ability of translators is becoming more and more demanding. 
Translation strategies should be diversified and flexible, and translators will not only adopt one translation method in translation practice. In addition, foreignization and domestication translation strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages in the process of translation, so the translator should effectively combine the two in the process of translation.
No matter from the perspective of cultural transmission or commercial point of view, the film as a special form of literature, with the story to attract the audience and the actor's performance, to convey to the audience of a certain meaning, let the foreign audience experience the language habits and national culture in the film, promote cultural exchanges, and the excellent subtitle translation is more helpful for the audience to understand the meaning of the film.
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