Multiple Causality of Differences in Taboo Translation of Blockbuster Films by Chinese Fansubbers and Professionals
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Multiple Causality of Differences in Taboo Translation of Blockbuster Films by Chinese Fansubbers and Professionals Zhengguo He Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Newcastle University School of Modern Languages June 2018 Acknowledgement This thesis owes its existence to the expert supervision and encouragement of my first supervisor, Dr Ya-yun Chen, who always inspired me with her insightful feedback, and my second supervisor, Dr Valerie Pellatt, whose rigorous and holistic academic thinking had a profound influence on the structure of my thesis. It has been both a privilege and a pleasure to have the opportunity to be supervised by two supportive and inspiring scholars. I am also indebted to my Annual Panel Reviewers Professor Qian Jun, Dr Michael Jin, and Dr Francis Jones for their insightful review and advice. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to my viva examiners Drs Yvonne Lee and Pauline Henry-Tierney, for their very detailed and valuable critique. My sincere thanks must go to my family and friends during my PhD studies. Special thanks should be given to my family, especially my father, Qingxiang He, for his unfailing support throughout my years in the UK and Dr Mark James for his moral support and encouragement. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr Joseph Banks and Karen Blacker, who offered me advice regarding my English composition; and Drs Peter Avery and Damien Hall for their valuable comments on my statistical analysis. i Note on Translation and Transliteration All translations from Chinese in this thesis are mine, unless otherwise noted. Full transliteration of names of Chinese persons and places is provided, without tone marks. Chinese person names are retained in the original surname-given-name order. Titles of Chinese publications are translated into English. Table of Abbreviations AFFS August First Film Studio AVT Audiovisual Translation CCDS Changchun Dubbing Studio CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CFGC China Film Group Corporation CFGDC China Film Group Dubbing Centre CFIEC China Film Import & Export Corporation CSC Chinese Subtitle Corpus CTS Corpus Translation Studies DTS Descriptive Translation Studies ECSPC English-Chinese Parallel Subtitle Corpus IMDb Internet Movie Database KWIC Key word in context concordances PIS Popular Internet slang POS Part-of-speech SHDS Shanghai Dubbing Studio ST Source text TT Target text ii Table of Contents Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................... i Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 General introduction to this thesis ........................................................ 1 1.2 The development of film translation in China ..................................... 3 1.2.1 Professional film translation in China .................................................. 3 1.2.2 Film fansubbing in China ..................................................................... 5 1.3 Definition of taboo words .................................................................... 6 1.4 Research gap ........................................................................................ 8 1.5 Research questions ............................................................................... 9 1.6 Methodology rationale ....................................................................... 11 1.7 Structure of the thesis ......................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 Literature review .............................................................................................. 13 2.1 Descriptive Translation Studies .......................................................... 13 2.2 Audiovisual translation ...................................................................... 14 2.2.1 An overview of AVT .......................................................................... 14 2.2.2 AVT modes: voice-over, dubbing, and subtitling ............................... 15 2.2.3 Subtitling ............................................................................................ 16 2.2.4 Fansub ................................................................................................ 18 2.2.5 Professional AVT in China ................................................................. 26 2.3 Translation norm theories ................................................................... 30 2.3.1 Norms, conventions, rules, idiosyncrasies ......................................... 30 2.3.2 Establishment and identification of norms ......................................... 32 2.3.3 Yan Fu’s normative translation principle Xin Da Ya .......................... 33 2.3.4 Norms in AVT .................................................................................... 35 2.3.5 Studying translation norms with corpus ............................................. 38 2.4 Bourdieu’s sociological concepts: habitus and field .......................... 39 2.4.1 Habitus and norms.............................................................................. 39 2.4.2 Habitus and field interaction .............................................................. 42 2.4.3 Fansubbing and Bourdieu’s field theory of cultural production ......... 43 iii 2.4.4 Structure of the social space .............................................................. 45 2.4.5 Identifying translatorial habitus ......................................................... 48 2.4.6 Brownlie’s explanatory model of multiple causality ......................... 49 2.5 Corpus-based translation studies ....................................................... 53 2.5.1 Main methods of corpus data analysis ............................................... 54 2.5.2 Corpus-based taboo translation study ................................................ 55 2.6 Translation of taboo words ................................................................ 56 2.6.1 Severity of English taboo words ........................................................ 56 2.6.2 Methodology applied to taboo translation study ............................... 57 Chapter 3 Methodology .................................................................................................... 60 3.1 Research design ................................................................................. 60 3.2 Quantitative approach (corpus-based) ............................................... 62 3.2.1 Corpus design .................................................................................... 62 3.2.2 Basic linguistic statistics.................................................................... 67 3.2.3 Severity transfer of swearing ............................................................. 69 3.2.4 Translationese in swear word translation .......................................... 71 3.2.5 Patterns of taboo translation .............................................................. 73 3.3 Qualitative approach .......................................................................... 75 3.3.1 Qualitative data .................................................................................. 75 3.3.2 Qualitative analysis ........................................................................... 76 Chapter 4 Findings ............................................................................................................ 80 4.1 Quantitative findings ......................................................................... 80 4.1.1 Basic linguistic statistics.................................................................... 80 4.1.2 Swear word severity transfer ............................................................. 84 4.1.3 Translationese in swearing translation............................................... 86 4.2 Patterns of taboo translation .............................................................. 88 4.2.1 Patterns in translating emphatic swearing ......................................... 88 4.2.2 Patterns in translating cathartic swearing .......................................... 90 4.2.3 Patterns in translating abusive swearing ............................................ 94 4.2.4 Patterns in translating idiomatic swearing ......................................... 97 4.2.5 Patterns in translating taboo issues .................................................... 99 4.3 Summary ......................................................................................... 101 Chapter 5 Discussion, towards an explanation: multiple causality ................................. 104 5.1 Influence from fields of power ........................................................ 104 5.1.1 Demarcating film translation in China ............................................ 106 5.1.2 Communication between the fields .................................................. 110 5.1.3 The fansubbing field ......................................................................... 116 iv 5.1.4 The professional film translation field ............................................. 126 5.2 Translator’s norms ............................................................................ 142 5.2.1 Establishment of fansubbing norms in SCG ...................................