Translating Danish Movies Evaluating the English Subtitles in Two Danish Feature Films Written by: Carl Philip Hagman Supervisor: Anne Fabricius The English Degree Program, Roskilde University 2nd MA Module/Dissertation Module, January 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................................2 1.1 MOTIVATION........................................................................................................................................................3 1.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION .........................................................................................................................................3 1.3 METHOD...............................................................................................................................................................5 1.4 CASE STUDY ........................................................................................................................................................6 1.4.1 The Green Butchers ....................................................................................................................................7 1.4.2 In China They Eat Dogs .............................................................................................................................7 1.5 DELIMITATION .....................................................................................................................................................8 2. TRANSLATION THEORY .................................................................................................................................10 2.1 TRANSLATION STUDIES .....................................................................................................................................10 2.1.1 What is Translation...................................................................................................................................10 2.1.2 What is Translation Studies .....................................................................................................................12 2.1.3 Holmes’ Map of Translation Studies .......................................................................................................12 2.2 KEY TERMS........................................................................................................................................................14 2.2.1 Equivalence ...............................................................................................................................................14 2.2.2 Translation Shifts......................................................................................................................................16 2.2.3 Translatability...........................................................................................................................................16 2.3 ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR...............................................................................................................................18 3. SUBTITLING.........................................................................................................................................................22 3.1 DEFINING LANGUAGE TRANSFER, DUBBING, AND SUBTITLING .....................................................................22 3.1.1 Dubbing vs. Subtitling ..............................................................................................................................23 3.2 THE USE OF LANGUAGE TRANSFER AROUND THE WORLD..............................................................................26 3.2.1 Subtitling in the United States..................................................................................................................26 3.2.2 Subtitling in Denmark...............................................................................................................................28 3.3 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS .............................................................................................................................29 3.4 SUBTITLING IDEALS...........................................................................................................................................30 3.4.1 Subtitling Differences ...............................................................................................................................30 3.4.1.1 Language Transfer Only Affects One Element of the Entire Opus .................................................................30 3.4.1.2 The Message is Altered by Language Transfer.................................................................................................31 3.4.1.3 Audiovisual Language Transfer is Shorter than the Original...........................................................................31 3.4.1.4 Audiovisual Language Transfer Incorporates an Editorial Element................................................................32 3.4.2 Specific Subtitling Guidelines ..................................................................................................................33 3.4.2.1 Do I Know the Exact Meaning of the Words in this Context...........................................................................33 3.4.2.2 Minimized Loss of Information..........................................................................................................................34 3.4.2.3 Meticulous Proofreading and –Listening...........................................................................................................34 4. METHOD OF ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................................36 4.1 DEFINING LOCALISMS, CULTURE-SPECIFIC REFERENCES, AND FIDELITY......................................................37 4.2 GOTTLIEB’S METHOD OF STUDYING LOCALISMS ............................................................................................39 4.3 THE USE OF GOTTLIEB’S METHOD IN THIS REPORT .........................................................................................40 5. ANALYSIS..............................................................................................................................................................43 5.1 OVERALL FINDINGS...........................................................................................................................................43 5.1.1 Overall Findings: The Green Butchers ...................................................................................................44 5.1.2 Overall Findings: In China They Eat Dogs ............................................................................................47 5.2 SPECIFIC ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................................................................49 5.2.1 Specific Analysis: The Green Butchers ...................................................................................................49 5.2.2 Specific Analysis: In China They Eat Dogs ............................................................................................52 6. DISCUSSION .........................................................................................................................................................58 7. CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................................61 8. RESUME .................................................................................................................................................................62 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................................65 APPENDIX A .............................................................................................................................................................67 1 “Translation indicates a willingness to appreciate other cultures” –Chinese Translation Theorist Sun Yifeng 1. INTRODUCTION The practice of translating texts from one language into another has existed for centuries. This practice took a new form with the arrival of television. All of a sudden, it was necessary to translate verbal statements within a new medium instead of just translating one written text into another written text. In Scandinavia, the use of subtitles became the most common method for translating this new form of entertainment. Whenever television programs or movies were shown in a language different from the audience’s native language, translated subtitles would appear at the bottom of the screen. Subtitles thus presented translators with an entirely new task. Translators specializing in handling this new task quickly became known as subtitlers, and were presented with the challenge of translating dialog from one language into subtitled text of another language. For as long as the practice of translation has existed, so have criticisms of the translator. The harshest punishment was perhaps in the 16th century, when French humanist Etienne Dolet was burned at the stake for translating one of Plato’s dialogs, because some felt that Dolet had added a blasphemous passage. Luckily, subtitlers are not judged this harshly, but are nevertheless held accountable by the very