Analysis of Godfather’s Subtitle using Skopostheorie

Abstract：Skopostheorie insists that translation is an action that with aim. In this thesis， we are going to use Skopostheorie to analyze Godfather and show how to achieve cross culture communication in subtitle translation using this theory.

Key words：Godfather； subtitle translation； Skopostheorie

1 An Introduction of the Movie

Godfather is an American crime film series directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy. It is considered as one of the best gangster genre films in the world， which first shot in 1972 and won the Oscars in that year. The success paved the way of the two later sequels： Godfather （1974）， and Godfather （1990）. The subtitles in it not only show the culture of Sicily， the Godfathers hometown， but also have deep meaning which deserves us to think over.

2 Skopostheorie in Subtitle Translation of Godfather

The techniques that the functionalists use are from the top to the bottom. That is to say that we need to first grasp the overall view of the whole picture， and then assess all the factors that influence our translation， such as the purpose of the translation， target receivers， and time and site of the translation to be accepted. Next， based on the objective of the translated text， we need to start to study how to deal with the sentence structure， words， and phrases and determine the translation techniques we finally employ. The ultimate goal of subtitle translation is to help the audience break up the cross-culture and cross-language barriers using the translated subtitle.Here we choose Lawrence Venutis cultural translation approach and use domesticating translation method to analyze Godfather.

3 Domesticating Translation in Godfather

Domesticating is the localization of the source language. Using clear and smooth expressions to minimize the unfamiliar feelings of the target readers， domesticating translation requests the translators take the readers as their primary consideration and bridge the gap between source language and target language.

a. Substitution

Substitution refers to replace some of the words in one language when they are translated into another. It includes two kinds： replacement and conversion. Replacement means semantic replacement or pragmatic replacement. When dealing with problems brought by cultural images， conversion is an effective method. Because of the specific lifestyle and geographic environment of Chinese and English language users， the two nations form their own way of thinking.

eg： Whats done is done. 木已成舟。

“木已成舟” here not only is concise， but also makes an excellent match between Chinese idioms and the English language. This sentence successfully uses conversion method to form a culture image in the target language.

b. addition

Addition refers to when literal translation of the source language cannot fully express the meaning of sentences， we need to add extra information to complete the translated text.

eg： I want people that are not going to get carried away.

我要用可靠的人，头脑清醒的人。

Persons who are going to get carried away are those who are easily become excited and lose control of their feelings. The translation of the phrase “get carried away” uses addition method to add more information to its Chinese translation to help the Chinese audience have a better idea of the information of this sentence.

eg： No matter how many Dago Guinea grease balls come out the woodwork！

我不在乎有多少卑微的意大利的移民来找我的麻烦！

The “grease balls” here refers to the Italian immigrants in America， and the woodwork implicates the mans bias about them. The translator adds“卑微”to show the mans emotion in this sentence.

c. Deletion or Condensation

Deletion or Condensation requires that the content and the form of the translation should have the same logic as the original. But we need to condense the sentence in translation and omit some of the translation of the unnecessary words or expressions to avoid redundancy.

eg： And as his career got better and better， he wanted to get out of it.

當他走红以后，他想解除合同。

“ Better and better” in Chinese means“越来越”. Using the condensation method and take the meaning of the context into consideration， we use “走红” to show the meaning of the sentence in a concise and more appropriate way.

4 Conclusion

Skopostheorie emphasizes the interactivity and pragmatic features of translation and considers the form of the target language is decided by the aim of the context of the target language. To sum up， the translation of the subtitle of Godfather follows the principles of Skopostheorie and adopts the domesticating and foreignizing methods， which conveys the content of the movie accurately and achieves the objectives of cross-culture communication.

Bibliography

[1] Silvia， Bruti. The Translation of Implicit intonation in Subtitles. The Journal of Specialized Translation， 2006（07）.

[2] 李运兴. 字幕翻译的策略[J]. 中国翻译， 2006（4）.

[3] 许建平. 跨文化翻译中的异化与归化问题[J]. 中国翻译， 2002（5）： 37-39.

[4] 张春柏. 影视翻译初探[J]. 中国翻译， 1998（2）.

【作者简介】

刘婷婷（1990—），女，河南平顶山人，山东大学（威海校区）硕士研究生在读，主要研究方向：英语笔译。