Topic: Film Translation from the Multimodal Perspective

Time: 15:00-17:00，Nov. 28, 2014

Venue: B304, Building 6

Participants: Doctoral students, teaching staff and senior visiting scholars

Chairperson: Pro. Zeng Lisha    

Speaker: Lv Jie & Pro. Zeng Lisha

Recorder in English: Shao Xingyu

  The forum started by a presentation delivered by Lv Jie, Ph.D candidate, on the topic “Studies of Subtitle Translation Based on Contextual Parameters from the Multimodal Perspective”. The presentation covered five points such as the definition of subtitling, the classification of subtitles, the nature of subtitling, studies of subtitling from multimodal perspective, theoretical thinking and case analysis. Based on the previous relevant studies, Lv Jie stated that multimodal symbols should intervene in subtitle translation and she introduced four kinds of typical intervention with case-based explanation.

The forum continued with Professor Mo Aipin’s comments on Lv Jie’s presentation that the principle of brevity and clarity should be followed in subtitle translation and the researchers should try to expand and develop the present theoretical framework of others instead of being constrained by it.

Then, the forum was followed by thought-provoking comments from Pro. Zeng Lisha, who delivered an insightful speech on the topic “Theoretical Issues on Subtitle Translation”. He held that the top-down research model of Lv Jie was feasible but three points should be noticed: 1) Modals should be defined and categorized in accordance with their specific forms and functions; 2) The textual features of films should be carefully analyzed; 3) Parameters and modals should be applied to dealing with meaning identification. With demonstration of some vivid examples from the movies Gossip Girl, The Fast and the Furious 6, and Kung Fu Panda, Professor Zeng gave a very detailed and insightful analysis of the theoretical issues in subtitle translation with witty and humorous expressions. He adopted a bottom-up research model to study subtitle translation from the perspective of register theory in sociolinguistics, which also offered a new perspective to the study of film translation. Finally, Professor Zeng encouraged the participants to try to set up their own analytic model in their researches, which will be theoretically or methodologically significant if others find it valuable for their references.

The forum ended with a great success by inspiring each participant on the topic presented and on the scientific ways of carrying out academic researches.