Translation of Trendy Expressions as Extralinguistic Culture-bound References: the Case Study of If You Are The One

Ying Xie

doi:10.46809/jcsll.v1i3.34

Abstract

Since it was introduced into Australia from China in 2013, the Chinese-to-English subtitled dating game-show If You Are The One (Fei Cheng Wu Rao / 《非诚勿扰》) has been maintaining its super high ratings on the Australian national TV station SBS for all these years. The frequently appeared trendy expressions in IYATO, as the concentrated embodiment of Chinese popular culture, are the significant and inevitable difficulties to the interlingual subtitling of the show. On the premise that the trendy expressions in the text are regarded as Extralinguistic Culture-bound References (ECRs) (Pedersen, 2005, 2011), by employing the systematic translation strategy and influencing parameter proposed by Jan Pedersen (2005, 2011) for rendering and analyzing ECRs in audiovisual works, this paper aims to investigate the specific solution adopted by the subtitler in the translation of typical trendy expression cases in the latest season of the show, so as to bring inspiration and reference to the Chinese-to-English interlingual subtitling of the language-intensive shows in the future.

Highlights

1.1 If You Are The One If You Are the One (Fei Cheng Wu Rao / 《非诚勿扰》) is the dating game show that enjoys particular popularity inChina, which maintains its super high ratings among all the Chinese reality shows from 2010 to 2020
Based on the above-mentioned theoretical underpinning for rendering Extralinguistic Culture-bound References (ECRs), the paper seeks to progressively explore the following questions with the research corpus of IYATO: (1) What solution does the subtitler use in translating trendy expression? (2) What translation strategy does the subtitler employ in translating trendy expression? (3) What internal influencing parameters may affect the subtitler’s choice of translation strategy when rendering trendy expression? Eventually, this paper attempts to answer the central question: what inspiration may get from the translation of trendy expression in IYATO for the future interlingual subtitling of ECRs in Chinese-to-English dating game shows?
It can be seen from the translation analysis of trendy expressions in IYATO (Season 11 Episode 15-20) that the subtitler tends to employ the strategy of Substitution (TL oriented strategy), Generalization (TL oriented strategy), and Direct Translation (SL oriented strategy), from which the strategy of Substitution accounts for the most substantial proportion

Summary

Introduction

The TT contains more details to specify the ST. The TT is the specified version of the abbreviation of the ST. This kind of “intertextuality” (ibid.) of ECR presents the performing mechanism and positive results of ideal cultural communication. These factors should be considered: (1) The target audience’s familiarity and love of source language culture.(2) When will the audiovisual work be shown etc. As this parameter focuses on the relationship between the text and the world instead of the text analysis itself, it is “not in the text, but rather about the text” (1) What solution does the subtitler use in translating trendy expression? (2) What translation strategy does the subtitler employ in translating trendy expression? (3) What internal influencing parameters may affect the subtitler’s choice of translation strategy when rendering trendy expression? Eventually, this paper attempts to answer the central question: what inspiration may get from the translation of trendy expression in IYATO for the future interlingual subtitling of ECRs in Chinese-to-English dating game shows?

The Case Study

Conclusion