英語源語理解對閱聽人接收電影本土化字幕之影響

Abstract

電影是我們生活中的重要娛樂，其中不乏來自美國的喜劇電影，為了克服語言與文化帶來的隔閡，片商都會要求譯者在翻譯字幕時，使用更貼近臺灣觀眾的道地用語，讓觀眾更能享受喜劇帶來的歡樂氣氛，也就是本文所稱之「台式翻譯」。這種翻譯方式雖然能夠博君一笑，但在PTT等網路論壇上受到的批評不斷，網民甚至會將字幕與聽到的原文比較，來評論翻譯的品質，讓人不禁好奇在英語盛行的臺灣，源語理解是否會影響觀眾對於台式翻譯的評價。 本研究為了釐清源語理解對於閱聽人接收台式翻譯的影響，選定字幕充滿台式翻譯的美國粗俗喜劇《阿公歐買尬》，分析字幕後將片中台式翻譯的種類分成四大類，並招募八名精通英文的臺灣人參與實驗，平分成兩組觀看電影片段，一組的版本是英文發音、中文字幕，一組則是西文發音、中文字幕，然後在觀影結束後進行團體訪談，詢問對於電影整體的評價，接著討論四大類台式翻譯字幕的場景，最後回顧參與者過去經驗中對於台式翻譯的看法。 整理訪談結果之後，發現源語理解會使得觀眾分心比較原文與譯文，也更在意看到台式用語出現在外國電影中而產生的斷裂感，但是源語理解可以幫助觀眾更能讀懂中文字幕，如果譯文的形式和內容與原文相仿，觀眾也更能接受字幕不完美之處。無法理解西文原文的觀眾則可以更加投入閱讀字幕，對於幽默的地方評價更高，但是遇到字幕表達不清或是令觀眾存疑的地方，就容易懷疑是譯者自由發揮而感到不滿。兩組觀眾都偏好貼近原文的翻譯策略，但是都能理解和接受片商採取台式翻譯的用意，對於翻譯策略抱持開放的心態。

Audiovisual translation is a developing branch of translation studies, as it has asserted its importance with substantial movie exports that require translation to a different culture and language context. In Taiwan, foreign movies are subtitled with Mandarin Chinese translation, and film distributors prefer the translator to adopt a domesticated approach to help the audience better appreciate the movies. Domestication is prominent in subtitle translation for American comedies, of which the aim is to preserve or enhance the humor effect that can be lost in translation due to lingua-cultural differences. However, the approach is not always well received among viewers. Many criticisms on Taiwan’s major internet forum PTT are comparison of the English source text and the Chinese target text, which inspires the following research question: Does source language comprehension contribute to more negative reception of domesticated subtitle translation? This study constitutes a text analysis of a selected comedy to exemplify the domestication used in Taiwanese theaters, and an audience-focused experiment. Two groups of participants, excelled in English yet incapable of Spanish, watched the same movie excerpt subtitled with heavily domesticated translation. One group was given the original English version while the other watched a Spanish-dubbed version. Participants were asked to evaluate the viewing experience and discuss the subtitles with their group members. The results show that source language comprehension provides assistance for viewers with better understanding of the plot, but slightly hinders the enjoyment of domesticated subtitles. When there is a discrepancy between the source text and the target text, source language comprehension offers justifiability for translation that seem problematic for the audience. Although viewers prefer literal translation, they approve of the translator’s choice of prioritizing humor over accuracy in comedies, especially when the translation shares the same form and function as the source text.