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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
On the Chinese Translation of Swearwords in English Films Under the Polysystem
Author(s)
YOU Hui-ying, SUN Zhi-xiang
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2021.02.011
Affiliation(s)
School of Foreign Languages, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the translation of English swearwords to Chinese through the ages, drawing mainly on the correlation between the position of translated films and the translation strategies. With the results, the study aims to testify the applicability of principles of the Polysystem theory for translated films. The sample consisted of English subtitles and their Chinese fansubs of 21 English films. With a combination of quantitative study and qualitative analysis, the study classified the translation strategies the Chinese fansub use and examined how their choice correlates with the position of translated films in three different periods in China, based on Masood Khoshsaligheh’s (2018) taxonomy of the translation strategies of taboo language items. The findings revealed that the Chinese fan subtitle attempted to translate swearwords into Chinese with a milder or toned-down degree of offense and insult. As the translated films strove from a peripheric margin for a higher position in China’s film market, the selection of strategies was inclined to move from the preference for acceptability to adequacy.
KEYWORDS
English films, swearwords, subtitling, polysystem
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References
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Al-Yasin, N. F., & Rabab’ah, G. A. (2019). Arabic audiovisual translation of taboo words in American hip hop movies: A contrastive study. Babel, 65(2), 222-248.
Ávila-Cabrera, J. J. (2015). Subtitling tarantino’s offensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into europeanspanish: The case of pulp fiction. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguasaplicadas, 10, 1-11.
Briechle, L., & Eppler, E. D. (2019). Swearword strength in subtitled and dubbed films: A reception study. Intercultural Pragmatics, 16(4), 389-420.
Chen, C. (2004). On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of English swearwords. Meta, 49(1), 135-147.
Chen, Q. Y., & Huang, Y. L. (2018). Emergence into a butterfly: Evolution and performance of film import policy in the 40 years of reform and opening up. Arts Criticism, (6), 26-35.
Christie, C. (2013). The relevance of taboo language: An analysis of the indexical values of swearwords. Journal of Pragmatics, 58, 152-169.
Commercial Press. (2016). 马子. The contemporary Chinese Dictionary (7nd., p. 869).
Culpeper, J. (2011). Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Díaz-Cintas, J. (2004). In search of a theoretical framework for the study of audiovisual translation. In P. Orero (Ed.), Topics in audiovisual translation (pp. 21-34). Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Even-Zohar, I. (1990). Polysystem Theory. Poetics Today, 11(1), 9-26.
Fernández Fernández, M. J. (2009). The Translation of Swearing in the Dubbing of the Film South Park into Spanish. In J. Díaz Cintas (Ed.), New trends in audiovisual translation (pp. 210-225). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Fernández, D., & Ana, M. (2006). Linguistic and cultural aspects of the translation of swearing: The Spanish version of Pulp Fiction. Babel, 52(3). 222-242.
Goddard, C. (2015). “swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and American) English. at the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(2).
Greenail, A. K. (2012). The non-translation of swearing in subtitling: Loss of social implicature? In A. Serban, A. Matamala & J-M. Lavaur (Eds.), Audiovisual translation in close-up (pp. 45-60). New York: Peter Lang.
Han, C. & Wang, K. (2014). Subtitling swearwords in reality TV series from English into Chinese: A corpus-based study of the family. The International Journal for Translation &Interpreting Research, 6(2), 1-17.
Hermans, T. (1999). Translation in systems: Descriptive and system-orientedapproaches explained. Manchester: St Jerome.
Hjort, M. (2009). Swearwords in subtitles: A balancing act. In TRAlinea no. Special Issue: The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia. Retrieved from http://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1718.
Javier Avila-Cabrera, J. (2015). Subtitling Tarantino’soffensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into European Spanish: The case of Pulp Fiction. Revista de Linguistica y Lenguasaplicadas, 10, 1-11.
Jay, T. (2000). Why we curse. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Jay, T. (2017). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153-161.
Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2008). The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research Language Behaviour Culture, 4(2), 267-288.
Khoshsaligheh, M., Ameri, S., & Mehdizadkhani, M. (2018). A sociocultural study of taboo rendition in Persian fansubbing: An issue of resistance. Language andIntercultural Communication, 18(6), 663-680.
Ljung, M. (2010). Swearing: A cross-cultural linguistic study. Palgrave Macmillan.
Longman. (n.d.). Fuck. Longman dictionary of contemporary English. Retrieved January 1, 2021, from https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/fuck
Mattsson, J. (2006). Linguistic Variation in subtitling: The subtitling of swearwords and discourse markers on public television, commercial televison and DVD (Paper presented at the MuTra 2006 Conference, Copenhagen).
Muñoz Sánchez, P. (2009). Video game localisation for fans by fans: The case of romhacking. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, 1, 168-185.
Ndhlovu, K., & Botha, R. (2017). Euphemism vs explicitness: A corpus-based analysis of translated taboo words from English to Zimbabwean Ndebele. South African Journal of African Languages, 37(2), 235-243.
Pardo, B. S. (2013). Translating and dubbing verbal violence in reservoir dogs. Censorship in the linguistic transference of Quentin Tarantino’s (swear) words. Journal of Specialised Translation, (20), 122-133.
Perdikaki, K. (2018). Film adaptation as the interface between creative translation and cultural transformation: The case of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Journal of Specialised Translation, (29), 169-187.
Santamaría Ciordia, L. (2016). A contrastive and sociolinguistic approach to the translation of vulgarity from Spanish into English and Polish in the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Pedro Almodóvar, 1990). The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies, 11(2), 287-305.
Shuttleworth, M. (2005). Polysystem theory. In Baker, Mona, Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Taivalkoski-Shilov, K. (2008). Subtitling 8 Mile in three languages. Target, 20(2), 249-274.
Tan, H. (2014). History of Chinese dubbed films. Beijing: China Film Press.
Valdeon, R. A. (2015). The (ab)use of taboo lexis in audiovisual translation: Raising awareness of pragmatic variation in English-Spanish. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(3), 363-385.
Valdeón, R. A. (2020). Swearing and the vulgarization hypothesis in spanish audiovisual translation. Journal of Pragmatics, 155, 261-272.
Van Lancker, D., & Cummings, J. (1999). Expletives: Neurolinguistic and neurobehavioralperspectives on swearing. Brain Research Reviews, 31(1), 83-104.
Yuan, X. P. (1993). On improving the economic policies in film industry. Movie, (06), 18-19.
Zhu, S. T., & Wang, X. B. (2018). Dian Ying Wen Hua. Nanjing: Nan Jing Normal University Press.
Filmography
Ayer, D. (Director). (2012). End of Watch [Motion picture]. The United States: Exclusive Media Group, EFO Films& Hedge Fund Film Partners.
Brest, M. (Director). (1984). Beverly Hills Cop [Motion picture]. The United States: Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films & Eddie Murphy Productions.
Brest. M. (Director). (1988). Midnight Run [Motion picture]. The United States: Universal Pictures & City Light Films.
Cassavetes, N. (Director). (2006). Alpha Dog [Motion picture]. Germany & The United States: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, A-Mark Entertainment, Alpha Dog LLC.
Duffy, T. (Director). (1999). The Boondock Saints [Motion picture].The United States &Canada: Franchise Pictures, Brood Syndicate& Fried Films.
Jarmusch, J. (Director). (1986). Down by Law [Motion picture]. The United States& Germany: Island Pictures, Black Snake &Grokenberger Film Produktion.
Kaye, T. (Director). (1998). American History X[Motion picture]. The United States: New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures& The Turman-Morrissey Company.
Kubrick, S. (Director). (1987). Full Metal Jacket [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom & The United States: Natant, Stanley Kubrick Productions & Warner Bros.
Lynch, D. (Director). (1986). Blue Velvet [Motion picture]. The United States: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.
Mann, M. (Director). (1981). Thief [Motion picture]. The United States: Michael Mann Company.
Ritchie, G. (Director). (1998). Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom: Summit Entertainment, The Steve Tisch Company, SKA Films, HandMade Films & Polygram Filmed Entertainment.
Ritchie, G. (Director). (2008). Rocknrolla [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom, The United States & France: Warner Bros., Dark Castle Entertainment& Toff Guy Films.
Rodriguez, R. (Director). (1995). Desperado [Motion picture]. The United States &Mexico: Columbia Pictures & Los Hooligans Productions.
Rosenthal, R. (Director). (1983). Bad Boys [Motion picture]. The United States: EMI Films &Solofilm Company.
Scorsese, M. (Director). (1990). Good Fellas [Motion picture]. The United States: Warner Bros.
Scorsese, M. (Director). (2013). The Wolf of Wall Street [Motion picture]. The United States: Red Granite Pictures, Appian Way&Sikelia Productions.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1992). Reservoir Dogs [Motion picture]. The United States: Live Entertainment & Dog Eat Dog Productions Inc.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1994). Pulp Fiction [Motion picture]. The United States: Miramax, A Band Apart & Jersey Films.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2009). Inglourious Basterds [Motion picture]. The United States& Germany: Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company & A Band Apart.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2013). Django Unchained [Motion picture]. The United States: The Weinstein Company& Columbia Pictures.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2015). The Hateful Eight. [Motion picture]. The United States: VisionaRomantica, Double Feature Films&FilmColony.
Al-Yasin, N. F., & Rabab’ah, G. A. (2019). Arabic audiovisual translation of taboo words in American hip hop movies: A contrastive study. Babel, 65(2), 222-248.
Ávila-Cabrera, J. J. (2015). Subtitling tarantino’s offensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into europeanspanish: The case of pulp fiction. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguasaplicadas, 10, 1-11.
Briechle, L., & Eppler, E. D. (2019). Swearword strength in subtitled and dubbed films: A reception study. Intercultural Pragmatics, 16(4), 389-420.
Chen, C. (2004). On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of English swearwords. Meta, 49(1), 135-147.
Chen, Q. Y., & Huang, Y. L. (2018). Emergence into a butterfly: Evolution and performance of film import policy in the 40 years of reform and opening up. Arts Criticism, (6), 26-35.
Christie, C. (2013). The relevance of taboo language: An analysis of the indexical values of swearwords. Journal of Pragmatics, 58, 152-169.
Commercial Press. (2016). 马子. The contemporary Chinese Dictionary (7nd., p. 869).
Culpeper, J. (2011). Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Díaz-Cintas, J. (2004). In search of a theoretical framework for the study of audiovisual translation. In P. Orero (Ed.), Topics in audiovisual translation (pp. 21-34). Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Even-Zohar, I. (1990). Polysystem Theory. Poetics Today, 11(1), 9-26.
Fernández Fernández, M. J. (2009). The Translation of Swearing in the Dubbing of the Film South Park into Spanish. In J. Díaz Cintas (Ed.), New trends in audiovisual translation (pp. 210-225). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Fernández, D., & Ana, M. (2006). Linguistic and cultural aspects of the translation of swearing: The Spanish version of Pulp Fiction. Babel, 52(3). 222-242.
Goddard, C. (2015). “swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and American) English. at the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(2).
Greenail, A. K. (2012). The non-translation of swearing in subtitling: Loss of social implicature? In A. Serban, A. Matamala & J-M. Lavaur (Eds.), Audiovisual translation in close-up (pp. 45-60). New York: Peter Lang.
Han, C. & Wang, K. (2014). Subtitling swearwords in reality TV series from English into Chinese: A corpus-based study of the family. The International Journal for Translation &Interpreting Research, 6(2), 1-17.
Hermans, T. (1999). Translation in systems: Descriptive and system-orientedapproaches explained. Manchester: St Jerome.
Hjort, M. (2009). Swearwords in subtitles: A balancing act. In TRAlinea no. Special Issue: The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia. Retrieved from http://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1718.
Javier Avila-Cabrera, J. (2015). Subtitling Tarantino’soffensive and taboo dialogue exchanges into European Spanish: The case of Pulp Fiction. Revista de Linguistica y Lenguasaplicadas, 10, 1-11.
Jay, T. (2000). Why we curse. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Jay, T. (2017). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153-161.
Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2008). The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research Language Behaviour Culture, 4(2), 267-288.
Khoshsaligheh, M., Ameri, S., & Mehdizadkhani, M. (2018). A sociocultural study of taboo rendition in Persian fansubbing: An issue of resistance. Language andIntercultural Communication, 18(6), 663-680.
Ljung, M. (2010). Swearing: A cross-cultural linguistic study. Palgrave Macmillan.
Longman. (n.d.). Fuck. Longman dictionary of contemporary English. Retrieved January 1, 2021, from https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/fuck
Mattsson, J. (2006). Linguistic Variation in subtitling: The subtitling of swearwords and discourse markers on public television, commercial televison and DVD (Paper presented at the MuTra 2006 Conference, Copenhagen).
Muñoz Sánchez, P. (2009). Video game localisation for fans by fans: The case of romhacking. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, 1, 168-185.
Ndhlovu, K., & Botha, R. (2017). Euphemism vs explicitness: A corpus-based analysis of translated taboo words from English to Zimbabwean Ndebele. South African Journal of African Languages, 37(2), 235-243.
Pardo, B. S. (2013). Translating and dubbing verbal violence in reservoir dogs. Censorship in the linguistic transference of Quentin Tarantino’s (swear) words. Journal of Specialised Translation, (20), 122-133.
Perdikaki, K. (2018). Film adaptation as the interface between creative translation and cultural transformation: The case of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Journal of Specialised Translation, (29), 169-187.
Santamaría Ciordia, L. (2016). A contrastive and sociolinguistic approach to the translation of vulgarity from Spanish into English and Polish in the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Pedro Almodóvar, 1990). The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies, 11(2), 287-305.
Shuttleworth, M. (2005). Polysystem theory. In Baker, Mona, Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Taivalkoski-Shilov, K. (2008). Subtitling 8 Mile in three languages. Target, 20(2), 249-274.
Tan, H. (2014). History of Chinese dubbed films. Beijing: China Film Press.
Valdeon, R. A. (2015). The (ab)use of taboo lexis in audiovisual translation: Raising awareness of pragmatic variation in English-Spanish. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(3), 363-385.
Valdeón, R. A. (2020). Swearing and the vulgarization hypothesis in spanish audiovisual translation. Journal of Pragmatics, 155, 261-272.
Van Lancker, D., & Cummings, J. (1999). Expletives: Neurolinguistic and neurobehavioralperspectives on swearing. Brain Research Reviews, 31(1), 83-104.
Yuan, X. P. (1993). On improving the economic policies in film industry. Movie, (06), 18-19.
Zhu, S. T., & Wang, X. B. (2018). Dian Ying Wen Hua. Nanjing: Nan Jing Normal University Press.
Filmography
Ayer, D. (Director). (2012). End of Watch [Motion picture]. The United States: Exclusive Media Group, EFO Films& Hedge Fund Film Partners.
Brest, M. (Director). (1984). Beverly Hills Cop [Motion picture]. The United States: Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films & Eddie Murphy Productions.
Brest. M. (Director). (1988). Midnight Run [Motion picture]. The United States: Universal Pictures & City Light Films.
Cassavetes, N. (Director). (2006). Alpha Dog [Motion picture]. Germany & The United States: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, A-Mark Entertainment, Alpha Dog LLC.
Duffy, T. (Director). (1999). The Boondock Saints [Motion picture].The United States &Canada: Franchise Pictures, Brood Syndicate& Fried Films.
Jarmusch, J. (Director). (1986). Down by Law [Motion picture]. The United States& Germany: Island Pictures, Black Snake &Grokenberger Film Produktion.
Kaye, T. (Director). (1998). American History X[Motion picture]. The United States: New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures& The Turman-Morrissey Company.
Kubrick, S. (Director). (1987). Full Metal Jacket [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom & The United States: Natant, Stanley Kubrick Productions & Warner Bros.
Lynch, D. (Director). (1986). Blue Velvet [Motion picture]. The United States: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.
Mann, M. (Director). (1981). Thief [Motion picture]. The United States: Michael Mann Company.
Ritchie, G. (Director). (1998). Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom: Summit Entertainment, The Steve Tisch Company, SKA Films, HandMade Films & Polygram Filmed Entertainment.
Ritchie, G. (Director). (2008). Rocknrolla [Motion picture]. The United Kingdom, The United States & France: Warner Bros., Dark Castle Entertainment& Toff Guy Films.
Rodriguez, R. (Director). (1995). Desperado [Motion picture]. The United States &Mexico: Columbia Pictures & Los Hooligans Productions.
Rosenthal, R. (Director). (1983). Bad Boys [Motion picture]. The United States: EMI Films &Solofilm Company.
Scorsese, M. (Director). (1990). Good Fellas [Motion picture]. The United States: Warner Bros.
Scorsese, M. (Director). (2013). The Wolf of Wall Street [Motion picture]. The United States: Red Granite Pictures, Appian Way&Sikelia Productions.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1992). Reservoir Dogs [Motion picture]. The United States: Live Entertainment & Dog Eat Dog Productions Inc.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (1994). Pulp Fiction [Motion picture]. The United States: Miramax, A Band Apart & Jersey Films.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2009). Inglourious Basterds [Motion picture]. The United States& Germany: Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company & A Band Apart.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2013). Django Unchained [Motion picture]. The United States: The Weinstein Company& Columbia Pictures.
Tarantino, Q. (Director). (2015). The Hateful Eight. [Motion picture]. The United States: VisionaRomantica, Double Feature Films&FilmColony.