关联理论视角下《甄嬛传》字幕英译的语用等效研究

A Pragmatic Equivalence Study on the English Translation of The Legend of Zhen Huan Subtitles from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

摘要: 影视剧字幕翻译是一种受时空制约的特殊的语际交际活动，其核心挑战在于如何在有限的时间内，跨越文化障碍，传递源语对话的完整交际意图，确保目标语观众能以最小的处理努力获得最佳的语境效果。本研究以语用学中的关联理论为框架，以中国古装宫廷剧《甄嬛传》及其官方英文字幕为分析语料，旨在探究字幕译者如何在关联原则的指导下，处理剧中密集的、富含中国历史文化内涵的对话，实现语用等效。论文重点分析了剧中三类典型的语用现象：蕴含权力关系与情感态度的称谓语、具有间接性与威胁面子的言语行为(如请求、讽刺、警告)，以及富含文化预设的典故与双关语。研究发现，译者在处理这些现象时，灵活采用了省译、释译、归化、功能对等等多种策略，其根本目的在于优化目标语观众的认知推理过程，在字幕的时空限制与目标语观众的文化认知语境之间寻求最佳关联，从而最大程度地再现原对话的语境暗含与情感冲击力。本研究揭示了关联理论对于解释和指导字幕翻译实践的有效性，强调了译者作为跨文化交际的“明示–推理”过程协调者的核心角色。

Abstract: Subtitle translation for films and television series constitutes a unique form of cross-linguistic communication constrained by temporal and spatial limitations. Its core challenge lies in conveying the complete communicative intent of the source-language dialogue across cultural barriers within a restricted timeframe, ensuring that target-language audiences can achieve optimal contextual effects with minimal processing effort. Guided by Relevance Theory from pragmatics, this study employs the Chinese historical palace drama The Legend of Zhen Huan and its official English subtitles as analytical corpora. It aims to investigate how subtitle translators, under the guidance of the principle of relevance, handle the dialogue densely loaded with Chinese historical and cultural connotations to achieve pragmatic equivalence. The paper focuses on analyzing three typical pragmatic phenomena in the drama: forms of address imbued with power relations and emotional attitudes, speech acts characterized by indirectness and face-threatening potential (such as requests, sarcasm, and warnings), and culturally presupposed elements like allusions and puns. The findings reveal that translators flexibly employ various strategies, including omission, explanatory translation, domestication, and functional equivalence. The fundamental objective is to optimize the cognitive inference process for the target-language audience, seeking optimal relevance between the spatiotemporal constraints of subtitling and the audience’s cultural-cognitive context. This endeavor aims to maximally reproduce the contextual implications and emotional impact of the original dialogue. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of Relevance Theory in explaining and guiding subtitle translation practice, highlighting the translator’s central role as a coordinator in the cross-cultural “Ostensive-inferential” communication process.