A Study of Four-character Structure in the Translation of American TV Series Titles: A Cultural Perspective文献综述

 2022-08-29 10:08

A Study of Four-character Structure in the Translation of American TV Series Titles: A Cultural Perspective

摘要：In the past decades, American TV series have been more and more accessible to us, and we can easily notice the phenomenon that a large number of American TV series titles are translated into four-character structures. But there have been few comprehensive studies about the four-character structure in the translation of American TV series. Although many scholars used a lot of advanced translation theories about the study of translation strategies of American TV series translation, few of them focused on the cultural aspect. Language is not only a tool to send messages but also a carrier of culture. Given that, the translation of American TV series should also reflect the factors of culture.

关键词：American TV series; Four-character structure; Culture; Translation

一、文献综述

American TV series is a type of culture product that deeply reflect the values and ideology of America. With the development of media technology and cross-culture communication between China and America, exchange of television programs is becoming much more frequent. The translation of titles of American TV series is usually acting as a guide that plays an important role in determining their popularity. And as we can see, there are a large number of titles translated into the four-character structure. There have been a lot of discussions about four-character structure, and it seems that there are more and more heated discussions at home and abroad and the width and depth of these discussions would be wider and deeper.

1.1 Definition and Advantages of Four-character Structure

In the past decades, many domestic scholars have paid much attention on the four-character structure. There are many diverse research perspectives of this study. However, there is no specific standard definition of four-character structure. Generally speaking, four-character structure contains four Chinese characters while we cannot say that all four Chinese characters phrases are four-character structures. And the views of different scholars are divided. Broad definitions like Ma Guofan (1987) who thought four-character structure is the unit formed by four syllables. However, Lv Shuxiang (1984) thought idiomatic phrases with four syllables are identified as four-character structure, and the scope is obviously more narrowed. Over the past decades, the understanding of the concept of four-character structure has been gradually mature and research methods have been more comprehensive. The study objects are continuously being expanded into a wider range, from literature text to all kinds of pragmatic text.

It is widely agreed that China is rich in four-character structure. The wide application of four-character structure in the translation of different style of context is mainly due to its advantages. Yu Haifei (2011) thought that there are four advantages from the aspects of language form, content, phonology and rhetoric. These are also typical characteristics of four-character structure that make the translation smooth and coherent, concise and comprehensive, and rhythmic and vivid. Besides, four-character structure is also an embodiment of Chinese language, for Chinese is focused on paratactic aspect while English is focused on hypotactic aspect (Yuan, 2004). Four-character structure, with a long continual history, is an excellent combination of meaning and form, which endows great capabilities to express rich content in a concise way. To some extent, the use of four-character structure in the translation is not only an advantage but also a cultural tradition with Chinese characteristics. They are often Chinese culture precipitation that contains unique Chinese custom and historical allusions. It is a valuable fortune of our nation. But the use of them should on the basis of sufficient understanding of such structure and accord with certain conditions and situations, otherwise, it may because some misunderstanding or do not express the original meaning clearly.

1.2 Present Domestic and Foreign Research of American TV Series Title Translation

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