Subtitling swearwords in reality TV series from English into Chinese : a corpus-based study of The Family

This study takes a corpus-based approach to analyse the subtitling of English swearwords into Chinese in eight episodes of The Family, an Australian reality TV series produced by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in 2011. The results reveal a disparity in the overall frequency of swearwords and in the number of semantic categories and functions represented by the swearwords in both languages. Furthermore, in order to investigate this disparity, we adopt a “reverse engineering” model of translation analysis. We argue that the force of swearing in the original is mildly toned down in the Chinese subtitles. However, notwithstanding this tendency, the subtitles, produced under medium-imposed constraints, still serve as an adequate bridge between the original program and the target audience.