View - Scholarly Commons Home

7.6 Limitations of the research and implications for future study
One limitation of the research is that it did not involve inter-rater agreement. This was
based on the fact that translation criticism is a specialized activity and that most
potential assessors simply do not possess the expertise to engage in translation criticism.
For this reason, it is rare to find studies of this nature where the researchers have
presented assessments of translation work other than their own. As an example, a
general Chinese viewer might overlook the subtitles that cause confusion or subtitles
that cause confusion might not present insurmountable barriers to watching this TV
series. In other words, although some subtitle translation strategies (such as repetition)
might be found to be less than satisfactory in dealing with some CSIs in the research
study, they might not hinder the audience from understanding the scene or episode
overall or Chinese viewers might not be as concerned about the effectiveness of
translation as translation researchers are. However, future researchers in this field might
include a survey asking a small sample of specialised and experienced Chinese
translation assessors to state how they understood certain CSIs.
Another limitation of the research is that it did not consider the effect of cultural
convergence on Chinese viewers. It is possible that Chinese viewers today are now
more familiar with the US culture than any Chinese audience before them in the past.
Future research might consider the influence of translation on cultural convergence
among Chinese viewers as such an issue should not be ignored in a globalised world.
7.7 Concluding remarks
“The only constant is change”. There is not a one-size-fit-all approach in the world
for dealing with any issue, and subtitling is no exception to this maxim. The findings of
the research appear to suggest that repetition as a translation strategy for dealing with
CSIs, although frequently adopted by the translators whose work was analysed here
does not always lead to the most effective translation equivalents. Employing a variety
of strategies and selecting these according to which one works best in the circumstances
may be the best approach. Therefore, one could say that the only constant in dealing
with CSIs is change, namely, changing translation strategies according to the situation.
84