It is better to segment a long single-line subtitle into a two-line subtitle, distributing the words on each line. This is because the eye and the brain of the viewers render a two-line subtitle as more bulky and, as a result, accelerate the reading process.

假如单行字幕中文本过长，就有必要换行折行从而变成双行字幕。这是因为人眼和大脑会认为阅读双行比阅读单行任务更繁重，因而会自动加速阅读速度。

Segmentation at the highest nodes
在最恰当处断句

Subtitled text should appear segmented at the highest syntactic nodes possible. This means that each subtitle flash should ideally contain one complete sentence. In cases where the sentence cannot fit in a single-line subtitle and has to continue over a second line or even over a new subtitle flash, the segmentation on each of the lines should be arranged to coincide with the highest syntactic node possible. For example, before we segment the phrase:

应当在最符合语法的位置进行断句折行，上句和下句可以分别承担一个完整意思。假如一句话没法按照语法进行断句，只能硬折到第二行甚至延伸到下一屏字幕，也要尽可能让每一行的语句符合日常习惯。下句就是一个断句的例子：

“The destruction of the city was inevitable.” (44 characters),

“对城市的摧毁是必然的。”

we first have to think of its syntactic tree as follows:

首先我们得研究它的语法结构：

A segmentation on the fifth node (N5) would create the two-line subtitle 在第七个字（N7）处折行

“The destruction of the

city was inevitable.”

“对城市的摧毁

是必然的”

A segmentation on the second node (N2) would create the two-line subtitle

在第8个字处折行

“The destruction of the city

was inevitable.”

“对城市的摧毁是

必然的“

Out of the two segmentations, it is the second that flows as more readable. This occurs because the higher the node, the greater the grouping of the semantic load and the more complete the piece of information presented to the brain. When we segment a sentence, we force the brain to pause its linguistic processing for a while, until the eyes trace the next piece of linguistic information. In cases where segmentation is inevitable, therefore, we should try to force this pause on the brain at a point where the semantic load has already managed to convey a satisfactorily complete piece of information.

在两个分段之中，第二个流程更有可读性。这是因为分段越恰当，语义负载的分组越好，并且呈现给大脑的信息片段越完整。当我们分割句子时，我们强迫大脑暂停其语言处理一段时间，直到眼睛追踪下一段语言信息。因此，当断句不可避免时，我们应该试图强制大脑暂停在语义负载已经设法传达令人满意的完整信息那个点上。

Segmentation and line length 分段和行长

The upper line and the lower line of a two-line subtitle should be proportionally as equal in length as possible, since the viewers’ eye is more accustomed to reading text in a rectangular rather than a triangular format. This happens because the conventional text format of printed material is rectangular (in columns or pages). Taken into account the previous entry on “segmentation at the highest nodes,” this means that the segmentation of subtitled text should be a compromise between syntax and geometry. However, if we had to sacrifice the one for the sake of the other, we should prefer to sacrifice geometry.

双行字幕的上线和下线应当成比例地在长度上尽可能相等，因为观看者的眼睛更习惯于以矩形而不是三角形格式阅读文本。这是因为印刷材料的常规文本格式是矩形（在列或页中）。

考虑到先前关于“在恰当处断句”的条目，这意味着字幕文本的分段应该是语法和几何之间的折衷。然而，如果我们为了另一个而牺牲一个，我们应该牺牲几何。

Spoken utterances and subtitled sentences
口语句子和字幕

Each spoken utterance should ideally correspond to a subtitled sentence. The reason is that viewers expect a correct and faithful representation of the original text and one of the basic means to check this is by noticing if the number of the spoken utterances coincides with the number of the subtitled sentences. In other words, viewers expect to see the end of a subtitled sentence soon after they realise that the speaker has finished his/her utterance and before a new one begins. In this respect, merging or bridging two or more utterances into one subtitled sentence should be avoided as much as possible, unless spatio-temporal constraints strictly dictate it.

每个说出的话语应理想地对应于字幕。原因是观众期望原始文本正确和忠实的表述，并且检查这一点的基本手段之一是通过注意所说话语的数量与字幕语句的数量是否一致。

换句话说，观众期望在他们意识到演讲者已经完成他/她的话语之后并且在新的开始之前不久就看到字幕语句的结束。在这方面，应该尽可能地避免将两个或更多个话语合并或桥接到一个字幕句子中，除非时空约束严格地规定它。

More than one sentence on the same subtitle
多个句子在同一行字幕上

No more than two sentences are allowed on the same subtitle. Following the principle of “segmentation at the highest nodes,”; they should occupy one line each, no matter whether they correspond to utterances produced by the same speaker (monologue) or by different speakers (dialogue). If they correspond to a monologue, they should be centralised like normal subtitled text. If they correspond to a dialogue, they should be left-aligned and preceded by dashes (“double text”).

同一字幕上允许使用不超过两个句子。遵循“在最恰当处断句”的原则，它们应该分别占据一行，不管它们是否对应于由同一个说话者（独白）或由不同的说话者（对话）产生的话语。

如果他们对应一个独白，他们应该像正常字幕文本一样集中。如果他们对应一个对话，他们应该左对齐，前面有破折号（“双文本”）。

Omitting linguistic items of the original
省略原文的语言项目

A decision as to which pieces of information to omit or to include should depend on the relative contribution of these pieces of information to the comprehension and appreciation of the target film as a whole. The subtitler should not attempt to transfer everything, even when this is spatio-temporally feasible. The subtitler should attempt to keep a fine balance between retaining a maximum of the original text (essential for the comprehension of the linguistic part of the target film), and allowing ample time for the eye to process the rest of the non-linguistic aural and visual elements (essential for the appreciation of the aesthetic part of the target film). Categories of linguistic items that could be omitted are as follows:

关于要省略或包括的哪些信息片段的决定应该取决于这些信息片段对作为整体的目标电影的理解和欣赏的相对贡献。字幕制作者不应该试图传递一切，即便这在时空上是可行的。

字幕制作者应该尝试在保持最大的原始文本（理解目标电影的语言部分所必需的）和允许足够的时间来处理非语言听觉和视觉元素的其余部分之间保持微妙的平衡（对于欣赏目标电影的美学部分是必需的）。

可以省略的语言项目类别如下：

❶ Padding expressions(e.g. “you know,” “well,” “as I say” etc)填充表达式（例如“您知道”，“好”，“我说”等）：

These expressions are most frequently empty of semantic load and their presence is mostly functional, padding-in speech in order to maintain the desired speech flow.

这些表达式最常见的是空的语义负载，并且它们的存在大多是功能性的，填充语音以便保持期望的语音流。

❷ Tautological cumulative adjectives/adverbs (e.g. “great big,” “super extra,” “teeny weeny” etc) 赘述累积的形容词/副词（例如 “大大的”，“超级多”，“小小的”等）：

The first part of these double adjectival/adverbial combinations has an emphatic role which can be incorporated in a single-word equivalent (e.g. “huge,” “extremely,” “tiny”).

这些双重形容词/副词组合的第一部分具有可以并入一个单词等价物中的重要作用（例如“巨大”，“极高”，“微小”）。

❸ Responsive expressions (e.g. “yes,” “no,” “ok,” “please,” “thanks,” “thank you,” “sorry”) 回应表达式（例如 “是”，“不”，“确定”，“请”，“谢谢”，“谢谢”，“对不起”）：

The afore-listed expressions have been found to be recognisedand comprehended by the majority of the European people, when clearly uttered, and could therefore be omitted from the subtitle. It should be noted, however, that when they are not clearly uttered or when they are presented in a slang, informal or colloquial version (e.g. “yup,” “nup,” “okey-dokey,” “tha” etc) they are not recognisable or comprehensible and should, therefore, be subtitled.

前面列出的表达式已经被发现当被清楚地说出时，可以被大多数欧洲居民承认和理解，并且因此将从字幕中省略。然而，应当注意，当他们没有清楚地说出或者当它们以俚语，非正式或口语版本呈现（例如“yup”，“nup”，“okey-dokey”，“tha”等）不可识别或易于理解时，因此应加上字幕。

Retaining linguistic items of the original
保留原文的语言项目

Linguistic items of the original that can be easily recognised and comprehended by the viewers should not only be retained if they appear in a context of unrecognisable items which blurs the meaning of the total utterance, but they should also be translated word-for-word. These items are most frequently proper nouns (e.g. geographical names like “Los Angeles,” “Africa” etc.) or items that the target language has directly borrowed from or lent to the source language or happened to have in common after they both borrowed it from a third language (e.g. the items “mathematics,” “mathématique” and “mathimatika” shared by English, French and Greek respectively). Investigations in the psychology of viewing indicate that when such linguistic items are recognised by the viewers, the exact, literal, translationally equivalent items are expected to appear in the subtitles as well. This occurs because of the constant presence of an inherently operating checking mechanism in the brain of the viewers which raises the suspicions that the translation of the original text is not “properly” or “correctly” rendered in the subtitles, every time word-for-word translations for such items are not spotted.

可以容易地被观看者识别和理解的原始语言项目，如果它们出现在不可识别的、模糊了整个话语的含义的项目的上下文中，不仅应当被保留，而且它们也应该被逐字翻译。

这些项目通常是专有名词（例如“洛杉矶”，“非洲”等地名），或目标语言直接从源语言借用或借给源语言或在它们都从第三种语言中借用之后共同存在的项目（例如，分别由英语，法语和希腊语共享的项目“mathematics”，“mathématique”和“mathimatika”）。

观察心理学的调查表明，当这样的语言项目被观看者识别时，准确的，字面上的，翻译上等同的项目也期望出现在字幕中。这是因为在观看者的大脑中持续存在固有操作的检查机制，这引起了对原始文本的翻译在字幕中不“正确”或“正确”呈现的怀疑，而每次逐词翻译这样的项目没有被发现。