On The Translation Of Sitcom Humor From The Perspective Of Equivalence

Though an increasing number of movies and TV plays are now being introduced from overseas markets, film and TV play translation is comparatively less studied both at home and abroad. In order to fill this gap, this thesis intends to examine E-C film translation in the specific socio-cultural context and take an audience-oriented approach to the study. Its focus is on the study of English sitcom translation into Chinese due to limited space.The author intends to analyze how Nida's theory of Functional Equivalence serves as a criterion that instructs sitcom translators to produce a better translation. Since audiovisual products are used mainly for entertaining, the translated version is not satisfactory if the audience does not accept or appreciate it. Translators should take into consideration the target audience's response, and try to make the translated works have an equal effect on the Chinese audience.The thesis, by comparing and analyzing the subtitling of the popular American sitcom Friends, aims at exploring various categories of humor in Friends and discussing some feasible translation strategies used for the translation. The author lists literal translation and free translation, foreignization and domestication, paraphrase and modification in this thesis, stating that free translation or domestication may be recommendable because...