A Study Of The Subtitle Translation Of Chinese Films From The Contextual Adaption Approach

Film as an art has become not only the entertainment of the public, but also themajor components of international cultural communications. However, language hasalways been an obstacle which constrains people’s comprehension and appreciation offoreign films. Therefore, film subtitle translation has become more and moreimportant.The major translation theories applied in the filmsubtitle translation at both homeand abroad are Nida’s functional equivalence theory, Newmark’s correlativetranslation theory, relevance approach, and audience reception approach. Each ofthem has gained certain achievements. However, subtitle translation study is stilllacking of powerful theoretical guidance and effective practical approaches.In2000, Jef Verscheuren, the president of International Pragmatics Associationproposes the adaption theory from the pragmatic perspective in his workUnderstanding Pragmatics. Verscheuren considers using language as a continuouscontextual adaption process under different salience so as to achieve communicationgoal. Translation is a special language using process. A study of translation activityfrom dynamic adaption theory brings us a lot of inspirations. The major researchquestion of the thesis is subtitlers’ adaption to the communicative and linguisticcontext of both the source language text and the target language audience, and thetranslation strategy applied in the adaption process. A descriptive-explanatory is thebasic research method in this thesis. Moreover, a Contrastive analysis method is alsoused. It is mainly a qualitative study.The conclusion is drawn that film subtitle translation process is the subtitler’sdynamic adaption to communicative and linguistic context under different salience.