On Subtitle Translation Of Nikita From The Perspective Offunctional Equivalence

With the rapid development of photography digitalization, sound recording digitalization, computer-aided designs and video transmission technology, more and more foreign movies and TV series, especially American movies and TV series, have been put into China in the past few years. In China it has become a fashion to watch American movies and TV series. More and more Chinese audiences began to show great enthusiasm in American movies and TV series. It has become a fashion trend to watch them. Therefore, subtitle translation has gained great importance. In this condition, there is no doubt that subtitle translation has become a new research field of translation practice.However, the attention has been paid to this field is not comparative with the popularity of American movies and TV series. There are just some papers, but with neither fixed principles nor theories guiding the practice of subtitle translation. To make things worse, nowadays, the qualities are with great differences in the market, some of which are with low quality. And as for the subtitle translation, there will be obvious controversy for the same subtitle translation among different audiences.For example, in2012, The Men in Black III, was released in China, which swept away20.6million dollars (about130million RMB) just three days after its release in China, which made China become the second largest market, with the United States the largest. But the subtitle translation of the movie was of great controversy, for many Chinese native expressions appeared in the translation, such as“地沟油”and“瘦肉精”and even“天长地久有尽时,此恨绵绵无绝期”.Some audiences think that the translation is very interesting, full of humor, with the help of which they can appreciate the movie a lot, while some audiences think that the translation has a bad influence on their understanding of the movie, because there are too many native Chinese words, which makes them feel strange.Therefore, there is of great necessity to do research on subtitle translation. The author has translated some foreign movies and TV series, and she has found that Eugene Nida’s theory of functional equivalence is practicable in subtitle translation. The thesis will analyze the possibility and necessity to adopt the functional equivalence theory in subtitle translation.According to Nida, what is important in functional equivalence is the extent to which receptors of the target text correctly understand and appreciate the translated text compared to the receptors of the original text, which is considered as the highest criterion of translation, which means the two kinds of audiences should have equivalent response in watching the same TV series. The thesis then focuses on how to realize functional equivalence in subtitle translation of Nikita and what specific translation strategies should be used. And it discusses how to adopt domestication to deal with cultural information by the translation of colloquialism, proverbs, allusions, four-character idioms, fashion expressions and swear words. It also sets examples to explain the strategies of clarification, addition and reduction adopted in this TV series.A conclusion is made that what a translator should focus on in subtitle translation is to make the target audience appreciate the movies and TV series and have the similar response like the audience in the source language. The author states that Nida’s functional equivalence can be adopted to guide subtitle translation, although there are some limitations and it is very difficult to realize functional equivalence sometimes, as it is very hard to compare the response of the audiences of the source language with that of the target language. Moreover, it is important for subtitle translators to understand what social and cultural impact the movies and TV series will have on the original audience and they should have a better understanding of the emotions and habits of the target audience so that the subtitle translation will be a success.