On The Subtitling Of American Sitcoms From The Perspective Of Cultural Functional Equivalence Theory

Nowadays with the development of new and emerging communication technologies and the increase of globalization,viewers are showered with various kinds of TV series across the world such as Korean dramas,Spanish telenovelas,Chinese historical dramas and American TV series.In China,free access to these rich resources has led to the popularity of American TV series,and among which the sitcom has been rated as one of the most popular types.In this thesis,an American sitcom called The Nanny is chosen as the subject of this case study and Susan Bassnett's Cultural Functional Equivalence Theory is adopted as the analytic tool.There are two main factors influencing sitcoms subtitling,which are characteristics of sitcoms and limited space and time of subtitling.Major translation strategies adopted in The Nanny are suggested to be domestication and foreignization.Under each strategy various translation methods as well as translation techniques are proposed to be adopted.Inappropriate application of these strategies could lead to undertranslation,overtranslation or indecent translation,but these problems could be avoided by following the guidance of Cultural Functional Equivalence Theory.Through this research three findings are put forward: i.Cultural Functional Equivalence Theory is an efficient analytic tool based on this case study;ii.in order to avoid obstacles,subtitlers have to pay attention to the characteristics of sitcoms as well as the limited space and time of subtitling,and adopt various translation strategies to solve potential problems;iii.domestication is the main strategy while foreignization is the supplement in sitcoms subtitling.The application of these strategies should be based on the context as well as cultural factors so inappropriate translation could be avoided.