Friends: Entertaining The World

This paper presents a case study of the Chinese subtitling of the famous American sitcom Friends, focusing on the translation of its humour, which predetermines the dominant textual function of the series - appellative function. Functionalist approach is adopted in the research as a theoretical framework, with the analysis of multimodal texts acting as an indispensable supplement. The study attempts to discuss various factors and constraints that will influence translator's decision-making in subtitling Friends, and to describe and analyze specific strategies chosen by the translator. The objective is to analyze whether and how the translator translate in a way that enables the subtitles to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function.In terms of Skopostheorie, subtitling is a purposeful activity. In the present case, the dominant function of the Chinese subtitles is to provide, within the constraints of time and space, the most relevant information in the most effective way, serving the target-language viewers as a tool to make the sitcom comprehensible and more importantly, to help the viewers come as near as possible to the experience the SL viewers have of the sitcom, to entertain the TL viewers. In this paper, the author uses the top-ranking Skopos Rule of Skopostheorie as the major criterion for analyzing whether and how the translation serves its given purpose in the TT.In terms of the theory of translational action, subtitling is an interpersonal action as well as an intercultural action. Among all the people or agents involved in the interaction, the initiator or the person playing the role of initiator decides on the translation Skopos. Intentions of other agents also influence the translator's decision-making on choosing appropriate strategies during the subtitling process. Besides, since subtitling is primarily a cross-culture transfer, the translator has to be very aware of the rich points relevant to the subtitling task between the groups or sub-groups on either side of the languaculture barrier.In the present study, the translator is also restricted by the general featuresand constraints of subtitling as well as some special features of the subtitles of Friends. In view of the multimodal nature of multimedia texts, the analysis in this paper draws on the model put forward by Agost (1999) for the study of audiovisual products, which is in turn based on the model proposed by Hatim and Mason (1990). Following these models, the analysis is divided into three sections: (a) the pragmatic dimension, where the contextual focus, intentionality and conversational maxims of the source text and their translation in the target text are analyzed; (b) the semiotic dimension, where the author concentrates on the translation of ideological and cultural components and intertextual references; and (c) the communicative dimension, where use (field, tenor and mode) and user (sociolinguistic) variations are analyzed. The conclusion seems to confirm the idea put forward by theorists such as Toury (1995) and Venuti (1995) that the translator intervenes actively and creatively in the text to make it suit his or her purposes.