A Functionalist Framework Toward E-C Subtitling

Films and TV programs are essential in modern society. They are important channels for entertainment and information. To watch foreign audiovisual products also facilitates exchanges and communication among various cultures. As a result, recent years have seen a growing demand for audiovisual translation (AVT). Subtitling is one kind of AVT. Compared with Europe, China lags behind in terms of subtitling practice, subtitling study and subtitling standards. This thesis is an attempt to apply the functionalist theory to subtitling, with a view to improving the quality of E-C subtitling.According to the functionalist theory, translation is a purposeful activity. The Skopos of a translation task serves as the prime rule guiding the translation process. In the functionalist theory, translation is regarded as interpersonal interaction, rather than an action solely decided by the translator himself/herself. Therefore, a translation is the result of choices after analysis, guided by the Skopos of the translation task, of elements involved in the translation process. Subtitling is a purposeful activity. The purpose of subtitling is, with the constraints of time and space and in line with the intention of the directors and screenwriters, to convey to the audience in a specific culture the most relevant information.A bottom-up procedure has been applied in traditional translation theories. The procedure starts from linguistic elements such as words, phrases and sentences to texts, and finally to the stage of polishing the text stylistically according to the communicative situation it is intended for. Translators are easily distracted from the right direction of the translation task if they only focus on lower level of the text. However, a top-down procedure is used in functionalist theory. The procedure starts from the analysis of the agents involved to identify the Skopos of the translation task. Then what type the translation task falls into can be clarified according to the Skopos.Finally, specific strategies can be decided according to the characteristics of the addressees and linguistic features of the text. The top-down procedure is applied to subtitling in this thesis. In addition, the thesis focuses on the final stage of the procedure, that is, the choice of translation strategies.