Subtitling In The Sitcom Friends: A Perspective Of Functionalist Theories Of Translation

Recently translation researchers and translators begin to focus on the subtitling. They explore the specific features and techniques of this translation type. But few of them have come up with the dominant translation strategies due to the complexity and variety involved in different audio-visual texts. Functionalist theories of translation suggest that the general translation strategies may vary for different purposes of audio-visual texts. In this sense, functionalist theories of translation may be the theoretical guideline. Friends is a well-known American sitcom. It has won great popularity all around the world, so has it in China. The translator should consider the reasons of the popularity and appropriateness of its subtitles in China. This thesis intends to make a study in translation strategies of subtitling in the sitcom Friends from the perspective of the functionalist theories of translation. It is expected to propose a feasible translation strategy for this text by the application of this theory. Skopos theory is the most important in functionalist theories of translation. It prefers the skopos rule as the top-ranking one. It suggests that the translation strategy is decided by the purpose of the target text which is mainly fulfilled by the intended target audience's demand with their cultural-specific knowledge and their expectations. The investigation from an official website shows that the Chinese audience are mostly college students and clerk officers who possess good command of English and Western culture. They claim that they expect to recognize the urban culture and life reflected by the sitcom Friends. Therefore, the translator is expected to try to keep the linguistic features and styles and reproduce the cultural identity of the source text even if the translation is unnatural. The preference for foreignization or domestication depends on the target audience and the purpose of the target text. Foreignization is to register the original linguistic and cultural identity in translation and maximize the foreignness of the target text. Domestication is the translation of the source text in the idiomatic and natural target language. In this sense, the translator should adopt foreignization to meet the Chinese audience'expectations and the purpose of the target text. Furthermore, in this sitcom the dialogue is plain and simple which facilitates the understanding on the part of Chinese audience. Also the subtitles appear with the pictures and sounds of the source text, and this can help the target audience understand the unnatural or incomprehensible dialogues. So these factors make foreignization more preferable. But if foreignization hinders the target audience from understanding, domestication can be considered as the supplementary method to help the Chinese audience understand this sitcom better.