Dubbing As A Purposeful Translation Activity

By drawing on Skopostheorie, this thesis takes the film Forrest Gump which won the 67^th Oscar Award for just about everything as a case study in order to analyze and explore the related questions and strategies of film dubbing script. It elaborates on how translators adopt the strategies and the reasons why they adopt them under the guidance of the functions of dubbed film we analyze in this thesis. Although this thesis just uses one English to Chinese dubbed film as a case study, the study itself can improve the level of dubbing translation not only between English and Chinese but also among other languages, too. Meanwhile, this study can further our cognition and understanding of translation theory and encourage us to put more translation theories into translation practices or to explore more translation theories from the practices.This thesis consists of 4 chapters including both theoretical discussions and a case study. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the motivation of the writing of this thesis, the methodology we will use and the research background. We review the previous studies in the field of film translation and discussed the applicability of Skopostheorie to film dubbing translation.Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 are the core of this thesis. In other words, they are the most important parts of this case study. Skopostheorie is different from traditional translation theory which emphasizes only on the faithfulness to the source text. The advocators of Skopostheorie try to free translation from the binding of source text, and expound translation activity from the receiver's or addressee's perspective. Skopostheorie focuses on the various purposes it chooses in the process of translation. It gives special attention to three aspects: the intention of the source text, the needs of the receiver and accordingly the functions of the target text as well as the Skopos or aims of the translational action, and the translation strategies adopted by the translator in order to realize the functions and Skopos of the target text, which in this study refers to the dubbed film. Through focusing on the former 2 aspects Skopostheorie emphasizes, Chapter 2 analyzes the intention of the original film making and the reasons for the existence of dubbed film thus to embody the viewers' (or receivers') needs or expectations to the dubbed film, and accordingly explores the functions and Skopos of the dubbed film. The third aspect Skopostheorie emphasizes has been fully exhibited in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 centers on the translation strategies adopted in the case film and the implications of these strategies. Combined with the analysis in Chapter 2, we find that the translation strategies adopted by the translator reflect that his choices are made under the guidance of being informative, educational and entertaining.Finally, in the last chapter, we draw a conclusion that the principal of film dubbing translation activity lies in the needs of the audience, which is to say that this translation activity accords with Skopostheorie. We think the study of Skopostheorie can be applied not only in the field of film translation, but in much wider fields. Meanwhile, we also find the limitation of this thesis for the weakness Skopostheorie itself has on the one hand and the inadequateness of just one case study on the other hand and then propose the possible ways to further complete the study.To analyze the translation strategies adopted in the dubbing script of this case film from the functional perspective is the starting point of this thesis. We think the further study and research in this field can not only improve our practical skills in film translation but deepen our theoretical understanding of translation. Since this field of study is somewhat new in China, we do hope that more researchers will devote their efforts to this area for deeper insights.