Skopos Analysis On Translation Of Humorous Subtitles As In Friends

With the development of cross cultural communication, more and more foreign audiovisual products, especially English ones have been brought to Chinese audience. Apart from those officially imported by cinemas and TV stations, a large volume of audiovisual products have been translated and spread over the internet by fans of English films and TV series. Compared with the large amount of audiovisual translation that has been undertaken, theoretical researches in this field are by no means competitive. Besides, in China, most of the published articles are generally summaries of translators' personal experience in translating audiovisual materials. Therefore, more attention needs to be drawn to this research field.Being a unique form of the mainstream TV series, situation comedy (sitcom) has attracted a large audience. The subtitled English sitcom can not only bring happiness to the audience but also be used as a good source of improving English competence. Therefore, it enjoys popularity among young Chinese people. The prime feature of sitcom is its humor, which is deeply rooted in a certain culture and therefore is greatly influenced by cultural elements in the process of translation. It is a challenge for the translator to transplant the humor in the target culture and make it understood by the audience.A case study on American sitcom—Friends is made in this thesis, which is based on Skopos theory. According to Skopos theory, there are three rules in the translation . process. The first one is Skopos rule, which means the Skopos of the translation action determines the translation process. The second one is coherence rule or intratextual coherence, which means the translated text must be understood by the receiver and meaningful in the target culture. The last one is fidelity rule or intertextual coherence, which means the function of the translated text should be coherent with that of the source text in the source culture context.In a sitcom the most prominent feature is its humor, the transfer of which is the Skopos of the translation action. The author Analyses Friends from three aspects: pragmatic, Semiotic and communicative so as to find out what strategies have been applied in translation.After a Skopos analysis on a wide range of examples, the author concludes that in transferring the humoristic effect in a different culture, compensation, adaptation and domestication strategies can be used to fulfill the Skopos of the translational action.