Film Subtitling In A Functionalist Approach

With the development of film industry, the importance of film subtitle translation becomes increasingly clear. Recent years have seen more and more attention paid to this new field of translation by translation researchers and translators. On the basis of predecessors'research, the author of this dissertation attempts to adopt the functionalist approach of German School to analyze the factors influencing strategies taken in film subtitling, which is left undone in the previous study.According to Skopostheorie under the functionalist translation theory, film subtitling is a purposeful activity. The top-ranking rule that guides the whole process of film subtitling is its purpose (Skopos). However, the specific Skopos of each film is different, which leads to the particular strategies to be adopted. In the theory of translational action, film subtitling is regarded as an interpersonal interaction rather than an action solely decided by the translator himself/herself. In the process of subtitle translation, the role of the target receiver------film audience is especially important, for the Skopos and function of film subtitling is determined by their needs and expectations. Thus, before translating, subtitlers must make sure of the expectations of the audience and the function (Skopos) of the target text (TT). In addition, film subtitling is a text-processing action and thus should also conform to the"coherence rule"and the"fidelity rule". While the coherence rule demands that the subtitle translations be accepted by the foreign audience, the fidelity rule illustrates the relationship between TT and its source text (ST), the degree of which is determined by the Skopos of each specific film. The fidelity rule is considered subordinate to the coherence rule, and both are subordinate to the Skopos rule, which indicates that in film subtitling the acceptability of TT is prior to its fidelity to ST.Applying these theories to the translation of film subtitles in Forrest Gump and then through a questionnaire survey, the author of this dissertation finds that the Chinese audience of the case film expect a mainly informative subtitle. Thus, the Skopos of the translational action in this film is to realize the informative function of TT. Following this, the subtitle translator adopted strategies, such as reduction, adaptation, explication, literal translation plus explanation, generalization etc, to guarantee the fulfillment of the translation Skopos. Through the analysis of the authentic examples, the author finds that the translation strategies adopted by the subtitler reflect that his choices were made under the guidance of the informative function he intended to realize. Taking this as the Skopos of his translational action, he managed to achieve a maximum informative function of TT, thus meeting the needs of the audience and helping them enjoy their watching.This dissertation is an attempt to address the situation where little research has been done from a functional approach in film subtitling. Getting at the root cause of the strategic choices made by the film subtitler and then confirming it with a case study of Forrest Gump is the ultimate goal of this descriptive study. The research is not only conducive to the practical film subtitle translation but also to the promotion of our understanding as well as the research of general translation theory. It is the author's hope that more researchers will devote their efforts to this area for deeper insights.