On Translation Of Film Subtitle From The Functionalist Perspective

With the advance of the globalization and the extensive exchanges between countries, filmhas gradually become one of the important ways of cross-cultural communication. Due to thecultural differences, foreign audiences tend to read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen inorder to get full comprehension. At this time, as a new form in translation area, film subtitletranslation emerged. Compared to the literary translation, film subtitle translation is arelatively new form. But so far, a systematic and mature guideline of translation theory hasn’tbeen established, the traditional translation theory of Functional Equivalence and theRelevance Theory can only interpret part of language phenomenon. Finally, Germanfunctionalist Translation theory broke through the traditional translation theories and openedup a new perspective for the film subtitle translation.This thesis adopts Feng Xiaogang’s film Aftershocks as the case study, which has wonthe high box office, and analyzes in detail the translation strategies adopted in subtitlingtranslation and the factors which influence the subtitler to choose the strategies.This thesis consists of5chapters. Chapter1mainly introduces the research background,issues, structure and methodology of this thesis. Chapter2is the literature review of filmsubtitle translation, including the definition, classification, features of the film subtitle, andthe constraints in subtitling translation. Then it summarizes the previous researches home andabroad of the translation strategies to film subtitle.Chapter3and4are the important and crucial parts of the thesis. Chapter3is thetheoretical foundation of the whole thesis, introducing the main contents of the Germanfunctionalist translation theory and the relevant basic concepts and definitions, andelaborating the feasibility that apply the functionalist translation theory to the research of filmsubtitle translation from the perspectives of “Skopostheorie” and “theory of translationaction” respectively. As the nuclear theory of the German functionalist translation theory,Skopostheorie considers that subtitle translation is a purposeful action. The skopos (orpurpose) of subtitle translation is to offer the most effective and relevant information to thetarget audiences within the constraints of time and space so that they can comprehend andappreciate a film without efforts. According to the skopos rule, that is “the end justifies the means”, the purpose of the subtitle translation decides the translation strategies. In terms ofSkopostheorie, the target text comes from the source text and should be faithful to it, whichmeans “inter-textual coherence”(or fidelity rule). However, the educational background,culture and life-style of the target audience also influence the translation strategies adopted bythe subtitler. Consequently, the translation should fit in the target expression habits, whichmeans “intra-textual coherence”(or coherence rule). From the perspective of “theory oftranslation action”, subtitle translation is an interpersonal interaction. In the process oftranslating subtitle, the translator will choose the specific translation strategies in accordancewith the director’s intention and the expectations of target audiences, and give the finalsuccessful translation.Chapter4is the case study on Aftershocks. Beginning with a brief introduction ofsynopsis, the thesis elaborates the translation brief of the film, director’s intention and theexpectations of the target audiences, and then analyzes six translation strategies applied by thetranslator: deletion, condensation, reductive paraphrasing, paraphrasing, free translation andliteral translation. In the last section, the author simply points out the errors in the subtitletranslation from pragmatic, cultural, and linguistic aspects.Chapter5comes to a conclusion: it is feasible to apply German functionalist translationtheory to the translation research of film subtitle. Through this thesis, the author sincerelywishes to improve the quality of the translation products and contribute to the cross-culturalcommunication, what’s more, to have a further understanding of the functionalist translationtheory.