A Study Of Cartoon Subtitle Translation From The Perspective Of Nida’s Equivalence Theory

With the rapid development of mass media, the subtitle translation becomes more and more important since it plays a vital role in establishing a relationship between the audience and film&television works. Recently, the cartoon film&television works spread very quickly and the demand of cartoon subtitle translation increases to a higher stand. The research purpose of the thesis is to find a compromised method to deal with the problems in cartoon subtitle translation. It bases on Nida’s translation equivalence theory, including formal equivalence and functional equivalence.The thesis includes six chapters. The first chapter is introduction which includes research background, research purpose, research significance and the outline of the thesis. The second chapter is literature review which includes the present study of subtitle translation home and abroad as well as the present situation of cartoon subtitle translation. In western country, the film subtitle translation develops more quickly than in China and the research perspective shows its diversification. Mayoral, Kelly and Gallardo have divided the limitation of subtitle translation into six factors, including time, space, music, picture, accent and oral language. De Linde said the subtitle translation could be called "reduced translation" while Diaz-Cintas said the subtitle translation could be called "limited translation". In China, the theory of subtitle translation is almost from western countries and the dominant theory is domesticating method. The third chapter is the applicability of Nida’s translation equivalence theory used in cartoon subtitle translation. The author will demonstrate the feasibility of the theory from the perspective of characteristics of cartoon works. In this chapter, the author divides Nida’s formal equivalence into several aspects including phonetic equivalence, morphological equivalence, semantic equivalence and syntactic equivalence. Phonetic equivalence strategy is mainly reflected by the equivalence of the interjections and onomatopoeic words which guarantee the vivid cartoon language and it also can fully expresses characters’emotions. Morphological equivalence is mainly reflected on the language repetition which sticks out the emphasized part of lines in cartoon works. Semantic equivalence is the core of formal equivalence which guarantees the equivalence of the content, and by semantic equivalence, the audience can exactly understand the meaning the character wants to express in cartoon works. Syntactic equivalence is mainly reflected on the equivalence of the grammar which is in the perspective of structural grammar. Nida’s functional equivalence can avoid the completely literal translation and add some cultural ideas to the target language. It could be realized by two levels of equivalence, i.e., linguistic equivalence level and cultural equivalence level. The fourth chapter is the practical study of Nida’s translation equivalence theory in directing cartoon subtitle translation. This chapter is divided into two main parts, one is formal equivalence strategy which includes phonetic equivalence strategy, morphological equivalence strategy, semantic equivalence strategy and the syntactic equivalence strategy, the other is functional equivalence strategy which is mainly reflected on linguistic equivalence strategy and cultural equivalence strategy. In this chapter, the author combines the theory with examples and explains how to use the theory to direct the cartoon subtitle translation. The fifth chapter is theory’s drawbacks. In this chapter, the author points out the conflict between formal equivalence and functional equivalence and the rewriting degree in translation is also mentioned afterwards. The sixth chapter is conclusion which includes the thesis summary and drawbacks of the thesis itself.The thesis has discussed the direction of Nida’s translation equivalence theory applied in cartoon subtitle translation. Different from other types of theses which unilaterally analyse the subtitle translation, this thesis adds two bright spots. The one is bringing in lots of examples from different cartoon works and the other is extending Nida’s equivalence theory especially formal equivalence. It breaks out the traditional views and divides formal equivalence into several kinds according to the aspects of modern linguistics. Although Nida’s theory has undergone many ordeals, we still have to gradually extend its theoretical system by continuous translation practice. In this long-lasting process, we will come across more and more new opinions which will be helpful to the cartoon subtitle translation. The author hopes that there will be more similar studies on this topic and maybe there will come out some new theories which could be applied in more academic fields.