On The Subtitle Translation Of Desperate Housewives (Season One)from The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

With the development of science and technology as well as the economic globalization, numerous foreign films and TV series have flooded into the Chinese market and have been popular with more and more audiences within recent years. However, great discrepancy lies between the attention paid on these works and the subtitle translation itself, this thesis tries to study the subtitle translation from the unique perspective of Nida’s functional equivalence theory, besides, the thesis will conclude that Nida’s functional equivalence theory can be regarded as one of the standards and guidance for subtitle translation through the analysis on the features of the language, nature of the subtitle translation, demands and translating strategies with the case study of the TV series Desperate Housewives (season one).There is something new as well as breakthrough in Nida’ functional equivalence theory, the traditional translating theory focuses on the form, while Nida emphasizes the reaction of the target language reader. To get the ideal translation, the most natural and closest equivalence needs to be produced, that is to say, the target language readers’ reaction needs to be equivalent to that of the source language readers. The traditional translating theory adopts the bottom-up translating process, which begins with characters, words and sentences; then to the passages and texts and last is the style of the text; however, that bottom-up method can alter the translator’s attention from translation. While functional equivalence theory adopts the top-bottom translating process, first, the translator needs to understand the purpose for translation according to different factors which can influence translation, second, the translator needs to choose the type of translation and then make the translating strategies according to the restraints of environment and the features of language. To sum up, comprehensive analysis goes before dealing with the characters, words and texts, and then goes to the translating strategies.Because of the time-space limit, in accordance with Nida’s functional equivalence theory, the translator needs to find the most natural and closest equivalence and convey the meaning of the source text within the limited time and space.To reach this goal, the translator has to master various strategies, such as domestication, foreignization, addition, reduction and so on, and pay attention to the principles for producing the functional equivalence proposed by Nida.The purpose of the translator for writing this thesis is to provide the subtitle translators with certain help and raise the attention of the translators in this field in subtitle translation, especially the attention to the significance of Nida’s functional equivalence theory in guiding the subtitle translation.