Film Subtitles Translation Research

Film, since its creation, has shouldered the mission of delivering information and spreading culture. Globalization triggers the booming of the film industry, and makes films gradually flourish on the world stage. As a result of that, audiovisual translation becomes more and more significant in the course of intercultural communication between China and foreign countries. However, the current situation of the film translation is quite unsatisfactory, which is in sharp contrast with the prosperity of film market. On the one hand, audiovisual translation is relatively a new area. Relevant researches are far from being systematic for the short of adequate attention. Even though most scholars have turned their eyes on the subtitle translation strategies, it is hard to evaluate the quality of subtitle translation without proper principles as guidance. On the other hand, reality witnesses many inaccurate, unprofessional and even awkward translated texts of film subtitles. And some translators’competence is questioned. Therefore, theories and principles are urgently needed to guide the subtitle translation.This thesis conducts a study on film subtitle translation guided by Nida’s functional equivalence theory. Different from the traditional translation theories, functional equivalence theory regards the receptor’s reaction as the highest evaluation criteria. And in film translation, the target audience’s reaction to the target text is very important for the judgment of a film translation, which has the same value with that of the functional equivalence theory. Besides, many other factors influencing the subtitle translations have been discussed on the basis of this theory. The author also makes a detailed analysis of the micro-aspects of subtitle translation, including its features, constraints and functions. These aspects provide more challenges for subtitle translation.Guided by the studies on both the macro-level and the micro-level, this thesis put forward five principles for subtitle translation. Besides, the author also makes some suggestions when these principles cannot meet at the same time in order to make sure of a successful translation of film subtitles. Meanwhile, these principles can also serve as the evaluation criteria for the subtitle translation. The principle of the audience’s response should be regarded as the supreme overriding principle. What’s more, some special requirements for English-Chinese subtitlers have also been presented to regulate the subtitle translation practice.