On Subtitle Translation Strategies Of Culture-Specific Words And Verbally-Expressed Humor In American Sitcom Friends

With the far-reaching influence of the Internet, American TV series and programs are becoming more and more accessible to Chinese. People at home who don’t necessarily know English choose to watch American TV as a way of spending leisure time. According to a report by "China Science News", a2009survey shows that more than30million people regularly watch American TV in China. Although I did not find any exact statistics of the past few years, a number of domestic major portal websites are buying genuine U.S. drama increasing the number of facts can explain the U.S. drama’s influence on the domestic audience is growing.Friends is one of the most popular comedy series produced in the United States in1990s, followed by an exploding global presence. The show is also widely popular in China, and its subtitle translation is the key to the popularity and acceptance at home. Although the subject matter of subtitle translation has gradually been brought to the attention of scholars and professional translators concerned, with its specific characteristics and strategies being discussed, however, little has looked at the cultural element and verbal humor contained in sitcom dialogues in a micro-dimension-as in detailed analysis based on concrete examples drawn from the original dialogue; also there is a lack of practical and instructive guidance on the translation strategies specific to sitcom subtitles. The author believes that Friends is of great representativeness of American culture, and its rich cultural palette is mostly achieved through language. That is what makes the subtitle translation of Friends a well-qualified text for study on how to convey through translation the original taste of American culture at the minimal cost of humorous effect, i.e., finding out the best strategies.This thesis aims to look at subtitle translation from the perspectives of culture and humor under in a careful classification of the language in play. Newmark’s theory of" semantic translation and communication translation " is adopted as a theoretical framework for my study, to review and assess the translation strategies used in "Friends", measuring script language features, genre, and trying to identify certain principles for the basis of analyzing the appropriateness of the strategies used by the translator. In addition to my own enthusiasm in the translation of Anglo-American film and television, I also hope that my study can lend help and reference to the growing group of online subtitle translators who are playing an increasing signification role in cross-cultural communication, whether they realize it or not.