The Translation Of Humor Subtitle From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

With the development of economy all over the world, the cultural communicationamong different countries becomes more and more frequent. As a cultural carrier,foreign films，TV series and other audiovisual products have become more and morepopular among Chinese audience．People’s strong desire for understanding foreigncultures and listening to the original sound of the audiovisual products make subtitlingbecome an excellent way to know exotic cultures and to learn foreign languages．As abranch of translation，subtitle translation deserves more and more attention．What functional equivalence theory pursues lies in not only lexical equivalence butalso the equivalence in semantics and style. This theory requires that the receptors’responses to the targeted text should be similar with those of the original readers’ to thesource text. The translation of humor subtitle aims to achieve the similar humorouseffects of the source text, which coincides with the views of functional equivalencetheory. As a result, this theory can be used to guide the translating activities of humorsubtitle.Nida’s functional equivalence pays attention to the response of the receptor insteadof the form of the text. Whether a translated text is faithful to the original is judged by thecomparison between the responses of the receptor. A functional equivalent translationdemands completely natural expression and intends to convey the message to thereceptor in a familiar and natural way under the context of his own culture; it does notdemand the receptor to comprehend the cultural elements in the source-language contextwith its purpose to appreciate the message.(Nida,1964)Therefore, on the basis of former studies, this thesis will conduct a study about the humor subtitle translation of The Big Bang Theory by means of literature method analyticinduction. It aims to find out what kinds of strategies adopted in humor subtitletranslation and find out the reasons behind the strategies. Meanwhile, it tries to test thevalidity of functional equivalent theory in humor subtitle translation.This thesis will probe into subtitle translation of humor in The Big Bang Theory inaccordance with functional equivalence theory. At the same time, it expects to concluderelatively feasible translation principles and strategies from this discussion. It highlightsthat different kind of humor should accompany with different translation strategies toconsist with functional equivalence. This theory also considers it a criterion whether thetarget viewers’ response to the source material is the same as the original viewers’, whichpaves an innovation way of thinking in terms of translation. Nida’s functionalequivalence theory provides us a practical principle and methods to solve the problems instrategies adoption. However, when it comes to practical operation, a good subtitletranslator should be audience-oriented and use natural, precise and oral language intranslation.This thesis consists of six chapters. The main contents are as follows:The first chapter acts as an introduction of the whole thesis. It briefly presents theresearch background, significance, objectives, questions, methods and structure of thethesis. The second chapter is literature review which gives a detailed introduction to thestudies of humor subtitle translation, functional equivalence theory and The Big BangTheory. The third chapter focuses on functional equivalence theory and its application tohumor subtitle translation. The forth chapter gives a brief introduction to humor subtitleand The Big Bang Theory. It focuses on how translators make use of different strategiesto realize their expected purposes under the guidance of functional equivalence. In thefifth chapter, the author sums up some translation principles and makes an analysis thathow various humors are translated under different strategies to realize its expectedpurposes within the guidance of functional equivalence theory. The sixth chapter isconclusion which includes research findings, limitations and suggestions for future studies as well.Through the text analysis, the thesis has the following findings. Humor subtitle’sfeature of the time and space constraints， and entertaining audiences determinestranslators’ different choices of strategies, thus the humorous effects that the original texthas get successfully conveyed. Functional equivalence theory takes it as a standard intranslating that the receptors’ response should be equivalent with that of the originalreaders or audience. Therefore, in practice, translators should take into considerationaudiences’ feelings and tastes and try to convey the humorous effects of humor subtitlesin a concise, clear and colloquial manner.