On Subtitle Translation Of Free Birds From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Entering into the21st century, cultural exchanges between China and theWestern countries are becoming more and more. As a form of the popular culturalcarrier, the western movies are pouring into China’s market. But as a result ofdifference of the culture and the language system, if the audience have the will toenjoy the movie, and want to understand its cultural connotation, they must drawsupport from the translation. Thus, the quality of translation does matter a lot. Goodtranslation can make the movie full of vitality and creativity, but also can promote thespread and exchange of different cultures. Now although the film translation workshave a huge impact on today’s society, the study of film translation is actuallyunsatisfactory. Compared to traditional translation studies, the study of filmtranslation is seriously insufficient in quality and quantity. The current system in thisarea has not yet formed a theoretical system. This paper selects the subtitle translationof Free Birds as the object of study. From the perspective of functional equivalencetheory, the paper explores the application strategies and methods for subtitletranslation.Nida’s functional equivalence theory believes that translation is not the wordfor word coordination, but the coordination in function between two languages. Thecore of the functional equivalence theory conforms to the goal that subtitle translationneed to reach. That is the response of the source language audience and the targetlanguage audience is same or similar. This paper is composed of five parts. Chapterone is the introduction, presenting the research background and material that is to beused. Chapter two is literature review. It starts with the definition and classification ofsubtitle translation. The following part studies the subtitling in China. The thirdchapter introduces Nida’s functional equivalence theory. The fourth chapter carriesout the case analysis and explores how to achieve the reciprocity function of subtitletranslation. The study concludes that, according to the subtitle translationcharacteristics, under the supervision of functional equivalence theory, subtitlingshould be equivalent at the linguistic level, stylistic level, and at the cultural level at least. The last chapter is the conclusion. It gives the summary of the paper and pointsout the limitation of the study.Watching foreign films is an important way for Chinese to get to know thewestern culture. However, in China, subtitle translation has not yet attracted muchattention. It deserves the focus to make films more effective in the communication ofcultures.