A Study Of E-C Subtitle Translation In Sitcoms From The Perspective Of Communication As Exemplified By The Big Bang Theory

In recent years, more and more foreign films and television works have been introduced into China, which has aroused scholars’attention to subtitle translation studies. Most of the current studies are conducted from the perspective of Relevance theory model, Polysystem theory, Norm theory and Functional Equivalence theory. However, in essence, films and televisions are to convey information and exchange culture, which leaves much room for studying subtitle translation from the perspective of Communication.In Communication studies, communication is a system that can affect another system through manipulating optional symbols. These symbols are transferred through the channels connected between them, aiming at sharing and exchanging information. Based on the science of Communication, this paper first analyses the five Communicative factors: translator, information, noise, audience and feedback; and then takes the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (season seven) for text analysis to explore effective principles and strategies of sitcom subtitle translation which mainly focuses on three aspects:responsible gatekeeper-like translator, information-based strategies and audience-orientation.As the "gatekeeper" in the process of translation, the translator should give full display to the roles of screening and guiding through deletion and substitution to ensure that the translated text is in consistent with the moral standard and code of the target language audiences’. Information in the subtitle is informative and entertaining, therefore, the translator should provide moderate and even detailed information when necessary to the target audiences, which can be achieved by annotation and compromised strategy. Receptors are the target language audiences. It is difficult to achieve the expected communication effect without considering the acceptability of the target language audiences. Thus, in the process of subtitle translation, full attention should be paid to their psychological and physical ability and concise and readable subtitles should be offered to alleviate their reading pressure.Through the above analysis, this paper is designed to apply the science of Communication to subtitle translation studies. It is hoped that the explorations and efforts made in this paper can provide reference to relevant subtitle translation studies.