Research On The Application Of Skopos Theory In Subtitle Translation

In modern times, with the deepening of globalization process and increasingly growing of people’s spiritual and cultural needs, the international output of film and television works is becoming an irresistible trend. Under this background, the film industry enjoys a flourishing development and exploits a broad international market, which meets the spiritual and cultural needs of foreign audience and makes huge commercial profits as well. Serving as a kind of auxiliary service, subtitle translation plays an important role in the exportation of film and television works. Because the quality of subtitle translation has an direct effect on the target audience’s appreciation about exotic film and television works, which to some extent affects the works’ box office earnings and ultimately hinders them from fulfilling their commercial value. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the subtitle translation strategies beneficial to the realization of film and television works’ commercial purpose.Recently, in spite of the rapid development of the film industry and the evident internationalization of film transmission, the study on subtitle translation is still supposed to be strengthened; Under the guidance of translation theories, scholars should conduct more research in this field. Known as an important translation theory in western academic field, the skopos theory explores the translation process from the perspective of “purpose of translation” and regards translation as a purposeful human behavior. According to this theory, the specific translation strategies and methods are subject to the translation purpose, which is of great significance for the translation of operational texts. Taking Kung Fu Panda’s English-Chinese subtitle version(released by Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio) for example, this paper analyzes its subtitle translation and studies the related translation strategies and techniques helpful for the movie’s commercial value, on the basis of the three rules(skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule) of the skopos theory. According to the detailed discussion, the writer holds that, under the guidance of domestication, omission and free translation, the English subtitles in this movie are more likely to be translated into the corresponding high-quality Chinese subtitles, which can attract the target audience and finally enable the movie to achieve its commercial value. In the end, it is hoped that the related research in this thesis might provide some helpful inspiration for the subsequent study on subtitle translation theory and application.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter provides the outline of this paper’s research background, significance, research methods and thesis structure. The second chapter mainly summarizes the related research contents of subtitle translation, including the definition of subtitle translation, classification and characteristics of subtitles, the constraints of subtitle translation as well as the current domestic and foreign research status concerning subtitle translation. The third chapter gives an introduction of this study’s theoretical background, which mainly refers to the formation and development, fundamental rules of skopos theory, evaluation on skopos theory from the academic field as well as the application of skopos theory in translation practice. The fourth chapter briefly analyzes the commercial purpose of the subtitle translation of Kung Fu Panda(a Hollywood animation movie). According to the discussions on typical English-Chinese subtitle translation examples within the framework of skopos theory, this chapter mainly explores some subtitle translation strategies and techniques(domestication, foreignization, amplification, omission, literal translation and free translation) helpful to the achievement of this movie’s commercial purpose. The fifth chapter is the paper’s conclusion part, which points out this study’s significance, major findings, limitations and further research orientation.