An Analysis Of Mistakes In Subtitle Translation With The Functionalist Theory

At present, foreign films and TV programmes are quite popular in China. Their popularity is attributed to appealing plots and adorable roles, as well as quality subtitle translation. Unfortunately, as many translators are movie amateurs who are not proficient in the English language and culture, many mistakes were made. It boils down to the fact that translators do not know well about the exact purpose of the source text, and lack proper translation strategies and skills. The Functionalist Theory holds that translation strategies are determined by the purpose of the source text, and that three rules should be observed during translation:the Skopos rule holds that translation is an activity with a purpose according to which strategies are taken; the coherence rule holds that the translated text should comply with the target culture and be accepted by target readers; and the fidelity rule requires translation be consistent with the source text in terms of meaning and linguistic features. This thesis analyzes the mistakes and list good translations by using Friends, an American TV sit-com series, as an example. Examples of mistakes are listed and analyzed in this paper with the aim to provide future subtitle translators with more insight. It is found that there are four main reasons of mistakes in subtitle translation: misunderstanding of the source text; inappropriate style of translation; mishandle of cultural elements; and exact equivalence of languages resulting in awkward expression of the target language.