A Study Of Translation Of Humorous Subtitles In American Sitcom Modern Family From The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

Receiving several Emmy awards, American sitcom Modern Family is a quite popular sitcom among Chinese audience. Modern Family describes stories of an extended family. There are various kinds of contradictions, including contradictions of old husband and young wife, international marriage, parents and adolescent children, step parents and step children, etc.. Many humorous and funny stories take place during the process of contradiction and the settlement. In the process of subtitling translation, how to translate humor well influences the audience’s acceptance directly.Andrew Chesterman proposes five models of translation ethics, i.e. ethics of representation, ethics of service, ethics of communication, norm-based ethics and ethics of commitment. These models emphasize different core values of translation, yet they combine as a whole.Based on Andrew Chesterman’s translation ethics, taking American sitcom Modern Family as object, the author analyzes translation of humorous subtitles, with an attempt to broaden the application scope of translation ethics, and to offer a new perspective of studying translation of humorous subtitles. Based on the subtitling translation provided by YYeTs, a popular Fansub group in China, this thesis adopts inductive method, qualitative study and case study as research methods, analyzing translation of humorous subtitles of Modern Family according to each of the five models of translation ethics.Through the research, the thesis finds that Chesterman’s translation ethics can well provide guidance and theoretical help for translation of humorous subtitles in sitcoms. From the perspective of ethics of representation, in order to represent the original speaker’s intention and to keep the original cultural traits, translators usually adopt literal translation to translate universal humor; From the perspective of ethics of service, in order to reduce difficulty of understanding and to keep target audience’s interest in sitcoms for the benefit of clients, translators usually employ annotation to translate puns in sitcoms; From the perspective of ethics of communication, in order to increase intercultural communication and interaction, and to get understanding between cultures, translators usually utilize substitution to translate linguistic humor and cultural humor; From the perspective of norm-based ethics, in order to meet expectations of target audience and norms of target language, translators usually adopt literal translation and annotation to translate humor related to sex; From the perspective of ethics of commitment, in order to stay professional and to translate the best version, translators usually apply imitation to translate nonce words. Under the guidance of translation ethics, translators can apply proper translation strategies in the process of translation of humorous subtitles to reduce cultural and linguistic obstacles for the purpose of transforming humor effectively and then to promote cultural communication. The author hopes that this thesis can provide some reference and guidance for translation of humorous subtitles, and contribute to the development of subtitling translation.