On Subtitle Translation Of 2 Broke Girls From The Perspective Of Functionalist Theory

Films and TV series are means of mass media to transfer cultural information. With economic globalization, the expansion of the market of films and TV series, and in particular the popularity of the internet, more and more foreign films and TV series have been introduced to China. Therefore, the improvement in the quality of subtitle translation plays a significant role in strengthening the target-language audience’s understanding the plot of the films and TV series and in promoting the sound development of subtitle translation.Different from the traditional literature translation and dubbing, the most popular English-Chinese subtitle translation is done by fans and amateurs in China based on their translation practice and experience without guidance of systematic theory. A surprising imbalance between the enormous impacts of subtitle translation on audiovisual programs and the little research on it arouses the author’s interest. This present thesis attempts to analyze and discuss this kind of subtitle translation from a macro-level within the framework of functionalist translation theory to improve the subtitling.This thesis, through the adoption of functional translation theory, conducts a research on translation strategies of the subtitles of the online American comic TV series, 2 Broke Girls. Hoping that some valuable strategies and skills, the translators have adopted in the process of translating 2 Broke Girls can be dug out through comparative analysis.The thesis is divided into five parts. First part is about the introduction. Second part is about the research study on subtitle and studies abroad and in home. Part three is about functional translation theory of German School which has broken the bound of traditional translation theories, complemented the theories of translation studies and provided a new approach for subtitle translation. Functional translation theory contains four aspects:Katharina Reiss’s text typology; the core concept of functional translation theory "Skopostheorie"; the theory of translational action; and function plus loyalty.The films and TV series belong to the fourth text type. Subtitle translators should choose proper translation strategies based on the features of the fourth text type that is informative function supplemented by expressive function and appellative function. The purpose decides the adopted translation methods. The initiators’and the translators’ purposes, the intended functions of the translation and the expectations of the target-language audience decide the strategies of subtitle translation employed in the whole translation process.In the fourth part, it starts from the perspective of the target-language audience, on the one hand, they want to enrich their spiritual life and get amusement and entertainment through watching 2 Broke Girls. A large number of students watch 2 Broke Girls in the hope of being able to learn about American culture and improve their English. From the perspective of initiators, as a matter of fact, the intention of subtitle translation is to maximize the number of the target-language audience by meeting the needs and expectations of them in order to obtain the maximum profit. In conclusion, The translators are required to adopt appropriate translation strategies not only based on the text type and "translation brief" from the initiators’but also the target-language audience’s experience, expectations, background knowledge, and the intended function as the general principle supplemented by the principle of function plus loyalty.Based on functional translation theory, this thesis, through data analysis and comparative study of the E-C translation of the subtitles of TV series 2 Broke Girls, has come up with the translators’translation strategies and methods. They employ reduction, explicitation, domestication and foreignization to achieve the intended functions or purposes of the translation. Subtitle translation is actually a new area of translation research. This thesis is an attempt to conduct a study in this new area by analyzing the translation strategies of the subtitles of American TV series 2 Broke Girls based on functional translation theory. The author of this thesis is paying constant attention to this research area and hope to see more research findings in the near future.