The Subtitling Study Based On Frame Theory

There are many studies on subtitling,which are mainly analyzed from both functional perspective and pragmatic perspective.Theories based on these approaches include the Skopos Theory,which focuses on function,the Relevance Theory and the Adaptation Theory,which have a more pragmatic focus.This thesis,however,tries to analyze subtitling from a new perspective,a cognitive perspective.This thesis uses the British TV drama Downton Abbey,popular with many audiences in the world,as a vehicle for analysis of subtitle translation.This is based on the Frame Theory from the perspective of cognition and using this approach attempts to find some appropriate subtitle translation strategies.According to Frame Theory,subtitle translation seeks to achieve the frame correspondence in the process of linking frame understanding and construction.The task of subtitle translators is to find the equivalent linguistic expressions in the target language that can activate the cognitive frames corresponding with or similar to the original ones in the source language.There are two main features of Frame Theory,namely cognitive and cultural features that are relevant here.Utilizing these two features,this thesis analyzes the subtitle translation of Downton Abbey and this process attempts to find subtitling strategies that translators can adopt readily.There are four subtitle translation strategies: 1)free translation utilizing high-frequency words;2)literal translation concerning frame correspondence;3)domestication concerning frame replacement;4)target language reader centered concerning footnotes.