| More and more foreign audiovisual products such as films and TV plays haveflushed to Chinese market since globalization. Appreciating foreign audiovisualproducts becomes a fashion among the Chinese people. To ensure the Chineseaudience’s comprehension and enjoyment of the foreign audiovisual products,dubbing and subtitle translation were created promptly. Subtitle translation isdeveloping better these days. However, the guiding theory of subtitle translation stillneeds further development and complement because of the various qualities of thesubtitled texts in domestic market. So the author plans to conduct a research onsubtitle translation based on the Skopostheorietic approach for the sake of providingsome efforts to improve the quality of subtitle translation.Subtitle translation distinguishes itself from other types of literary translation bymaximally conveying the messages of the original text to the target viewers under thespatial and temporal constraints. Scholars have explored Skopostheorie in variousfields, in their opinion, translation is a cross-cultural communication and this activityhas its purpose. Thus, subtitle translation is also a purposeful activity which can lookfor theoretical support from Skopostheorie. According to Skopostheorie, every singletraditional translation criterion is far from enough to guide the subtitlers whenchoosing the appropriate translation strategies. Considering about different purposes,subtitlers should use corresponding strategies to better convey the originalinformation to the target audience.This paper mainly conducts a case study on subtitle translation of the Americansitcom Friends from the perspective of Skopostheorie. The author attempts to find onSkopostheretic basis some feasible approaches to making the Chinese audience fullyunderstand and enjoy this sitcom and enabling them appreciate the exoticcultural-factors in America. As for Friends, an effective translation of subtitles shouldreveal the most relevant messages in the most effective way under the spatial andtemporal constraints, making this sitcom understandable and making the viewers havealmost the same experience as the original viewers do. By means of comparing theexamples in the original text and analyzing various versions of Chinese subtitles, thisthesis concludes some appropriate translation strategies which can be employed in subtitle translation of sitcom Friends according to the Skopos of activities. At the endof this thesis, the author proves that Skopostheorie is feasible to subtitle translation,especially subtitle translation in sitcom. |
