A Study Of Subtitles Translation Of Modern Family From The Perspective Of Communicative Translation Theory

Along with the development of science and technology, people can watch more and more foreign films and TV series. Among them, American situation comedies are very popular with Chinese audiences. But most Chinese audiences can watch them only with the help of subtitles which are translated into Chinese. So the subtitle translation is necessary and important.Due to the distinctive features of films or TV series, their translation is quite different from traditional translation. The main function of films or TV series is to entertain the public and the main task of the subtitle translation is to improve the audiences’ viewing effect and help them achieve cross-cultural communication.Based on this background, communicative translation theory, especially Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory is supposed to be useful in subtitle translation of films or TV series for it aims to produce the same effect on the target readers as is produced on the source readers. Therefore, under the guide of Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory, the thesis tries to explore the guiding principles and some useful strategies for subtitle translation. Humor is a very important but difficult point in subtitle translation. So this thesis tries to discuss how to translate the element of humor in subtitle translation. Modern Family is a TV programme full of humor. As a result, this thesis will take Modern Family as an example to analyze the guiding principles and some useful strategies for subtitle trnaslation based on Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory.This thesis mainly focuses on discussing the following questions. First, is communicative translation theory applicable to guide subtitle translation? Second, what specific translation strategies can be adopted by the translator in Modern Family? Third, to what extent do these strategies reflect the proposed guiding principles and how?After the analysis, this thesis finds that communicative translation theory is applicable in subtitle translation of films or TV series. Based on communicative translation theory, three principles are put forward in this thesis: the principles of economy, comprehensibility and equivalent effect. They are proved to be useful in subtitle translation. What’s more, various strategies such as cutting, adding, substitution, and domestication are proved to make the subtitle translation more effective.The literature research method, case study method, analytic method will be applied in this thesis to explore how the communicative translation theory guides subtitle translation. The examples are collected from the episodes of the first season to the third season of Modern Family with the subtitle translated by Sohu.It is the developing trend to regulate the translation of foreign films or TV series. The translation of films or TV series based on communicative translation theory is acceptable and helpful. The translation under the guide of the principles based on communicative translation theory can help the translators avoid the wrong translation or mistranslation. Therefore, this thesis may be used as a reference for subtitle translators. This thesis is only a little step in the field of subtitle translation research. There are many places that can be further improved and perfected with no doubt. Due to various reasons and limitations, the study of this thesis cannot avoid its limitation.