A Case Study Of The Subtitle Translation In Sitcom How I Met Your Mother

As watching American situational comedies is gaining popularity,subtitling has garnered considerably increasing attention from translators and researchers.Since viewers have divided demands for subtitles,sometimes one single version of subtitling is unable to satisfy both entertaining and learning purposes of audiences.The author believes Skopos Theory lays emphasis on solving practical problems because it underscores the importance of purpose-built translation practices,and pays more attention to diversified needs of different groups of audiences.Thus,the Skopos Theory can be employed to tackle the reality issue of the diversification of viewing needs.The research method of the thesis is the contrastive analysis so as to interpret the efficacy and feasibility of the application of the Skopos Theory to subtitling for American sitcoms.The research significance lies in the encouragement of purpose-oriented subtitling practices and the promotion of adopting effective subtitling strategies according to various viewers' needs.In the meantime,this research study confirms the positive role in American sitcom subtitling.Under the guidance of the Skopos Theory,the thesis discusses the necessity of selecting different subtitling strategies in compliance with different viewing purposes among different groups of audiences.The example sitcom entitled “How I met your mother” is chosen for subtitling practices guided by the Skopos Theory.Subsequently,contrastive analysis is conducted to evaluate different versions of subtitling.The results have verified the workability of providing different versions of subtitles in line with different audiences' viewing needs,and effectiveness of applying the Skopos Theory to subtitling.Additionally,subtitling is closely connected with latest video playing technology,so it is necessary to update the cognition of technological features of subtitling.