Abstract:With the accelerated development of globalization, cultural exchanges between different countries are increasingly frequent. As a special cultural carrier, foreign films and television series have become more and more prevalent among Chinese audiences. People’s strong desire for appreciating the audiovisual products and understanding foreign cultures make subtitling become a convenient way to know exotic cultures and way of learning foreign languages. As a branch of translation, subtitle translation has developed rapidly in recent years. Different form traditional literature translation and dubbing, subtitle translation is done voluntarily by the web enthusiasts based on their own practical experience to complete the translation work which lack of guidance of systematic theory. On the basis of previous studies, this thesis will do a research about the humor subtitle translation of The Big Bang Theory by applying literature method analytic induction. This aims to find out what kinds of tactics adopted and tries to test the validity of the functional equivalent theory in humor subtitle translation. By applying the functional equivalent theory to the case studies, it has been founded that the time and space constraints of humor subtitle and entertaining audiences determines the flexible use of translation strategies. Functional Equivalence Theory takes it as a criterion in subtitle translating that the readers’ response should be equivalent with that of the original audiences. Meanwhile, it provides new ideas and unique thoughts for subtitle translation.

Key Words: humor; subtitle translation; functional equivalence theory; The Big Bang Theory

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Introduction-1

I. Literature Review-3

A. Humor and Its Translation-3

B. Subtitle and Its Translation-3

II. Eugene A •Nida and His Functional Equivalence Theory-5

A. A Brief Introduction Eugene A. Nida-5

B. Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory-5

C. Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in Translation-6

III. Humor Translation of The Big Bang Theory under Functional Equivalence Theory-9

A. General Introduction of The Big Bang Theory-9

B. Categories of the Oral Humor in The Big Bang Theory-10

C. Humorous Subtitle Translation in The Big Bang Theory Based on Functional Equivalence Theory-11

1. Culture Humor-12

2. General Humor-13

3. Humor Concerning Rhetorical Devices-14

Conclusion-17

Bibliography-19

Acknowledgments-21