Abstract

 In recent years, the large-scale introductions of excellent foreign films promote the cultural communications of language between China and other countries. High-quality movies not only bring entertainment to people but also bring great contributions to international commercial and cultural integration. We have seen great achievements in film subtitle researches at home and abroad, among which the functional equivalence theory of the famous linguist Eugene A Nida stands high and still, both in advancement and in practice, which is worthy of spreading and further studying. Meanwhile, the choice of strategies to realize the functional equivalence in film subtitles translation in accordance with Nida’s functional equivalence theory comes into question.

     Thus this article is trying to analyze in depth of the equivalence between the translation version and original version of the subtitle in the successful American commercial comedy Zootopia based on the research achievements of Nida’s functional equivalence theory. The analysis is carried out according to the four aspects of the content of functional equivalence theory, including lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence. The strategies concluded from the case study of the movie Zootopia could be used as guidance while trying to realize functional equivalence between original text and translation version in the process of translating film subtitles as much as possible.

Key words: Eugene A Nida； Functional Equivalence Theory； Film Subtitle Translation； Zootopia

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

1.1 Background of Film Subtitle Translation-1

1.2 Significance of Film Subtitle Translation-1

1.3 Objective of Film Subtitle Translation-2

2  Literature Review on Film Subtitle Translation-3

2.1 Chinese Researches on Film Subtitle Translation-3

2.2 Foreign Researches on Film Subtitle Translation-3

2.3 An Introduction to Functional Equivalence Theory-4

2.3.1 A Brief Introduction to Nida-4

2.3.2 The Main Content of Functional Equivalence Theory-4

2.3.3 Strategies of E—C Subtitling Based on Functional Equivalence Theory-7

3  Strategies of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory of Translation-9

3.1 Lexical Equivalence-9

3.2 Syntactic Equivalence-9

3.3 Textual Equivalence-9

3.4 Stylistic Equivalence-9 

4  Case Study of Film Subtitle Translation in Zootopia-10

4.1 Brief introduction of the Film Zootopia-10

4.2 Analysis of Examples in the Film Zootopia and Strategies of E—C Subtitling According to Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory-10

4.2.1 Examples in the film Zootopia and Strategies of E—C Subtitling          According to lexical equivalence-11

4.2.2 Examples in the film Zootopia and strategies of E—C subtitling according to syntactic equivalence-14

4.2.3 Examples in the film Zootopia and strategies of E—C subtitling according to textual equivalence-17

5  Conclusion-20

Bibliography-21

Acknowledgments-22