1、Functionalist Translation Theory and Film Translation【Abstract】 The last few decades witnessed the rapid development of literary translation， but the branch of movie translation has not gained deserved attention in translation circles. On the other hand， dubbed movies have gained increasing populari
2、ty among Chinese audience and the art of dubbing has developed into a special art in China. It seems paradoxical that there are still no relatively mature theories on movie translation. According to the functionalist theory， translation is a purposeful activity. In the functionalist theory， translat
3、ion is regarded as interpersonal interaction， rather than an action solely decided by the translator himself/herself .Therefore， a translation is the result of choices after analysis. Movie translation is a purposeful activity. The purpose of Movie translation is， with the constraints of time and sp
4、ace and in line with the intention of the directors and screenwriters， to convey to the audience in a specific culture the most relevant information. 【Key words】 Movie Translation； Source Language； Functional Equivalence Theory； Target Language 1Introduction Movies are also called motion pictures， f
5、ilm or cinema， but all of the names refer to the same visual medium that is really a marvelous combination of traditional culture and technology combined to project a world on a screen. Recently， since the movie market has prospered and flourished， there are an increasing number of translators engag
6、ed in this field and the quality of translators and language translation hasnt kept up with the art. Sadly， there are more second class translation efforts than superior ones. Movies that follow the proper channels into Chinese cinema are sure to be well translated， while subtitled pirated videos， w
7、hich always appear first in the Chinese market， are poorly translated， most of the time. Often， subtitles are so out of sync with what is taking place on the screen， that its hard to recognize a key sentence or recognize the movie！ The author is frequently shocked by the irresponsibility of the tran
8、slators： miswritten characters， vague meanings， many lines left void of translation and also interjected dialogues that have nothing to do with the original meaning. The translators are making up stories based on what they see on the screen， damaging the style and beauty of the original movie. Every
9、 time seeing a dummy translation， the author cannot help but sympathize with the audience that is being deprived of a great plot， dialogue， and other key spoken aspects behind a great story， which is what really shapes great cinema. 2Application of Skopostheory in Movie Translation “Functionalist” m
10、eans focusing on the function or functions of texts and translations. Functionalism is a broad term for various theories that approach translation in this way. But before coming to the details of Skopostheory， here the author first of all is to make a general review the important translation theorie
11、s that serve as the background for Skopostheory. Movie translation is restricted by the actions of the characters on the screen. Besides the restriction of mouth movements， the body language of the characters is communicating messages to the audience all the time and these messages are sometimes the
12、 key to the comprehension of the play plot. The language of the characters in movies has individual characteristic. So in movie translation， the translator has to think about the personality of the characters in certain circumstances. He should try to present these characters in features of their la
13、nguages， which can show the personality of the characters. 3A detailed analysis of the subtitle translation of A World Without Thieves In this section， I would like to pick out some examples of translated subtitles from Fengs films， and analyze this successful subtitle translation strategies and the
14、 influencing factors from a functionalist point of view. （1）For some redundant message in the source language， a direct reduction or a paraphrasing condensation strategy is adopted. A lot of such examples can be found. Example 1 “有钱能使鬼推磨” “Even ghosts will work for money” The two phrases”百尺竿头更上一步”an
15、d”有钱能使鬼推磨”in the examples are two wellknown proverbs， with which almost all Chinese are familiar. It is not a easy thing to translate “百尺竿头” and “推磨” literally into English under the constrain of time and space. And what is more important， its impossible for the western audience to understand the li
16、terally translated version without explanation. Therefore， the subtitle adopts a paraphrasing condensation strategy to translate the two phrases and thus make sure the readability of the subtitle. （2）Translating repetitious idioms and phrases by omission Example 2 真的当自己是善男信女了 You really think youre
17、pious？ In the above two examples， if “偷奸耍滑”and“善男信女”are translated completely into “act in a stealthy subtitle will become fairly long， and slick way” which obviously of the foreign viewers. The subtitler omitted maintained the humorous effect of the dialogue. And “devout men and women” will lengthe
18、n the processing time the unnecessary part. （3）Expressions adapted to western culture Example 3 可是我不想让孩子一生下来就替我们背黑锅 I dont want it entering the world carrying the weight of our sins. In this example， the phrase”背黑锅”is a Chinese way of expressing a phenomenon that someone is blamed for others sin， es
19、pecially children for parents. If it is translated literally， western viewers definitely can not understand it. So subtitler domesticates the phrase to adapt to western culture and translates it into “carrying the weight of our sins.” （4） Pragmatic rerendering or rewriting of dialogue to guarantee t
20、he intratextual coherence. Example 4 想在道上安身立命， 就五个字五毒不丈夫。 To survive in the underworld， remember just three words：“Greatness is ruthless.” In the above two cases， “六个字”and “五个字”are translated into “five words” and “three words” separately. It is completely a rewriting due to pragmatic consideration.
21、 （5）Using English， equivalents to translate slang expressions. In colloquial language， slang words and expressions are commonly used. Dialogue belongs to colloquial language， so subtitler has to consider how to translate slang expressions appropriately. When translating Fengs film subtitle， Willie B
22、rent uses English equivalents to translate slang expressions to reserve the humorous effects of the film. Let us see some examples first. All these factors influence Willie Brents choice of translation strategies. Following directors translation brief and bearing translation purpose and target viewe
23、rs in mind， Willie Brent adopts strategies， such as reduction， paraphrasing， omission， domestication， literal translation as well as adding relevant information， to guarantee the fulfillment of skopos and keep the intratextual coherence of the subtitle to improve the legibility and connectivity. All
24、 these guarantee the final success and satisfying acceptance of Fengs films in the target market. After analyzing Fengs film from functionalist approach， we can find out clearly that there do exist some factors that affect subtitlers choice of translation strategies. In the next chapter， lets move o
25、n to find out these influencing factors， which are also the enlightenment on subtitle translation drawn from functionalist approach. 4Conclusion This paper is systematic study of film subtitle translation within the framework of functionalist theories. The author holds that functionalist approach is
26、 useful not only for translator training but also for translation evaluation. The functionalist approach caters not only linguistic analysis but also extralinguistic factors. Within such a framework， the author is able to evaluate subtitle translation of A world Without Thieves much more objectively
27、 and comprehensively. Together with an interview with the translator and with a target addressee， the author also tests the validity of the functionalist theories. Bibliography： 1Gentzler， Edwin. Contemporary Translation （Revised 2nd Edition）. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 200
28、4 2 Catford， J. C. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London： Oxford UP， 1965 3 Wilss， Wolfram. The Science of Translation： Problems and Methods.Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2004 4 Reiss， Katharina. “Adequacy and Equivalence in Translation.” Journal of Linguistics 3 （1989）：
29、16177 5 Eugene A. Nida & CharlesR.Taber： Translation.E.J.Brill，Leiden，The Netherlands，1982 6谭载喜， 西方翻译简史 （增订版）北京：商务印书馆，2004 7尹菊娥， “大巧之朴唯平淡难冯小刚贺岁片漫谈” ， 电影批评：迈向 21世纪，北京：北京广播学院出版社，2002 8冯庆华， 实用翻译教程 ，上海外语教育出版社，1997 9刘必庆：文体与翻译 ，中国对外翻译出版公司，1985 作者简介： 魏然（1986.1-） ，女，汉族，湖北武汉人，助教，中国地质大学外国语言学及应用语言学硕士，主要从事大学英语以及英语词汇学教学研究。
