Translation strategies for humorous and witty subtitles of American dramas from the perspective of functional equivalence theory--taking Modern Family as an example
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: With the development of globalization, American dramas have received widespread attention worldwide, especially in China, where their popularity is staggering. However, the development status of subtitle translation in China, especially the development status of humor subtitle translation, cannot keep up with the development speed of American dramas in China. The theme of this study is to analyze the humorous subtitles of the famous American drama Modern Family from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory and further explore the translation strategies of humorous subtitles of American dramas under that perspective. This study mainly concludes by screening out the most representative humorous subtitles in Modern Family and conducting a detailed case study on them. This research shows that the subtitle translation of Modern Family is done by choosing its applicable translation strategies according to the humor types of different lines, so as to skillfully transform the humorous original subtitles into the target-language subtitles that have the same humorous effect. It also proves that Nida’s theory of functional equivalence is a correct guide for the translation of humorous subtitles in sitcoms.
Source: SHS Web of Conferences
Author: Qiaoruo Ma
Institution: Sichuan International Studies University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413176192