The Skopos theory is a concept from the field of translation studies. It provides an insight into the nature of translation as a purposeful activity, which is directly applicable to every translation project. Translation is considered not as a process of translation, but as a specific form of human action. Yin Ling analyze the phenomenon with the Skopos Theory, considering that every action has its own purpose, so the translation is also dominated by purpose (Yin Ling, 2008:22). Every translation is directed at an intended audience. The theory focuses above all on the purpose of the translation, which determines the translation methods and strategies that are to be employed in order to produce a functionally adequate result. Yin Ling approved the Skopos Theory, that is, “because of the difference between the eastern and western in culture, ideology and the way of thinking, it is necessary for translator to ‘violate’ the original to get the better understanding and it is allowable to make some proper replacement, deletion or rewrite on original. (Yin Ling, 2008: 21)”. The Skopos theory includes skopos rule, coherence rule, and fidelity rule. The skopos rule is the top-ranking rule for any translation is thus the 'skopos rule', which means that a translation action is determined by its skopos. The coherent rule specifies that a translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with the receivers’ situation (Vermeer, 1989). The fidelity rule refers to the consistency between the translation and original, which is also known as the loyalty principle by Nord. Currently, the translation strategy of domestication and foreignization represented by Nida is the most representative strategy in film subtitle translation. He proposed that the translator must consider the traits of target language and try to use the expression form of target language. For film subtitle translation, it is necessary to achieve the recombination between the source language and the target language to make the translation more fluent and authentic. So the theory of domestication is very important in film translation. Ye Xiangshu raised the point that the film translation should not simply do a mechanical conversion but should take advantage of the relative theory like the theory of domestication to make a better translation than direct translation (Ye Xiangshu, 2011:137). At the same time, the translation cannot lose the original cultural features. So, it is essential for translator to make a translation which can help audience understand film and preserve the cultural features.
Enter the key words of subtitle translation in the CNKI, 3477 results can be found . The broad statistics suggest that people have realized the applications of network catchwords in film subtitle translation. According to the literatures, many authors have expounded some translation methods of film subtitle translation. This paper aimed at summarizing the principles of the translation of network catchwords on the basis of setting kinds of examples.
1.2 Research design and methodology
In respect of the film subtitle translation, it is worthy to study whether we should fully comply with the culture of the source language or use some catchwords to follow the theory of domestication. The present research is a descriptive analysis of English film subtitle translation. Firstly, this paper is planned to introduce the traditional theory on translation criteria and some special features of film subtitle translation. Then examples are chosen from Kungfu Panda II and Men in Black III to demonstrate the phenomenon of the prevalence of catchwords in film subtitle translation. The data are collected from the questionnaire to research the audience acceptance of the translation localization. This paper makes a statement on the film subtitle translation from the perspective of the positive and the negative, and it aims at finding out the strategies of film subtitle translation.
2 A profile of film subtitle translation 影视作品翻译中流行语的应用兼谈大众对“神翻译”的接受(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_12701.html