The Application of Functional Equivalence Into Subtitle Translation—Taking The Legend of 1900 as an Example

Abstract

In 1995, subtitle translation of film and translation became an independent translation field in the translation system. Audiovisual translation can help target audience to comprehend the contents of source language movies better and to acquire the best reaction across all movies, so audiovisual translation is really significant. However, it’s a pity that few translators pay attention to subtitle translation of China. This text takes the Chinese and English version of The legend of 1900 as an example, and it is analyzed and demonstrated from words and sentences level, cultural level and the tone of roles level. Therefore, we can analyze how to apply functional equivalence which is proposed by Eugene A. Nida into the subtitle translation. Meanwhile, we also demonstrate the feasibility and importance of the functional equivalence in audiovisual translation.