At present, English learners regard it as a good means to learn English and foreign culture by watching American TV series or films。 It is impossible for every person to master another foreign language in China, which has the largest population in the world。 Owning to the differences of culture, economy and expressions among different countries, even an English major who masters English quite well may not understand every single word or sentence in the films or TV series without the help of subtitle translation。 Therefore, in order to let the audiences have the similar reaction like the local people, there is an urgent requirement for high quality and excellent subtitle translation。

Compared with other kinds of TV series, the language of American situation comedy has the main character of humor, which involves a great deal of cultural backgrounds。 Humor is not only the main element of American situation comedy, but also one of the biggest difficulties in subtitle translation due to its cultural differences。 The quality of subtitle translation directly influences the audiences’ reaction to the program。 Unlike literature translation, subtitle translation does not have a complete and systematic translation theory at home and abroad。 

Nida has put forward the famous theory- functional equivalence theory, which emphasizes the closest, natural equivalence between the source text and the target language。（Tan 98）This theory has a great influence on translation all over the world。 Because subtitle translation attaches much attention to the audience response, the contents of functional equivalence theory are in accordance with the needs of subtitle translation。 It could help translators to deal with some difficulties in the process of translation to a great extent。 Based on Nida’s functional equivalence theory, which emphasizes both form equivalence translation and content equivalence translation, this thesis aims to analyze the subtitle translation of American Situation Comedy - Modern Family in different aspects。 Under the instruction of this theory, it not only provides a translation theory, but also offers translation strategies and principles in practice。 To make a long story short, the application of Nida’s functional equivalence theory could better promote the cross-cultural communication all over the world。

2。 Literature Review

Since 1950s, some European scholars began to think about how to improve the quality of subtitle translation。 From then on, more and more scholars devoted themselves to the study of this field。 However, compared with the west countries, the study of subtitle translation in China is relatively immature。文献综述

There are four main factors that facilitated the study of subtitle translation。 1) Due to the rapid development of electronics, subtitle translation is greatly improved in Europe。 2) Serious situation makes scholars feel the great demand from the audiences for subtitle translation。 3) The close relationship between different countries across the sea。 4) Subtitle associations of languages and cultures exist between countries from all over the world。

Western countries had a great deal of detailed researches in subtitle translation many years ago。 In 1974, a famous scholar Cay Dollerup released his essay On Subtitles in Television Programs which specifically focused on TV subtitling and major mistakes made during the process of translation。 In 1990s, the study of subtitle translation flourished in the west。 George Michael Luyken’s Overcoming Language Barriers in Television: Dubbing and Subtitling for the European Audience systematically analyzed subtitle translation modes in detail。 In the March of 2009, Jorge Diza-Cintas and Gunilla Anderman jointly published the book Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer on Screen in which they introduce the translating audiovisual programs as well as problems caused by cultural differences。