Nida’s functional equivalence theory is considered by some to be quite useful in the film subtitle translation。 Therefore, in this thesis, the author makes an analysis of subtitle translation in terms of Nida’s functional equivalence theory with the movie Million Dollar Baby as a case study。 And it is mainly illustrated in three parts, namely linguistic equivalence, stylistic equivalence and cultural equivalence。 

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Review on subtitle translation论文网

“Translated subtitles can be defined as translations of the spoken or written source text of an audio-visual product into a written target text, which is added onto the images of the original text at the bottom of the screen。” (Gottlied 262) Translated subtitles function as synchronized captions for dialogues in films and television series。 People’s pronunciation and comprehension vary in different countries。 Under normal conditions, it is difficult for them to correctly and absolutely understand dialogues in movies, thus subtitles in written form enable them to comprehend more easily。 “According to Mao Tun, literary translation is to convey the artistic conception of the original with another language, thus helping readers gain inspirations and aesthetic feelings。” (Hou 212) Undoubtedly subtitles are of great importance for films。 The thesis will concentrate on subtitle translation with the case of Million Dollar Baby。

At abroad, early in the middle of the twentieth century, both the periodical Le Linguiste/De taalkundige and the magazine Babel have special columns for audiovisual translation。 Many articles on audiovisual translation were published with new perspectives。 They are the earliest studies of film subtitle translation in Europe。 In recent years, studies on film subtitle translation have got rapid development。 A great number of books and articles are published。 In the 1990s, studies on audiovisual translation in Europe began to enter the golden era。 Theories on audiovisual translation made a great breakthrough。 In 1992, Ivarsson from Sweden published the famous book Subtitling for the Media: a Handbook of an Art。 In the same year, Gottlieb Henrik published the book Subtitling---A New University Discipline。 And after 1995, European studies on audiovisual translation got rapid development。 A majority of relevant papers have been published one after another。 There appears a significant increase in relevant research studies。 

Since 1980s, a great deal of foreign films have been introduced into China which has attracted the attention of many Chinese scholars。 Some distinguished translators like Professor Zhang Chunbai，Qian Shaochang began to shift their their eyes on audiovisual translation studies and they have published many relative articles in film subtitle translation area。

Zhang Chunbai is an expert in the field of film subtitle translation。 He published A General Study on Film Translation in Chinese translators journal。 According to the article, in film subtitle translation translators should take target audiences’ language level into account。 He also states that cultural factors in subtitle translation are very hard to deal with and that free translation should be mainly used to achieve functional equivalent effect。 In 1998, he published A Preliminary Study of Screen Translation。 Since he has a long career in research on translation theories, the television series he translated is almost three hundred, including those we are familiar with like Hunter and A Streetcar Named Desire。 In his paper On Film Translation, Zhang Chunbai discusses characteristics of film and television art language like timeliness and popularity。 

Qian Shaochang is widely recognized as one of the pioneers in film subtitle translation area。 In 2000, he published Film Translation-A More and More Important Translation Area in Chinese translators journal。 The paper attaches importance to film translation and calls on translators to focus on it。 Besides, in the paper he points out five characteristics of film language。 He has been working for a long time in audiovisual translation and has translated nearly a thousand works on audiovisual translation like American dramas Growing Pains and The Thorn Birds。 What counts most is that he regards “expressiveness” as one of the most important factors。