Author(s)

Biyun Zhang

Corresponding Author

Biyun Zhang

Abstract

With the proliferation of modern information and the advancement of communication technology, people are provided with millions of imported movies and foreign TV series, among which American ones are most popular owing to their exciting stories, admirable directors and excellent players. In addition, some Chinese audience regard them as an effective way to improve their English and learn about American culture at the same time. Hence the subtitling translation of these series has drawn wide attention. This study investigates how sociosemiotic approach is applied in subtitling translation of American TV series, proposes corresponding translation strategies from a sociosemiotic perspective, thus pointing out that in subtitling translation, translators must transfer designative meaning, linguistic meaning and pragmatic meaning of the characters’ dialogues appropriately. This research is expected to be of some benefit for both professional and amateur translators in their subtitling translation and draw attention to the emerging importance of a theoretical research into subtitling.

Keywords

Subtitling Translation, Sociosemiotic Approach, Designative Meaning, Linguistic Meaning, Pragmatic Meaning