Subtitle Translation from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of The Big Bang Theory

Abstract

This paper, taking the subtitle translation of an American comedy The Big Bang Theory as the object of the study, selects the subtitle translations of some typical clips. Based on the integrated framework of multimodal discourse analysis proposed by Professor Zhang Delu, the subtitle translation is analyzed from four levels including culture, context, content, and expression. This paper concludes that multiple modalities interact each other in complementary ways. The interactions between multiple modalities help viewers better understand subtitle translation. Subtitle translation, together with other modalities, helps viewers grasp the plot of the TV series. The author hopes that this study can provide some reference for subtitle translators