Subtitle translation is a communicative method between Chinese films and foreign audience。 Subtitle translation can provide more information to help people better understand the plot and the core thought of a film。 A film without good subtitle translation is difficult for foreign audience to accept, even if it has a wonderful plot (Birgit 207)。 In fact, the quality of translation is uneven and there exists many problems in subtitle translation。 The study on subtitle translation has been promoted because of the demand of good subtitle translation。 As a result, film subtitle translation has become an independent research filed in our country since 1995。 Then, we have paid more attention to the research on subtitle translation, dubbing translation and title translation。 According to the development of the field in recent 20 years, subtitle translation is the focus of the research。 However, subtitle translation still doesn’t draw equal academic attention by researchers and scholars as literary translation。 We don’t have a systematic theory of Chinese-English subtitle translation。

In accordance with the German functional translation theory, each action is an activity with aim, including translation。 Film is an important medium in the context of globalization, so film subtitle translation is an activity with strong aims。 We can translate film subtitles from the perceptive of skopos theory。

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The skopos theory was first put forward by Katharina Reiss in late 1970s。 Hans J。 Vermeer, Reiss’s student, inherited some of her thoughts and broke through the equivalence theory。 On the basis of the action theory, Vermeer founded the translation skopos theory。 Skopos theory entered into China in late 1980s and had a big impact on Chinese translation。

2。1 The Conceptions of Skopos Theory

The skopos theory is the core of the functional translation theory。 The word “skopos” is a Greek word whose meaning is “aim” or “purpose”。 Reiss and Hans Vermeer came up with the skopos theory in early 1980s。 The formation and development of the theory undergoes three phases。 The first stage is Reiss’s study。 In her book Possibilities and Limitations of Translation Criticism, Reiss held that text function is one standard of translation criticism。 These studies of Reiss laid a solid foundation for the formation of the skopos theory。 The second stage is Vermeer’s inheritance and improvement of Reiss’s study。 Vermeer got rid of the equivalence theory。 From Vermeer’s point of view, translation is an action with a certain purpose。 Justa Holz Manttari and Christiane Nord’s contributions to skopos theory is the third stage。 Justa Holz Manttari laid emphasis on the action of the translation process。 She put forward a book named Theory of Action。 The action theory is the basis of skopos theory。 The action theory holds that purpose is the attribute of human behavior。 Nord inherited and developed the theory of the first generation of scholars, making up for the deficiency of Functional translation theory。 According to Hans Vermeer’s study, Nord summed up three kinds of purposes : the purpose of translator in the translation process, the communicative purpose of the translation and the purpose achieved through a particular translation procedure or strategy。 At the same time, he put forward the rule Function plus Loyalty。 Scholars of skopos theory holds that translation is a cross-cultural communicative activities which is on the basis of source text。 In addition, translation has clear aims and intentions。

2。2 Three Rules of Skopos Theory

The skopos theory is comprised of three basic rules: skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule。 In many occasions, the skopos rule is the primary rule of translation。 The fidelity rule must submit to the coherence rule。 If there are any conflicts among the three rules, the other two rules are asked to obey the skopos rule。 If the translation aims to change the functions of the original text, the standard of translation must be consistent with the purpose of translation rather than the original text。 If the aim of translation requires interlingual incoherence, the coherence rule doesn’t work any more (Tang 159)。 Besides, the degree of fidelity depends on the requirement of the aim of translation。