A study on the functions of subtitle communication
This paper investigates different types of functions and characteristics subtitle communications to the audience. This research is based on the analysis of a reality show which aired and drew much attention a few months ago. The title of this TV program was 'Grandpa over Flowers', a reality show featuring four renowned elderly actors traveling around Europe together. First of all, the function of subtitle is to serve as the constructor of Narrativity in reality shows. In this sense, Narrativity is explained in three aspects: the narrative structure of incidents and episodes, the fictive embodiment of figures and the creation of narrator. Second, the function of subtitle promotes laugh and this attribute supports the so-called 'Redekonstellation' of the audience. Although the audience is watching the program alone, subtitles present a pseudo-dialogue situation in which there are other partners participating simultaneously in the dialog. In addition to these functions, subtitle serves a variety of other interesting communication functions, which this paper proposes further research.