Translation Skills and Principles of English Movie Titles电影片名翻译的原则和技巧.doc

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1、 Translation Skills and Principles of English Movie TitlesA Thesis SubmittedTo Foreign Language DepartmentOf College of Information & Business,Zhongyuan University of TechnologyIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsBy Student ID Number: 201003014116 Supervisor：M

2、ay 29th , 20139论 文 摘 要 片名是电影的一个不可缺少的组成部分。好的片名能起到画龙点睛,吸引观众，耐人寻味的作用。有人曾将片名比作影片的门楣，既要反映影片的中心思想，又要简短、新奇，吸引观众。 过去的二三十年中，影视翻译取得了很大的发展，但作为翻译领域一个重要组成部分，电影片名的研究工作还做得远远不够。迄今为止似乎还没有人提出过一套比较完整的翻译原则。在此情况下，本文通过深入分析近年来众多欧美电影片名的翻译，对其中的翻译进行仔细推敲，总结和提出新的原则，使电影片名翻译更具规范化，使读者对电影片名的翻译有更深刻的理解。 电影片名一般都比较简短。虽说如此简短的翻译虽属雕虫小技，但

3、是要译好却实属不易。因为文情并茂的译名不仅能吸引观众的眼球，而且可以说是一件艺术精品，耐人寻味，所以翻译电影片名时,应深入理解影片的内容蕴涵和风格,了解翻译原则，掌握翻译技巧，揣摩措词用语。然而电影片名领域翻译理论研究中，学术气氛异常冷清、论调过于整齐划一，众多学术文章只从具体翻译方法入手，如直译、意译和音译，而忽略片名翻译的文化性及多层面性，且缺少相关翻译过程及翻译评价的探讨。为此，本论文以电影片名的翻译为研究目的，在翻译理论基础上，进一步提出了新的技巧，使得电影片名的翻译既具有规范化又具有多元化。关键词：电影片名翻译；原则；技巧AbstractMovie title is an integ

4、ral part of the movie. An excellent title can play the role of adding the finishing touch, attracting audience and giving audience much food for thought. However, being a special and significant part of translation, movie translation is an area that is far from being explored. Few monographs at home

5、 and abroad have discussed this topic. It seems that no one has so far offered a systematic and feasible principle to pilot movie title translation. In this situation, this paper goes deep into many west movie title translations in recent years and refines some of the translations, summarizing and p

6、osing new principles, so that the movie title translation would not only be more standardized but also make a deep impression for the audience.Usually, movie titles are brief and short. Translating such brief movie title is just regarded as a piece of cake, but it is hard to translate well. Translat

7、ion of being elegant in style and rich in sentiment could not only attract the audience but also be meaningful and thought-provoking as an art. Therefore, when translating the movie title, firstly we should get the central meaning and style of the movie, and then we must learn the principles, grasp

8、the skills and fathom the wordings. Numerous academic articles just deal with movie titles translation in specific skills, such as literal translation, free translation and transliteration. However, they neglect the effects of culture and its versatility in movie title translation. Moreover, there i

9、s also a lack in the exploration in the translation process and evaluation. Thus, this paper probes into the movie title translation, and puts forward further new skills based on the basic translation theories, with the final purpose of bringing standardization and pluralism into the translation of

10、movie titles. Key words: movie title translation; principles; skillsTable of ContentsAbstract (Chinese) .IAbstract (English) .II1. Introduction.12. Characteristics of English Movie.12.1 Brief and Concentrated.12.2 Heroes or Heroines Names as Titles.22.3 Settings as Titles.23. Functions of English Mo

11、vie Titles.23.1 Informative Function.33.2 Vocative Function.33.3 Aesthetic Function.34. Skills of English Movie Title Translation.44.1 Transliteration.44.2 Literal Translation.44.3 Free Translation. 45. Mistranslation.65.1 Lacking a Comprehensive Understanding of the Story.65.2 Misunderstanding of C

12、ultural Information.75.3 Influence of Commercial Profits.76. Principles of English Movie Title Translation.76.1 Faithfulness.76.2 Cultural Awareness.86.3 Combination of Commercial and Aesthetic Effects.87. Conclusion.8Bibliography.9Acknowledgements1. IntroductionMovie is a kind of art which suits bo

13、th refined and popular tastes and is loved by the old and the young. The reason why a great movie can attract thousands of audience includes the exquisite acting of actors and actresses, philosophic conversation and gorgeous tableau. What is more, movie titles which contain profound moral play a ver

14、y important role. The title is the brand trademark of the movie and condenses the pith of the story. The titles are always in the eye-catching position of the playbill. In recent years, movie has gradually become an industry. In the western world, a blockbuster may hit a box office record over 100 m

15、illion or even more. With the cultural exchange between China and western countries, more and more western movies have comeinto Chinese market. The movie title is the first thing through which the audience can know about the movie, so the translation of western movie titles is pretty important. A go

16、od translation of the title can convey the information of the movie and attract the audiences desire of going to the movie. As a branch of non-literary translation, the translation of English movie titles, like many other forms of non-literary translation, has not yet received due attention despite

17、their importance. Some mistranslation will give false information and affect audience to enjoy movies, so using proper translation skills is very necessary.This paper, based on an analysis of the characteristics and functions of English movie titles, will introduce principles and skills of English m

18、ovie title translation. 2. Characteristics of English Movie2.1 Brief and Concentrated English movie titles usually contain only one or two key words. Most of the titles are brief and concise. Generally speaking, the titles are made up of nouns and noun phrases, such as Titanic, Speed, and Sound of M

19、usic. Only a few titles have some short sentences: While Youre Sleeping, and Saving Private Ryan. Though the titles are brief and concise, they are to the point. The titles summarize the main story of the movie and the audience can easily get the idea of the story. Gladiator tellsa story of a Roman

20、general who was forced to be a gladiator and fight for his freedom and faith. Return to Me, a love story, tells about misunderstanding between a couple and finally their reunion and reconciliation. 2.2 Heroes or Heroines Names as Titles A great part of the western movies choose the heroes or the her

21、oines names as the title though sometimes the hero or the heroine is just an ordinary person or sometimes even the hero or the heroine is a negative character. JFK, Aladdin, Shreck, Lolita, and the terrible bastard Hannibal are all of this kind. Using the heroes or the heroines names as the title ha

22、s two advantages. On one hand, like JFK, and Lolita, these names are famous in the western history, fairy tales and literature works, so the audience are familiar with them and easily get through the main story of the movie, on the other hand, if the name of the hero or the heroine is strange to the

23、 audience, the audience will know that the movie is about an ordinary person and there must be some special story about him or her. So the audience will be attracted and eagle to go. 2.3 Settings as Titles There are also lots of titles using the settings of the story, such as Titanic, Pearl Harbor,

24、and Gosford Park. These settings are usually famous places and have close connection with the theme of the story. The O.C, short for the Orange County in south California, describing the lives of the people who live in the Orange County. The Orange County is a rich community and people lived here ar

25、e all rich people. Ryan, a teenager from chino, was adopted by lawyer Sandy and began his new life in the Orange County. After Ryans arrival, changes took place in the community and everyones life. The director chose The O.C. as the title because this county witnessed the changes and really meant a

26、lot to the people who lived here. 3. Functions of English Movie Titles According to the British translator Peter Newmark, language has six functions: expressive function、informative function、vocative function、aesthetic function、phatic function、and metalingual function.(Peter Newmark. 1982). As a pro

27、per noun, the movietitle is a result of the play writers painstaking conception which can highly summarize the theme of the movie and intensely stimulate the audiences desire of going to movies. So movie titles contain the following three functions: informative function、vocative function、and aesthet

28、ic function. 3.1 Informative Function. The informative function means movie titles convey the information about the idea of the movie to the audience and make them understand the idea and the story better. The title Forrest Gump will tell the audience that the story is about a person named Forrest G

29、ump and Pearl Harbor will remind the people of the history and the audience will know the story takes place in Pearl Harbor and has connection with World War. The informative function is the basic function of movie titles and the most important function. 3.2 Vocative Function According to the philos

30、ophy: “everyone has curiosity”, we will feel excited when we see something fresh and strange and we take delight in learning and easily be influenced. The vocative function is just to influence the audiences sentiments and arouse their interests. Fahrenheit 9.11, the best-selling documentary film, s

31、trongly criticized the Bush government. The director chose the 9.11 event as part of the title in his movie to attract audience and also convey the main idea of the movie. 3.3 Aesthetic Function Aesthetic function is to bring audience enjoyment from the title. The aesthetic feeling is a main factor

32、that causes audience to make the decision whether they will go to a movie or not. The aesthetic function is most obviously felt on the romantic movies. Some titles of the classical movies have become the synonym of romantic, such as Casablanca, Sleepless in Seattle. 4. Skills of English Movie Title

33、Translation 4.1 Transliteration As we have mentioned above, a lot of western movie titles are the heroesor heroinesnames and the settings. If the heroes or heroines names and the settings are familiar to the Chinese audience, transliteration is the best skill for these movies because transliteration

34、 will convey the most exact information. JFK, Gandhi, Ali are well-known around the world, so the Chinese audience can easily understand the main idea of the story. Titanic, the greatest ship at that time, sank in her first sail. Also, the Chinese audience know Casablanca is a city in Morocco and Ch

35、icago is a city in east America. Through transliteration, the sound effects, i.e. the rhythm of the SL, can be preserved, which will entertain audience with a strong exotic flavor. However, if the heroes or heroines names and the settings are not famous, transliteration should not be used. 4.2 Liter

36、al Translation The aim of English movie title translation is to display the pith of the movie. If the title matches the story perfectly, literal translation is basically the most suitable skill to employ. Most of the English movie titles are made up of some nouns or verb phrases and summarize the ma

37、in story of the movie, in this situation, literal translation is preferred because literal translation can preserve both the content of the title and the language structure of the original title. Literal translation directly converts the SL grammatical constructions to their nearest TL equivalents.

38、Generally speaking, the translated Chinese titles should not be sounding awkward or unnatural and are capable of describing the story as well as the original English titles. These titles are easily accepted and memorized by Chinese audience. For example, Brave Heart, Saving Private Ryan, Roman Holid

39、ay. 4.3 Free Translation Free translation is a flexible measure when literal translation is not available. As we mentioned, English movie titles are mostly made up of one or two key words and highly concentrated, literally translated titles sometimes cannot make the Chinese audience understood. And

40、there are some titles that contain lots of culture which is only well-known by westerners; Chinese audience will be confused if we translate these titles through literal translation. However, when we use free translation, the version wont totally conform to the original title. Though most translator

41、s treat literal translation as their first choice and say “Translate literally, if possible, or appeal to free translation.”(范仲英，1994), in the field of English movie title translation, free translation is used more. Free translation can bring the connotation into play and elaborate the pith of the t

42、itle. Since grammatical structure and content of the English titles are not concerned so much, we usually use the following three skills while employing free translation. When we use literal translation to translate some brief and concise English movietitles, the translated titles cannot describe th

43、e story clearly and neatly and thus fail to provide information and attract audience; more details have to be added to make them more definite. Instead of being chosen randomly, these details should be based on the story and able to help consummate the titles. Culture is an important factor we shoul

44、d pay attention to in translation. Some English movie titles contain certain culture which will make Chinese audience totally confused, some English movie titles use English proverbs or idioms and sometimes there is no equivalent word to the English titles, or on some other occasions, the idioms in

45、English movie titles might find their Chinese idiom equivalence. We translator can build a bridge between them and give audience a better title. We can borrow and transform from the ancient Chinese culture. The poems, some famous sentences, and great novels are all we can use. Bathing beauty, the Ch

46、inese title of this movie is very famous and known to every household. If we translate it into a beauty is taking a shower, we will think it is ridiculous and hard to understand. This conforms most to Chineses thinking habit and it possesses the special lasting culture appeal of the Chinese language. In the movie, se