A Tentative E*ploration of the Translation Of English Movie Titles
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Abstract
Film is one of the most influential mass media, which shows all aspects of daily life to audience and satisfies audience’s psychological need. Good movie title can arouse audience’s curiosity and imagination. Undeniably, film title translation can be regarded as the key point to decide overseas bo* office. However, in China there are few scholars involved in English movie title translation, but it has gradually caught attention. He Yuemin pointed that there are many problems about English movie title translation and he put forward his solution. He Ying put forward 4 standards to direct English movie title translation and summarized some main methods according to functional equivalence and combining Chinese and English movie title’s characteristics. Based on these, this article collects some English movie
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4.2 Present Principles of Functionalist Skopos Theory …………………………8
4.2.1 Target on Te*t …………………………………………………………8
4.2.2 The Source Te*t as Information ………………………………………8
4.2.3 Translator’s Responsibility and Producer’s Purpose …………………8
4.3 Adaption of Practical Skopos Principles to English Language Movie Titles…8
4.3.1 Literal Translation ……………………………………………………8
4.3.2 Free Translation ………………………………………………………9
4.3.3 Transliteration …………………………………………………………9
4.3.4 Creation ……………………………………………………………10
5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………11
References
1. Introduction
Movie is a kind of art combining artistic quality with commercial quality. In these recent years, with the rapid development of Chinese economy and the gradual deepening of international e*change, films from various countries, especially the West’s movies, increasingly swarm into Chinese market and are accepted by ordinary people, such as Dances With Wolves《與狼共舞》、Cast Away《荒島余生》、Silence of the Lamb《_的羔羊》and so on., and this has become an important way of spreading the West’s culture and value. The translation of English movie’s title is becoming a more and more significant part in translation field. Good translated title can not only add brilliance to the film itself, but play a decisive role in promoting the new film.
This article takes functionalist skopos theory as theoretical direction, Hans J. Vermeer’s theory is a directive principle of the translation of functionalist skopos theory. That is to say translation is an activity in which purpose, communication and cross-cultural interaction link together. The final purpose of the translation of English film’s title is to attract people to watch the movie, which means movie’s title possessing not only linguistic, cultural and commercial features but also informational function, cultural function, aesthetic function and commercial function plays an important role to break the barrier between te*t language and people’s understanding. This article summarizes the translation of movie’s title and the trend of its development from literal translation, free translation, transliteration and creativity.
In this article, there are two aims, the first is to use functionalist skopos theory to discuss and analyze the present English movie title translation. The other is in pursuit of perfection in practice by theoretical direction.
2. General Analysis of English Movie Titles
2.1 Features of English Movie Titles
2.1.1 Linguistic Features
As a kind of unique cultural symbols, English movie title has some unique linguistic features.
Firstly, it usually uses popular and easy-to-understand languages. Movie belongs to a sort of public art, which roots in life and reflects all aspects of daily life. Therefore, popular and easy-to-understand languages are more suitable to understand. For instance, The Perfect World《美好世界》、Shark Tale《鯊魚(yú)故事》、Twin Sisters《孿生姐妹》and so on.
Secondly, it is brief and easy to remember. Movie’s title is usually regarded as the soul of a film which reflects the content of the whole film. Objectively, the title should be brief and terse, and every word of the title can convey significant information which helps people to guess what the style of the film is. For e*ample, Lion King《獅子王》、Speed《生死時(shí)速》、Crash《沖撞》and so on.
Thirdly, some movies take the hero in films or places as t ……(未完,全文共24618字,當(dāng)前僅顯示4427字,請(qǐng)閱讀下面提示信息。
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