英語畢業(yè)論文On Principles and Skills of Movie Title Translation

1、英語畢業(yè)論文On Principles and Skills of Movie Title Translation 201*屆畢業(yè)生畢業(yè)論文題 目: On Principles and Skills of Movie Title Translation 2011年On Principles and Skills of Movie Title TranslationMay 28, 2011AcknowledgementsThis thesis has been in gestation for several months. I am grateful to the teachers for t

2、heir patient help and warm encouragement during this time.I would like, first of all, to show my sincere gratitude to Ge Liping, my supervisor, for her valuable guidance and generous support. Through the work, she gave me great encouragement, which gave me the confidence and strength to complete thi

3、s dissertation successfully. Her loyalty to teaching and punctilious work style has profoundly impressed me.My heartfelt thanks go to other teachers who have taught me in the past three years, and each in one way or another having provided me with incentives and direction for my study. Moreover, the

4、y either gave me lectures or were generous to offer me valuable reference materials.Much appreciation is also due to my classmates and friends for their constant encouragement and their ways of assistance in the course of writing, without this, timely completion of this paper would be difficult for

5、me. Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents. Their understanding and encouragement have been crucial to the timely completion of this thesis.AbstractMovie is an art and a commodity as well. With the opening of the Chinese market, we have more and more English mo

6、vies. Before the Chinese audiences enjoy the movies, they need to understand the movie titles because they convey the story of the movies to the audience to attract them.At present, the translation of movie titles has become a popular phrase. As is known to all, how to translate the movie titles has

7、 become a controversial topic in the field of translation for a long time. The translation of western movie titles is quite different from the translation of Chinese movie titles. In the process of the translation, sometimes movie titles will have different translations owing to the different transl

8、ators. Because everyone has his idea, experience and knowledge. This paper points out the importance of the translation of movie titles, and analyzes the features and functions of movie titles first, with many examples explaining them. Moreover, mistranslations of movie titles are discussed and the

9、reasons why the mistranslations come up are also analyzed. And then, this paper goes deep into many west movie title translations in recent years and refines some of the translations, discussing the principles and skills of movie title translation, and summarizing and posing new skills of movie titl

10、e translation from the mistranslations. At last, the author summarizes the requests, principles and skills of movie title translation again, and calls on the translators to get the central meaning and style of the movie, learn the principles, grasp the skills and fathom the wordings, with the final

11、purpose of bringing standardization and pluralism into the movie titles translation, and making a deep impression for the audience to understand the culture of the countries easily.Key Words: movie title translation; principles; skills內容摘要電影是一門藝術，同時也是一種商品。隨著中國市場的開放，越來越多的英語電影走進中國的電影院。在欣賞這些英語電影之前，中國觀眾

12、首先需要理解電影片名，電影片名將把電影情節(jié)傳遞給觀眾，從而吸引觀眾。目前，“電影片名的翻譯”已經成為一個流行的詞語，眾所周知，如何譯好電影片名已成為翻譯界很長時間內熱烈討論的話題；西片的片名不同于中國電影片名，在翻譯的過程中，由于譯者的想法，經驗和知識不同，翻譯也會有所不同。本文指出了電影片名翻譯的重要性，首先分析了電影片名的特征和功能，并通過具體的例子解釋了這些特征和功能；其次引出了電影片名翻譯中產生的誤譯現象，分析了產生這些誤譯現象的原因；再次深入分析了近年來眾多歐美電影片名的翻譯，并對其中的翻譯進行仔細推敲，探討了電影片名翻譯的原則和技巧，并由誤譯總結和提出了新的電影片名翻譯技巧。最后，

13、對電影片名翻譯的要求，翻譯原則和技巧進行總結，號召翻譯工作者在翻譯電影片名時，應深入理解影片的內涵和風格，了解翻譯原則，掌握翻譯技巧，揣摩措詞用語。力爭使電影片名的翻譯既具有規(guī)范化和多元化，又能使讀者對其有更深刻的理解，從而達到文化交流的目的。?關鍵詞: 電影片名翻譯；原則；技巧 ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract English iiAbstract Chinese iii1. Introduction12. Features and functions of movie titles22.1 Features of movie titles2 Art fea

14、ture2 Economic feature2 Social feature32.2 Functions of English movie titles4 Informative function.4 Vocative function4 Aesthetic function43. Mistranslations53.1 Lacking a comprehensive understanding of the story53.2 Misunderstanding of cultural information53.3 Influence of commercial profits64. Pri

15、nciples of English movie title translation74.1 Faithfulness74.2 Cultural awareness74.3 Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects84.4 Artistic quality85. Skills of English movie title translation95.1 The usual skills of movie title translation9 Transliteration9 Literal translation9 Explication1

16、05.2 The skills summarized from mistranslations11 Adaptation11 Providing a new title11 Explanation 146. Conclusion14Works Cited151. Introduction Movie is a kind of art which suits both refined and popular tastes and is loved by the old and the young. The French artist and novelist Mona Baker has poi

17、nted out “movie is so important that it has become the first arts of the human world” 40 . It has a large number of audience and deep impact upon the society which the other arts are unable to compare with. The reason why a great movie can attract thousands of audience includes the exquisite acting

18、of actors and actresses, philosophic conversation and gorgeous tableau. What is more, movie titles which contain profound moral play a very important role. The title gives a symbol and one part of packing and the brand trademark of the movie and condenses the pith of the story. The titles are always

19、 in the eye-catching position of the playbill. A wonderful title is necessary for a good movie, which is known by the people in the street. Every time when people hear about a movie, they always get to know its title first. By the understanding of the title, they will decide whether to see the movie

20、 or not. The pleasure of watching a movie comes as much from its content as from its title. The movie title translation requires using a few words to express the topic of the movie and people would not forget it after seeing it at the same time.In recent years, movie has gradually become an industry

21、. In the western world, a blockbuster may hit a box office record over 100 million or even more. With the cultural exchange between China and western countries, more and more English movies have come into Chinese market. The movie title is the first thing through which the audience can know about th

22、e movie, so the translation of English movie title is pretty significant. A good translation of the title can convey the information of the movie and attract the audiences desire of going to see it.As a branch of non-literary translation, the English movie title translation, likes many other forms o

23、f non-literary translation, has not yet received due attention despite of their importance. Some mistranslations will give false information and affect audience to enjoy the movie, so using proper translation principles and skills are very necessary. This paper, based on an analysis of the features

24、and functions and the mistranslations of English movie titles, will introduce principles and skills of English movie title translation and will pose some new skills of movie title translation from the mistranslations. 2. Features and functions of movie titles Movie titles have many features and func

25、tions.2.1 Features of movie titlesEverything in the world has its own features, so do the movie titles. They could not exist without their own features. To make the titles more impressive, many rhetoric devices are used in the English movie title translation, such as simile, metaphor, oxymoron and t

26、he like. The features of the English movie title translation will be expounded from the art, economic and social perspective. Art featureMovie is a living art and as such it tends to respond promptly to the development of science and technology, which differentiates it from the other forms of art th

27、at can be written or painted on the paper. As the movie title translation is the very key to keep the audiences attention, many factors are contained to achieve this aim. One of them is the art feature. For example, the Chinese rendering of the movie title “The Accused” is “暴劫梨花”, which consists of

28、two parts: 暴劫 and 梨花. Here, 暴劫 roughly means ravaged or devastated while 梨花, which literally means pear flowers, is often used to mean a fragile woman. There common Chinese expression 梨花帶雨 a woman in tears is condensed from Bai Juyis 白居易 : 梨花一枝春帶雨. Economic featureIt is no doubt that the movie inves

29、tors try every way to attract peoples eyes. The movie title translation is often put on the leading places of the bills to attract peoples eyes. How to occupy the movie market? They rack their brains to seek the high competitiveness of the movie market from scripting, filming to showing. And the mov

30、ie title translation is even to add an apt word to clinch the point. The movie industry includes the industrial production, the commercial system and the cultural transmission. There comes forth a great many movies on the market. Just for the sake of high benefits from their investment, they didnt c

31、are much about the movie title translation, which led them far from the original movie titles. Besides, for majority of the audiences, that improper translation is beyond their understandings. It is necessary to find a junction of the market and art; even the national conditions have been taken into

32、 consideration. However, the importance is to find a naming that is close to the original title and eligible to the style of the movie. Meanwhile, we should not neglect the response of the market. However, they do the translating work only to pursue the advertising benefit. And in the field of Engli

33、sh movie industry, people benefit from the boundless chance to get more money from this productive business despite of these. This economic feature of the movie titles will be acted by the following examples: 1 ? It Happens One Night 一夜風流 2 ? Sister Act 修女也瘋狂 The two examples show us the demands the

34、 development of mass markets of movie industry. Social featureForeign audiences prefer to comprehend the original movie title rather than comprehend the translated one. Once the movie title is translated using explication, it would be hard for the Chinese audiences to understand the very content of

35、the movie. As a matter of fact, a ringing translated movie title is the purpose of evoking the audiences curiosity. For example, The words “黑幫” in “Shark Tales” 鯊魚黑幫 gives us a room to think. Are there “黑幫” in the world of sharks? So far, there is no one people that has seen the translated one will

36、naturally translate it into “鯊魚的故事”. Otherwise, you wouldnt expect its success of such a plain movie. Besides, movie always provides a forum in which certain pressing social problems and the audiences can deal with the problems imaginatively to consider possible causes, to imagine possible consequen

37、ces, and to hypothesize possible solutions by the forum. Here “Shark Tales” is an example to show the social problem. “Shark” symbolizes the bully in the society. Among these sharks, there is one who is the son of the leader. When he dies, the sea creature is happy with the result and praises the un

38、true hero. It is certain that the movie conveys peoples wishes to wipe out the bad eggs. Therefore, the bad title translation is unacceptable and it is just like the TV programs“The world of the animals”. Generally speaking, the title of a movie is used to inform would-be audiences. Nevertheless, th

39、ese audiences would like to go into the cinemas unconsciously to admire this movie under the drive of “黑幫”. That is the contribution of the vivid movie titles. On the whole, the different features themselves characterize the movie titles, since they are simple and coherent with sporadic length title

40、s in view. The examples, which were mentioned above, are just like a drop in the ocean of the movie title translation.2.2 Functions of English movie titles The British translator Peter Newmark mentions that “ language has six functions: expressive function，informative function，vocative function，aest

41、hetic function，phatic function，and metalingual function.” 82 . As a proper noun, the movie title 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 follo

42、wing three functions: informative function, vocative function, and aesthetic function. Informative function The informative function means the movie title conveys the information about the idea of the movie to the audience and makes them understand the idea and the story better. The title Forrest Gu

43、mp will tell the audience that the story is about a person named Forrest Gump 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 and the most important functi

44、on of a movie title. Vocative function As the philosophy says, everyone has curiosity. We will feel excited when we see something fresh and strange and we take delight in learning and are easily influenced. The vocative function is just to influence the audiences sentiments and arouse their interest

45、s. Fahrenheit 9.11, the best-selling documentary movie, strongly criticized the Bush government. The director chose the 9.11 event as part of the title to attract audience and also convey the main idea of the movie to them. Aesthetic function Aesthetic function is to bring audiences enjoyment from t

46、he movie title. The audiences would like to make the decision whether they will go to a movie or not by the aesthetic feeling. This 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 Seattl

47、e. 3. Mistranslations Mistranslations of movie titles are mainly caused by the following factors: 3.1 Lacking a comprehensive understanding of the story “The title translation is always after the other translation finished.” Newmark12 As for a movie title, the best choice is leaving it underinflated

48、 until the translator goes to the movie and fully understands the story. Only with a comprehensive understanding of the story, can he make a right and the best choice among many possible versions. But in many cases, the translator, probably without going to the movie before translating the title, ha

49、s to come up with a version simply from the original English title and an outline of the movie. For example, Rain Man 雨人/手足情未了 ,the widely-used version is雨人, which makes no sense to the Chinese audience, for in Chinese there is no such thing as 雨人. The movie is named as this because one of our heroe

50、s in the movie, the older brother Raymond Babbitt, an autistic, always fails to pronounce his own name Raymond right, but makes a sound of Rain Man. His younger brother wants to abandon him but finally he realizes that they are brothers and they should love each other. The version手足情未了is more suitab

51、le to the story. Another example is Bad Company 壞蛋公司/最差搭檔 , the translation 壞蛋公司sounds not bad, but it is completely irrelevant to the story. It is about a man who has to “play” his twin brother, an agent having died in his unfinished mission. He makes a lot of troubles to his partner his dead broth

52、er but finally he finishes the mission and plays his twin brother perfectly. Another version 最差搭檔may be better for the story. Here, the word “company” in the title means partner. 3.2 Misunderstanding of cultural information Culture is the way of life and its manifestations are peculiar to a communit

53、y that uses a particular language as its means of expression. As is known to us all, there is usually cultural information in movie titles. The translator is easily to mistranslate the title if he is not aware of it or misunderstands it. Sometimes, English words with cultural background do not have

54、a corresponding word in Chinese. E.g. “American dream” means the national spirit in USA and refers to the equal freedom and equal opportunities of everyone. However, there is no such a word in Chinese with the same meaning. When we translate the movie titles, we have to pay attention to these words

55、and expressions. Here is an sample American Beauty 美國美人/美國麗人 to explain this aspect. The mainland and the Hong Kong versions both have made a mistake in taking the literal meaning of Beauty. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “American Beauty” is a type of rose bearing large, long-stemme

56、d purplish-red flowers. And the rose is a profound image in the Oscar winner of the Best Picture in 2001, so the Taiwan version美國心，玫瑰情seems more to the point. 3.3 Influence of commercial profits As we mentioned above, movie itself is a sort of commodity and the movie title is attractive to draw the

57、audiences attention and then movie producers are able to make profits. The translators are also inevitably influenced in this aspect. As a result, we always see a lot of exciting, passionate, mysterious or thrilling words in the titles though some of these titles actually reflect nothing of the orig

58、inal of the story. Here are some examples: Original Sin-激情叛侶 原罪 The Lives of Others -竊聽風暴 別人的生活 Pretty Woman -風月俏佳人 漂亮女人 Extreme words that can arouse people strong emotion, such as激情，竊聽and風月 are used in the translated titles. The reason why these words are used is just to make the titles sound exciting and attractive in order to hit a great box office to make much more money. Another situation of commercial profits is movie star effect. To some extent, a movie star is a guarantee of the box office. So sometimes the translator will