第一篇:英语电影片名汉译论文
Research on English Film Title Translation and Translation Equivalence Theory Application
Author: Huo Yishuai Supervisor: Li Liping, Associate Professor
(College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018)
Abstract: This paper begins with the prevalence and impact of English film in China.It discusses the importance of English film title translation and the methods and theories of current title translation.And then propose translation equivalence concept to guide the title translation.Also, this paper summarized some of the methods.At last , the paper pointed out some of the principles in accordance with the process of translation in the use of translation equivalents theory
Key words: English film;title translation theory;translation equivalence;principle 英语电影片名汉译及翻译等值理论在其中的应用的研究
摘要:本文以英语电影在中国的流行及影响出发,论述了英语电影片名汉译的重要性及当前英语电影片名汉译形成的较常用的方法和理论,并指出了翻译过程中出现的问题。进而提出以翻译等值理论指导英语电影片名的汉译,也总结了相应的一些方法。同时,还指出在运用等值理论进行翻译的过程中还应遵循的一些原则。
关键词:英语电影;片名翻译;翻译等值理论;原则
1.Description of English films in China's current situation and the necessity of translation
Film can create miracles---just like all those people who sit in the theater thinking from reality to dream world know it.Fascinating story with perfect pictures, shocking music, and great close-up scenes make you forget yourself completely.The aftertaste of a classic film bring to you is endless.When you think of the screen which make you get goose bumps, an exciting or eager showing in your eyes.People call movies is the seventh art after the literature, drama, music, dance, painting and sculpture.But, it’s not just an art.It is an art that have lots of audiences, suit both refined and popular tastes and with commercial.Today, cross-cultural communication is more active than ever, the spirit of national culture and ideology is mainly characterized by the content in the film.Therefore movies become the main channel of cultural transmission, and its influence is so large that can't be matched by other art forms.On the one hand, economic and cultural development stimulates the emerging film and television-dubbing career to flourish.Its operations around the world, including draw the materials, translation and distribution.On the other hand, the popularity of cable television and home video, the improvement of the technology(video, VCD and DVD)also plays a role in fueling the film’s spreading.Since the first movie introduced to China in 1896, the Chinese film industry has undergone enormous changes.Shoot technology innovation make the film a great audio-visual impact to the audience, and watching movies has become very common and very stylish entertainment in people’s lives now.In addition, the demand for foreign films, especially English films, is growing highly.Facing to these foreign language films, the primary task is translated them into Chinese, and the translation of the film title is one of the most important part.The film title is a link connecting the audience and film;it has the enormous influence to the film box office.First, except actor's exquisite performing skill, philosophy dialogue as well as gorgeous picture, a good film why can attract the audience has the direct relation with a film title which is pregnant with meaning and make people think a lot.The film title is a film's brand trademark.In the multitudinous film advertisement newspaper, the film title is always in the extremely striking position, and it is playing the role which leads attention directly.As a film, the title is seen firstly by the audience.Therefore, every movie screenwriter and director will highly summarize his movie content, and takes one as the title for it can both express one's ideas expressively and appeal eyeball.Second, the film express certain ideas to the audience to pass certain information , and the film title should also highlight the video content , convey the theme information and establish the entire film emotional tone.Film titles can not only summarize the content of the film succinctly , reveals the theme of the film, and make the audience seize the film's style and substance , but also inspire the imagination of the audience and watching desires with its distinctive form of language.Excellent film titles like the outstanding literary works, should be concise the summary of the content of films, succinctly revealing the theme, and stimulate the audience's imagination.The perfect unity of a good title and the good content will allow the audience to get the influence of the arts and the joy of beauty.2.Film title translation Since the first English language film was introduced to China, there are already three decades till now.This period, the translator made constantly efforts and improvements, and formed some common translation methods.Currently, there are more and more English films introduced into China.The translation industry also formed a relatively fixed translation theory, specifically;there are the following three theories: 2.1 The literal translation or free translation Literal translation and free translation are two representative methods of translation in the history of translation.Due to variations in people's understanding of literal translation and free translation, there are someone accept both of these methods, someone accept just one, someone accept neither.However, in terms of the perspective of describing translation or transfer translation, literal translation and free translation is always meaningful.Literal translation and free translation is designed to faithfully express the ideological content of the original and reproduce the original art.Simply put, the literal translation means the translation methods and sentence structure is more similar to the original sentence, but does not rule out some adjustments at the phrase level.Free translation means discarded the original expression, and find a synonymous expression equivalent to the original, or make major changes or adjustments to the original sentence structure.2.1.1 Literal translation Carefully understands the literature name and film title, we can find different types.Therefore, the translation methods vary.The following types suit for the Literal translation 2.1.1.1 Protagonists name or description for the title.Such as:
Hamlet
HA MU LEI TE,(哈姆雷特)Othello
AO SAI LUO,(奥赛罗), King Lear
LI ER WANG,(李尔王), Macbeth
MAI KE BAI,(麦克白), Romeo and Juliet
LUO MI OU YIU ZHU LI YE,(罗密欧与朱丽叶)David Copperfield
DAI WEI KE BO FEI ER,(大为.科波菲尔), Jane
JIAN ,(简), Sister Carrie
JIA LI MEI MEI ,(嘉莉妹妹), Lucky Jim
XING YUN DE JI MU,(幸运的吉姆), a lonely Johnny
GU DU DE YUE HAN NI,(孤独的约翰尼), Julius
ZHU LI SI KAI SAI,(朱丽斯凯撒), Father and Son
FU YU ZI,(父与子), Sons and Lovers
ER ZI YU QING REN,(儿子与情人).2.1.1.2 The place where the story happen for title,Such as:
Wuthering Heights
HU XIAO SHAN ZHUANG,(呼啸山庄), Chicago
ZHI JIA GE,(芝加哥), Washington Square
HUA SHENG DUN GUNAG CHANG,(华盛顿广场), Boston
BO SHI DUN,(波士顿), The Secret Garden
MI MIO HUA YUAN,(秘密花园), in the Chinese screen
ZAI ZHONG GUO PING MU SHNAG,(在中国屏幕上).2.1.1.3 Stories for titles, such as: the merchant of Venice
WEI NI SI SHANG REN,(威尼斯商人), The Adventures of Tom Sawye TANG MU SUO YE LI XIAN JI ,(汤姆索也历险记), Gulliver's travels
GE LIE FO YOU JI,(格列佛游记), Alice s Adventures in Wonderland
AI LI SI MAN YOU XIAN JING,(爱丽丝漫游仙境),Mansfield Park
MAN SI FEI ER DE YUAN,(曼斯菲尔德园).2.1.1.4 the other types, such as: Great Expectations
YUAN DA QIAN CHENG,(远大前程), The Mayor of Casterbridge
KA SI TE QIAO SHI ZHANG,(卡斯特桥市长), The Grapes of Wrath
FEN NU DE PU TAO,(愤怒的葡萄), the Godfather
JIAO FU,(教父), Five Classics
WU JING,(五经), a Midsummer Night s Dream
ZHONG XIA YE ZHI MENG,(仲夏夜之梦), Twelfth Night
DI SH ER YE,(第十二夜), Pride and Prejudice
AO MAN YU PIAN JIAN,(傲慢与偏见), time machine
SHI JIAN JI QI,(时间机器), The Call of The Wild
YE XING DE HU HUAN,(野性的呼唤), The Sea-wolf
HAI LANG,(海狼).These titles are just a few words, but they reveal the author's intention and the true state of mind.It represents the author's effort and reflected the monumental piece of substance and essence of the film.Therefore, for those that can be translated literally must be translated by literal to keep the work formerly original and make the title and content unite in harmony.Especially when it comes to the film named after the main character.The hero is the typical character live in specific times and specific environments that are created by the author, such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a-Q in the works of Lu Xun.They have a distinct character, image, and destiny.The principles and methods of translation of film title or translation of literary works are the same.Both of them take the breadth of its audience and the diversity of appreciation level into account, therefore, the translation should be simple and popular, easy catchy and implying the subtle meaning.Film title suitable for literal translation should be translate as literal as possible in order to convey the information formerly and maintain the perfect unity of the original title and content.That should be a basic principle and method of the film title translation.This type title just needs to be image, vivid, concise in the text, and it can fully reproduce the content of formerly.Such as: description of a walk in the clouds is the love story of a pair of young men and women filled with the vineyards of grapes flowers, so the film is literally translated as the Walk in the Clouds, while maintaining the formerly known as the meaning and full of poetic.Such cases are: the age of innocence(The Age of Innocence), natural born killers(Natural Born Killers), the perfect world(better world), death on the Nile(Death on the Nile)rain man(Rain Man)superman(superman), citizen(Citizen Kane), schindler’ s list(Schindler's List)2.1.2 free translation Certain English film title contains very few words and the language is simple.It is apparently lightly, but the connotation is actually rich and pregnant with meaning, does not reveal.If this kind of film title translates literally, it will be difficult to reach its contents, reveal its charm.Therefore, when translation must rest on the entire book content, the original book title intention, and unit the target language characteristic, sets up a new name.In order to concise its content to reflect its implication, and executes the literary talent slightly to make the translated name and the original work style coordinates.For example: Gone With the Wind
PIAO ,(飘),Waterloo Bridge
HUN DUAN LAN QIAO,(魂断蓝桥), Blood and Sand
BI XIE HUNAG SHA,(碧血黄沙), The Bathing Beauty
CHU SHUI FU RONG,(出水芙蓉), Polsinney Harbour
YU XIANG JI DU QING,(渔乡几度情), Wines-burg Ohio
XIAO CHENG JI REN ,(小城畸人), Earthquake
JING HUN DUO MING,(惊魂夺命), The Red Shoes
HONG LING YAN ,(红菱艳),Speed
SHENG SI SHI SU,(生死时速), Black Mask
HEI XIA ,(黑侠),Black Beauty
HEI JUN MA ,(黑骏马),Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde
HUA SHEN BO SHI ,(化身博士)and so on 2.2 Integration of literal translation and free translation
English and American films have a number of titles in simple and concise, but moral implication and difficult to grasp.In addition, some titles originated from allusions, meaning rich and obscure, hard to check.It is difficult to understand the implied meaning of the original title.People must think about the whole content or check allusions, carefully wondering and hashing, accurately understand the intent of author when translate them.Based on the foundation of literal translation of original titles ,translator plus word or change word to some key words to make translation semantic clearly , such as: a Farewell to Arms
YONG BIE LE ,ZHANG ZHNEG;(永别了,战争),Ghost
REN GUI QING WEI LIAO;(人鬼情未了)One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
FEI YUE FENG REN YUAN;(飞越疯人院), On The Golden Pond
JIN SE CHI TANG;(金色池塘), Moonlighting
PI XING DAI YUE;(披星戴月), Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die
SHENG SI DA QUAN;(生死大权), Night Killer
LAI ZHE BU SHAN;(来者不善), Shooting First
XAIN FA ZHI REN;(先发制人).for Whom The Bell Tolls SANG ZHONG WEI SHUI ER MING;(丧钟为谁而鸣), 2.3 The literal translation adds the explanation
Due to the different style of film and different points between British and Chinese language, some titles translated by word will be too abstract, implicit and irrelevant with story content.People may feel dull, and it cannot make any guiding effects.Therefore, for these titles, translator should appropriately plus a text which can reflect hero image or film content when translate them.Based on the foundation of literal translation, according to the content of film, it will play a finishing touch to the characters and film content for example, Oscar(LIE QUAN AO SI KA CHUAN QI;猎犬奥丝卡传奇), it will bursting bald if literal translation for AO SI KA(奥丝卡), also will be easily confused with Oscar Ward.Adding the word of dog , it generally works very well.And Comeback(GU LI E MENG;故里噩梦), plus the word of nightmare ,it greatly enhance the attraction and literary character.Lime Light(WU TAI DENG GUNAG;舞台灯光), Patton(BA DUN JINAG JUN;巴顿将军), Legal Eagles(FA WANG SHNE YING;法网神鹰), The Piano(GANG QIN KE;钢琴课), The French Connection(FA GUO FAN DU WANG;法国贩毒网), Silas Marner(ZHI GONG MA NAN:织工马南), this is the case.Film title translation is not only the conversion of language but also a cultural exchange.Translation needs follow the correct principles and methods, needs more inspiration and rigorous attitude , in order to make the translation of well-known and widely accepted.In recent years, we widely introduce the foreign works and films, but the introduction of the original books and films are very scarce, these are mostly translated works.Taking the important role of a film title into account, the film producer make efforts to find a proper title that can lead full content, highlight the theme and must be simple and concise, have a profound message.Moreover, the producers try to make the title to be a pair of eyes that can reveal the individuality and give the deep impression to the audience.From the title, people can understand the content of the work, the hero's image, and have a desire for the whole film.People named the film like this, the same as the film title translation.Someone may think the translation of film names is an easy shot, but translating well was not an easy thing actually.It is necessary to conform to the language specification, and should be full of charm;it is necessary to be faithful to the original content of the title, and should be reflect to the original language features of the title.So the translation of film names is the artistic recreation.However, it is not until after more than 100 years of the introduction of first foreign films in China, translation of film names begin to get its due attention.Early research on the subject, such as Brief Discussion on Foreign Film Tittles Translations(Lin Qiuyun, 1996)and Discussion on the Translation of Film Names(Ning zhishou life, 1997), simply emphasizes the translation skills and ignore the cultural and commercial characteristics of the movie title.After entering the 21st century, based on the original translation theory, scholars began to study the features of the film titles from different perspectives.Fore example, He Ying(2001)analysis the characteristics of the movie title from the source of the movie title ,style , feature and category , and made a literal translation﹑free translation ﹑transliteration and another translation.Fang Yongbin, Wang Xiaotong(2005)study from the advertisement feature and cultural characteristics.Now, researchers increasingly attach importance to the film title value reflected in cultural exchanges, business profits and the artistic.3.Problems in the current film title translation Currently, the translation of film titles as a translation not in literary field has not yet attracted enough attention.There are more Chinese people watching films and TV series than reading the literature, but Chinese academia give the translation of literary more attention than the studies of film translation.“(Qian Shao-Chang, 2000: 61).In addition, there are many film titles mistranslations in the current film title translation.I find it mainly caused by the following two reasons after a brief analysis: 3.1 Lack of understanding of cultural connotation ”Title translation should be did after the completion of other translation tasks”.(Newark, 1988:12)Therefore, the translator should translate the movie's title based on watching the whole movie and fully understand the film.The culture is the specific lifestyles and modes of expression of the groups, which use a particular language as the expression “(Newmark, 1998:21).Clearly, the film titles also include certain cultural connotation.If the translator cannot be aware of or misunderstood the cultural connotation, it is likely to have the title caused by mistranslation.E.g1: American film: American Beauty, Mainland and Hong Kong have their own respective title translation version.Mainland translated as ”《美国美人》“, Hong Kong translated as ”《美国丽人》“.Unfortunately, these two simple versions of literal translation is mistranslation.According to the American Heritage Dictionary, American Beauty is a kind of roses, flower leaf length, purple.These beautiful and sacred flowers are symbol of divine love.In the film, the director used this flower as a symbol of a girl's love with the approach of association, Taiwan's translation is《美国心·玫瑰情》and it is more appropriate.3.2 Simply pursuit of business profits
As an entertainment industry, film should to not only entertain the public but also earn the box office revenue.Therefore, the translation of film titles will inevitably be subject to the influence of the marketing strategy of the entire film.To attract audiences, some film titles translation may not have any relationship with the film's storyline.Let us look at the following example:
E.g.: Original Sin(《原罪》)
《激情叛侣》
The Shaw shank Redemption
(《肖申克的救赎》)
《月黑高飞》
Pretty Woman(《漂亮女人》)
《风月俏佳人》
The Lives Of Others(《别人的生活》)
《窃听风暴》
If the readers have read the above-mentioned movies, they will find the second movie title translation far away from the original, and not consistent with the story.Now, there are still a lot of translators, simply pursuit of commercial profit, regardless of any translation principles, resulting in a lot of mistranslation.4.Translation equivalence concept Film is a form of art loved by peoples from all over the world.Excellent film has no national boundaries and it is a very good form of cultural exchange.When we introduce a foreign film, the first thing is to give it a proper name.Good title can make the target language audience eager to see the film faster and therefore, translation of film titles is very important.Zhou Jueliang had pointed out that translations vary based on the different types.Translation of the film title has its own characteristics(He Ming, 1998).From a linguistic point of view, film titles usually have a very simple constitute, usually only a few words.Compared with the other forms of language conversion, which are clearly not limited by deep level language such as sentences, paragraphs, text.However, due to special requirements on the functional, translation of film, titles show complex phenomenon to a certain degree, and it needs to be pointed out with translation theories and principles.Among all translation theory, translation equivalence can be used as important theoretical basis of movie title translations.Translation equivalence concept is a core issue in the modern translation theory in the West.1790, Alexander Fraser Tytler said ”good translations are fully moved advantage of original language to another, make the translate language people can clearly understand, strongly felt just like the original language people feel “in his Brief Discussion on Translation Theory.He first proposed the translation equivalence concept in the history.(Zhang Ling, 1994).America linguistics and translation theorist, Jacobson believes that all human languages have equal expressive power, but in the translation process, we must first overcome the structural differences between the original language and the target language to ensure that text equivalent.Eugene Nada the same as Jacobson, he stressed the commonality of language, but from the point of view of communication science and Informatics, he proposed, “the relationship between translation recipient and translation information should be basically the same as the relationship between the original recipient and the original information.” in 1964,(Jiang Zhiwen, and Wen Jun 2000).Newmark explore the ”reciprocal“ problem from the translation theory's point of view.He divided translation into ”semantic translation“ and ”communicative translation“.Semantic translation focuses on the semantic content of the original text, and communicative translation focused on the reader's understanding and response.Newmark thinks most of the translation of non-literary texts suitable for communicative translation(Newmark, 2001).Moreover, all about this, the center of attention is the function of the language, rather than the language feature, it emphasize the functional equivalence.When it comes to the translation of English film titles, the so-called ”equivalence“ refers that the effect of the film translate title to the target language country audience should be the same as the affect of the original title to the original language nation audience , thereby to created a watching desire and achieve the aim of cultural exchange.In accordance with the principles of equivalent translation, and combine with different actual situation, we can take the method of literal translation, transliteration, free translation in English film title translation.4.1 The literal translation or transliteration Literal translation or transliteration refers that when the title is easy to understand, we can directly translate it according to the literal meaning or pronunciation of the title.Such as:
Beauty and The Beast
《美女与野兽》 Brave Heart
《勇敢的心》 Citizen Kane
《公民凯恩》 The Godfathe
《教父》 American beauty
《美国丽人》 Casablanca
《卡萨布兰卡》 Jane Eyre
《简爱》 Annien Hal
《安妮・霍尔》 Jurassik Park
《侏罗纪公园》 Sound of Music
《音乐之声》 Titanic
《泰坦尼克号》 King Arthur
《亚瑟王》 Schindler’s list
《辛德勒名单》 Gladiator
《角斗士》 Love of May
《五月之恋》
Here is to be noted that, when some names in English film titles are unimportant consonants, it can be omitted in the transliteration.Because if the name more than four words, it is not conducive to memory and Chinese audiences would be awkward to read.Therefore, it should comply with principle of brief.(Hua Xianfa, 1999:190).Annien translated as ”An(安)“, not ”An Nien(安尼恩“;Schindler translated as ”Xin Dele(辛德勒)“, not ”Si Xindele(斯辛德勒)“.Some of the masterpieces of the world, such as Jane Eyre, Juliet, Wuthering Heights, has a relatively fixed in Chinese translation, so the English film title translation should comply with established principles and translate respectively.Which is capable of maintaining the original charm and allows viewers to immediately think of the original works? In addition, the transliteration should used the certain words provided in the transliteration table, and not use the easy associative terms, so as not to cause misunderstanding or make a fool mistake(Hua Xianfa, 1999:190).Jurassic translate as ”ZHU LUO JI(侏罗纪)“, it cannot be translated into ”ZHU RU JI(侏儒纪)“.4.2 Free translation
As mentioned above, English film has massively use of the personal name or geographical names directly as the film title.If translates literally constantly, it is a string of meaningless character to the translated language audience possibility and does not play any attraction role.Therefore, this requests the translator fully understand the movie content and display their subjective initiative, to make the translated title to be faithful to the original content, and transmit the movie content ,and express one's ideas expressively(He Ning, 1998).4.2.1 Literal translation adds the explanation Sleepless in Seattle 《西雅图不眠夜》 The Net 《网络情缘》 Moonstruck 《月色撩人》 Sand and Blood 《碧血黄沙》 Interpreter 《翻译**》
E.T. 《E.T.外星人》 The Fugitive 《亡命天涯》 My Fair Lady 《窈窕淑女》 Platoon 《野战排》 Once Upon a Time in America 《美国往事》 On the Waterfront 《码头风云》 All Quiet on the West Front 《西线无故事》 First Knight 《剑侠风流》 Days Touched by Love 《心动岁月》 4.2.2 Integration of transliteration and free translation Robinson Crusoe 《鲁宾逊漂流记》 Patton 《巴顿将军》 Shakespeare in Love 《莎翁情史》 Banbbi 《小鹿班比》 Notting Hill 《诺丁山情缘》 Philladelphia 《费城故事》 Shrek 《怪物史莱克》 Anne Frank 《安妮日记》 The Island 《神秘岛》 The Ring 《午夜凶铃》 The Year of the Year 《姚明年》 4.3 Modified translation
4.3.1 Reconstructing the cultural intention
Because of the film and its title always infiltrate into the nation’s certain culture system of literature, history, philosophy, religious, traditional, custom and legend, and plus the diaphragm of culture ring, it often can’t be known by people belongs to another culture system.Therefore, it became ”super language factors“ in language inter-conversion and understanding or communication obstacles.Without carefully consider, it is easily to cause misunderstanding.(Lin Qiuyun, 1996)Such as the film Hobson ' s Choice ,it is translated into the HUO BU XUN DE XUAN ZE(霍布逊的选择).It is about a shoe shopper named Hobson who not willing the eldest daughter married to a guy in the shop, but he give up because he is against by his three daughters’ alliance.Film actor named it Hobson, and does not have any problems apparently.However, Hobson is an English idiom, from the Observer Magazine(1712:509).Hobson is a United Kingdom Cambridge post boss in 16th century, and rental horse to their customers.However, he had a strange temper;he loves his horse very much and always insists on a fixed rotation of rental.When customers went to the stables to rent horse, they can only take the certain one even they do not like, and leave no room for negotiation.Later, people refer to the idiom, means ”there is no choice or room for negotiation“(Ma Gongru, 1997:243).Obviously, the HUO BU XUN DE XUAN ZE(霍布逊的选择)has not translated the pragmatic meaning of it, and unable to achieve functional equivalence with the original film, too.If we change the angle, switched to the culture of intention which Chinese audiences familiar with, and translated into the BIE WU XUAN ZE(别无选择),it will be better.Also Pumpkin Eater, it may be translated into the SHI NAN GUA DE REN(食南瓜的人).But it is derived from a popular nursery rhyme: ”Peter,Peter,pumpkin eater,had a wife and couldn’t keep her. “So, according to the story, translate into the TAI TAI DE KU MEN(太太的苦闷)seems more appropriate.There are also a lot of success translations, such as the Waterloo Bridge(HUN DUAN LAN QIAO;魂断蓝桥), the Ghost(REN GUI QING WE LIAO:人鬼情未了), the Bridges of Madison County(LANG QIAO YI MENG:廊桥遗梦), The Red Shoes(HONG LING YAN;红菱艳), The Bathing Beauty(CHU SHUI FU RONG;出水芙蓉), Forrest Gump(A GAN ZHENG ZHUN;阿甘正传).These translations discard the literal meaning of the original title, instead of the culture of intention which the Chinese audiences familiar with.4.3.2 Adjusted according to the differences between Chinese and English language
Chinese belong to Sino-Tibetan language family, English belong to Indo-European family.As a consequence, the Chinese emphasis on the accent and English emphasis on the syntactic difference.Because of the influence of doctrine philosophy,Chinese aesthetics audience emphasis on the special balance in the words.Therefore, four-word phrases are extensively using(Chen Hongwei, 1997:28).English stressed the correct syntax, and some films even take a sentence as name.So, the translator should note the differences in Chinese and English language, and make some appropriate adjustments.So those, the translation reader can catch information according to their mode of thinking.Such as:
Sound of Music 《音乐之声》 Top Gun 《壮志凌云》 My Fair Lady 《窈窕淑女》 Wild Wild West 《飚风战警》 The Wizard of Oz 《绿野仙踪》 The Age of Innocence 《纯真年代》 Citizen Kane 《公民凯恩》 Blade Runner 《银翼杀手》 It Happened One Night 《一夜风流》 It’s a Wonderful Life 《风云人物 Mr Deeds Goes to Town 《富贵浮云》 You Can’t Take it With You 《民主万岁》
5.The principle that film titles translation should follow
5.1 Cater for the content of the original film, reflecting the themes of the original film, outstanding original film style
A good film should have a clear theme.Battle about cops and robbers or description of love, to reflect social ethics or science fiction.Film styles vary with different themes.Cops-and-gangsters films give a twist, such as
Speed、《生死 时速 》 The Rock、《石 破天 惊》 The French Connection;
《法国 贩 毒网 》 Romance or romantic lingering, or patience, often give the taste, such as Waterloo Bridge、《魂 断蓝桥》 The Bridges of Madison County、《廊 桥遗梦》 The Piano、《钢琴别恋 》 Ghost、《人 鬼情 未 了》
Shakespeare re in Love;
《恋爱 中 的莎 士 比亚 》 Social and ethical topics serious, warning or enlightenment to people, such as the Kramer VS Kramer、《克雷默夫妇》 Rain M an;
《雨人 》
Fantastic, fantasy, and horror and science fiction films are often set in one about the fantasy world that does not exist in the real world, such as
The E.T.、《外星人 》 Batman、《蝙蝠侠》
Jurassic Park.《侏罗纪公园》
Translations should be able to properly reflect the content of the original movie, its themes, and highlight their style.United States 1939 film taken of Waterloo Bridge Love Story about a pathetic: in 1914, during the first world war, in London, in an air raid alert, luoyi·kelaoning and ballet dancer Myra met Captain young military officers on Waterloo Bridge, they just clicked immediately, and soon fall in love.However, as the war lovers cannot become family members.The heroine buried on the Waterloo Bridge under the wheels, and eliminating kill.Translator translate title is relevant to the Waterloo Bridge movie content, reflects the original tragic, is just right.Translator use ”broken souls“ to make it more acceptable to the audience.United States comedy Mrs.Doubtfire, talking about a story of a divorced man Daniel Hillard dressed up as a fat old woman going to his ex-wife's domestic every day in order to be able to see the children.Comedy scenes continue to appear in the film did some marvelous impressions.The translation is FEI MA XIAN SHANG(肥妈先生).The use of ”MOM“ and ”Sir“ highlighted the comedy style very well.YUN ZHONG MAN BU(云中漫步),the translation of the United States film A Walk in the Clouds are rated as the best.Original title literally means ”in the cloud“.Description of a pair of young men and women filled with scent of grape vineyards in the moving story of love.Vineyards in the movie named ”cloud“ covers a wide, green a, enveloped, is like a dream, love the heroine walks in the park.How romantic and poetic!This translation is in line with the film theme of romantic love, to read ”full of poetic, one Kiss, saw a cloud-like grape flowers smell the aroma of melts your heart all into“ and ”translation of Jacob was decent, image better, meaning long“(He Yue sensitivity, 1997), really colorful, and dominated!
5.2 Concise, easy to remember
Film is an art suit for both refined and popular tastes, and it is a popular form of entertainment too.In a sense, it is a commodity should be widely circulated.In order to make it easier to spread, movie title should be concise and easy to remember.This probably is the “usefulness” said by He Yuemin.Actually many films translation is consistent with the requirements.Such as: Star Wars、《星球大战》
Forrest Gump、《阿甘正传 》
Superman、《超人》
Terminator、《未来战士》
Roman Holiday、《罗马假日》
My Fair Lady、《窈窕淑女》
The Sound of Music、《音乐之声》
For Whom the Bell Tolls、《战地钟声》
On the Golden Pond、《金色池塘》
Bathing Beauty
《出水芙蓉》
It is not difficult to see that these translations use only a few words to translate all the content and meaning of the original movie.Moreover, most of them only four words, just as Chinese idioms, reading full of rhythm, easy catchy and easy to remember and spread.Also some translation of the movie title failed to meet this requirement.Feng HuaZhan(1980), said he saw a movie called the Qipulian·Bolongbeisiku.This title makes him very disgusted, because it is hard to remember and struggled to speak.5.3 Film title conformed to the Chinese language standard, and suited to our viewers enjoys habit.It should be said that some films do not need translator design, just translate it with the corresponding Chinese according to the equivalence principle.Of course, the premise is not to cause the audiences understand difficulties and must conform to the Chinese language standard.For example, the American adventure spy film named North by Northwest.Someone will translate it to XI BEI PAIN BEI(西北偏北).Through the title, viewers do not know what the film about, and it is not in line with Chinese language specification.Therefore, this translation is not desirable.Another translation of the film DIE HAI FENG YUN(谍海风云)is a good translation.Which give the suspense, highlights the style of spy film, clear and concise, while correspond to the Chinese language specifications.English films always use the owner's name or location as the title of the story.There is also the case in our China film, but less.Chinese films’ habit is to use the title to summarize the content of substance.Therefore, the translation of English film Hamlet as HA MU LEI TE(哈姆雷特)is in line with our habits.Oliver Twist translated as WU DU GU ER(雾都孤儿)is better than translated as the AO LIE FU TUI SI TE(奥列佛 退斯特).Because the former give us the place where the story take place(fog city, London)and the identity of the main character(an orphan).The Chinese audience can accept it easily.The American film Gone with the Wind(LUAN SHI JIA REN;乱世佳人)based on the same name novel is a good example.The “LUAN SHI(乱世)” explain the background of the story(the civil war), “JIA REN” named the heroine of the movie and showed the heroine’s frustrated experience.Look at an example.There is a film about American campus life, called Mr.Holland's Opus, The film tells the story of a remarkable music teacher, Holland.Holland works hard for 30 years in his teaching positions.He was “not rich, not famous, but his achievements beyond fame and wealth ”.He influences every student of the school.He is the Orchestra's conductor, each student is his notes, and every student is his works(Opus).Name of the literal translation is the HE LAN XIAN SHENG DE ZUO PIN(贺兰先生的作品), but now it is translated into the CHUN FENG HUA YU(春风化雨).The new translation has a deeper meaning than the formerly and show the movie extraordinary story, allows viewers to experience a teacher’s permeated personality charm.(Cai Weidong, 2000:104-105).At the same time, wonderful translation is like a piece of art, for people to enjoy the beauty of art.6.The conclusion
When the importance of English film titles translation increasingly be reflected, when the shortcomings of the current English film titles translation theory and method is revealed, and when the relevant problems are getting cause the attention of people, I believe that people will intensify research on this area of expertise, moreover, the translation equivalent theory and attention principles I mentioned in paper will make some significances on the development and improvement of the title translation.After continuous efforts, the present translation problems will be gradually resolved, the translation of English film titles will be more standardization, and the usefulness, the literariness and the scientific nature of the translation will greatly enhance.Bibliography .
[1] Jones, Gareth Stedman.Languages of Class [M].Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.1983.101.[2] Saussure, Ferdinand de.Course in General Linguistics [M].London: Peter Owen Limited.1960.23, 67, 77, 20, 21, 22, 16.[3] Searle, John R.Speech Acts [M].Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1969.75.[4] 贺莺.电影片名的翻译理论和方法[J].外语教学,2001(1)[5] 林秋云.外国电影片名翻译简论[J].上海科技翻译,1996(3)[6] 陆谷孙.英汉大词典[M].上海:上海译文出版社.1991.[7] 顾冠华, 沈广斌.中国传统文化与高等教育[ M ] 北京: 海洋出 版社, 1999 10 [8] 陈炼,陈育.外国电影片名的翻译[J].湖南商学院学报,2003,(9)
Acknowledgments
After finishing my B.A thesis, I really felt that I had come a long way.Many teachers and classmates gave me supports and helps in the process of writing this paper.I’d like first to take this chance to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor associate professor Li Liping, who generously gave me her kindly help and instructions during the whole process of my paper writing, for her patience and guidance for this thesis.I’d like to take this paper not only as the ending of my undergraduate life, but the beginning of my postgraduate study.Most important of all, I want to give my thanks to my mother university and all teachers in the College of Foreign Languages.
第二篇:目的论视角下的英语电影片名汉译研究
目的论视角下的英语电影片名汉译研究
摘要 4-5 Abstract 5-6
Introduction 8-12
Chapter One: Literature Review 12-19
1.1 Traditional Studies on Film Title Translation 12-14
1.2 Studies on Film Title Translation from the Cultural Perspective 14-16
1.3 Studies on Film Title Translation from the Communicative Perspective 16-17
1.4 Studies on Film Title Translation from the Perspective of Translators 17-19 Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework of the Research 19-25
2.1 Hans Vermeer: Skopos Theory and Beyond 19-20
2.2 Basic Concepts of Hans Vermeer's Skopostheorie 20-25 Chapter Three: Film Titles 25-41
3.1 Film genres 25-26
3.2 Features of Film Titles 26-31
3.3 The Functions of English Film Titles 31-35
3.4 Comparison between English and Chinese Film Titles 35-41
Chapter Four: Analysis of English Film Titles Translation from thePerspective of Skopos Theory 41-66
4.1 Application of Skopos Theory to English Film Title Translation 41-46
4.2 Analysis of English film Titles Translation from the Perspective of Skopos Theory 46-52
4.3 Key Elements Influencing the Translation of English Film Titles in Light of Skopos Theory 52-55
4.4 Translation Methods Adopted in the Practice of English Film Title Translation 55-66 Conclusion 66-69 Bibliography 69-71 Acknowledgements
目的论视角下英语旅游文本的英译汉研究 Abstract 6
摘要 7-10
Chapter One Introduction 10-14
1.1 Present Research Situation 10-11
1.2 Purpose and Significance 11-12
1.3 Structure of the Thesis 12-14
Chapter Two English-Chinese Translation of Tourist Text 14-29
2.1 English Tourist Text 15-21
2.1.1 Types of English Tourist Text 16
2.1.2 Function of English Tourist Text 16
2.1.3 Linguistic Characteristics of English Tourist Text 16-21
2.2 Problems in English-Chinese Translation of Tourist Text 21-25
2.2.1 Linguistic Level 21-24
2.2.2 Cultural Level 24-25
2.3 Causes of Existing Problems 25-29
2.3.1 Difference of Social Background 25-26
2.3.2 Difference of Thinking Mode 26-27
2.3.3 Difference of Value 27-29 Chapter Three The Skopos Theory 29-35
3.1 Definition and Development of Vermeer's Skopos Theory 29-32
3.1.1 Definition of the Skopos Theory 30
3.1.2 Behavior of Translation and Purpose of Translation 30-32
3.2 Three Translation Principles of the Skopos Theory 32-33
3.2.1 The Skopos Rule 32
3.2.2 The Coherence Rule 32-33
3.2.3 The Fidelity Rule 33
3.3 Second Generation of the Skopos Theory—Nord's Skopos Theory 33-35
Chapter Four Main Points and Strategy of E—C Translation of Tourist Text Based on Skopos Theory 35-51
4.1 Main Points and Strategy of E-C Translation of Tourist Text Based on Vermeer's the Skopos Rule 35-40
4.1.1 Reader-centered Translation 36-37
4.1.2 Translation with Purpose 37-40
4.2 Main Points and Strategy of E-C Translation of Tourist Text Based on Vermeer's Coherence Rule and Fidelity Rule 40-44
4.2.1 Intratextual Coherence 40-41
4.2.2 Intertextual Coherence 41-44
4.3 Skopos Rule as the Primary Principle in Conflict of the Three Rules 44-45
4.4 Main Points and Strategy of E-C Translation of Tourist Text Based on Nord's Theory 45-51
4.4.1 Understanding Literary Style of the Original Text 46-47
4.4.2 Understanding the Logic of the Original Text 47-48
4.4.3 Understanding Cultural Background of the Original Text 48-49
4.4.4 Understanding Meaning of the Words 49-50
4.4.5 Understanding Grammatical Structure 50-51 Chapter Five Conclusion
第三篇:(全英文论文)英文电影片名的汉译研究
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二、原创论文参考题目 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 论奥斯丁女性主义观点在《爱玛》中的体现 英汉死亡委婉语的文化差异及其分类对比
浅析《到灯塔去》中女性主义思想在两位女主人公身上的体现 旅游资料翻译中文化因素的处理 任务型教学法在高中英语教学中的应用 英语委婉语的特点及运用
从英汉习语的翻译看中西方文化差异 会话含义理论在法庭话语中的运用 雌雄同体:《奥兰多》中时代精神的体现 图式理论分析中国网络流行词翻译 《沉默的羔羊》三部曲中汉尼拔博士性格探析 12 跨文化交际中的社交语用失误及其对英语教学的启示 13 对“老人与海”中人物的分析 从原型批评理论角度分析威利洛曼的悲剧 15 《玻璃动物园》中的逃避主义解读 Analysis of Love Tragedy in The Apple Tree in Light of Realism 17 英语中的性别歧视 Saussure’s Five Contributions to Linguistic Study and Its Modern Applications 19 对公共演讲课堂中大学生课堂表现的心理分析 On Contradiction Between Comprehension and Expression in Translation 21 男权社会中女性的地位—《远大前程》中人物郝维仙之研究 22 斯嘉丽的新女性形象探析 浅析《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝的悲惨命运 《玻璃动物园》中的逃避主义解读 25 《喜福会》中的女性身份重建 绝望而不言败的抗争——塞林格的《麦田守望者》 27 An Application of Schema Theory in Interpreting 28 对《远离尘嚣》中三个男主人公命运的分析 29 中法餐桌文化对比 《白象似的群山》中话语权利争夺探究
译前准备对交替传译成效的课堂研究——以礼仪祝辞类口译为例 32 从《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》看维多利亚时期的新女性主义观 33 Symbolic Meanings of Babel in The Dogs of Babel 34 从适应与选择角度看公示语翻译方法
女性的自我迷失与回归—从女性主义视角解读《蒂凡尼的早餐》(开题报告+论文)36 影视字幕翻译原则——从文化角度进行研究 37 浅谈商务英语广告的翻译 38 浅析《麦田守望者》主人公霍尔顿 39 广告翻译中的语用失误研究 40 论英语小说中俚语的汉译
《追风筝的人》作为成长小说的的体裁分析 42 英语习语陷阱及其学习策略 43 商务信函中模糊语的使用研究 44 小说《飘》中斯嘉丽的女性主义探究
通过象征主义、梭罗的自然思想和梭罗的个人主义析《瓦尔登湖》 46 问题类型对TEM阅读成绩影响的实证研究 47 从关联理论的角度看《围城》中言语幽默的翻译 48 中英色彩词的文化内涵异同分析
双重文化下的文化选择——解析电影《刮痧》中中国移民的文化身份危机 50 希望和宿命论之间的挣扎-分析《德伯家的苔丝》中的苔丝形象 51 艾米丽·勃朗特《呼啸山庄》中男主人公希斯克利夫的形象分析 52 高中英语新课标在xx中实施情况调查与分析 53 汉英称赞语的对比研究
试论金融英语词汇的特点与翻译
不做房间里的天使——解读《爱玛》中的女性主体意识 56 莎士比亚戏剧《哈姆雷特》中男主人公性格分析 57 浅谈企业形象广告设计
浅析隐藏在“面纱”之后的伯莎梅森 59 论小说《德库拉》中的哥特元素 60 解析《丽姬娅》中的哥特美学 61 从跨文化角度对中美语言禁忌的浅析 62 被忽视的主人公——析《简爱》中的疯女人
中西方文化中家庭观念差异研究——以电影《推手》为例 64 浅析隐藏在“面纱”之后的伯莎梅森 65 跨文化交际中的障碍浅析及其解决方法 66
从功能对等角度看信用证英语的翻译 68 浅析隐藏在“面纱”之后的伯莎梅森 69 浅谈英语在未来的国际地位
浅析合作原则在汉英广告语翻译中的运用 71 《呼啸山庄》爱情悲剧根源分析
浅析《恋爱中的女人》的圣经意象原型——从原型批评角度解读 73 史蒂芬克莱恩《红色英勇勋章》中的自然主义表现手法 74 EFL Learning Strategies on Web-based Autonomous Learning 75 A Comparative Study of Politeness Expressions in English and Chinese 76 浅析《贵妇画像》中的心理描写 77 英汉产品简介的对比分析 78 非语言行为在英语交流中的应用
从《霍华德庄园》到《印度之行》:论福斯特联结梦的破灭 80 从哈姆雷特心理变化轨迹浅析其性格发展阶段 81 中英文颜色词的文化内涵及翻译
论《西游记》中文化因素的翻译策略——以詹纳尔和余国藩的英译本为例 83 The Religious Thoughts in The Pilgrim’s Progress
美国牛仔和牛仔文化
从文化语境的角度比较《诗经》的两个英译版本 86 元认知策略指导下的英语专业高年级学生听力学习87 英汉动物习语内涵意义的文化差异 88 《野性的呼唤》和《老人与海》的对比研究 89 翻译中的语境因素分析
浅议英汉习语翻译中文化语境的制约作用
A Study of C-E Translation of Tourist Materials from the Perspective of Cross-culture 92 伍尔夫《一间自己的房间》的女性主义解读 93 古典诗歌中典故的翻译 94 法律英语的特点
《达洛维夫人》死亡意识解读 96 中西方在养老孝道方面的差异
The Function of Symbols in the Feminist Novel Possession 98 性格、学习策略和英语学习成绩的关系研究 99 论口译中的跨文化意识 100 英汉问候语语用分析 101 英汉习语文化差异浅析 102 世纪以来英汉委婉语的语义变迁
对比分析中西方魔幻影视中英雄主义——以《哈利波特》与《西游记》为例 104 《理智与情感》中的婚姻 105 英语习语翻译中的“功能对等” 106 语用模糊及语用功能
浅析隐藏在“面纱”之后的伯莎梅森
An Analysis of the Leading Character in ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ 109 Approaching English Vocabulary Teaching—a Lexicological Perspective 110 世纪以来英汉委婉语的语义变迁
寻找女性的自我 — 评托妮莫里森作品《秀拉》中秀拉形象 112 英汉问候语对比研究
《哈克贝利费恩历险记》的艺术特色分析
托尼莫里森《宠儿》中保罗D的形象解析 115 从标记理论看英语词汇性别歧视现象
An Analysis of the Initiation Theme in The Child in Time 117 英语财经报道中的词汇衔接研究
On Advertising Translation from the Perspective of Skopostheorie 119 论英语商务合同中状语从句的翻译 120 论《推销员之死》中威利•洛曼的死亡原因
A Tentative Study on Metaphor Translations in Fortress Besieged from the Perspective of Relevance Theory 122 中美时间观差异对跨文化交际的影响 123 论广告英语的修辞特征及其翻译 124 逆向思维在外语学习中的应用
元认知策略在高中英语写作教学中的运用 126 A Comparison of the English Color Terms 127 文化差异对商标翻译的影响
从《嘉莉妹妹》分析西奥多莱塞对人性欲望的理解
On Hybridization in Translation of Culture-loaded Lexemes in Moment in PekingThe Duality of Life and Death——An Analysis on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs.Dalloway
从文本类型角度看旅游宣传资料的汉英翻译 131 《海的女儿》中安徒生的悲剧情结分析 132 星巴克营销策略研究
论《麦田里的守望者》中的象征体系及霍尔顿的精神世界 134 从目的论角度看企业推介材料的中译英技巧-以家具产品介绍为例 135 精神之光——《到灯塔去》中拉姆齐夫人的人性解析 136 委婉语与英语交际
对《傲慢与偏见》中贝内特太太及其女儿们的人物评论 138 女性主义视角下《傲慢与偏见》的情态意义解读
背叛与救赎:从佛洛伊德的人格理论分析《追风筝的人》阿米尔的成长 140 从麦田里的守望者到中国的青少年
女性主义视角下《小妇人》中四姐妹的人物分析
《永别了武器》中战争对人类所造成的毁灭 143 纳撒尼尔·霍桑《红字》中的象征主义 144 清明节与万圣节的比较
浅谈中国电影产业发展的问题及对策 146 阿法——《多芬的海》中的加勒比人
外国商标的中文翻译策略及其产品营销效应研究 148 论《追风筝的人》中“风筝”的象征意义 149 《野性的呼唤》中的生态观
论汉英诗歌翻译中对“真”和“美”的追求 151 班德瑞曲名汉译策略之解析
152 《德伯家的苔丝》简写本与原著的语篇比较——基于倒装句的分析视角 153 从《马拉喀什》和《射象》看乔治奥威尔散文的艺术风格 154 从十字军东征看中世纪宗教冲突
155 A Comparative Study of Cultural Connotations of Yellow and Huang in English and Chinese 156 论《海狼》中拉尔森船长本性的双重性 157 中西方餐桌礼仪的文化对比分析 158 词义的选择和商务英语的汉译 159 浅析交替传译过程中停顿现象 160 《鲁宾逊漂流记》中鲁滨逊的形象分析 161 对外汉语教学中的成语研究
162 任务型教学在高中英语阅读课中应用的调查
163 约翰欧内斯特斯坦贝克《愤怒的葡萄》中的生态整体主义观 164 受超验主义影响的具有美国精神的作家 165 A Comparison of the English Color Terms 166 从关联理论角度分析《绝望主妇》中话语标记语I mean 167 论英文电影名翻译 168 论《简爱》中的疯女人 169 法律英语词汇的特点及其翻译
170 Analysis of the Personality Changes of the Characters in The Grapes of Wrath
171 浅析《小妇人》中乔的女性意识及其成长过程 172 DOTA游戏英雄名称汉译策略
173 Salinger, a True Man: A Study of Salinger Based on The Catcher in the Rye 174 方言电视节目收视群体特点及社会影响分析 175 跨文化交际中的个人主义和集体主义冲突及解决办法 176 从自我认同角度再析《简爱》 177 论《老无所依》中的英雄缺失 178 意象手法在《永别了,武器》中的使用 179 论中美广告中所反映的文化价值观差异 180 论莱辛作品《又来了,爱情》中妇女失爱的原因 181 从影片《刮痧》分析中美文化差异和冲突 182 浅析隐藏在“面纱”之后的伯莎梅森
183 An Analysis of the Tragic Fate of Mary Turner in The Grass Is Singing 184 二元对立模型在伍尔夫《达洛卫夫人》中的应用 185 从商业广告看文化因素对广告翻译的影响
186 论《一个小时的故事》中马拉德夫人女性意识的觉醒 187 中西方礼貌用语对比分析 188 英语阅读有效教学活动设计研究 189 《飘》中生态女性意识的研究 190 从功能对等理论看字幕翻译 191 《野性的呼唤》中的人性和野性 192 Advertising and Its Application 193 非传统式英雄——从女性主义批评角度看《名利场》 194 提高大学生英语口语的流利度 195 《红高粱家族》中乡土文化翻译研究 196 目的论视角下公益广告的翻译 197 英语谚语重复修辞格的翻译 198 解读《拉帕希尼的女儿》中的父爱
199 Situational Approach to Grammar Teaching in Senior High English Classes 200 正面解读《名利场》中的蓓基-夏泼
第四篇:目的论视角下的英语电影片名汉译——方艳霞
目的论视角下的英语电影片名汉译分析
方艳霞
摘要:随着全球化的快速发展,各国之间的跨文化交际活动也愈加频繁。而电影作为跨文化交际活动和文化传播的重要组成部分,电影的片名翻译也显得愈加重要。本文笔者将从德国功能学派目的论视角下讨论英语电影片名的翻译,并通过信息功能、审美功能和商业功能三个角度以及不同译本的比较和翻译策略分析,提出电影片名的翻译应当以目的论为依据,遵循翻译目的为最高原则,采取适当的翻译策略,最终形成相对比较恰当的电影片名翻译,以传达出电影片名的信息功能、审美功能和商业功能。
关键词:目的论;电影片名翻译;翻译原则;信息功能;审美功能;商业功能
一、导言
随着全球化的深入和快速发展,跨文化交际活动越来越频繁,成为各国文化交流和文化传播的重要途径。而电影作为文化传播的其中一种载体形式,也愈加备受重视。这之中,电影片名的翻译也显得愈加重要,如果没有处理好电影片名的翻译,就会直接影响译入语观众对电影内容和电影所承载的文化艺术的理解。因此,寻找好的恰当的电影片名翻译策略,不仅能很好的实现文化交际和文化传播功能,还能帮助电影制作商实现经济效益。在翻译过程之中更多的还要考虑译入语观众的理解水平、他们的文化形态和文化习惯以及一定的经济政治条件,要综合考虑多种因素,最后找到合适的翻译策略。
因此,本文中,笔者将首先简要介绍一下德国功能派目的论,重点介绍费米尔的目的论,然后将以一些典型的英文电影片名的翻译实例为例,从目的论的翻译三大法则出发讨论其中运用到的翻译策略,最终以目的论为概括,讨论目的论在电影片名翻译中的适用性,使片名实现以下三种功能:信息功能、审美功能和商业功能。
二、理论概述
二十世纪五六十年代,西方翻译理论主要研究的是语言学和对等理论, 从原文的角度来研究翻译的奥秘。到二十世纪七十年代,翻译研究中的语言学取向受到挑战, 德国的翻译学者摈弃了独霸译坛的结构主义刻板模式, 创立了功能派翻译理论。
功能派翻译理论的形成大体有三个阶段。首先,赖斯根据布勒的语言功能模式提出了文本类型理论,将文本类型分为信息型、表情型和操作型三种。译文与原文具有不同的功能,有时候“等值”是完全不可能实现的。赖斯认为译者要优先考虑译文的功能特征而不是对等原则。赖斯的研究可谓是翻译目的论的发端。其后, 费米尔以人类行为理论为基础创立了功能派的奠基理论:翻译目的论。他认为,翻译行为的实施是为了达到某种目的或者目标,强调译者的主观能动性。费米尔认为:“翻译时, 译者根据客户或委托人的要求, 结合翻译的目的和译文读者的特殊情况, 从原作所提供的多信息中进行 选择性的翻译。”随后, 曼塔利进一步发展了费米尔的“目的论”。三位学者的著作和文章奠定了以目的论为核心的功能派翻译理论。另一位德国学者克里斯蒂安·诺德系统地整理了功能派的思想,将翻译目的论纳入到功能派翻译理论的整体框架中, 建立了自己的翻译理论体系,即“功能+忠诚”理论,是德国功能学派目的论中的一个核心概念。
在这之中,费米尔的目的论是德国功能学派目的论的重要组成部分,他的目的论涉及三个主要概念,分别是翻译行为、委托人和翻译委托。翻译行为是由目的的活动,委托人则是翻译的发起者,翻译委托中会指明翻译的目的、交稿日期和译者的薪酬等等。他提出了翻译应遵循的三大原则,分别是目的原则、连贯原则和忠实原则。目的原则即翻译目的,要符合译入语读者的期待,翻译目的决定了翻译方法。连贯原则则是指语内连贯,让译入语读者能够理解。忠实原则则是译文要忠实于原文,忠实的程度则由委托人和译者根据译入语读者的期待决定,是一种语际连贯。目的原则最根本,是核心。连贯原则和忠实原则从属于目的原则。忠实原则又要从属于连贯原则。
在英语电影的英译中,同样要遵循以上的三大原则,在三个原则的基础上,采取合适的翻译策略,使片名实现以下三种功能:信息功能、审美功能和商业功能。
三、电影的分类
一般而言,电影可以分为以下三类,分别是科普片、教育片和故事片。科普片和教育片因为受众都是某一类群体,而且几乎没有商业性和娱乐性,采取的翻译策略一般就是翻译直译。而故事片的受众则是普罗大众,故事片细分下来的种类也很多,商业目的性强,故事片的娱乐功能和商业价值就决定了要采取“目的论”的翻译原则,具体的翻译策略也比较多样化。所以本文笔者将着重讨论故事片片名的翻译。
四、如何实现电影片名的三大功能
1、信息功能
信息功能,顾名思义,就是向观众传达电影的主要内容,传达的可能是故事主人公、故事梗概、故事发生时间、故事发生地点或者故事结局,一个电影片名传达的信息内容可以包括以上的一个部分或者所有,也就是说观众在看到片名后,会对电影相关的主题或者类型有所了解。因此,片名 是对整个电影故事的高度凝练,可以让观众一目了然,至少留给他们一定的猜测空间。基于此种信息功能,所以翻译这种比较具有强烈信息传递功能的电影片名,采取的方法一般是直译,当然也不排除个别例外。直译就是 基本上是对等的字对字翻译。
比如The King's Speech,中国大陆翻译成《国王的演讲》,而香港翻译的是《皇上无话儿》,台湾则翻译成《王者之声:宣战时刻》。
The King’s Speech讲述的是因为弟弟因爱舍皇位,约克郡公爵临危受命,成为乔治六世国王,在二战的背景之下,乔治六世面临着发表鼓舞人心的演讲的艰巨任务,为什么说艰巨,因为乔治六世患有口吃。为了克服口吃的毛病,乔治六世历经治疗,终于靠医生、家人和自己的毅力下,在二战成功发表了鼓舞人心的演讲。所以故事围绕的核心,众人为之努力的目标就是为了最后的演讲。英语片名,毋庸置疑,想传递的就是这种意思,所以大陆的翻译《国王的演讲》这种直译是很恰当的,国内的观众看到该片名,就大概了解了故事的主题核心就是关于一个国王的演讲。而反过来看台湾和香港的译本,为了追求语言的美感,有点过译了。《皇上无话儿》确实有模糊地表达出乔治六世口吃的状态,但是这种根据电影内容的编译或者说是意译,反而不如直译效果好,让人有点摸不着头脑,也不是整个故事的核心。香港的《王者之声:宣战时刻》听起来很有噱头,乍一看有点像是蝙蝠侠这种漫威英雄电影或者战争电影,会有一定的误解。可能在噱头方面比较有亮点,但是也是过译了,显得有点夸张,而且“声”和“speech”完全不能对等,只能说模糊地有点牵扯,可能比较有亮点的是“宣战”二字,因为故事背景就是二战,但是明明直译更省力,而且效果更好,为什么要化简为繁,大费周章的花式翻译。所以综合大陆版本和港台版本的对比,可以看出大陆版本的直译更加精确地传达出了电影内容。另外的例子像是The Boy in the Striped Pajamas《穿条纹睡衣的男孩》,The Butterfly Effect《蝴蝶效应》等,前者是电影故事的主人公;后者是电影故事的一个理论基础,将理论延伸至人类社会。像这种传达很明确信息的电影片名,直译无疑是最好的翻译策略。
综上所述,对于信息类,一般没有文化负载词的电影片名,不管采取何种具体的翻译策略,都是为了实现电影片名一定程度上的信息功能,而这时候,在目的论指导下采取的翻译策略,无论是直译还是策略,都是为了实现电影符合译入语观众的期待,观众是影响片名翻译的主体,即遵循了目的原则。
2、审美功能
审美感受更多的是一种艺术体验,内心的感觉。也就是在翻译电影片名的时候要考虑到观众的感受,尤其是美的感受。由于中西方文化的差异,译者在翻译电影片名时要从译者的角度克服一定的文化障碍,帮助读者实现最大程度的审美感觉。这个时候,一般处理的是不好直译,如果直译的话不符合中文阅读习惯和思维方式的电影片名,而为了实现这种以观众为中心的审美功能,采取的翻译策略肯定排除直译,一般是意译、增词、减词或调整语序等等,不管怎样,翻译策略的选择都是围绕着译入语观众的审美能力的。
比如Scent of a Woman翻译成《闻香识女人》,而不是其他的译法《女人香》或者《女人的芳香》。如果只为了信息功能而直译的话,也就是翻译成《女人香》或者《女人的芳香》的话,就没有《闻香识女人》这种只可意会不可言传的美感来得更加美、更加有内涵。《闻香识女人》在原文的基础上加了两个动词“闻”和“识”,多了这两个词,就多了一种朦胧而又模糊的立体美感,很能吸引观众的眼球,从这一方面来说,达到了翻译委托人也就是电影公司的目的,吸引观众,同时又符合译入语观众也就是中国观众的审美习惯和用语习惯。
另外一个例子就是Hilary and Jackie,分别有三种译本《希拉里与杰基》,《狂恋大提琴》和《她比烟花寂寞》,同样英文片名都是名词,也就是故事的两个主人公,一对姐妹希拉里和杰基。电影其实讲述的是一个寂寞的故事,妹妹拉大提琴天赋过人,却有着不为人知的内心无比寂寞的一面,她反而羡慕姐姐这种普普通通人的生活。妹妹的生活是在华丽背后的虚空与流离,流离在亲情和爱情之外,结局无异乎是悲剧的,与其说是故事片,不如说是文艺片,因此艺术性更强,导演想传达给我们的东西也更加晦涩难懂。如果像信息类的故事片名一样采取直译,也就是《希拉里与杰基》,虽然和英文的片名如出一辙,但是感觉不深刻,观众乍一看,不会想到讲的是更加有深度的东西。可以说,翻译成《她比烟花寂寞》,从某种程度上说,算是超越了英文标题Hilary and Jackie,不管是艺术性审美性还是给观众带来的直观冲击来讲,中文标题更胜一筹,中文标题算是译者自己的发挥,根据电影内容和电影含义的编译,给人一种寂寞空虚萧条的悲剧之感。从这一点来说,翻译成《她比烟花寂寞》审美效果确实很好。而《狂恋大提琴》虽然说也是译者自己的编译,也符合电影中妹妹的特点,但是就深度和广度而言,显然是不足的,比《她比烟花寂寞》稍逊一筹。
不管是《她比烟花寂寞》的翻译还是《闻香识女人》的翻译,从某种程度上都很好地实现了译者的主观能动性,都是为了更好地符合译入语观众的期待和符合译入语观众的审美要求和审美期待,译者在这里主观能动性很强,将译本和译入语读者放在了更重要的位置,因此也很符合目的论的目的原则以及连贯原则,而忠实原则的程度很大程度上也是取决于译者以及委托人的意愿的,以服务目的原则为宗旨实现的。因此以目的论为指导的电影片名的翻译,如果要实现一定的审美功能,则也是要以三大原则为依据的。
3、商业功能
电影的制作发行,传递到其他国家,不单单是为了文化交际和文化传播,更重要也更加主要的是实现电影的商业价值,这是电影制作发行的核心目的,尤其是在当今竞争激烈的电影市场上。所以电影片名的翻译应当要充分发挥起市场化和商业化的作用,要足够吸引观众的眼球、好奇心和观看欲望。而这主要考虑的是翻译委托人的意愿,要实现商业价值,其实也考虑到了译入语观众的心理需求,只不过为了符合他们的期待或者给他们制造期待,可能会过分放大原有的英文标题。
例如The Prestige大陆翻译成《致命魔术》,台湾翻译成《顶尖对决》,香港翻译成《死亡魔法》。其实跟原有的英文标题几乎毫不相关,算是一种根据电影内容的再创作。
电影内容其实是关于两个著名魔术师的明争暗斗,二人出招接招,一来一往,争斗在剧烈升级,友谊和道德都被抛诸脑后,一场血案在悄悄酝酿,电影剧情环环紧扣,扣人心弦,很是烧脑。要想表达出导演想要表达的意味以及剧情的内容,直译当然不可取。无论是《致命魔术》、《顶尖对决》还是《死亡魔法》其实都是抓住电影核心,主要的矛盾冲突然后加以理解翻译的。单从文字角度,不看对观众产生的影响的话,三个都各有特色,《致命魔术》无论是“致命”还是“魔术”,这两个词都紧扣住了电影的核心,“致命”暗示了结局,“魔术”则是手段;《顶尖对决》则着重强调两个主人公之间的你来我往争斗,只是却未点名关键的“魔术”二字;《死亡魔法》和《致命魔术》异曲同工,都是一样的意思,只是措辞不同,语气和措辞相较于《致命魔术》更加和缓。但是如果从观众的角度来看,《死亡魔法》肯定不行,像童话故事一样。而《顶尖对决》有种港片的即视感,不会联想到和魔术有关,而魔术作为该电影的重要元素,是不可或缺的。综合比较,无疑是《致命魔术》听起来更加酷炫,悬疑或者是残酷,会更有看头,观众也会更加喜欢,作为商业片而言,起码片名就很有市场,既不落俗,又不会太难懂。只要观众喜欢了,那么电影的商业价值就实现了。
电影片名的翻译实现商业功能仍旧需要以目的论为依据,考虑到翻译委托人的目的,即创造市场价值,以目的性原则为最高原则,这时候的忠实程度就可以根据目的需求具体看待了。
五、结语
随着电影市场多元化的发展,电影种类日益繁多,但是在翻译电影片名的时候,无论是中翻外语还是外语翻成中文,都应当以翻译目的论的三大原则为指导,处理好电影片名的翻译,以实现片名的信息功能、审美功能和商业功能。但是在此基础上为了实现更好的文化交际,还应具体问题具体分析,适当保持某种文化的特定特色,以促进世界文化的多元性,欣欣向荣和繁荣发展,促进文化交流以及文化传播。
参考文献:
[1]Nord, C.2001.Translating a s a Purposeful Activity: Functional Approaches Explained.Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press [2]Eugene A.Nida.1993.Language, Culture and Translation.Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press [3]Reiss,K & Vermeer.H.J.G.1984.Groundwork for a General Theory of Translation.Tubingen: Niemeye.[4]谭载喜,1999,《新编奈达论翻译》,北京:北京对外翻译出版 公司。[5]张美芳,2005,《翻译研究的功能途径》,上海:上海外语教育出版社。
第五篇:论文:英语电影片名的翻译
中文文摘
电影是一种集艺术性和商业性于一体的艺术形式,是最具有影响力的媒体之一。越来越多的英语电影被引入中国,促进了中西方文化交流。电影片名作为电影的重要组成部份之一,具有传达信息,表现美感和吸引观众的功能。在过去的二三十年里,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份,电影片名的研究工作还做得远远不够。目前似乎还没有人提出一套比较完整可行的原则指导片名翻译。目前英语片名翻译的问题主要表现为译名不统一,呈现出“一名多译,良荞不齐”的状况。
本文以新兴的功能翻译理论作为研究基础,大力提倡以观众为取向的英语片名翻译方法。功能翻译理论不同于传统的翻译理论,它强调了翻译及目的文本在其文化中的功能。作为功能翻译理论的“目的论”认为,翻译是一种有目的行为,“目的”决定所有翻译行为。根据“目的论”,决定翻译目的的最重要因素之一就是译文的接受对象,他们作为译文预期的接受者有其各自特定的文化背景和不同的交际需求。此外,功能理论还赋予译者更高的地位和更多的自由,认为为了达到翻译的目的与功能,译者可以最大限度地利用原文的文本信息,并在实践中采用行之有效的不同翻译策略。这也符合了当今影视翻译鼓励 译者具有一定个性和创造性的趋势。
在以上理论研究的基础上,文章将功能理论应用于分析英语电影片名翻译的现象,对英语片名的翻译进行了深入系统而全面的描述与分析,探讨了功能翻译理论指导电影片名翻译的合理性与可行性,以及在该理论指导下英语电影片名翻译的一些策略。全文共分五早。
论文第一章首先介绍了英文电影片名的重要性,阐明了本文的写作目的、研究方法和组织结构。
第二章主要介绍了本研究的理论基础一功能翻译理论。本章首先介绍了功能翻译理论的发展;其次介绍了指导功能翻译理论的三大法则,即目的性法则,连贯性法则和忠诚性法则。指出功能翻译理论的评价标准是“合适”,而不是“对等”。该理论作为对传统翻译理论的一个重大突破和翻译理论研究的重要补充,为电影片名翻译的理论研究开辟了一个新视角。
第三章介绍了电影的分类,定义了电影片名,分析了电影片名的功能和特点。并指出片名翻译的最终目的和主要功能是激发观众的观看欲望。电影片名不仅是物质产品,同时又是精神产品。为了更好地实现片名翻译的最终目的,译者不仅要使得电影译名具有导看功能,即片名能给观众提供影片的基本信息,还要使观众获得美感并受到感召,最终采取行动。这也就是要求译者在译文中努力实现电影片名的三种基本功能,即信息功能,美感功能和祈使功能。
III
第四章是理论与实践相结合的一个章节,即将功能翻译理论结合到具体的片名翻译实践中。作者分析了英语电影片名翻译的主要方法和策略,即音译、直译、意译及改译,以及各种方法的优势和不足,指出了各种翻译方法密不可分,优势互补。本文引用了大量丰富的例子来探讨功能翻译策略在电影片名翻译中的运用,认为原英语片名只是信息提供者之一。除了原电影片名,电影本身也可能提供信息。因此,译名与原名是否对等并不十分重要,充分满足信息、美感、祈使三个功能的要求才是英语电影片名翻译的首要标准。
第五章总结全文,指出电影片名翻译的功能能否实现是英语电影片名汉译的基本原则。要实现电影片名翻译的功能,就要求译者要明确片名翻译的目的,了解电影的类型及主要内容,并基于此选择适当的翻译策略来实现电影片名翻译的功能。
IV
Synopsis
The film, a particular art with both artistic and commercial values, is one of the most influential mass media with large quantities of English films being introduced into China.The film title, as an important part of the film, is of referential, expressive and appellative functions and its translation is a challenging job.Although film translation has been developing quickly in the past two or three decades, film title translation is a far less explored field.Up till now, no systematic and feasible theory on English film title translation has been put forward.Actually, film title translation is very problematic in that it is in a state of disunity.From the aspects of the functions and skopos of film titles, the author makes an analysis of the translation of film titles.Skopos theory, a newly developed theory, is adopted as the theoretical background of this thesis and an audience-oriented film title translation approach is highly advocated.Functionalism sheds new lights on the translation field.It reflects a shift from traditional linguistic and formal translation theories to a more functionally and socio-culturally oriented concept of translation.As a kernel of functionalism, Skopos theory holds that translation is an intentional action, and the skopos is the prime principle to determine the overall translational action.According to Skopos theory, one of the most important factors determines the purpose of a translation is the target receivers with their culture-specific backgrounds, their expectations and communicative needs.Moreover, functionalism gives the translator much more freedom than ever.The translator is encouraged to make good use of the source information and enjoys the freedom of choosing what strategy to follow to achieve the expected functions of the translation.In this thesis, the author applies the functionalist approaches to explain the phenomena of film title translation.The thesis makes an intensive and comprehensive study of the translation of English film titles.It proves the rationality and applicability of the functionalist approach and probes into the translation strategies of translation of English film titles under the guideline of functionalism.The thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter serves as an introduction.It presents the significance of the study, and also describes the skopos, research methodology and the structure of thesis.V
Chapter Two elaborates the theoretical basis—the functionalist approach, on
which the present study is founded.This chapter first introduces the historical views of the functional translation theory.After this, the chapter illuminates the three rules for any translation under the framework of functionalism: the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule;and indicates that criterion for translation evaluation is “adequacy”.Therefore, the functionalist theory has given a new perspective to the study of the translation of film title.Chapter Three introduces the genre of films, defines the film title to be examined in this thesis and discusses the features and functions of film titles.It points out that the ultimate purpose of film title translation is to induce the audience to see the film.But unlike commercial advertisement, the film title is not only a commercial product, but a spiritual product as well.In order to achieve the purpose, the title not only has to provide necessary information about the film to the audience but to entertain the audience and attract them.Only when the audience have been entertained and attracted by the title will they be persuaded to go to the cinema.That is to say, a translator should try to achieve three basic functions in target translation, namely thereferential, expressive and appellative functions.Chapter Four discusses the combination of theory with practice.This chapter applies the functionalist approach explain to the English film title translation.It first uses the functionalist approaches to the phenomena of film title translation.And it elaborates the strategies mainly applied in English film title translation, namely transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption, and discusses the merits and limitations of each method.This thesis argues that all the translation strategies are indispensable and supplementary to each other.It holds that equivalence to the original is not very important but the translation's adequacy to the requirement of the three functions is just the first and foremost criterion for the fulfillment of the skopos of reproducing the referential, expressive and appellative functions of original film titles Chapter Five is the conclusion that summarizes the whole thesis.It reaffirms that the translator should translate the English film titles under the basic principle of fulfilling the specific functions of it by applying translation methods in a flexible way.VI
Table of Contents 中文摘要........................................................................................................................I
Abstract........................................................................................................................II
中文文摘.....................................................................................................................III
Synopsis........................................................................................................................V
Chapter One Introduction........................................................................................1 1.1 Research Background..............................................................................................1 1.2 Data and Methodology.............................................................................................2 1.3 The Structure of the Thesis.....................................................................................2
Chapter Two Literature Review..............................................................................4 2.1 The Emergence of Functional Approaches..............................................................4 2.2 Functionalist Translation Theory.............................................................................5 2.2.1 Development of Functionalist Translation Theory...............................................5 2.2.2 Basic Concepts of Skopos Theory........................................................................6 2.2.3 Adequacy, Standard of Evaluation.......................................................................6 2.2.4 Translation Brief..................................................................................................6 2.2.5 Merits of Skopos Theory......................................................................................7
Chapter Three A Profile of Film Title Translation................................................8 3.1 Genre of Film...........................................................................................................8 3.2 Definition of Film Titles..........................................................................................8 3.3 Sources of Film Titles..............................................................................................8 3.3.1 The Indication of the Subject...............................................................…….........9 3.3.2 The Indication of the Object/Clue........................................................…….........9 3.3.3 The Indication of the Background........................................................................9 3.3.4 The Indication of the Plot....................................................................................10 3.3.5 The Indication of the Theme........................................................................…...10 3.4 Features of Film Titles...........................................................................................10 3.5 Functions of Film Titles........................................................................................11
VII
3.6 Skopos of Film Title Translation...........................................................................11
Chapter Four Application of the Functionalist Approach to the English Film Title Translation.....................................................................................................13 4.1 Strategies Employed in the Translation of English Film Titles.............................13 4.2 Strategies Employed in the Translation of Film TItles..........................................13 4.3 Summary................................................................................................................13
Chapter Five Conclusion.......................................................................................15 5.1 Summary and Conclusion of the Research...........................................................15 5.2 Limitations and Suggestions of the Research........................................................15
References...................................................……........................................................17
VIII
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
The year 1895 witnessed the first film in world history in France.Having developed for over a century, the film has become one of the most popular ways of entertainment for people.Additionally, it is also a means of expression as well as a vehicle for cultural communication.The film has included so much of various historical periods that people believe that by watching films of various types from various times and various countries, they can learn many aspects of history.The film is, so to speak, an acting and talking encyclopedia of culture and society.With the increasing pace of China's opening to the outside world as well as the development of cultural communication between China and English-speaking countries, more and more English films have entered Chinese market.In order to enable the audience to understand and appreciate the film, the whole film should be translated.Thus, there is an urgent demand for the translation of films.And because the film, as a specific form of literature and audio-visual art, is bound to have promising prospects in our age, it is of great significance to study and develop film-translating too.Film translation is the translating of languages and cultures, and the promotion of cross-cultural exchanges.And the film title, like the title to a literary text, delivers the most important information about the film to the audience.Therefore, as an indispensable part of the film translation, the film title translation naturally becomes an important branch of the general translation study.Whether the film is appealing or not, the title is one and the first deciding factor, for it is often the first that comes into the potential viewer's attention.It is expected to be eye-catching, ear-pleasing and curiosity-stimulating.The film titles generally bear three principal functions: the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative function.The referential function means that the translation informs the audience the background and the plots of the film.It tells the audience as much of the information of the film as it can within several words and help them have a basic understanding of the film.The expressive function means that the translation sets the feeling-tone reflected in each film genre, which is very important to its communicative effectiveness;The appellative function means
that the translation must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the audience so as to attract their attention, and triggerthem to enter the cinema to appreciate the film.And the film title, being short in form but rich in meaning, has its own linguistic, aesthetic, cultural and commercial features, all of which contribute a lot to the charm and the success of the film.Nowadays, the film title translation has attracted the attentions of many scholars.Many thesises of this topic could be seen in various kinds of academic periodicals.However, the studies in this field are not adequate and comprehensive enough.In this thesis, the author will try to make some theoretical explanations by examples which are taken from original texts and published translations.1.2 Data and Methodology
The present research is a descriptive analysis of English film title translation.It mainly focuses on the feature films which carry a greater variety than documentary films and science and educational films.They are usually intended to attract wide and varied audience.Thus, various feature film titles are collected from various sources such as books, journals, DVDs and the Internet for this research.The research is carried out in the light of the functionalist approaches to discover the principles of film title translation, and to see how the translation strategies are adequate to the requirements of the three functions in serving the skopos of film title translation.1.3 The Structure of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters: l)introduction, 2)literature review, 3)a profile of filmtitle translation, 4)an analysis of the film title translation from the functional perspective, 5)conclusion.The first chapter introduces the background and methodology of this research.The second chapter is the literature review which introduces the Skopos theory, including its development, basic concepts, basic rules and its influence on translation.The third chapter makes a profile of film titles.It introduces the genre of films, defines the film titles, analyzes its features and functions, and points out that the
skopos of English film title translation is to win the heart of the audience and be rewarded by a great box-office hit.The fourth chapter is the practical part of my thesis, where English film title translations are collected, reviewed and analyzed, for the purpose of discussing how the Chinese translation in various strategies are feasible in serving the skopos of entertaining the audiences and promoting the box-office.The fifth chapter is the last part.It summarizes the research conducted in the thesis to draw a conclusion.Chapter two
Literature Review 2.1 The Emergence of functionalist approaches The functional approaches originated in Germany in 1970s.Before its emergence, those linguistic-oriented theories had a great influence on translation.Many definitions of translation emphasized the linguistic aspect.For example, Catford thought translation is “the replacement of textual material in a language(SL)by equivalent material in another language(TL)”(cf.Nord, 2001:7);and according to Nida and Taber, the process of translation is “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message”(Eugene A.Nida & Charles R.Taber, 2004:12).Because the linguistic approaches basically saw translation as a procedure of trans-coding, “equivalence” seems to be basic and somewhat indispensable.Werner Koller even indicated that the translation must preserve the source-language content, form, style, function, or “at least must seek to preserve them as far as possible”(cf.Nord, 2001:7).It declared the target text which is not equivalent to the source text to be a failed translation.Though many theorists still emphasize the equivalence in translation, they have to recognize that there may be non-equivalence in translation caused by the culture differences.Just as Koller stated in his recent work, “adaptation may be appropriate, or even inevitable, in order to make the translation reach its audience.(cf.Nord, 2001:7)And as for some pragmatic texts, such as advertisements and products instructions, ”equivalence“ can't be well applied for them.Thus, some translation scholars shift their focus from equivalence-based approaches to functionalist approaches, and ”a new theory was called for“.(Nord, 2001:8)
”The emergence of a functionalist translation theory marks an important moment in the evolution of translation theory by breaking the two-thousand-year old chain of theory revolving around the faithful vs.freeaxis.”
(Gentzler, 2004: 71)
Functionalism is a broad term for various theories that approach translation in this way.The major contribution to functionalism is the functionalist translation theory with the Skopos theory to its core.2.2 Functionalist Translation Theory 2.2.1 Development of functionalist translation theory The development of the functionalist translation theory experienced four stages, with Katharina Reiss, Hans J.Vermeer, Holz-Manttari and Christiane Nord as the main representatives.2.2.2 Basic Concepts of Skopos theory
“Skopos is the Greek word for „aim‟ or „purpose' and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970 by Hans J.Vermeer as a technical term for the purpose of a translation and of the action of translating.”
(Munday, 2001:78-79)
Nord indicates that the main idea of Skopos theory is that translation should be purpose-oriented.Vermeer has divided the purpose of translation into three possible kinds, including “the general purpose aimed at by the translator in the translation process”(cf.Nord, 2001;27), “the communicative purpose aimed at by the target text situation”(ibid: 27), and “purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy or procedure”(ibid:28).And the term Skopos usually refers to the purpose of the target text.Except the term Skopos, Vermeer also uses some related words aim, purpose, intention and function in his theory:
1.„Aim’is defined as the final results an agent intends to achieve勿means of an action.2.„Purpose' is defined as a provisional stage in the process of attaining an aim.3.„Function' refers to what a text means or is intended to mean from the receiver's point of view, whereas the aim is the purpose for which it is needed or supposed to be need.4.„Intention' is conceived as aim-oriented plan of action.(cf.Nord,2001: 28)
He considers teleological concepts of these words to be equivalent, subsuming them under the generic concept of Skopos.However, Christiane proposed a basic distinction between intention and function, which is particularly useful in translation.Because the sender and the receiver usually belong to different cultural and situational settings, “intention and function may have to be analyzed from two different angles”.(Nord, 2001:29)2.2.3 Adequacy, Standard of Evaluation
Instead of equivalence, “adequacy” is highly emphasized within the framework of skopos theory.According to Skopos theory, the intended purposes of the target text determine the translation strategies, and criterion for translation evaluation is “adequacy”, which refers to “the qualities of a target text with regard to the translation brief'(Nord, 2001:35), which will be discussed later in this chapter.The translation should be ”adequate to“the requirements of the brief'.(Nord, 2001:35).“'Adequate' is a dynamic concept related to the process of translational action and referring to the “goal-oriented” selection of signs that are considered appropriate for the communicative purpose defined in the translation assignment.”
(cf.Nord, 2001:35)
The skopos of the translation determines the form of equivalence required for an adequate translation.Therefore, equivalence means adequacy to a skopos that requires that the target text serves the same communicative function or functions as the source text,山us preserving invariance of function between source and target text.That is, the concept of equivalence is reduced to “functional equivalence” on the text level of what Reiss refers to as “communicative translation”.(cf.Nord, 2001:36)2.2.4 Translation Brief
The translation brief indicates the text type, format or terminology of a translation.In the professional practice of translation, translators seldom start a translating activity out of their own reasons.Translation is usually done by assignment;that is, a client needs a text for a particular purpose and calls upon the translator for a translation.In the process of translational action, the initiator decides the communicative purpose.However, on real occasions, clients do not give the translators an explicit translation brief,they often do not know that a good brief spells a better translation.Based on the source text in the source settings, an experienced translator is able to infer the brief himself and make some variations upon the target text, in order to make
it meaningful to target culture receivers.In addition, the translation brief does not tell the translator how to go about their translation job, what translation strategy to use, or what translation type to choose.These decisions depend entirely on the translator's responsibility and competence.(Nord, 2001:30)
In terms of Skopos theory, the variability of the brief depends on the circumstances of the target culture, not on the source culture.Since translation has been defined as a translational action involving a source text, the source is usually a part of the brief.In terms of action theory, agents(sender, receiver, initiator, translator)play the most important parts.2.2.5 Merits of Skopos theory
Compared with traditional translation theory prevailing before 1970s, Skopos theory has so many distinctive characteristics that it becomes a trigger of revolution in translation studies.“The two most important shifts in theoretical developments in translation theory overthe past two decades have been(1)the shift from source-text oriented theories to target-text oriented theories and(2)the shift to include cultural factors as well as linguistic elements in the translation training models.Those advocating functionalist approaches have been pioneers in both areas.”
(Gentzler, 2004:70)
And the theory is also considered by Nord exactly as the translation model that is needed.Nord summarizes the advantages of it as ”pragmatic, culture-oriented and consistent“.(cf.Quan Xunlian, 2006)
Chapter Three
A Profile of English Film Title
The film title, like the title to a literary text, delivers the most important information about the film to the audience.A good film title can grip the attention of the audience and contribute a lot in box-office.Film title translation is an important job which is full of creation.It seems to be a simple and easy task, but actually it is complicated.It has its own features and unique functions all of which deserve the attention of translation scholars.A brief survey of English film titles will be conducted in this chapter before coming to the application stage.3.1 Genre of film In film theory, ”genre“ refers to the primary method of film categorization based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed.Just like literary genres, there are many types of films, but the most significant categories are feature films, documentary films, educational films, experimental and animated films as suggested in The Complete Film Dictionary.(cf.Xu Lin, 2005)
3.2 Definition of film titles
The title, according to The Complete Film Dictionary, means any words that appear on the screen not as part of the scene but as a means of conveying information to the audience.”Credit titles“ appear at the start and conclusion of a film to cite the various personnel responsible for the motion picture;”the main title“ gives the name of the film;”subtitle“ are placed at the bottom of the scene to translate foreign languages;”the end title“ tells the audience that the film is concluded and ”end titles“ give us the credits.(cf.Xu Lin, 2005)The thesis will discuss the ”main title“ which gives the name of the film.3.3 Sources of film titles The film title usually summarizes the main idea of the film and exposes the theme.If a translator wants to grasp the full meaning of the original title, and translate the film titles properly, he should first identify the sources of film titles.That means, he should know on what bases the films are named.The sources can be roughly
categorized into five types: 1)subject;2)objecbclue;3)background;4)plot;5)theme.(He Ying, 2001)3.3.1 The Indication of the Subject
The subject here refers to the protagonist-hero or heroine of the film.More often than not, the screenwriters either adopt the names of the main characters as the film titles, or entitle the film with the characteristics of the protagonist.Following are some examples of this type of source:
Romeo and Juliet Batman Alexander The Fantastic Four
3.3.2 The Indication of the
The clue or the most important object appearing in the film serving to be the thread that connects the whole plot is often adopted as the title.Following are some examples of this type of source:
Schindler's List 7axi Golden Eye A Clockwork Orange
3.3.3 The Indication of the Background
The background, which plays a very important part in the developing the plot, conveying the theme and portraying the characters, also serves as one of the chief sources for naming a film.This type of source originates from the place or time that is crucial for the development of the plot and the portrait of the protagonists, providing the audience with some basic background information of the film.Following are some examples of this type of source:Troy The Longest Day Mr.Bean's Holiday Air Force One
《特洛伊》 《最长的一天》 《憨豆先生的假期》 《空军一号》
《辛德勒名单》 《的士速递》 《黄金眼》 《发条橙》
《罗密欧与茱丽叶》
《蝙蝠侠》
《亚历山大帝》
《神奇四侠》
3.3.4 The Indication of the Plot
It's the most common type of source of film titles.The title always provides a glimpse of the film plot, or summarizes the content of the film.Following are some examples of this type of source:
Around the World in 80 days Kill Bill Star War Saving Private Ryan
3.3.5 The Indication of the Theme
Some of the films are entitled with the theme that the film intended to convey.Such titles are comparatively abstract, but contain much more symbolized meanings than the other types.They are very thought-provoking, profound and far-reaching in mood.Following are some examples of this type of source:
Pride and Prejudice Brave Heart Top Gun The Sound of the Music
《傲慢与偏见》 《勇敢的心》 《壮志凌云》 《音乐之声》
《环游世界80天》 《杀死比尔》 《星球大战》 《拯救大兵莱恩》
3.4 Features of film titles
Film titles are commonly short and brief to be eye-catching for people.And because the intended addressee of film titles is the general public, the language should be popular and comprehensive.Many rhetoric devices, such as simile, metaphor and oxymoron are employed in the film title to make them vivid and attractive, therefore, they can grab the audience's attention, arouse their curiosity and trigger their action.The overall features of the English film titles will be approached from linguistic, aesthetic, cultural and commercial aspects as follows.In general, English film titles are simple, concise and compact.A lot of film titles employ only one word, which are usually to be nouns.They may be the main character, the place or the time when the story takes place.For example, Speed, Mummy, Titanic and so on.Although there are some long film titles, such as When a Man Loves a Woman and It happened One Night, they are just a small number.Additionally, phrases enjoy the great popularity in the film titles.Most of them are noun phrases, verb phrases and prepositional phrases.3.5 Functions of film titles
”Function“ is a topic largely discussed by the translation scholars.Vermeer defines ction as ”what a text means or is intended to mean from the receiver's point of view".(Nord, 1:28).Each text is produced for a certain function and work this function.The station of a text should also be intended to function for the target receivers.Functionalism draws on Karl Biihler's organon(1934)about the text function.Biihler proposed that there were three basic text functions: referential, expressive and appellative functions.And because the film is a material product as well as a spiritual product, this dual decides that film titles have both functions of artistic appreciation and commercial advertisement, therefore the titles should bear the aesthetic function as well.3.6 Skopos of film title translation
The film is more than just an entertaining system.It is also a means of expression as well as a vehicle for cultural communication.According to Vermeer's Skopos theory, the possible purposes in the translational action can be divided into three kinds: the general purpose aimed at by the translator, the communicative purpose aimed at by the target text, and the purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy or procedure.(cf.Nord,2001:27-28)Applying this classification in film title translation, we can see that the general purpose of a translator of film title translation is to earn living;the communicative purpose of film title translation is to induce the audience to go the cinema;and the purpose of using particular strategies in film title translation is to preserve or recreate the referential function, expressive function and appellative function to please the audience, regardless of whether the immediately feeling is amusement(comedy), fear(horror)or anything else.Among the three purposes, the communicative purpose is the most important one.A successful film title should be the one that can attract people to the cinema and contribute a lot to the box office.That is to say, the skopos of film title translation is to add the viewer with a translated film title, which can contribute to a good
understanding of the contents of the film, provide information of the background and the plots of the film, set the feeling-tone of the film, increase the title's artistic appeal, win the heart of the audience and promote the box-office.Generally speaking, to make a hit on box-office is the ultimate goal of film title translation..In order to fulfill this purpose, the translator's task is to apply suitable strategies of translation, to provide the clear and concise film titles and induce the audience to watch the film.Chapter Four
Application of the Functionalist Approach to the English
Film Title Translation
4.1 Strategies Employed in the Translation of Film Titles
There is no single translation strategy that can solve all the problems in film title translation.According to the three functions of film title, which we have discussed in chapter three, four main types of strategies can be applied in film title translation.They are transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption.The following part discusses the four strategies applied in film title translation with rich examples to see how they are adequate to the translation brief, that is the requirements of the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative as an integrated whole in fulfilling the purpose of entertaining the Chinese audience and promoting the box-office.4.2 Strategies Employed in the translation of Film Titles
There is no single translation strategy that can solve all the problems in film title translation.According to the three functions of film title, which we have discussed in chapter three, four main types of strategies can be applied in film title translation.They are transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption.The following part discusses the four strategies applied in film title translation with rich examples to see how they are adequate to the translation brief, that is the requirements of the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative as an integrated whole in fulfilling the purpose of entertaining the Chinese audience and promoting the box-office.4.3 Summary
From the analysis above, we can draw a conclusion that the translation of English film titles doesn't simply mean copying the content and the form of the original title.It a re-creative process based on the functional theories.There isn't a sole method for the film title translation.All methods has its limitations.When one
method does not work owing to linguistic, customary, cultural or other factors, naturally the translator must at once turn to the other means for help.He should have a better understanding of the type and the content of the original film, then he can choose a method which is adequate to the translation brief and well reproduces the referential, expressive and appellative functions of the film title.Chapter Five
Conclusion
5.1 Summary and Conclusion of the Research
In this thesis, we have conducted a study into the application of the functionalist approaches to the translation of English film titles.The film is one of the most influential mass media products.As China' film market's potential becomes larger and larger, more and more English films have entered Chinese market and held a very important position in Chinese people's recreational life.So the translation of film products has become an important part of international economic and cultural exchanges.The study of the translation of film titles is not only necessary but also urgent.That is the reason why the author attempts to make an analysis of the basic strategies applicable to the translation of English film titles from a functionalist perspective.The author elaborates on the functionalist approach that emerged in the 1970s in Germany.The functionalist approach made a breakthrough in the field of translation, which had been dominated by the equivalence theory for a long time.The functionalist approach is a shift from the source-text orientation to target-text orientation.It attaches greatest importance to the skopos, and points out that the prime principle determining the translation action is the skopos(purpose)of the target text.In this sense, the functionalist approach is the most suitable and practicable theory to guide the film title translation.For the Chinese audience, they watch the film for the purpose of entertainment.And as an essential part of the films, the film titles naturally should not only serve the skopos of entertainment, but also the skopos of inducing the audience to see the film.The referential function, the expressive function and the appellative function are defined as the translation brief in achieving this skopos.Various kinds of strategies are employed such as transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption to fulfill this skopos.All the translation strategies adopted by the translator serve to realize the ultimate purpose of film title translation by highlighting one or two or three of these three functions.Simultaneously meeting the requirements of the three functions achieves the skopos well while meeting the requirements of one or two functions may affect the degree of entertainment.For example, the audience may not feel the specific atmosphere of the film easily due to the translation's failure to meet the requirement of the expressive
function.Therefore, to produce a successful film title under the guidance of the Skopos theory, the translator should first make clear of the skopos of the film title translation, then, he is supposed to fully understand the differences between Chinese film titles and English film titles in culture-specificity, in referential and expressive functions.Finally it is important for the translator to choose appropriate strategy that can best serve the particular function and finally realize the skopos of the translation.The thesis cites rich examples to examine the specific strategies the translator has chosen when translating different kinds of English film titles.The purpose of this study is to analyze whether and how the translators translate in a way that enables the translation to reproduce the referential, expressive and appellative function of the original title.5.2 Limitations and Suggestions of the Research
The present research is a tentative study of English film title translation.However, it is only target receiver-oriented and cannot cover all the aspects of the translation of English film titles due to the limited time and sources.Therefore, there is still much to be investigated in great depth in the translation of English film titles from other aspects.References Christiane Nord.2001.Translating as a Purposeful Activity-Functionalist Approaches Explained, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Edwin Gentlzer.2004.Contemporary Translation Theories(Revised Second Edition)Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Eugene A.Nida & Charles R.Taber.2004.The Theory and Practice of Translation, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Eugene A.Nida.2001.Language, Culture and Translation, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language EducationPress Gideon Toury.2001.Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Gutt, Ernest-August.2001.Translation and Relevance, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Katharina Reiss.2004.Translation Criticism-The Potentials & Limitations, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Mark Shuttleworth & Moira, Cowie.2004.Dictionary of Translation Studies, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Mary Snell-Hornby.2001.Translation Studies-An Integrated Approach, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Mona Baker.2004.Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign LanguageEducation Press Munday Jeremy.2001.Introducing Translation Studies-Theory and Applications, London: Routledge Peter Newmark.2001.A Textbook of Translation, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Peter Newmark.1988.Approaches to Translation.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Peter Newmark.2006.About Translation Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.Quan Xunlian, 2006, A Functionalist Approach to the Translation of Film Titles, Unpublished MA.dissertation, Anhui University
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