Film Titles and Their Translation.docx

Film Titles and Their Translation.docx

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FilmTitlesandTheirTranslation

FilmTitlesandTheirTranslation——ACross-culturalPerspective

By

YangNing

Athesis

submittedtotheForeignLanguageandLiteratureDepartmentof

BaojiUniversityofArtsandSciencesinpartialfulfillmentof

therequirementforthedegreeof

BACHELOROFARTS

in

ENGLISHLANGUAGE

Baoji,Shaanxi

May,2015

FilmTitlesandTheirTranslation

——ACross-culturalPerspective

YangNing

Abstract:

Withtheprogressanddevelopmentofoursociety,Chineseandforeignculturalexchangeshavebecomeincreasinglyfrequent,inwhichfilmtranslationisabigconcretemanifestationofculturalexchangesbetweenChinaandforeigncountries.Inthefilm,filmtitlesplayadecisiveroleinimprovingtheboxoffice,attractingtheaudiencesandpromotingthefilm.Thus,manypeoplepaymoreandmoreattentiontothetranslationoffilmtitlesinrecentyears.

Thispaperaimstostudythetranslationoffilmtitlesfromacross-culturalperspective.Languageisthecarrierofcultureaswellasthereflectionoftheculture,whichisapartoftheculture.Languageisthereflectionofanation’scharacteristics.Itcontainsthenation'shistoryandbackground,andalsocontainsthenation'swayoflifeandwayofthinking.Inshort,understandingtheculturemustunderstandthelanguageandunderstandingthelanguagemustunderstandtheculture,too.Atthesametime,thetitleisthecrowningtouchtothefilm.Thespiritofthetimesanddevelopmentmustbereflectedinthetitle.

Thispaperismainlydividedintothreeparts.Thefirstpartsummarizesthecharacteristicsoffilmtitles.Thesecondpartanalyzesthemainfactorsaffectingthetranslationoffilmtitles.Thethirdpartproposesthestrategiesandmethodsoffilmtitletranslation.

Keywords:

cross-culture;filmtitles;translation;culturaldifferences

从跨文化角度分析电影片名及其翻译

杨宁

【内容摘要】：

随着社会的日益进步与发展，中外文化交流也日益密切，其中电影翻译就是中外文化交流的一大具体表现。

在电影中，电影片名在提高票房、吸引观众以及推广电影等方面都有着决定性作用。

因此，近些年来，人们对电影片名的翻译也越来越关注了。

本论文从跨文化角度来研究电影片名的翻译。

语言是文化的载体，又是文化的反映，它是文化的一部分。

语言反映一个民族的特征，包含着民族的历史和背景，也包含着民族的生活方式和思维方式等。

总之，了解文化必须理解语言，理解语言必须了解文化。

同时，片名又是电影中的点睛之笔。

时代的精神和发展必定在片名中有所体现。

本文主要分为三个部分。

第一部分是总结电影片名的特点；第二部分是分析影响电影片名翻译的几个主要因素；第三部分是提出电影片名翻译的策略和方法。

【关键词】：

跨文化；电影片名；翻译；文化差异

CONTENTS

I.Introduction1

II.Thecharacteristicsoffilmtitles1

2.1Culturality1

2.2Simplicity2

2.3Artistry2

2.4Commercial2

III.Themainfactorsaffectingthetranslationoffilmtitles2

3.1Culturaldifferences3

3.2Aestheticconcept3

3.3Advertisingeffect3

IV.Thestrategiesandmethodsoffilmtitletranslation4

4.1Thestrategiesoffilmtitletranslation4

4.1.1NaturalizationActanditsusage4

4.1.2AlienationActanditsusage6

4.2Themethodsoffilmtitletranslation8

4.2.1Transliteration8

4.2.2Literaltranslation9

4.2.3Freetranslation9

4.2.4Blending10

4.2.5Addion11

V.Conclusion11

References13

Acknowledgments14

FilmTitlesandTheirTranslation

——ACross-culturalPerspective

.Introduction

Filmtranslationisatypicalcross-culturalcommunicationactivity,whichplaystheroleofinformationdisseminationandculturalbridgeininternationalexchanges.Thefilmtitletranslationplaysanimportantrole,includingpromotingfilms,attractingaudiences,increasingboxofficerevenue.Italsodirectlyaffectstheartisticeffectandcommercialeffectofthefilm.Therearemanyacademicresearchesontranslatingfilmtitles.AbookaCulturalStudyontheTranslationofEnglish（Li，2008:

88）referredtocultureaffectingthetranslation.Agoodfilmtitletranslationoftenisfunandthought-provoking.Becauseofitsprofoundculturalconnotationsandhighlyvividlanguage,manyEnglishfansandChinesefanspaymoreattentionandfavortoit.So,foratranslation,thetranslatorneedstobedonefaithfullyonthebasisofthecontentoftheoriginalfilm,andbeconsistentwithitsproperlanguageandculturalcharacteristics.Besides,heisabletoenhanceitsappealandattractiveness.

.Thecharacteristicsoffilmtitles

Filmisthemostpowerfulculturaltransmissionintoday'ssociety,whilethefilmtitletranslationisonebigconcretemanifestationoftheforeignculturalexchanges.Undernormalcircumstances,agoodfilmmusthaveawonderfultitle.However,duetotheculturaldifferencesbetweenChinaandforeigncountries,differentpeoplewhowatchthefilmwillhaveadifferentperspective.（Wu,2006:

45）Therefore,atranslatormustbegivenattentiontohowtotranslateatitlethateveryaudiencecanaccept.Inordertomakethetranslationoffilmtitlesbecomebetter,Ianalyzeseveralcharacteristicsoffilmtitles,whicharethemainfollowingaspects:

2.1Culturality

Ingeneral,thefilmsarewrittenonthebasisofnovels,folktalesandotherarrangement.So,thefilmitselfexhibitsacertainculturalresistance.Tosomeextent,filmistheproductofcombinationofideologicaltrendandspecificeraculture.Itmustbeabletoshowtheculturalidentityandspiritualexpressionofwholefilm.Thus,thefilmtitleisthebestembodimentofthefilmculture.

2.2Simplicity

Afilm,people’sfirstimageofitisitstitle.So,filmtitlesmustbeconciseandvivid,andcanreflectthebasiccontentofthewholefilm.ButwhenwemaketheEnglishfilmtranslation,weoftenfindthewordstogetadirecttranslationofwords,whichisoftennotrelevanttothefilm,orisnotwellreflectingthecontentofthefilm.Therefore,duringthetranslationofEnglishfilmtitles,wecannotbecompletelybasedontranslationoftheword,butalsomustbecombinedwiththecontentsofthefilm.

2.3Artistry

Thefilmitselfisanart.Andthefilmtitleaspartofthefilm,itsartistrygenerallyperformstheapplicationofrhetoricaldevices.Therefore,filmtitlesareoftennotjusttheliteralmeaning,andingeneralithasintrinsicmeaning.So,duringthetranslationoffilmtitles,weshouldalsousecertainrhetoricaldevicestofacilitatethought-provokingorshowtheme.

2.4Commercial

Asanartform,andacommercialproduct,thefilmmustbeconsideredthemarketreactionandboxofficereceipts.Todothis,filmtitlesmusthavesufficientattraction.Whentheaudienceseethetitle,theywillproducethepleasureandthedesiretowatch.

.Themainfactorsaffectingthetranslationoffilmtitles

Asforafilm,itsfilmtitleisaguideandinterpreter,whichisfirstlyabletopromotethesalesoffilmandattractpeople’sinterest.So,agoodfilmtitlecanberegardedasakindofcatalystfortheaudiencebeforetheyappreciateit.Buttheremanyfactorsaffectingthetranslationoffilmtitles,suchasculturaldifferences,aestheticconcept,advertisingeffectandsoon.Thispartmainlyanalyzesthesefactors.

3.1Culturaldifferences

Translationistheinteractionamongthedifferentcultures.Asforthepartofculture,filmtitlesinevitablyreflectthecharacteristicsoftheirrespectivecultures.（Zhang,2004:

108）Ifyouareconcerneditsculturalaccumulationinfilmtitletranslation,itwillreceivesomeunexpectedresults.

ThetranslationoffilmRebeccaisverysuccessfulinthisaspect.ItisaclassicfilmthatismadebyafamousdirectorAlfredHitchcockandittellsasuspensestorythatadeadwomanhastheshadowsinherhusbandandhisnewwife’sheartallthetime.Ifitisliterallytranslatedas《吕贝卡》,manyviewerswillthinkthatthisfilmisaboutayounggirl’sromanticstory.Thisismoredifferentwiththethemeofthefilm.Iftranslatedas《蝴蝶梦》,itmakesthepeoplehaveasenseofthethrone,andmakestheChineseaudiencetounderstandandacceptthefilmeasily.Thistitleconveyswellthefilm'srepression,struggleandsuspense.

3.2Aestheticconcept

InChinesetraditionalaesthetics,“MoodBeauty”isalwaysthecore.Also,the“HazyBeauty”isthecoreconceptionofmood,whichis“intendedtoimplication,subtlewarmYun”.Onthecontrary,thehigheststateofWesternaestheticsisthepursuitof“realism”.Chinesetranslationofmanyforeignfilmsalsousethefour-characterstructure,whichwasgivenastrongChineseculturalflavor.Forexample,《曲终人散》（TheEndoftheAffair）,《兵临城下》（EnemyattheGate）,《窈窕淑女》（MyFairLady）,《尽善尽美》（AsGoodasitGets）（Li,2010:

130）.

3.3Advertisingeffect

Tomakeagoodfilm,youneedtospendmillionsofmoney.Soyoumustpaymoreattentiontothedistributionoffilmsinthemarket.Itundoubtedlyplaysanimportantroleinadvertisingwhetherthefilmtitlesattractaudience’sattentionornot.Inordertoattracttheaudience,thetranslatormustfullygraspthecharacteristicsofthetargetcultureandaesthetic,tocreateafilmtitlethattheaudiencelovedandstimulatethemproducedesirestowatch.

Forexample,theEnglishfilm“ThePrettyWoman”,ifitisdirectlytranslatedas《漂亮女人》,itwillbedull.Butitsanothertranslation《风月俏佳人》isromanticandwarnthatChineseaudiencelovesdeeply.Otherexamples,“TheLegendoftheFall”willbetranslatedas《燃情岁月》,and“TheLegendBlonde”willbetranslatedinto《律政俏佳人》.Itisverynaturalrelevance,successfullyembodyingtheperfectcombinationofartisticandcommercial.

.Thestrategiesandmethodsoffilmtitletranslation

Mostfilmtitlesareconciseandinformativethatalwaystaketheentirecontentofthefilm.Howtomaketheoriginalfilm’sheterogeneousculturalelementstransmittothetargetlanguageaudiencemorefully,andpromotetheexchangeanddisseminationofcultureamongthepeopleallovertheworld,isamajortestfortranslatorsontranslatingstandardsandcross-culturalskills.Togetthetranslationhavethereciprocityeffect“Spirit,Actuality,Mood”,theyaremostlyappearingwithnouns,phrases,andsimplesentences,inwhichthephrasesaremost.（Li,2008:

20