電影片名英漢翻譯【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　?。?0_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計</b></p><p><b>　　電影片名英漢翻譯</b></p><p>　　The Translation of English Film Title</p><p><

2、;b>　　英語</b></p><p><b>　　摘 要</b></p><p>　　影片名往往帶給觀眾對該影片的大致印象，因此，片名被認(rèn)為是對票房影響最深的因素之一。這就是為什么片名的翻譯總是被看得很重。如今，由于全球一體化的影響，更多的電影在各個國家間發(fā)布，電影譯名的質(zhì)量越發(fā)顯得重要。因為電影行業(yè)作為一個帶有商業(yè)性質(zhì)的產(chǎn)業(yè)，片名的翻譯與其他文本

3、翻譯不同，并且他也測試了一個譯者的翻譯素質(zhì)。本文在開頭提出了幾個現(xiàn)今存在的片名翻譯問題。第一，由于在中國不同地區(qū)(主要是中國大陸和港臺)文化的不同，產(chǎn)生了兩種明顯的不同翻譯趨勢。在港臺，譯者更趨向于過度追求歸化，從而導(dǎo)致了不能完成文化交流的任務(wù)。第二，一部影片的爆紅使得其片名常常被過度跟風(fēng)模仿，結(jié)果失去了創(chuàng)新。最后，作為盈利產(chǎn)業(yè)，為了吸引更多的觀眾和盈利，一些譯名開始過于注重商業(yè)價值，結(jié)果導(dǎo)致片名的原則的失衡并喪失了一些譯者應(yīng)具備的翻譯

4、品質(zhì)。本文為解決這些問題，先從最基本的電影片名的語言特征出發(fā)，提出幾大特征。為保持這些特征，片名翻譯要遵循的五大原則：信息價值、文化價值、美學(xué)價值、商業(yè)價值和觀眾取向原則。最后在電影片名翻譯原則基礎(chǔ)上，本文將分析并解決這些問題。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵字： 片名翻譯；特征；原則；問題；解決辦法</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p>

5、<p>　　Film title always gives audience a general impression about a movie, and so, is believed to be one of the most influential factors affecting the box office. That is why film titling is always seriously taken

6、. Nowadays, the quality of film title translation is considered more significant as more movies are released internationally under the effect of globalization. As film is a commercial industry, its title translation is d

7、ifferent from other script translations and it as well tests a translator</p><p>　　Key words: film title translation; features; principles; problems; solutions</p><p><b>　　Contents</b&g

8、t;</p><p>　　Abstract........................................................................................................................II</p><p>　　1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………

9、..1</p><p>　　2. Problems existing in current film title translation................................................1</p><p>　　3. The features of film title…………………………………………………………..1</p>&l

10、t;p>　　3.1 Briefness……………………………………………………….. ………………2</p><p>　　3.2 Accuracy…….……………………………………………………………...…...2</p><p>　　3.3 Understandability……………………………………………. ………………...2</p><p>　　3.

11、4 Attractiveness…………………………………………………...........................3</p><p>　　3.5 Responsibility ……………………………………………………………...…...3</p><p>　　4. Five principles of film title translation………………………………………….

12、..3</p><p>　　4.1 Informative value……………………………………………………………….4</p><p>　　4.2 Cultural value…………………………………………………………………...5</p><p>　　4.3 Aesthetic value …………………………………………………………………6</p&g

13、t;<p>　　4.4 Commercial value………………………………………………………………7</p><p>　　4.5 Audience orientation……………………………………………………………8</p><p>　　5. Solutions to the problems…………………………………………………………9</p><

14、;p>　　5.1 Solution to Over pursuing on domestication in Hong Kong, Taiwan region compared with that in mainland…….………………………………………….9</p><p>　　5.2 Solution to the tendency of over imitating the popular film

15、’s name………......10</p><p>　　5.3 Solution to over pursuing on commercial value……………….……………....12</p><p>　　6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………......13</p><p>　　Bibliography………………

16、…………………………………….....………………..14</p><p>　　Acknowledgement……………………………………………….....……………….15</p><p>　　1. Introduction </p><p>　　In a time of globalization, film industry is not only a mea

17、n to make profit, it also has the responsibility to promote the exchange of two different cultures. Film title, the abbreviation of the whole movie, is the key to convey information and attract audience at first sight. T

18、he success of translation of the film title is a crucial factor for the film to be introduced into a different-cultured country. Film title translation is an important and challenging job for translators. For it is a tra

19、n</p><p>　　2. Problems existing in current film title translation</p><p>　　Nowadays, more and more foreign films are introduced into China, there are many excellent title translation springing u

20、p together with many bad titling. Here, I concluded three common problems in the film name translation on basis of these principles, namely, problem A: Over pursuing on domestication in Hong Kong, Taiwan region compared

21、with that in mainland. Problem B: The tendency of following suit the popular film. Problem C: Over pursuing on commercial value. To solve these problems, we need</p><p>　　3. The features of film title</p&

22、gt;<p>　　Film title, the core of the film, possesses its own features. LiuBai yu (劉白玉, 2007:63) has divided the features of film title into three aspects, that is, briefness, understandability and attractiveness.

23、Besides that, the film title has one more feature: responsibility.</p><p>　　3.1 Briefness </p><p>　　It is true that because of the limitation by the screen’s size, there is an urgent need that t

24、he title must be a simple one in order not to take much space on screen and the (. The) short film title can show a clear image for the audience and it is easy to remember. Despite the title is brief, it must be the extr

25、action of the film so that the audience is able to learn the general idea of the film from the title and then decide whether this kind of film is to his or her taste. In another word, th</p><p>　　3.2 Accurac

26、y </p><p>　　The translator has the duty to ensure the title of its accuracy. Though the title is brief, it contains the most information, and the information of course needs to be accurate. People need to ge

27、t the right information from the short title and guess a general idea before seeing the film. If the information is wrongly conveyed seeing the title, it is the translator’s problem of qualification. He can be a person w

28、ho is not capable of being a qualified translator for he lacks enough translating kno</p><p>　　3.3 Understandability</p><p>　　The film aims at the masses, the audiences have different levels of

29、education, and therefore, the film title can not be a vague and obscure. The translation of film title is an exchange between two languages. Once it is translated, with the shift of target audience, some obstacles will m

30、ore or less appear, among which, the different culture is an inevitable one. If the original culture is totally kept when the translation is done, sometimes it will be difficult for the target audience to underst</p&g

31、t;<p>　　3.4 Attractiveness</p><p>　　Film is a business industry. The film producer needs to see profits from the film, which can be the support of producing and bringing in more excellent films, stimu

32、lating the development of film industry at a progressing pace, so the translated title should provoke people’s interest to watch the film. As the first impression of the film, the title needs to have the charm to attract

33、 audience at first sight. And then (As a consequence,) the attractive film title plays a great part. To achieve this</p><p>　　3.5 Responsibility</p><p>　　The receiver of the translated title (th

34、e audience) plays an important role in the process of translation. It is not the audience that translates but the translator, under some commission, needs to take the audience into account during his or her translating.

35、How to attract the receiver in a good and responsible way becomes a worth thinking question. The audience includes children and adult, and the children are usually easily influenced by the surroundings around. As the fut

36、ure of our country, </p><p>　　4. Five principles of film title translation</p><p>　　In order to solve the problems, we have analyzed the features of the title itself. And to maintain these featu

37、res of film title and find a set of standards on title translation when we come across translating problems, we come up with five principles: informative value-from the part of “briefness” and “accuracy”, cultural value-

38、from the part of “understandability”, aesthetic value-from the part of “attractiveness”, commercial value-from the part of “attractiveness” and audience orientation-from </p><p>　　4.1 Informative Value</p

39、><p>　　From the feature（features） of title, we can see title is the core of film, which has only few words but contains the most information and it is accurate. Information needs to be mostly contained, and to

40、maintain the “briefness”, the information value plays a critical role. Once the information value or message is missing, however the translated title is brief and easy to remember, it becomes a useless one. At that time,

41、 the translated title is no longer an outcome of translating for “translating</p><p>　　Here is an example of obvious information mistranslation or it can be as well called the missing of information value. I

42、t is said that the film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is rendered as “誰又怕又貞又淫的女人” by a Hong Kong newspaper and as “誰怕維吉尼亞州的狼” in Taiwan(which applies the children ballads “Who is afraid of the big, bad wolf?”). However

43、, Virginia Woolf is a name of an English female writer. The information included in the translated title should conform to the film’s plot, style, like when we </p><p>　　To keep the informative value of the

44、translated title, translators are not supposed to copy the original words faithfully to a great extent. As Newmark (Newmark, 1988a:22) has pointed out that “communicative translation is one of translation modes and it at

45、tempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original.” Among the communicative translation, the film title translating is right included. Zhang Meifang (張美芳, 200

46、5:75) later also has ad</p><p>　　4.2 Cultural value</p><p>　　As has been mentioned, cultural factor is one of the important aspects that are the barriers of “understandability”. To realize the f

47、eature of “understandability”, translators need to measure the cultural value in a serious way. Cultural value has a close relationship with information value, for when we refer to the “understandability”, both the infor

48、mation and culture should be understandable in the translated title. Besides, Eugene A.Nida (Eugene A.Nida, 2004:226) has said that “as a mediation</p><p>　　the classic film Seven, which is a horrible film c

49、oncerning the seven sins listed in Bible, it is render as 七宗罪 in Chinese. This translated title has made use of the addition of information, through which the culture is not only cleverly transmitted into one that Chines

50、e audiences are familiar with but also western culture is reflected. Undoubtedly, the translated title receives lots of praise.</p><p>　　Pan Na (潘娜，2007：191) has said that “in the translating of film title,

51、through restructure of culture, smartly combination of Chinese culture seems to draw audience’s attention much easily.” Indeed, it is so. From above, we can see that by some change (addition, reduction or distortion of i

52、nformation), the original culture will be reflected in a smart way together with the Chinese culture. The combination of the two cultures presents a perfect translated title. In fact, it is not easy to display </p>

53、<p>　　And nowadays, because of the different culture (cultures) of two countries, there are two main approaches to handling cultural value in title translating: domestication and foreignization. It is OK to adopt

54、the (去掉) either of the two methods in a moderate way, but a problem comes out when some films stress overly on the local culture, which leads to the intervention of the exchange between different cultures, just as the pr

55、oblem that in Hong Kong, Taiwan region, they tend to be pursuing overly o</p><p>　　4.3 Aesthetic Value </p><p>　　When it comes to a film title’s “attractiveness”, there is a necessity to refer t

56、o the aesthetic value. As Eugene A Nida has concluded, “translation is far more than a science, it is also a skill, and in the ultimate analysis fully satisfactory translation is always an art. Art is some kind of thing

57、with sense of beauty, and when the translated title becomes a fully satisfactory translation, it always becomes art.” At that time, the translated title becomes some kind of thing with sense of beaut</p><p>

58、　　Here is the typical title taken as an example to compare between two versions of translation: Waterloo Bridge-《魂斷藍(lán)橋》and 《滑鐵盧橋》. When seeing《滑鐵盧橋》which is translated literally, people cannot help thinking of the last ba

59、ttle leading by Napoleon. However, the film told a love story between a young couples who met occasionally and fell in love with each other in Waterloo Bridge of London. There is no doubt that 《魂斷藍(lán)橋》is more excellent, wh

60、ich connects closely with the astounding and miserable love of</p><p>　　Though aesthetic is a necessity in film titles’ translation to keep its “attractiveness”, but we need to manage it properly. As Liu Miq

61、ing (劉宓慶, 2005：169)says, “that translator is different from a writer and also he is not a mere connoisseur, he is undertaking a double task of translating purpose into practice at beginning, and he is limited by the orig

62、inal.” So it is the same with title translation. It needs aesthetic value but is limited. </p><p>　　4.4 Commercial value</p><p>　　To make the film attractive is also one of methods to create com

63、mercial value, thus commercial value becomes an inevitable part when talking about the maintenance of the feature “attractiveness”. As has been referred, film title translation is a kind of communicative translating and

64、every translation has its purpose, attracting as many people as it can and making a high profit is one of the main purposes. As one kind of modern commercial industries, undoubtedly, film industry has been making liv<

65、/p><p>　　When the translating is related to the words “ads”, “profit” and “commercial value” which involves business and money, problems easily come. There are good examples that between the translation standar

66、ds and the commercial effect, a balanced point on translation based on English film titles is found. For example, the Chinese titles -----《修女也瘋狂》(Sister Act) and 《網(wǎng)絡(luò)驚魂》(the Net) both are innovative and attractive, embody

67、ing the combination of art and commerce. Sometimes, translators can water down </p><p>　　4.5 Audience Orientation</p><p>　　Audience is a film’s target “reader” towards the translation. To realiz

68、e title’s feature of “responsibility” and execute it effectively needs a better understanding of audience orientation.</p><p>　　As a saying goes, a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets. People have diffe

69、rent aesthetic feelings towards a same thing. Mao Ronggui (毛榮貴，2005：25-29) says “in the process of translation, the aesthetics have a basic feature, that is, differentiation and community. The formation of one’s aestheti

70、cs depends on his quality, education, characteristics and hobbies; the experience, condition and education of aesthetic appreciation. Aesthetics have not only differentiation of personality; it also ha</p><p&g

71、t;　　Therefore, the audience orientation is significant, it is also necessary for the translator to take into consideration together with the other four principles.</p><p>　　5. Solutions to the problems</p

72、><p>　　From above, we can see the significance of the 5 principles on film title translating. When translating, we need to measure the principles carefully and find a better version for the translated title. Th

73、e problems I have referred to in the beginning arise from the wrong measurement of these principles, especially the collision with the commercial value. Next, the article will find solutions to these problems on basis of

74、 the principles.</p><p>　　5.1 Solution to over pursuing on domestication in Hong Kong, Taiwan region compared with that in mainland.</p><p>　　Cultural value is one of the principles that are to

75、be paid attention to and some problems arise because of the break of the cultural value measurement. Here is what it is: Because of different customs and different attitudes towards the same thing in China’s mainland and

76、 China’s Hong Kong, Taiwan region, the translation of film title also has its different feature. On the continent, people used to be adopting the literal translation while translator in Hong Kong and Taiwan has a prefere

77、nce for </p><p>　　From this tabulation, it is easy for us to see the difference between their translations. Even more, some titles are translated into Cantonese, Taiwanese, like the film Meet the Parents, it

78、 is rendered into “非常外父撿女婿”，In Hong Kong, “外父” means “岳父” and “撿” means ”挑選”. One more example is The Nutty Professor, which is said to be “肥佬教授”. To pull close the distance between audiences, the dialect is often seen i

79、n the title in Hong Kong, Taiwan area. Though this translation of film title, or we can cal</p><p>　　1. Its target reader becomes being limited to Hong Kong its local area but not to the whole China, like wh

80、en it is translated into Cantonese. </p><p>　　2. It baffles cultural exchange between Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. </p><p>　　3. It fails to accomplish the task of conveying foreign culture, w

81、hich is one of the principles of film title translation. As Liu Miqing (劉宓慶, 2008:12) has said, “translation is not simply a process of translating an original language to a target language, at the same time; it is a pro

82、cess of exchange between two languages.” There is a fact we can not deny that the openness of country will result in the collision with other culture, inevitably the foreign culture will come into our area and inte</p

83、><p>　　As the translation in Hong Kong and Taiwan is inclined to commercial value while Mainland prefers cultural value. Regardless of over pursuing, both have their advantages and disadvantages. No one needs t

84、o imitate the other one, taking the social function (cultural value) and purpose of the translation (commercial value) into a balanced consideration and finding a name that is most suitable is the key factor.</p>

85、<p>　　5.2 Solution to the tendency of over imitating the popular film’s name</p><p>　　Recently, a tendency of translation appears, that is a behavior that imitates the hot and popular film’s title. Like

86、 the typical example. (For example,) there are a lot of films that are named with“總動員”, such as Toy Story(玩具總動員), Wall-E(機(jī)器人總動員), The Incredibles (超人總動員), Finding Nemo（海底總動員）, Cars(汽車總動員), The Living Forest（老鼠總動員）, Bee M

87、ovie(蜜蜂總動員), Ratatouille(美食總動員) ,Renaissance Man(天兵總動員), Airheads(搖滾總動員), Qreen’s Messenger(絕地總動員) , there are still about 20 such names translated into “總動員”. Beca</p><p>　　1. The rough copy is a deceit to

88、audience, so the translator also needs to take responsibility for his translation. </p><p>　　2.The copy of name has already not limited to cartoons, it is also applied to the other type of films, like Renais

89、sance Man(天兵總動員), Airheads(搖滾總動員), Qreen’s Messenger(絕地總動員) mentioned above. As a consequence, it will confuse the audience. </p><p>　　3. With such names flooding, it will cause the audience aesthetic fatigu

90、e. It may lead to an opposite consequence as expected.</p><p>　　4. If a film’s name that imitates a popular film. It may be OK if that film is indeed excellent. If not, that will be bad; it will influence th

91、e original popular film. </p><p>　　5. Because of the mere copy, the translation fails to convey the complete information value and cultural value. And what’s more. To one who walks in trammels, it is not eas

92、y to exhibit an air of grace and freedom (Alexander Fraser Tytler, 2007:112), when the translator is confined, he fails to reproduce the original language. It is also a behavior that stresses overly on commercial value a

93、nd ignores the other four principles.</p><p>　　This kind of translation mainly focuses on commercial value, the translator needs to take all the basic principles into consideration and try to avoid frequent

94、imitation. Creating a title that can also be well remembered and accepted by people is a best way. It is a responsibility not only to the original author, the audience, but also the translator himself.</p><p&g

95、t;　　5.3 Solution to over pursuing on commercial value</p><p>　　Generally, there are four main methods of title translation on the basis of the principles. First, transliteration. Second, literal translation,

96、 the third is free translation (When the literal translation fails to convey the meaning and the spirit of the original title, free translation becomes an alternative approach. In many films, the title itself contains ri

97、ch culture, which is often hard to be reflected by literal translation.), and the last is re-edition. As a result of free translation an</p><p>　　Recent years, there are two approaches for the foreign films

98、to flow into China; one is the legal way and the other illegal pirating. To pursue the commercial profit, the maker of pirating CD tends to be deliberately mystifying on the translated film title or exaggerating, which m

99、akes audience difficult to identify and cheated. Driven by the economic profit, the film titles are often translated with such words like “大”, “血”, “魔鬼” and so on. For example, Dog(狗) is rendered as “萬里大逃亡”, Air Force(空&