Translation Skills and Principles of English Movie Titles 英文电影标题的翻译技巧和准则

1、translation skills and principles of english movie titles 英文电影标题的翻译技巧和准则中文摘要电影是一门艺术，同时也是一种商品。随着中国市场的开放，越来越多的英语电影走进中国的电影院。在欣赏这些英语电影之前，中国观众首先需要理解电影片名，电影片名将把电影情节传递给观众，从而吸引观众，这要求英语电影名称的翻译既要做到翻译上的准确，也要突出电影作为商品的商业价值。在分析了电影名称的特征、功能后，笔者探讨了翻译英文电影片名的技巧，并通过对误译的剖析总结出电影片名翻译的原则。关键词英语电影片名，翻译，原则，方法外文摘要abstract movi

2、e is an art and a commodity as well. with the opening of the chinese market, we have more and more english movies. the chinese audiences need to understand themovie titles before they enjoy the movies. movie titles convey the story to the audience to attract them. this requires the translation of mo

3、vie titles to be accurate and embody the commercial values. after the analysis of the characteristics and functions of movie titles, the author of the present study discussed the skills of the english movie title translation and summarized the translation principles. keywords english movie titles, t

4、ranslation, principles, skillscontents 1 introduction. 1 2 characteristics of english movie titles 2 2.1 brief and concentrated. 2 2.2 heroesor heroinesnames as titles 2 2.3 settings as titles. 3 2.4 attractive 3 3 functions of english movie titles. 3 3.1 informative function. 4 3.2 vocative functio

5、n.4 3.3 aesthetic function. 4 4 skills of english movie title translation.5 4.1 transliteration.5 4.2 literal translation.5 4.3 free translation.6 5 mistranslation.9 5.2 misunderstanding of cultural information.10 5.3 infuence of commercial profits.11 6 principles of english movie title translation.

6、12 6.1 faithfulness12 6.2 cultural awareness.12 6.3 combination of commercial and aesthetic effects.13 6.4 aristic quality.14 conclusion14 acknowledgements.15 references16 1 introduction movie is a kind of art which suits both refined and popular tastes and is loved by the old and the young. the rea

7、son why a great movie can attract thousands of audience includes the exquisite acting of actors and actresses, philosophic conversation and gorgeous tableau. what is more, movie titles which contain profound moral play a very importantrole. the title is the brand trademark of the movie and condenses

8、 the pith of the story. the titles are always in the eye-catching position of the playbill. in recent years, movie has gradually become an industry. in the western world, a blockbuster may hit a box office record over 100 million or even more. with the cultural exchange between china and western cou

9、ntries, more and more western movies have comeinto chinese market. the movie title is the first thing through which the audience can know about the movie, so the translation of western movie titles is pretty important. a good translation of the title can convey the information of the movie and attra

10、ct the audiencesdesire of going to the movie. as a branch of non-literary translation, the translation of english movie titles, like many other forms of non-literary translation, has not yet received due attention despite their importance. some mistranslation will give false information and affect a

11、udience to enjoy movies, so using proper translation skills is very necessary. this paper, based on an analysis of the characteristics and functions of english movietitles, will introduce principles and skills of english movie title translation. 2 characteristics of english movie titles 2.1 brief an

12、d concentratedenglish movie titles usually contain only one or two key words. most of the titles are brief and concise. generally speaking, the titles are made up of nouns and noun phrases, such as titanic, speed, dorothy dandridge, and sound of music. only a few titles havesome short sentences: whi

13、le youre sleeping, catch me if you can, and saving private ryan. though the titles are brief and concise, they are to the point. the titles summarize the main story of the movie and the audience can easily get the idea of the story. gladiator tellsa story of a roman general who was forced to be a gl

14、adiator and fight for his freedom and faith. return to me, a love story, tells about misunderstanding between a couple and finally their reunion and reconciliation. 2.2 heroes or heroines names as titles a great part of the western movies choose the heroes or the heroines names as the title though s

15、ometimes the hero or the heroine is just an ordinary person or sometimes even the hero or the heroine is a negative character. forrest gump, jfk, aladdin, shreck, lolita,and the terrible bastard hannibal are all of this kind. using the heroes or the heroinesnames as the title has two advantages. on

16、one hand, like jfk, aladdin, and lolita, these names are famous in the western history, fairy tales and literature works, so the audienceare familiar with them and easily get through the main story of the movie, on the other hand, if the name of the hero or the heroine is strange to the audience, th

17、e audience will know that the movie is about an ordinary person and there must be some special story about him or her. so the audience will be attracted and eagle to go. 2.3 settings as titles there are also lots of titles using the settings of the story, such as titanic, pearl harbor, chicago, casa

18、blanca, and gosford park. these settings are usually famous places and have close connection with the theme of the story.the o.c. (橘子郡男孩) ,short for the orange county in south california, describing the lives of the people who live in the orange county. the orange county is a rich community and peop

19、le lived here are all rich people. ryan, a teenager from chino, was adopted by lawyer sandy and began his new life in the orange county. after ryans arrival, changes took place in the community and everyones life. the director chose the o.c. as the title because this county witnessed the changes and

20、 really meant a lot to the people who lived here. 2.4 attractive movie is commodity. the title of the movie has to attract the audience and then make a lot of money. so the titles should give the audience suspension, reverie and aesthetic feeling in order to arouse the audience desire of going to mo

21、vies. when the audience see the title i know what you did last summer(我知道你去年夏天做了什么), they are curious to know what they did last summer and who knows. the movie got overwhelming success and the title made great contribution. some movie titles pay attention to the spelling in order to be special and

22、attractive, tosome extent, theyre queer. se7en, thir13en ghosts, swimfn give the audience unforgettable first expression and be memorized. 3 functions of english movie titles according to the british translator peter newmark, language has six functions: expressive function、informative function、vocat

23、ive function、aesthetic function、phatic function、and metalingual function.(peter newmark. 1982). as a proper noun, the movietitle is a result of the play writers painstaking conception which can highly summarize the theme of the movie and intensely stimulate the audiences desire of going to movies. s

24、o movie titles contain the following three functions: informative function、vocative function、and aesthetic function. 3.1 informative function. the informative function means movie titles convey the information about the idea ofthe movie to the audience and make them understand the idea and the story

25、 better. the titleforrest gump will tell the audience that the story is about a person named forrest gumpand pearl harbor will remind the people of the history and the audience will know the story takes place in pearl harbor and has connection with world war. the informative function is the basic fu

26、nction of movie titles and the most important function. 3.2 vocative function according to the philosophy: “everyone has curiosity”, we will feel excited when we see something fresh and strange and we take delight in learning and easily be influenced. the vocative function is just to influence the a

27、udiences sentiments and arouse their interests. fahrenheit9.11, the best-selling documentary film, strongly criticized the bush government. the director chose the 9.11 event as part of the title in his movie to attract audience and also convey the main idea of the movie. 3.3 aesthetic function aesth

28、etic function is to bring audience enjoyment from the title. the aesthetic feeling is a main factor that causes audience to make the decision whether they will go to a movie or not. the aesthetic function is most obviously felt on the romantic movies. some titles of the classical movies have become

29、the synonym of romantic, such as casablanca, sleepless in seattle. 4 skills of english movie title translation movie is a synthetical art and the translation of english movie titles is a branch ofnon-literary translation. these two factors demand translators to follow some certain translation princi

30、ples and skills and possess rich cultural knowledge and solid language foundations. english movie title translation is not to translate simply and mechanically but to be based on the story and consider the similarities and differences between eastern and western culture as well as the acceptance of

31、translation. we should use different translation skills to translate different movie titles. 4.1 transliteration as we have mentioned above, a lot of western movie titles are the heroesor heroinesnames and the settings. if the heroes or heroines names and the settings are familiar to thechinese audi

32、ence, transliteration is the best skill for these movies because transliterationwill convey the most exact information. jfk(肯尼迪),gandhi(甘地),aladdin(阿拉丁),ali(阿里) are well-known around the world, so the chinese audience can easily understand the main idea of the story. titanic(泰坦尼克号), the greatest shi

33、p at that time, sank in her first sail. also, the chinese audience know casablanca is a city in morocco and chicago is a city in east america. through transliteration, the sound effects, i.e. the rhythm of the sl, can be preserved, which will entertain audience with a strong exotic flavor.however, i

34、f the heroes or heroines names and the settings are not famous, transliteration should not be used. for example, if the movie selma and louise is translated into 塞尔玛和路易斯, audience will just know it is a story about two women named selmaand louise. but what happened and why they are special? the audi

35、ence can not figure itout. in this case, we have to give up transliteration and use other skills which will beintroduced later.4.2 literal translation the aim of english movie title translation is to display the pith of the movie. if the title matches the story perfectly, literal translation is basi

36、cally the most suitable skill to employ. most of the english movie titles are made up of some nouns or verb phrases and summarize the main story of the movie, in this situation, literal translation is preferred because literal translation can preserve both the content of the title and the language s

37、tructure of the original title. literal translation directly converts the sl grammatical constructions to their nearest tl equivalents. generally speaking, the translated chinese titles should not be sounding awkward or unnatural and are capable of describing the story as well as the original englis

38、h titles. these titles are easily accepted and memorized by chinese audience. for example, the human stain(人性污点), wild orchid(野兰花), brave heart(勇敢的心), saving private ryan(拯救大兵瑞恩),roman holiday(罗马假日)and dancing with wolves(与狼共舞). 4.3 free translation free translation is a flexible measure when litera

39、l translation is not available. as we mentioned, english movie titles are mostly made up of one or two key words and highly concentrated, literally translated titles sometimes cannot make the chinese audience understood. and there are some titles that contain lots of culture which is only well-known

40、 by westerners; chinese audience will be confused if we translate these titles through literal translation. however, when we use free translation, the version wont totally conform to the original title.though most translators treat literal translation as their first choice and say “translate literal

41、ly, if possible, or appeal to free translation.”(范仲英，1994), in the field of english movie title translation, free translation is used more. free translation can bring the connotation into play and elaborate the pith of the title. since grammatical structure and content of the english titles are not

42、concerned so much, weusually use the following three skills while employing free translation. 4.3.1 definition when we use literal translation to translate some brief and concise english movietitles, the translated titles cannot describe the story clearly and neatly and thus fail to provide informat

43、ion and attract audience; more details have to be added to make them moredefinite. instead of being chosen randomly, these details should be based on the story and able to help consummate the titles. sample 1) shreck the literal translation of shreck is 史瑞克, but the audience will not figure out who

44、shreck is and what happened. based on the story, 怪物史瑞克 conveys the accurate information and the audience will know shreck is a lovely green monster. sample 2) speed this movie was released in 1994 and is considered as one of the best movies in the year. compared with 速度, the widely popular translati

45、on 生死时速 is much better. 生死brings great tension to the audience and explains that the story is tight and exciting. the title 生死时速 does not only make it more explicit but also attracts the audience much more. sample 3) ghost if audience see the title 鬼魂, they will think it is a horrible movie. however

46、, thismovie is a romantic love story and it is very moving. the man was killed by his friends and his ghost came to his girlfriend, helped her and told her the truth. the story focuses on the touching ever-lasting love between the ghost and his girlfriend, so 人鬼情未了 is a perfect translation. the adde

47、d 情未了 reflects the quintessence of the story.4.3.2 borrowing and transformation culture is an important factor we should pay attention to in translation. some english movie titles contain certain culture which will make chinese audience totally confused,some english movie titles use english proverbs

48、 or idioms and sometimes there is noequivalent word to the english titles, or on some other occasions, the idioms in english movie titles might find their chinese idiom equivalence. we translator can build a bridge between them and give audience a better title. we can borrow and transform from the a

49、ncient chinese culture. the poems, some famous sentences, and great novels are all wecan use. sample 1) wizard of oz oz means illusory and inconceivable wonderland. the translator chose 绿野仙踪which is the name of a book written by li baichuan in qing dynasty. the full-length novel绿野仙踪describes the lif

50、e of the celestial beings and human morals in ancient china which is so proper and life-like to the movie. sample 2) bathing beauty 出水芙蓉, the chinese title of this movie is very famous and known to every household. if we translate it into 洗澡的美人, we will think it is ridiculous and hard to understand.

51、 出水芙蓉 conforms most to chineses thinking habit and it possesses the special lasting culture appeal of the chinese language. in the movie, several girls dance in the water to the powerful music. suddenly the music turns soft and the girls disperse, a beautiful nova rises gradually from the water with

52、 glittering and translucent water drops on her. instantly, the audience understand the whole meaning of 出水芙蓉. sample 3) forrest gumpthis movie was not translated into 福里斯特-甘普 but 阿甘正传 instead. the translator borrowed form the famous novel 阿 q 正传of mr.luxun. 阿 q is a freak in others eyes so mr. lu xu

53、n created the word “正传” which derived from “闲话少说，言归正传”. and also gump is a strange man just like 阿 q. therefore, chinese audience will bereminded of 阿 q 正传when they see the translated title 阿甘正传 and get the main idea of the story.4.3.3 creating a new title language in english movie titles is creativ

54、ely used and there are some titles that are not suitable to be translated with the skills mentioned above. as a result, the translatorsometimes has to create a new title or choose a best title which can detailedly describe the story and convey the most information to the audience. besides, there are

55、 some cultural divergences that may cause the confusion and misunderstanding of the audience if wetranslated directly according to the original english titles themselves instead of the story of the movies. so the translator should be aware of these differences and try to give a new title according t

56、o the story and his or her understanding of the western culture and history.in some english titles, the heroes or the heroines names are very unfamiliar to chinese audience because sometimes the heroes or the heroines are ordinary people. transliteration cannot tell the audience more than a name. ho

57、wever, if we create a new title mainly connected with the story, the audience will get it through. sample 1) dorothy dandridge (红颜血泪) transliteration gives audience the version 多萝茜-丹德里齐, but who is 多萝茜-丹德里齐? how old is she? what does she do? the audience get nothing from this kind of translation. as

58、 a matter of fact, dorothy dandridge is the first black actress who gets the nominee of the academic awards. she lived in the 1920s when black women were badly treated and had no rights and social status. on her way to her success, she made so many efforts and endured all the unequal treatment. 红颜血泪

59、 exactly described her lifetime-ablack beauty who fought against the discrimination and paid her tears and even blood to gether success and gained peoples recognition. sample 2) billy elliot (舞出我天地) a british boy named billy elliot becomes crazy about ballet and wants to attend the school to learn b

60、allet. his father, a miner, cannot believe his son who wants to learn balletwhich is thought to be a girls consideration. he denies billys request and is very angry.billys teacher finds that billy is so talented and he may be the best ballet dancer in thefuture. though billy cannot attend the school