Abstract Movie is a prevalent modern commodity. With the development of our society and the cultural communication between western and eastern, more and more American blockbusters have been swarming into China. Film title translation has become a hot issue in practice because of the significance of film title and China’s large-scale English film importation in recent years. This thesis reviews the history of American blockbuster title translation in China and the functions of the film titles: information function, cultural function, vocative function and aesthetic function; and then it summarizes the techniques commonly used in the translation: literal translation, liberal translation, and creative translation and analyzes them from the perspective of faithfulness, expressiveness, closeness. Keywords: film title translation; function; techniques54091
摘要电影是一种现代流行的商品。随着社会的发展和中西方文化的交流,很多美国大片涌入中国。因为近年来中国大规模的进口英语电影和电影标题的重要性,电影标题的翻译在实践中已经成为一个热门的话题。本文回顾了美国大片片名在中国的翻译历史和美国大片片名的功能:信息功能,文化功能,呼唤功能和美学功能;进而总结了美国大片片名翻译通常使用的的翻译技巧技巧:直译,意译,创造性翻译,并从信达切的角度来分析美国大片片名翻译的技巧。
毕业论文关键词:电影标题翻译;功能;技巧
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 1
2.1 The History of Film Title Translation 2
2.2 The Principle of Faithfulness, Expressiveness, Closeness 3
3. Functions of American Blockbuster Titles 4
3.1 Informative Function 4
3.2 Cultural Function 5
3.3 Vocative Function 5
3.4 Aesthetic Function 6
4. Current Situation of American Blockbuster Title Translation 7
4.1 Confusion Caused By Region 7
4.2 Confusion Caused By Mass Media 8
4.3 Confusion Caused By Commercial Profits 9
5. Techniques of American Blockbuster Title Translation 10
5.1 Literal Translation 10
5.2 Liberal Translation 11
5.3 Creative Translation 12
6. Conclusion 12
Works Cited 14
1. Introduction
The movie is not only a fashionable art but also a prevalent commodity, which is popular with both the young and the old, the rich and the poor. Film titles are of great importance, for they are the first thing the audience come to know about new films. The film title can deliver the most important information about the films to the audience. An excellent movie title can attract the attention of viewers at their first sight and stimulate their association with plots, moods, and other elements shown in the films. Therefore the proper translation of film titles is particularly important. A good movie title makes great contribution to the charm of the film and plays a very important role in the introduction of a new film. Generally speaking, film title is a label, or a brand trademark of film. And it is always in the eye-catching position of the playbill. It should have both cultural savor and good commercial appeal, not only be faithful to the original, but also cater to their aesthetic taste of the target language spectators and satisfy their psychological needs. It’s known to all that there exist many translation methods or techniques but no one single method or technique can solve all problems of translation. Therefore, film title translation is in fact a very complicated matter. It has its own stylistic, linguistic, and cultural features, all of which need our attention while doing translation.