【英语论文】由东西文化差异谈电影名翻译策略On Translating English Movie Titles into Chinese

由东西文化差异谈电影名翻译策略On Translating English Movie Titles into Chinese摘要电影作为一种重要的文化传媒，不仅仅是简洁、直观的方式引进充满异国风情的文化,又是传播本国本民族文化的一个重要途径。西方电影,尤其是电影在以英语国家的电影，以其异质文化和异域风情吸引着无数观众的眼球而日渐成为当代国人休闲娱乐、了解世界的一种重要途径。同样华语电影也日益受到世界的瞩目和关注。这种跨文化的传播现象，引出了一个题目，那就是：由于两种文化、语言之间存在着巨大差异，电影片名翻译该如何做到“信、达、雅”？如同电影的品牌商标,电影片名具有强大的导视作用。片名佳译既能表达电影的主题，又可吸引观众，所以如何译好电影片名成为翻译界长时间追捧讨论的话题。 本文主要探讨不同的翻译策略是如何运用到电影片名的翻译中去的，中国观众对于电影的功能需求以娱乐为主。翻译片名的过程中。译者应考虑到面对人群的审美趣味、心理需求、知识背景等；同时注意译名的可接受性。鉴于上述翻译要求本文通过列举实例分析总结了中文译名所用的基本翻译策略：音译、意译。直译以及改译。这四种不同的片名翻译策略对于原片名所提供的信息进行了不同的处理：即完全保留，适当选择、全部抛弃和增加信息等。文章指出了翻译策略直接的密不可分，优势互补，使用多种翻译方式可以更好的实现片名翻译的目的。关键词：电影名；文化；差异；翻译策略Abstract Movie as an important cultural media is not only a succinct and intuitive means of introducing the exotic culture, but also an important way to disseminate culture on they own. Western movies, especially the movie in English-speaking countries, with its exotic alien culture, attract the viewers eye and become an important way of numerous contemporaries entertainment to understand the world. Similarly Chinese movies are also increasingly drawing the worlds attention and favor. These cross-cultural phenomena raise a question: due to the huge differences between two kinds of culture, how can the movie titles translation achieve Faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance? Like the movies brand mark, movie titles with a strong guides effect. Good title translation is not only able to express the theme of the movie, but also can attract an audience and reflect the deep cultural connotation if the translator can successfully navigate between the two languages. So the translation of a good movie title will become the topic of heated discussions in the translation community. The Chinese audience watch a movie mainly for entertainmentTherefore， the ultimate purpose and the main function of。English movie title translation are to entertain the audience as well as to stimulate the desire of the audience to see the movie. In order to achieve such a goal，theTranslator moulds try to achieve the three basic functions in target text，that is，the informative，aesthetic and commercial(appellative) functionsAt the same time，the author also points out that，owing to the linguistic and cultural differences the functions of original movie titles usually cannot be totally preservedIn addition，the translator should bear the target audience in mind，taking their aesthetic tastes，psychological needs and background knowledge into consideration and attaching great importance to their receptivity during the process of translationBased on the above translation purposes and requirements，the strategies used in English movie title translation exemplified by a host of translated versions from different angles are introduced，namely, transliteration，literal translation(including wordfor-word translation, the adjustment of word order or structure，transliteration plus paraphrase) ，liberal translation(including the combination of literal and liberal translation) and adaptationThese strategies treat the source text information in different ways such as complete preservation，proper selection，complete abandonment and information additionFrom the previous analysis and examples，the present thesis holds that all the translation methods are indispensable and supplementary to each other and that the translator call adopt different translation strategies flexibly in order to better achieve the goal of English movie title translationKey words: movie title; culture; differences; translationTable of ContentsPages1. Introduction 6 1.1 The Background 1.2 The Objectives 1.3 The Methods of the Research and The Organization of the Paper2. Rationale 2.1 Some Notions on the Translation of Movie Titles7 2.1.1 Translator as a Dispenser Role on the Translation of Movie Titles 2.1.2 Audience as an Acceptor Role on the Translation of Movie Titles 2.2 The Feature of Movie titles 2.2.1 Linguistic Features 2.2.2 Cultural Features 2.2.3 Aestetic Features 2.3 Translation Strategies 2.3.1 Transliteration 2.3.2 Literal Translation 2.3.3 Liberal Translation 2.3.4 Adaptation7 2.4 Translation Standards of English Movie Titles 2.4.1 One Center: Functional Equivalence 2.4.2 Informative Value 2.4.3 Cultural Value 2.4.4 Aesthetic Value3. Application of Skopos theory to English Movie Titles Translation 3.1 A Functional Analysis of English Movie Titles Translation 3.1.1 English Movie Titles Translation as a purposeful Activity 3.1.2 English Movie Titles Translation as an Interpersonal Interaction 3.1.3 English Movie Titles Translation as an Intercultural Action3.2 Application of Functionalist Principles to English Movie Titles Translation3.2.1 Target- text Orientation3.2.2 The Source Text as an offer of Information3.2.3 Translators Role and Responsibility in Translating Process4. Translation Strategies Adopted in English Movie Titles Translation4.1 Transliteration4.2 Literal Translation4.2.1 Word- for- Word Translation4.2.2 Adjustment of word order or Structure4.2.3 Transliteration plus Paraphrase4.3. Liberal Translation4.4 Adaptation5. Results and Suggestions5.1 Results 5.2 Suggestions6. ConclusionBibliographyAppendixOn Translating English Movie Titles into Chinese1. Introduction 1.1 The BackgroundNida says: Translation consists in the reproduction in the receptor language of the message of the source language in such a way that the receptors in receptor language may be able to understand adequately how the original receptors of the source language understand the original message. A successful translation of it can guide receptors to the threshold of the original message. How can this success be achieved? Besides Mr. Lin Yutangs criteria, faithfulness, fluency, and beautifulness, which are developed from Mr. Yan Fus faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance. As an audiovisual art, movie is one of the most influential mass media, it follows and reflects peoples life and it is a product of culture. The movie title is the most informative part of a movie. It being short in form but rich in meaning and has its own cultural, linguistic, aesthetic features. A properly translated movie title should be concise, condensed and compact, which can grip the attention of the audience at their first sight and stimulate their association with the plot, reveal the theme or offer some clue. In the translation process, because the translator has different ideas, experience and knowledge, the title translation will be different. Translation of movie titles to focus from language, cultural differences and the effects of cut into the audience, should have a business, information, culture, aesthetic features, while a short eye-catching, ingenuity in order to maximize the audience, in the eyes of the audience to leave an unforgettable the impression that advertising for the movie. The introduction of foreign movies plays an important role in promoting cultural exchanges, and enriching peoples leisure time. But the movie title translation remains a problematic issue currently. As to the same movie, it often has several different translations for its English movie title. The Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan versions can hardly achieve unity in most cases, which makes confusion and inconvenience for the audience.1.2 The ObjectivesThis research makes an attempt to probe the strategies of translating Chinese idioms into English in cross-cultural communication. It also tries to figure out the relevant factors that affect translators choice of different strategies in dealing with cultural differences in translation. To this end, the analysis is conducted with a relevant theoretical framework of the five strategies with 40 examples of Chinese idioms and their English equivalents. 1.3 The Methods of the Research and the Organization of the PaperOn the basis of the above, the first chapter serves as the introduction of the paper, it presented the background of the research, writing objectives and the article structure.The second part support the present situation of the movie title translation; the translation concepts and the strategies of the movie title; the standard and the basic principles of movie title translation.The third part introduce the adhibition and the relevant results of the movie title translation from its different methods and function.The fourth part refers the different translate method and the analysis of the citing example movies.The fifth part serves as a summarizing of the cited movie title translations, and some suggestions which could put forward.The sixth part is the conclusion of the full text content, which is also the ending the whole paper. 2. Rationale2. 1 Some Notions on the Translation of Movie Titles A title is of the same importance to the movie as the face to a person. If the face you see is beautiful that your first impression of him or her will be good. So the translators of the movie titles bear a load to satisfy different audiences. The audiences as the receivers of the movie titles will become the right respond to the translations of the movie titles. Both of them are important to the translations of the movie titles.2.1.1 Translator as a Dispenser Role on the Translation of Movie Titles The translation can not be done without the translators hard working. On the translation of movie titles, translators simplify the translation to achieve briefness. It is also a kind of creating while the translators are doing the translation work. There arent people who get a whole system as the principles of the movie titles translation. As for the same movie title different translators have different translations, because they have their own thought, experience and understanding of movie. Thats the reason why we say that the translators bear a load to satisfy different layers of different audiences. It is sure that these translators have a chance to sit together and discuss the future development of the movie titles.2.1.2 Audience as an Acceptor Role on the Translation of Movie Titles Movie titles are restricted by the original titles. In the views of the audience, the translations of the movie titles appear that there arent any principles to obey. Since movies are shot for the audience, it is necessary to motivate the audiences interests. However, once the audiences do not possess any historical knowledge or literary cultivation, the translations of these movie titles will lose their value of existence. So its important that the audiences would be active to accept the foreign culture. The translations of the movie titles are better to be both refined and popular tastes.22 Features of English Movie TitlesAlthough movies，as a kind of literary form，have something in common with other literary forms，they also possess some unique features，which make them different from othersThe same is true of the case of movie titlesAs a mode of cultural transmission, movie titles involve many complicated cultural factors；as an artistic form, they have an aesthetic function in nature；as a kind of commodity they must possess commercial valuesThe features of movie titles will be analyzed in the following perspectives，namely, linguistic，cultural, aesthetic，and commercial perspectives221 Linguistic FeaturesAs a special type of popular culture，movie title has its own unique linguistic featuresIn most cases，English movie titles are very short，concise and compact埘tll regard to the structure，yet rich in meaning，which，to some extent，are summarizations of the whole movieIn the view of the form，sometimes they employ one or two words as titles，which may be the natal of the protagonist or the place where the story takes place，for instance，Alexander亚历山大大帝，Pearl Harbor 珍珠港；sometimes，they adopt various kinds of phrases as titles，namely, noun phrases，verb phrases and prepositional phrases， which are exemplified in the following titles：The Sound ofthe Music音乐之声，consisting of a modifier and the word it modifies；Meet the Parents拜见父岳母大人，using the structure of a verb-object phrase；On Golden Pond金色池塘，employing the prepositional phraseThere is no denying that there are some instance that some long movie titles do appear,for exampleThe Lord of the Rings：The Return of the King指环王：王者归来However,such lengthy titles are comparatively few in number222 Cultural FeaturesAll good movies are social products of cultural phenomena and ideological trend of certain timesMovies are produced to reflect the reality and the current issues with which ordinary people are concernedIn a sense，they really touch the social life from different anglesSuch cultural features Can also be reflected at the level of movie titles Movie titles are closely related to various aspects of societies，such as religion, history, philosophy, social custom ，and SO onMore often than not，cultural features are closely related to the quotation of idioms and allusions，which convey rich cultural meanings For example，movies such as Seven，Original Sin，and Adams Rib are enveloped in strong Western color, and clearly show the great influence upon English movie titles exerted by western religious culture223 Aesthetic FeaturesMovies，all audio-visual art，can provide the audience with aesthetic entertainment through their perfect combination of sound，color, and moving picturesGenerally speaking，the aesthetic characteristics of movie titles are。closely relat.ed to the application of rhetorical devices，such as simile，metaphor, irony contrast， personification，alliteration, oxymoron, and SO onThe employment of rhetorical devices has been proved to be effective and powerful，because the carefully designed devices used in movie titles help either to create some special kind of atmosphere，toarouse the imagination or to move the passionFor example：Crystal Heart (metaphor)Dances with Wolves (personification)Sense and Sensibility (alliteration)True Lies(oxymoron)Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! (repetition)224 Commercial FeaturesAs a popular artistic form，movies are products of commercializationA successful movie should be the one that can attract people to the cinema and that should become a great box-office hitTo some extent, it is justified in saying that a movie will be meaningless if it cannot attract the public attention and bring large profitTherefore， movie titles should always be eye-catching and be tinged with commercial colorIn a sense，such characteristic can help to boom the movie industryHowever, this does not mean that one can merely pursue large commercial profit by providing some queer titles、析m rio regard to the connotation of the original2.3 Translation StrategiesTechniques of movie title translation mainly fall into two methods: literal translation and free translation. No matter what technique is used, one fundamental and vital principle that should never be forgotten is that the translation must be related to the movie in one way or another.2.3.1 TransliterationIn translation strategies, a majority of women translators advocate literal translation as a chief method and liberal translation as a secondary one. 2.3.2 Literal Translation Literal translation is frequently used in movie title translation. By converting the source language grammatical constructions to their nearest target language equivalents, literal translation can preserve both the content and originality in most cases. In occasions when a title matches the story of a movie perfectly- Saving Private Ryan, Around the World in 80 Days, -拯救大兵瑞恩，not sounding awkward or unnatural, are capable of describing the story, literal translation can be adopted. As most English movie titles consist of nouns or noun phrases, literal translation is the simplest and most effective technique used in movie title translation.2.3.3 Liberal Translation To some titles, especially some allusive ones, whose literal translation cannot describe the story exactly and fail to provide information and attract the audience, more details have to be added to make them more explicit. Instead of being chosen randomly, these details should be based on the story and able to help clarify the titles. We can see that free translation of these movie titles is encouraging.2.3.4 AdaptationLiteral translation and free translation are two main forms of translation. Literal translation has its own merits and weaknesses. On one hand, this method is quite simple, feasible and effective. Such title can be translation into Chinese with no hesitation. On the other hand, all the factors such as ambiguity, incompatibility between the form of the version and the original content, cultural elements involved call for other translation methods, otherwise the basic functions will not be fulfilled completely. The free translation concerns much about the content of the movie and the spirit of the title, which gives space for the translators creativity. The audience will not only be better informed, but also have great interest in watching the movies. However, the proper free translation should be separated from “random translation”, because the former aims at maintaining and better expressing the original meaning, but the latter is subjective and irresponsible to the original title and the movie. The literal translation is usually loyal to the original titles of the movies. The translators usually adopted this method to translate for its faithfulness. But this method is always considered unwisely in the field of translation if the translator does not take into consideration the content of the movie. Hence, the methods of combining the literal translation and the free translation appropriately are better than any of the two.2.4. Translation Standards of English Movie Titles2.4.1 One Center: Functional EquivalenceEugene A. Nida and Taber stated emphatically, Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. In the 1990s, Nida perfects his theory by taking the language and cultural differences into consideration. In his book Language, Culture and Translating, Nida puts functional equivalence into two levels according to the degree of adequacy: the minimal equivalence and the maximum equivalence. The definition of minimal functional equivalence is The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original reader of the text must have understood and appreciated it. Anything less than this degree of equivalence should be unacceptable. The maximum functional equivalence can be stated as The readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did. The maximum level of equivalence is rarely achieved except for texts having little or no aesthetic value and involving only routine information since it requires a higher degree of language-culture correspondence. Functional equivalence is satisfactory in describing the degree of adequacy of a translation. In other words, by means of functional equivalence, the target-language audience can get the approximately similar feelings with the source-language audience when they accept information.The realization of functional equivalence in the translation of movie titles embody in the following aspects:Firstly, the audience is highly valued. As an art for the masses, the influence of movies is extensive. The translation of movie titles should be adequate and v