中文摘要

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，方法毕业论文外文摘要TitleTranslation Skills and Principles of English Movie TitlesAbstractMovie is an art and a commodity as well. With the opening of the Chinese market, wehave 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 audienceto attract them. This requires the translation of movie titles to be accurate and embodythe commercial values. After the analysis of the characteristics and functions of movietitles, the author of the present study discussed the skills of the English movie titletranslation and summarized the translation principles.Keywords English movie titles, translation, principles, skillsContents1 Introduction (1)2 Charac teristics of English movie titles (2)2.1 Brief and concentrated (2)2.2 Heroes’or heroines’names 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 V ocative function (4)3.3 Aesthetic function (4)4 Ski lls 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 (12)6.1 Faithfulness (12)6.2 Cultural a wareness (12)6.3 Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects (13)6.4 Aristic quality (14)Conclusion (14)Acknowledgements (15)References (16)淮阴工学院毕业论文第1 页共16 页1 IntroductionMovie is a kind of art which suits both refined and popular tastes and is loved by theold and the young. The reason 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 important role. The title is the brand trademark of the movie and condenses 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 countries, more and more western movies have come into 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 attract the audience’s desire of going to the movie.As a branch of non-literary translation, the translation of English movie titles, likemany other forms of non-literary translation, has not yet received due attention despite their importance. Some mistranslation will give false information and affect audience to enjoy movies, so using proper translation skills is very necessary.This paper, based on an analysis of the characteristics and functions of English movie titles, will introduce principles and skills of English movie title translation.2 Characteristics of English movie titles2.1 Brief and concentratedEnglish movie titles usually contain only one or two key words. Most of the titles arebrief 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 have some short sentences: While You’re Sleeping, Catch Me If You Can, and Saving Private Ryan.淮阴工学院毕业论文第2 页共16 页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 tells a story of a Roman general who was forced to be a gladiator and fight for his freedom and faith. Return to Me, a love story, tells about misunderstanding between a couple and finallytheir reunion and reconciliation.2.2 Heroes’ or heroines’ names as titlesA great part of the western movies choose the heroes’ or the heroines’ names as thetitle though sometimes 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 Ha nnibal are all of this kind. Using the heroes’ or the heroines’names as the title has two advantages. On one hand, like JFK, Aladdin, and Lolita, these names are famous in the western history, fairy tales and literature works, so the audience are 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, the 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 titlesThere are also lots of titles using the settings of the story, such as Titanic, PearlHarbor, Chicago, Casablanca, 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, describingthe lives of the people who live in the Orange County. The Orange County is a rich community and people lived here are all rich people. Ryan, a teenager from chino, was adopted by lawye r Sandy and began his new life in the Orange County. After Ryan’s arrival, changes took place in the community and everyone’s life. The director chose The O.C. as the title because this county witnessed the changes and really meant a lot to the people who lived here.2.4 Attractive淮阴工学院毕业论文第3 页共16 页Movie is commodity. The title of the movie has to attract the audience and then makea 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 movies. When the audience seethe 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 attractive, to some extent, they’re queer. Se7en, Thir13en Ghosts, Swimf@n give the audience unforgettable first expression and be memorized.3 Functions of English movie titlesAccording to the British translator Peter Newmark, language has six functions: expressive function、informative function、vocative function、aesthetic function、phatic function、and metalingual function.(Peter Newmark. 1982). As a proper noun, the movie title is a result of the play writer’s painstaking conception which can highly summarize the theme of t he movie and intensely stimulate the audience’s desire of going to movies. So 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 better. The title Forrest Gump will tell the audience that the story is about a person named Forrest Gump and 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 WarⅡ. The informative function is the basic function of movie titles and the most important function.3.2 V ocative functionAccording to the philosophy: “everyone has curiosity”, we will feel excited when wesee something fresh and strange and we take delight in learning and easily be influenced.淮阴工学院毕业论文第4 页共16 页The vocative function is just to influence the audience’s 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 functionAesthetic function is to bring audience enjoyment from the title. The aesthetic feelingis 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 the synonym of romantic, such as Casablanca, Sleepless in Seattle.4 Skills of English movie title translationMovie 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 principles 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 translation. We should use different translation skills to translate different movie titles.4.1 TransliterationAs we have mentioned above, a lot of western movie titles are the heroes’or heroines’names and the settings. If the heroes’ or heroines’ names and the settings are familiar to the Chinese audience, transliteration is the best skill for these movies because transliteration will 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 ship 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淮阴工学院毕业论文第5 页共16 页of the SL, can be preserved, which will entertain audience with a strong exotic flavor. However, if 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 Selma and Louise. But what happened and why they are special? The audience can not figure it out. In this case, we have to give up transliteration and use other skills which will be introduced later.4.2 Literal translationThe aim of English movie title translation is to display the pith of the movie. If thetitle matches the story perfectly, literal translation is basically 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 structure 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 English 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 translationFree translation is a flexible measure when literal 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 by westerners; Chinese audience will be confused if we translate these titles through literal translation. However, when we use free translation, the version won’t totally conform to the original title.淮阴工学院毕业论文第6 页共16 页Though most translators treat literal translation as their first choice and say “Translate literally, 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 concerned so much, we usually use the following three skills while employing free translation.4.3.1 DefinitionWhen 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 information 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) ShreckThe literal translation of Shreck is 史瑞克, but the audience will not figure out who 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) SpeedThis movie was released in 1994 and is considered as one of the best movies in theyear. Compared with 速度, the widely popular translation 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) GhostIf audience see the title 鬼魂, they will think it is a horrible movie. However, 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 added 情未了reflects the quintessence of the story.4.3.2 Borrowing and transformation淮阴工学院毕业论文第7 页共16 页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 or idioms and sometimes there is no equivalent 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 ancient Chinese culture. The poems, some famous sentences, and great novels are all we can use.Sample 1) Wizard of OzOz 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 life 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. 出水芙蓉conforms most to Chinese’s 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 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. Thetranslator borrowed form the famous novel 《阿Q 正传》of Mr.LuXun. 阿Q is a freak in other’s eyes so Mr. Lu Xun 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 be reminded 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淮阴工学院毕业论文第8 页共16 页Language in English movie titles is creatively used and there are some titles that arenot suitable to be translated with the skills mentioned above. As a result, the translator sometimes 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 some cultural divergences that may cause the confusion and misunderstanding of the audience if we translated directly according to the original English titles themselves instead of the story ofthe movies. So the translator should be aware of these differences and try to give a new title according to 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 toChinese audience because sometimes the heroes or the heroines are ordinary people. Transliteration cannot tell the audience more than a name. However, 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 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exactly described her lifetime--A black beauty who fought against the discrimination and paid her tears and even blood to gether success and gained people’s recognition.Sample 2) Billy Elliot (舞出我天地)A British boy named Billy Elliot becomes crazy about Ballet and wants to attend theschool to learn ballet. His father, a miner, cannot believe his son who wants to learn ballet which is thought to be a girl’s consideration. He denies Billy’s request and is very angry.Billy’s teacher finds that Billy is so talented and he may be the best ballet dancer in the future. Though Billy cannot attend the school, he dances everyday in his bedroom, in theyard of his house, even on the way back home. Gradually, his father realizes how deeplyBilly loves ballet and he sends Billy to the school. Years later, Billy becomes the mostfamous dancer in the country and gets great success. The version 比利-艾略特just tells the淮阴工学院毕业论文第9 页共16 页audience nothing more than the name of the hero of the movie, however, the version舞出我天地shows the inner thoughts of the hero and the main outline of the story.Sample 3) The Professional(这个杀手不太冷)The title refers to the hero of the movie, Leon, a killer, very skillful and cool. One ofits version is 杀手莱昂. Appropriate to the identity of our hero as it is, it does not reveal another important side of Leon, which the version 这个杀手不太冷vividly carries---his tenderness and affection towards our heroine, a little orphan girl.5 MistranslationMistranslation of movie titles is mainly caused by the following factors:5.1 Lacking a comprehensive understanding of the storyAs for a movie title, it is best left untranslated until the translator goes to the movieand fully understands the story. Only with a comprehensive understanding of the story, can he make a right and the best choice among many possible versions.But in many cases, the translator, probably without going to the movie beforetranslating the title, has to come up with a version simply from the original English title and a synopsis of the movie.Sample 1) Rain Man (雨人/手足情未了)The widely-used version is 雨人, which makes no sense to the Chinese audience, forin Chinese there is no such thing as 雨人. The movie is so named because one of our heroes in the movie, the older brother Raymond Babbitt, an autistic, always fails to pronounce his own name Raymond right, but makes a sound of Rain Man. His younger brother wants to abandon him but finally he realizes that they are brothers and they should love each other. The version 手足情未了is more suitable to the story.Sample 2) Bad Company(坏蛋公司/最差搭档)The translation 坏蛋公司sounds not bad, but it is completely irrelevant to the story.It is about a man who has to “play” his twin brother, an agent having died in his unfinished mission. He makes a lot of troubles to his (his dead brother’s) partner but finally he finishes the mission and plays his twin brother perfectly. Another version 最差搭档or 临时特工淮阴工学院毕业论文第10 页共16 页may be better for the story. The word “company” in th e title means partner.5.2 Misunderstanding of cultural informationCulture is the way of life and its manifestations are peculiar to a community that usesa particular language as its means of expression. There is usually cultural information in movie titles. If the translator is not aware of it or misunderstands it, he is likely to mistranslate the title. Sometimes, English words with cultural background do not have a corresponding word in Chinese. E.g. “American dream” means the national spirit in US A and refers to the equal freedom and equal opportunities of everyone. However, we do not have a word in Chinese with the same meaning. When we translate the titles, we have to pay attention to these words and expressions.Sample American Beauty(美国美人/美国丽人)The mainland and the HK versions both have made a mistake in taking the literal meaning of Beauty. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “American Beauty” is a type of rose bearing large, long-stemmed purplish-red flowers. And the rose is a profound image in the Oscar winner of the Best Picture in 2001, so the Taiwan version 美国心，玫瑰情seems more to the point.5.3 Influence of commercial profitsAs we mentioned above, movie itself is a sort of commodity and the movie titles are attractive to draw the audience’s attention and then film producers are able to make a lot of money. The translators are also inevitably influenced in this aspect. As a result, we always see a lot of exciting, passionate, mysterious or thrilling words in the titles though some of these titles actually reflect nothing of the original or the story. Here are some examples: Original Sin-------------激情叛侣(原罪)Body Guard ------------终极保镖(保镖)Charlie’s Angels-------------霹雳娇娃(查理的天使)All the President’s Men -------------惊天大阴谋(总统班底)Platoon-------------杀戮战场(野战排)Extreme words that can arouse people strong emotion, such as 激情，终极，霹雳，淮阴工学院毕业论文第11 页共16 页惊天and 杀戮, are used in the translated titles. The reason why these words are used is just to make the titles sound exciting and attractive in order to hit a great box office.Another situation of commercial profits is movie star effect. To some extent, a moviestar is a guarantee of the box office. So sometimes the translator will translate the titles to remind the audience of the star’s other wonderful movies paying no heed to the irrelevance. Julia Roberts, one of the most famous actresses, has a successful movie Runaway Bride (落跑新娘) and greatly impressed the audience. Another romantic comedy of hers My best friend’s wedding (我最好朋友的婚礼)has another version 新娘不是我. This title is quite OK and has an connection with Runaway Bride (落跑新娘). But it is not suitable to translate her Notting Hill (诺丁山)into 新娘百分百. The movie tells nothing about a bride but a story between a movie star and a bookstore owner. The version gives strained interpretation. Maybe the translator think that Julia’s movies always tell a bide story. However, some translators seem to be fond of this kind of trilogy. Enemy of thestate(全民公敌) brings Will Smith great success and also gives the translators great inspiration to translate Smith’s other movies. I Robot becomes 机械公敌and a romantic comedy Hitch is translated into 全民情敌which makes no sense at all.6 Principles of English movie title translationWith the analysis of the characteristics and functions of English movie titles, the translation skills and causes of mistranslations, we can summarize the principles of English movie title translation in order to achieve an equivalent effect.6.1 FaithfulnessThe most desired effect gained in the title translation relies on the equivalence of language, culture information and function between the original title and the translated one. It requires the translator to put in time and energy on the conciseness of the script and try to display the connotation of the movie. That is faithfulness.For example: Roman Holidays(罗马假日)、America’s Sweethearts(美国甜心)、SixDays Seven Nights(六天七夜)、Scent of Women(女人香)、Love Story(爱情故事)、Water World( 水世界) 、Air Force One( 空军一号) 、Sense and Sensibility( 理智与情淮阴工学院毕业论文第12 页共16 页感),Gladiator(角斗士),God Father(教父) and so on.Faithfulness has two meanings: faithful to the original title and faithful to the story.Of course, it is perfect to be faithful to both. But if it cannot be achieved at once, faithful to the original title then has to give way to being faithful to the story. The informative function of the movie titles demands translators to give the audience more about what is going on in the movie.6.2 Cultural awarenessSome English movie titles will inevitably contain something peculiar to its ownculture. As analyzed above, some mistranslations are caused by misunderstanding of cultural information in original titles. Therefore, the translator should be aware of such cultural information, fully understand it, and properly translate it to the understanding of the target audience“For the real successful translation, the translator’s bicultural grounding is evenmore important than his bilingualism grounding.”(Eugene A. Nida, 1993)Sample Scarlet letter 红色禁恋This movie is adapted from the famous novel and keeps the title. A widely-used translation of the novel is 红字. But for the movie, the audience may not understand it. They do not know what the scarlet letter means and what the story goes on. The translator should know about the literature work and make sure that the scarlet letter is A. The A originally refers to adultery, a forbidden love between a married woman and another man. But scholars explain the A means more: able, angel and admirable. So the translation 红色禁恋gives more exact information.Besides the western culture, the translator has to know well about the Chinese culture.We Chinese prefer to use some four-character expressions which are compendious and suitable for reading and reflect the traditional Chinese cultural appeal. So we should try to translate the English movie titles to some four-character Chinese titles. E.g.: The Age of Innocence(纯真年代), Moon Light(披星戴月), Shane(原野奇侠), The Great Gatsby(大亨小传), Old Wives for New(旧宠新欢), Love Me Tenderly(铁汉柔肠). These translations are terse and smooth and appeal to all.淮阴工学院毕业论文第13 页共16 页6.3 Combination of commercial and aesthetic effectsThe movie titles translation should also try to achieve both commercial and aesthetic effects. The more attractive the title is, the more audience the movie may have and the more profits it will make. But on the other hand, the title should not go too far to the point of fanciness and vulgarity to draw audience’s attention; instead, it should offer an aesthetic feeling within the understanding of most ordinary people. A well-translated title should be a perfect combination of attractiveness and quaintness, and capable of achieving both commercial and aesthetic effects.Sample 1) You’ve got a mail 网络奇缘Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan become a couple of lovers again after the great Sleeplessin Seattle 缘分的天空/西雅图不眠夜. The translator did not translated it into 你有新邮件, or it will be a disaster. 网络奇缘is a free translation and gives the audience a image of a romantic love story between the sweet Meg Ryan and charming Tom Hanks. And 奇缘calls the audience’s attention to find out what happened on the two people.6.4 Artistic qualityTranslation can be considered as an art and the movie itself is an art. A goodtranslation must be a good artistic work.Sample The Bridge of Madison County 廊桥遗梦This translation is believed to be one of the best translated titles. Firstly, it is afour-character expression which appeals to Chinese audience. Secondly, the characters in the title contain great meanings. “廊”embodies the art of landscaping and aesthetics of structure. “ 遗”infers time and space, yearning between lovers and introspection.“梦”indicates the sincerely desire of the love and the romantic emotional appeal which is imbued with Platonic intention and affords for thought.There are some other good versions with high artistic quality: Ghost(人鬼情未了),The Legend of the Fall(燃情岁月), A River That Runs Through(大河恋).淮阴工学院毕业论文第14 页共16 页ConclusionMovie pl ays an important role both in people’s daily lives and international economy.As a commodity and an art, movie will still enjoy a great popularity among people. With the opening of the movie market, we will have more and more opportunities to see English movies. Movie title is the first thing that audience can get the main story through and it has four main characteristics: brief and concentrated, heroes’ or heroines’ names as titles, settings as titles and attractive and three functions: informative, vocative and aesthetic. Different types of movie titles determine different translation skills. After analyzing the characteristics, functions of movie titles and the causes of mistranslations, translators can employ transliteration, literal translation, free translation to give audience the best version. During the translation of English movie titles, in order to achieve an equivalent effect, the translator should always bear in mind principles of faithfulness, cultural awareness, combination of commercial and aesthetic effects, and artistic quality, using proper。