Abstract:China has been practicing the opening-up policy for 30 years. During this period，the communication between China and Western countries increases gradually. Many foreign films are introduced into China every year. For this reason, the translation of film titles is becoming an important field. Many scholars have made some exploration and contribution. 

Skopostheorie, put forward by Hans Vermeer, is the core of the functionalist translation theory. Compared with the previous translation theories, it has a series of breakthroughs. It does not focus on translation at the linguistic level only, but also emphasizes the roles of the translator and culture in translation. “The end justifies the means” is its most distinctive feature, which allows much room for the translator in the use of a satisfactory method.

Usually short as they are, film titles have a considerable influence on box-offices. However, the translation of film titles does not arouse much attention in China. Among numerous translation theories, Skopostheorie is one appropriate for translating film titles, because the translators, guided by the theory, like transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation, adaptation , the translator can have enough room for creation. In fact, the translation of quite a lot of film titles, especially the Chinese translation of English titles, does require that the translator should have some creativeness. Generally, the main purpose for translating film titles is to draw the audience into the cinema. This thesis mainly classifies the translation of film titles into total and partial metaphrase and re-creation and tries to probe into different methods for different title types with the Skopostheorie as the guidance.

Key Words: English film titles; translation method; Skopostheorie

Table of Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Background information-1

1.2 Significance and objectives of the research-1

1.3 Data collection and research methods-1

1.4 The structure of the thesis-2

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 The translation of English film titles under the domestic translation standards-3

2.2 The translation of English film titles under the foreign translation theories-3

3. Theoretical Framework-5

3.1 Introduction to the functional translation theory: Skopostheorie-5

3.2 Three rules of the Skopostheorie-5

3.2.1 The Skopos rule-5

3.2.2 Intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence-6

3.2.3 Function plus loyalty rule-6

4. Application of Skopostheorie to the Translation of English Film Titles-7

4.1 The transliteration from the Skopostheorie-7

4.2 The literal translation from the Skopostheorie-7

4.3 The liberal translation from the Skopostheorie-8

4.3.1 The combination of liberal translation and transliteration-8

4.3.2 The combination of liberal translation and literal translation-9

4.4 The adaptation from the Skopostheorie-10

5. Conclusion-11

5.1 Main findings-11

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study-11

References-12

Acknowledgements-13