Abstract

Films have become a kind of carrier or supporter of the communication of different cultures in so many countries. Due to various kinds of languages and cultures of the world, foreign films which come into the mainland of China, need to be translated into Chinese. At the same time, the film industry is developing and evolving so constantly and quickly that it has been going towards all over the world. Then it is evident that the foreign films are urgently required to be translated into different languages of any other countries. The process of translation, particularly, the translation of movie titles plays a significant role in the box office. And it is also the research subject. The flexibility in the process of translation is the key to solving the problems, which means that the translators are supposed to have a better understanding of various translation strategies than before. And clearly, translation strategies and the flexibility of translation are research questions. As to the current tendency of film titles translation, it is not difficult to find that there are a lot of questions and problems, such as confusion of cultural differences in translation, confusion of media translation, and the phenomena of hasty translations and low quality translations. There is a string of reasons and causes. And some of them is potent, like the angle of thinking, cultural differences, aesthetic and economic value. So the purpose of this research aims to talk about and try to deal with parts of those problems which require us to take everything into consideration when the translators choose to use what kinds of translation strategies, such as literal translation, transliteration, free translation method. (Venuti.L., 2001) Consequently, there is theresearch result that suitable translations of film titles will have a positive and effective role in promoting the film market and good film title translations should be the perfect unity of cultural background and economic value. During the process, English film 

title translations should follow the basic ideology, and should actively seek Movie Title Translation-specific translation strategies. How to choose translation strategies and to make translation creative and innovative will be worthy of further study in the future.

 Key words: movie; English movie titles; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Introduction-1

Chapter 1 Brief Introduction of Movie Titles-3

  1.1 Characteristics of Movie Titles-3

 1.1.1 Language Feature of Movie Titles-3

  1.1.2 Cultural Characteristics of Movie Titles-4

  1.1.3 Commercial Characteristics of Movie Titles-5

1.2 The Function of Movie Titles-5

 1.2.1 The Expressional Function of Movie Titles-6

 1.2.2 The Information Function of Movie Titles-6

 1.2.3 The Aesthetic Function of Movie Titles-7

 1.2.4 The Imperative Function of Movie Titles-7

Chapter 2 Problems and Influencing Factors in Movie Titles’ Translation-8

  2.1 Problems in Movie Titles’ Translation in China-8

2.1.1 Translation Confusion Due to Cultural Difference-9

2.1.2 Media Translation Confusion-9

2.1.3 Low Translation Quality-10

  2.2 The Influence Factors of Translation-11

2.2.1 Thinking Mode-11

2.2.2 Cultural Differences-11

2.2.3 Aesthetic-12

2.2.4 Economic Value-12

Chapter 3 Translation Strategy Research of Movie Titles-13

3.1 Literal Translation Analysis of Movie Titles’ Translation-13

  3.2 Liberal Translation Analysis of Movie Titles’ Translation-14

3.3 Rename Translation Analysis of Movie Titles’ Translation-.14

3.4 Other Translation Strategy Analysis of Movie Titles’ Translation-15

3.4.1 Named After The Hero-15

  3.4.2 Named After Time or Place-16

  3.4.3 Named After Numbers-16

  3.4.4 Named After The Movie Theme-16

  3.4.5 Named After Movie Plot-16

  3.4.6 Named After Novel Name-17

Chapter 4 Conclusions -18

4.1 Significance and Insufficiency of Movie Titles’ Translation-18

4.2 Rationalization Proposal of Movie Titles’ Translation-19

Bibliography-20

Acknowledgements.21