从目的论角度谈英文电影片名的翻译

论文总字数：27697字

摘 要

随着国际间文化交流的加强, 越来越多的外国电影进入中国市场并在其中扮演者重要角色。翻译使得中国观众有机会去欣赏这些外国电影。电影片名的翻译对这些外国电影很重要，因为翻译精彩的电影片名可以吸引观众，成为一个推动力去促使观众去观看电影。本篇论文尝试以目的论三个原则中最重要的目的原则为理论基础，认为为了实现电影片名的翻译目的，译好的电影片名应该实现电影片名的信息功能，文化功能，审美功能和商业功能。

关键词：电影片名翻译；目的论；功能

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1

2.1 Review on Skopos Theory………….…………………………………...1

2.2 Review on Film Title Translation.………………………………………...3

1. Application of Skopos Rule to English Film Title Translation……4

3.1 Realization of Informative Function………….................…………………..5

3.2 Realization of Cultural Function………………….......................…….….....6

3.3 Realization of Aesthetic Function ……………........................…………......8

3.4 Realization of Commercial Function……………...........……………..….9

4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..10

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...12

1. Introduction

With the development of the economy, people become more and more rich. At the same time, more and more entertainment are offered for people to choose. With the continuous communication between Chinese and western cultures, a great many excellent English movies are introduced into domestic market. As one of the most charming mass media, these films convey abundant cultural information which get the favorite of Chinese audiences. Then the film translation become more and more important in appreciating the film. As the eye of the film, a translated film title plays an active role in pouring into a foreign market. A good translated film title can attract the interest of audiences to watch the film, and more importantly, it can be the decisive factor of the success of box office. Consequently, the film title translation has become more and more important. Nevertheless, as a challenging work, just a few articles and chapters are related to the film title translation and most of them discuss it in a general way. The thesis tries to make a study about English film title translation from the perspective of skopos theory. It is a theory bridge the gap between the source text and target text and escape from the bondage of equivalence-based methods. Skopos theory regards translation as a purposeful activity, therefore gives a new perspective to the study of film title translation. The skopos rule is put in the first place during the process of translation.

The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one is the introduction, including the research background and the structures of this thesis. Chapter two is literature review which is a overview of the Skopos theory and previous film title translation study. Chapter three illustrates how to employ the Skopos rule to English film title translation. Chapter four is the conclusion of the whole thesis.

1. Literature Review

2.1 Review on Skopos Theory

“Functionalist approach is a kind of cover term for the research of scholars who argue that the purpose of the TT is the most important criterion in any translation.” (Munday, 2001:78).The functionalist theories develops the scope of translation studies, making it broader which refers to extralinguistic and cultural aspect. It is highly necessary for translators to consider from a more flexible perspective.

Then the German functional theories of translation emerged in German in 1970s. To a school of German scholars, dynamic functionalism become their focus when conducting translation studies.

Catharina Reiss is the initiator of the functional theory. She first introduces the prototype of functionalism to the field of translation in 1971. Reiss finds that it is not appropriate to insist on equivalence in some special cases. So she thinks that measure of all things is the source text during the process of the translation.

Hans J. Vermeer. is the student of Reiss who has an important impact on Vermeer. He created the Skopos theory which is the core of the whole functional theory. He defines the new concept of the translation. Vermeer regards the translation as a intentional, purposeful behavior. Obviously, Skopos theory is a theory of purposeful action.

Skopos is a Greek word and the meaning of it is “purpose”. He first introduces it into the translation field in the 1970s. In the view of Vermeer, the process of the translation is a purposeful activity which pay much attention to the predicated results of the translation. According to Vermeer, there are at least three types of purposes in the process of translation:“the general purpose aimed at by the translator in the translation process (perhaps to earn a living), the communicative purpose aimed at by the target text in the target situation (perhaps to instruct the reader) and the purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy of procedure (for example, to translate literally in order to show the structural particularities of the source language.” (Nord, 2001:28).

The purpose of the translation is the key factor which determines the translation approaches and strategies used in the process of the translation to product a functionally adequate result. So in the three rules of Skopos Theory ---fidelity rule, coherence rule and Skopos rule-- Skopos rule is the top-ranking rule. It is more important than another two rules of skopos theory-fidelity rule and coherence rule. Fidelity rule is a further principle and it is also called “intertextual coherence” by Vermeer. He points out that the fidelity rule should exist between the source and the target text. And the form of fidelity is determined not only by the translator"s interpretation of the source text but also by the translation purpose. Coherence rule refers that“information generated by the translator (the target text) must be able to be explained by context coherence of target addressees.” (Nord, 2001:32). The original text of translation written by the source language is the source text, after being translated into target text. Therefore, the translator should take full consideration of cultural backgrounds of the target addressees to make the translation acceptable for the addressees. It is a highly demand for the target text to achieve the readability and acceptability to make addressees understand its meaning. Only in this way can translated versions be communicated successfully.

According to Vermeer"s definition, “Each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The Skopos rule thus reads as “translate/interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text /translation to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function.” (Vermeer, 1989:20).

According to the Skopos rule, the employed strategies are all depend on purpose for which the translator is needed in the process of translation. It is called“the end justifies the means.” (Reiss and Vermeer, 1984:101). Because skopos rule is the most important rule of skopos theory, fidelity rule and coherence rule are both subject to the skopos rule. If skopos of the translation needs to change the function, fidelity with the source text will not exist any more, but it still need the appropriateness with related to the Skopos. And if the Skopos calls for coherence rule, the standard of intratextual coherence is still invalid. If the Skopos of translation demands reproduction of the source text in features and style, the fidelity rule should be consistent with the skopos rule.

2.2 Review on Film Title Translation

With the prosperous development of the world film industry, Chinese have more chance to access to the western culture. As the sign of the film, some Chinese scholars make many efforts toward the study on English film title translation.

Ning Zhishou makes a study on the film title translation in the aspect of translation strategies. He proposes that literal translation and liberal translation are often employed in the process of translation. “Literal translation should maintain the form, meaning and structure of the original film title maximally. When coming across the film titles full of unique cultural meanings, translators will recommend to adopt the liberal translation.” (Ning Zhishou, 1997:59).Yao Qinhua’s study emphasize the English film title translation named after the protagonist’s name. “When meeting this type of film titles, three translation strategies are as followed: use the transliteration directly if audiences are familiar with the name; make some addition of the original name to help the audience know the background; choose liberal translation in accordance with the plot of the film.” (Yao Qinhua, 1999:77).

Some researchers make their studies under some translation theory.

He Ying’s main contribution to the development of the film title translation is to point out four basic value criteria in the process of translation which combines the functional equivalence and the features of film titles. “Four basic value criteria refers informative value, cultural value, aesthetic value and commercial value.” (He Ying, 2001:56). Zhao Chunmei apply "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance"to her study on English film title translation. “According to her, "faithfulness" means to be in accordance with the original film."expressiveness" refers to cater the Chinese flavor; and "elegance" needs the translator to choose the elegant and concise word.” (Zhao Chunmei, 1998:71). Wang Jianjun and Fang Wenli make a discussion about the basic principle of film title translation under communication translation theory. Basic principles are brevity and appealingness, faithfulness, appropriateness in genre and so on. Zhou Xinwu considers that translated film titles should be consistent with reality, audience"s taste according to the Adaptation Theory.

Above studies are valuable data for the study of English film title translation. But there Are still have space to have a further study on English film title translation.

3. Application of Skopos Rule to English Film Title Translation

The skopos rule is the most important rule in skopos theory. And the purpose of film title translation is to call on the audience to watch the film. In order to achieve the intention, when translating the film titles, the translator should realize the film title’s functions, informative function, cultural function, aesthetic function and commercial function.

3.1 Realization of Informative Function

Informative function is one of the basic functions of the film title which reflects relevant information to help the audience get a understanding of the film.

As a sign of the film, it is meaningless for the film title without the informative value. A good translated film title should provide the audience with the information as much as possible. It can help the audience know the film genre, background or the theme of a film and so on.

One character of the film title is to make the audience understand about the genre of the film. By analyzing a mass of translated film titles, it has been found that titles of different film genres usually have their own characters in linguistic aspect. For instance, the titles of romantic films are characterized by including features of “情”, “梦”, “恋”, “爱”and so on. Based on the translated versions, audiences can easily tell the film is an romantic film. Examples are as followed: The Best of Me 《缘了爱未了》, You"ve Got Mail《电子情书》 and Only Lovers Left Alive《唯爱永生》. While translators often apply the certain words, like “杀”，“鬼”, “命” and “惊魂” in the horror films. Examples are as followed. Proxy《绝命代理》, Passion《挑情杀局》, The Scribble《魔子鬼谈》and Shadow People《夺命鬼影》. At the first glance of the film title, the audience is able to know the genre of film with the featured words. In this way, the film title can be the driving force to make the audience see the film which caters their taste.

It should be noticed that some film titles can’t indicate the film genre if they are translated literally. “Take Rain Man for an example. It tells the story of a selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his father has bequeathed all of his estate to his other son, Raymond, an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie decides to attempt to gain custody of his brother in order to get control of the money. During the course of the journey, charlie learns more about Raymond. And he realizes that the Raymond is the figure whom he falsely remembered as an imaginary friend named "Rain Man". Finally, Charlie understands the preciousness of Familial Affection.” (Zheng Peicong, 2014:205).

If the title is just literally translated into 《雨人》，audiences may wrongly assumed it as a fantasy film. As a matter of the fact,another translated version 《手足情未了》 indicates it is a lyric film about brotherhood which attract the audience who like this type of film.

Film titles not only can indicate the genre of the film,but also can indicate the theme of film. As for some film titles, they offer the theme of the film to the audiences which makes them know the contents of the film. If a translated film title conveys the theme of the film, it can arise more attention of the audience than other films.

The following Examples prove the point well.

《Hamlet》is a film adapted from a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet"s father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother"s widow, Hamlet"s mother Gertrude.

If the film title is translated literally into《哈姆雷特》, it will be a strange name for the audience that haven’t read the book《Hamlet》. In contrast,another translated version of the《Hamlet》 is 《王子复仇记》 which directly indicates the plot of the film. It is no doubt that the latter translated version will achieve the purpose of the film title to attract more audiences to by the ticket.

At the same time, some film titles can indicate the background of film. The background information is quite useful to appeal the audience to see the historical films especially those are related to some important political or historical events.

The following example proves the point well.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a biographical film about Bruce Lee.Bruce Lee（Chinese: 李小龙）was a Hong Kong American martial artist, action film actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, filmmaker,and the founder of Jeet Kune Do. He is very famous and there are plenty of people adoring him. So the translated title《李小龙传》implies audiences that the film is about the life of 李小龙, which attracts the audience to know more about him.

At the same time, we often make some addition of the original name to help the audience understand the background better like place and position. For example, The Butler《白宫管家》, Mail to the Chief《白宫网友》and Hannibal《汉尼拔将军》.

3.2 Realization of Cultural Function

Film is a cultural product which reflects people"s daily life. It conveys the value of the major cultural stream where it is produced. Film is one form of entertainment to serve for the people in a definite culture. As an important part of the film,it is inevitable for the film title to carry some characters of the source culture. There are many differences between Chinese and Western cultures, including art, history, religious, morality aspect and so on. Take the colour for example.“黄书”will translate into “blue books” in English. However, blue in English also has the meaning of sad. So the translated version of Little Boy Blue is《忧郁男孩》.

Some film titles look simple, but they have rich cultural meanings to the original audiences.If the translated version of the film title can’t convey its cultural meaning to the Chinese audience, it will lead to the misunderstanding of the film. When translating such film title,translators should take great efforts to express the hidden cultural meaning to appeal the audience to see the film.

Take《Dear John》as an example.It tells the life of a soldier after he falls in love with a young woman. They decide to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to the war. But the recent September 11 attacks make him reconsider the army, and he ultimately chooses to re-enlist. Over the next two years, the romance goes on, through their letters. After a time, John finds himself anxiously awaiting the next letter, but when it arrives it is a Dear John letter, John burns all of Savannah"s letters.

If we translated the film title literally into《亲爱的约翰》, it makes no sense to the audience. Chinese audiences may take the film as a biographical film about John by this translated version. However, another translated version of Dear John is《分手信》. The reason for this version is that a Dear John letter that John received means that the girl has become engaged to someone else in western culture. The latter version expresses that the film is a love story and more meaningful than the former one to help the audience know about the film.

The similar example are First Blood and Two Night Stand. First Blood is a psychological thriller and action film.We can translate the film title literally into 《第一滴血》. However, “first blood” means“首战告捷”in English. Therefore,《首战告捷》is a better translated version. “One night stand” means“一夜情”in Chinese, so the translated version of Two Night Stand is《一夜情未了》which conveys the English culture.

As analyzed above,the translators should employ some methods and strategies to make Chinese audience understand the unfamiliar foreign cultural elements. However, cultural enrichment is not the only effective way in the process of translation.cultural adaptation is also can be effective to help audience accept foreign culture.

The following example is provided to deal with cultural adaptation.

Invictus is a biographical sports film happened in South Africa. Mandela is elected the first black President of South Africa. His presidency faces enormous challenges in the post-Apartheid era. The background of the film is that South Africa becomes the organizer of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in a year. The title Invictus is a Latin word which can be translated into“不可战胜”. However the translated version《成事在人》is better.“谋事在人，成事在天”is Chinese idiom. Changing 成事在天 into 成事在天 is more consistent with the theme of the film. Mandela encounter enormous challenges, including rampant poverty, crime, and racial divisions between black and white South Africans. He still tries his best to make whole country come together to support his efforts. Finally the team of South Africa gets the improbable and unexpected victory. Adopting Chinese idiom makes the title more Chinese-flavored. In this way, it is easier to call upon the audience to watch because they are familiar with the titles. There are some similar examples, such as Unbroken《坚不可摧》, See No Evil《非礼勿视》, The Last Stand《背水一战》, Stopped on Track《戛然而止》, The Company You Keep《近墨者黑》, and The Way, Way Back《迷途知返》.

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