论文总字数：43794字

摘 要

自改革开放以来，中国电影产业蓬勃发展，越来越多地引入外文片，但因大陆和港台有着不同的文化、政治、经济等背景，造就了不同的意识形态，使得两岸三地在电影片名翻译上呈现出不同的发展态势。国内绝大部分专家学者一致认为，港台在处理英文片名翻译时倾向于依赖本地的文化传统和表达习惯（如大量使用方言等），重视电影的商业效益，是归化手法的典型代表；而大陆则比较谨慎，重视译文的文本信息与文化价值，大体倾向于采用异化的翻译策略。然而，近年以来，随着大陆市场经济的进一步发展、国际政治地位的提高、社会环境日趋宽松和包容，大陆民众的文化自信也得到了很大的提升，尤其加上以网络文化为首的其它文化形式的丰富和发展，大陆对于电影片名翻译的处理不再单一地集中在异化策略和中规中矩的范围内，而是更加灵活多变。

近十年以来，两岸三地对于电影片名翻译的态度以及采取的策略出现了怎样的变化，其差异和特点体现在哪里，哪些因素影响了两岸三地的电影片名汉译，还有异化和归化的翻译策略，都是本文将要讨论和考察的问题，以期为未来三地的电影片名翻译事业带来新的启发和思考。

关键词：两岸三地；电影片名翻译；异化；归化；意识形态；诗学

Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Contents iv

List of Tables v

Chapter One Introduction 1

Chapter Two Literature Review 2

Chapter Three Translation of English Movie Titles in the Mainland of China, HongKong and Taiwan in the 21^st century..................................................... 5

3.1 Differences ...........................................................................................................5

3.2 Changes of Translation Strategies in the Mainland of China...............................8

3.2.1 Stronger Inclination to Liberal Translation................................................8

3.2.2 Employment of Eye-catching Words..........................................................9

3.2.3 Extensive Employment of Four-character Phrases...................................10

3.2.4 Inclusiveness.............................................................................................11

3.3 Cause analysis.....................................................................................................12

3.3.1 Ideology....................................................................................................12

3.3.2 Poetics.......................................................................................................17

Chpater Four Conclusion..............................................................................................20

4.1 Summary.............................................................................................................20

4.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research .............................................21

References.......................................................................................................................22

List of Tables

Table 1: Different Translations of Same English Movie Titles.........................................6

Table 2: Movie Titles with Names.....................................................................................9

Table 3: Words of Interest................................................................................................10

Table 4: Mainland of China amp; Taiwan............................................................................11

Table 5: Mainland of China amp; Hong Kong.....................................................................11

Table 6: Hong Kong amp; Taiwan........................................................................................12

Table 7: English Proficiency in the Mainland of China and Hong Kong........................13

Table 8: Different Translation of Names.........................................................................18

Table 9: Typical Formulas in Hong Kong and Taiwan....................................................19

Chapter One Introduction

Movies, serving as a cultural product, ought to keeps its own cultural value in the face of commercial influence. Appropriate translation of movie titles would not only promote the cultural communication among different countries, but also preserve for the generations to come proper and accurate materials of significant cultural and research value. Since the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, foreign movies have been swarming into China’s market, encouraging China’s movie industry to flourish; and with the increasing introduction of foreign movies into domestic market, differences of translations in Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan appear to be more notable because of their diverse cultural, political, economic and social backgrounds.

According to studies on translation about movie titles in the three areas, it is largely agreed that Hong Kong and Taiwan tend to adopt liberal translation, whereas the Mainland of China tend to adopt literal translation. But a closer review of the movie title translations in the Mainland of China in recent few years would bring out our awareness that translators in the Mainland of China are doing their jobs more flexibly and creatively with the increasingly growing Internet service and wider spread of mass culture, and this situation deserves our attention.

With Andre Lefevere’s theory of manipulation (rewriting) and Lawrence Venuti’s theory of domestication and foreignization as its theoretical framework, this thesis aims at, based on comparing the differences of movie title translations in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 21^st century, trying to discover new development and changes in the translation of English movie titles in the recent years in the Mainland of China, then analyzing the different attitudes and strategies adopted behind the movie title translations as well as throwing some light on how ideology and poetics affecting the translation activities, finally drawing the conclusion as to how better understand the translation activities in these three areas and hopefully bringing enlightenment and new thinking into the future translation.

Chapter Two Literature Review

According to the data from cnki.net (for reference only), the number of papers focusing on Andre Lefevere’s theory of manipulation and the theory of domestication and foreignization in English translation falls roughly between 6000-7000 ranging from the 1980s to the present time; and if added with other key words “translation of movie titles”, the number greatly shrinks to 344; likewise, the number of papers focusing on the history of movie translation falls roughly between 300-1000; and if added with other key words “Chinese translation of English movie titles”, the number of matching findings would drop to single digits. So in general, the application of these theories to analyze translation practices calls for more in-depth work, which is one of the main drives behind this paper.

In his masterpiece Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literature Fame (1992), Andre Lefevere states that “translation is a rewriting or manipulation of an original text and all rewritings reflect a certain ideology and poetics”. Moreover, Lawrence Venuti’s theory of domestication and foreignization which has been studied closely and productively in his seminal work The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation (2008) would also be involved. Venuti puts forward the strategy of foreignization, which aims at “sending the reader abroad” instead of “bringing the author back home”, as it is the case when a translation is domesticated. As is also defined by Venuti, “by means of domestication, a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers”. Wang Mingliang and Liu Zhihui in their two joint papers Application of Domestication Theory in Translation of Movie Titles (2011) and Translation of Movie Titles Guided by Foreignization Theory (2011) give an elaborate explanation on this issue.

Many papers and books on this topic share the opinion that Hong Kong and Taiwan tend to solicit their local culture and ways of expression (such as using a large number of dialects) in translation, lay great emphasis on commercial benefits, thus standing as typical representatives of domestication; whereas Mainland of China is much more discreet in translating movie titles, values the textual information and cultural significance of the original title, thus is liable to adopt the strategy of foreignization. Such conclusions are drawn from many similar papers such as A comparison of translation of English movie titles in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Mao Fasheng, 2002), An analysis of translation principles in the translation of English movie titles based on the phenomenon of “one movie having different translations in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan” (Long Donglin, 2011), A comparison of translation of 2012 Hollywood movie titles in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Peng Jinling, 2014), An analysis of translation of 50 English movies released in 2012 in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Zheng Peicong, 2014), and etc.

He Yuemin in her widely quoted essay The problems of translation of English movie titles and relevant solutions at present (1997) presents us with a comprehensive analysis of the problems of translation of English movie titles and relevant solutions at the end of last century, including the chaos and confusion in Hong Kong’s translation and the differences of movie title translation between Hong Kong and Mainland of China. Fu Manshu and Zhou Yali give a comprehensive analysis of English movie title translation in the past three decades including basic translation principles, related translation theories and translation methods in their joint paper An overview of the researches of English movie title translation in the past three decades (2014). Professor Sun Zhili in his paper China’s Literary Translation: from Domestication to Foreignization (2002) provides a general survey of China’s literary translation from the angle of translation strategies from the 1870s to the early 21^st century. The focus of his paper is the constant shift of translation strategies over a century and the relationship between foreignization and domestication in China. In Translation of English movie titles, He Ning also tries to give an overview of English movie title translation during the past 60 years, but the paper lacks general conclusion by analyzing too many individual examples.

In Jia Zhi and Rong Qian’s joint paper A study of multi-dimensional development of Oscar winners translation under the context of contemporary culture (2013), they analyze the employment and significance of information strategy, culture strategy, aesthetic strategy and business strategy in the translation of Oscar winners.

Regardless of the achievements research in this regard has made, most of the arguments are restricted to the analysis of several individual cases instead of exploring differences between these translations and inferring regular patterns. Besides, the researches are mostly carried out from a synchronic perspective in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, whereas the diachronic consideration is extremely difficult to spot, resulting in the lack of due attention on the changes and development of the translation of movie titles in recent years. Based on such consideration, this paper would try to enrich the study on movie title translations by focusing on the differences among the translation from Mainland of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong from the 21^st century to now, regular patterns of movie title translation, and the changes and development of the translation of movie titles in these three areas.

Chapter Three Translation of English Movie Titles in the Mainland of China, HongKong and Taiwan in the 21^st century

This chapter would be divided into three parts: the differences of the translation of English movie titles in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 21^st century, changes and new development in recent few years and cause analysis.

This paper would conduct its analysis on basis of 457 selected English movies from Douban (China’s social networking service). Among them, 57 movies are from 73^rd-87^th (2001-2015) Oscar winners and Oscar nominated films, and 400 are from 2013-2015 Douban movie list. Each movie has no less than two different and verified translations in the Mainland of China, HK, and Taiwan.

3.1 Differences

By comparing different translated versions of the same English movie titles of Oscar winners and Oscar nominated films, we can find the differences the three areas have as their distinctive features.

No Country for Old Men (2005), for example, tells a story which occurs in the vicinity of the United States–Mexico border, in 1980, and concerns an illegal drug deal gone awry in the Texas desert back country. In the Mainland of China, it is translated as “老无所依”, a literal translation without much elaboration on the theme of the movie; while the translation “二百万夺命奇案” in Hong Kong sheds some light on the theme of the movie, it is somewhat exaggerated with the employment of words like “夺命” and “奇案”; in this case, Taiwan’s translation “险路勿近” seems to be a proper combination of faithful translation and attractive wording.

Moreover, the three translations of Dallas Buyers Club serve as a highly notable example to show different employment of translation strategies in these three areas. The translation “达拉斯买家俱乐部” highly complies with the literal meaning of the English movie title, whereas the translations “续命枭雄” and “药命俱乐部” are both dealt with by paraphrasing, namely, liberal translation.

The following table consists of more fairly typical examples of this kind.

Table 1: Different Translations of Same English Movie Titles

Now we might say that the differences between the three areas are as follow.

Firstly, translators in the Mainland of China tend to adopt literal translation while translators from Hong Kong and Taiwai prefer liberal translation. Translators in the Mainland of China try to seek the combination of accurate and complete expression of the meaning of movie titles and its high pertinence to the content of movies. Most of their translations are rigorous and precise, while sometimes they can also be dull and stereotyped. As for translators from Hong Kong and Taiwai, they prefer liberal translation. The application of domestication leads to a climate in which "fluency" is the most important quality for a translation and all traces of foreignness tend to be purposely erased in a manifestation of ethnocentric violence (from Wikipedia). So their translations are generally energetic, yet sometimes they can also be extravagant.

Secondly，they differ from one another in expression, including transliteration, wording and structure. The first is easy to spot and understand. As for wording and structure, generally speaking, translation in the Mainland of China are accurate and refined, yet sometimes stereotyped, whereas translations in HK and Taiwan are vivacious and liberal, yet sometimes overindulgence in this ecstasy would easily lead to hodgepodge. Translators from HK and Taiwan enjoy the use of sensational and eye-catching words to arouse attraction, such as “风云”, “风暴”, “爆裂” in Hong Kong and Taiwanese’s preference for “魔鬼”, “黑色”, and etc. Besides, translators from Taiwan are also given to using certain rigid formulas or framings to “standardize” their translation such as “魔鬼XX” and “终极XX”. Detailed elaboration would be presented later in this chapter.

Though it’s relatively easy to tell the differences in translation strategies, it’s rather hard, and in most circumstances impossible, even arbitrary, to try to draw an absolute conclusion as to determine which translation is the best. So it’s imperative that translators strike the balance between foreignization and domestication.

Though our research support the previous studies that the three areas prefer different translation strategies, we do find changes and development in the translation strategy of translators from the Mainland of China.

3.2 Changes of Translation Strategies in the Mainland of China

In order to give a more clear and effective elaboration on the changes of translation strategies in the Mainland of China in the recent few years, the sample would be narrowed down to 400 movies released in 2013-2015 to better illustrate this issue.

There are minor changes in translation of movie titles in Hong Kong and Taiwan as they still carry their own translation characteristics. Yet the notable fact is that translation in the Mainland of China has been under less strict requirement with more flexible yet still rational methods. Take “神偷奶爸” (Despicable Me, 2010) and “超体” (Lucy, 2014) for example, the employment of Internet buzz word “奶爸” and the innovative step of word coinage indicate that translators are further unchained from stereotypes and conventional wording and phrasing models. However, these changes and development can be hard to spot because of the strict censorship with the slim number of introduced movies of this kind. Thus in this section, the focus of the resources would be shifted to Douban movie list in which 400 movies from 2013-2015 are selected to best illustrate this issue. Douban, a China’s social networking service intensively used by people in the Mainland of China, with its great popularity, amazing inclusiveness in terms of users and movies collected, as well as its clear positioning partly in mass culture, can serve as a great platform for people to glance at and understand the general translation characters of English movie titles in the Mainland of China. With this shift, the number of movie samples for analysis has been greatly increased for research need. The followings are some highly noticeable features:

3.2.1 Stronger Inclination to Liberal Translation

Of selected 400 movies released from 2013-2015, about 70 adopted liberal translation, which means most of the movies still use literal translation. But the amazing part is that generally speaking, these movie title translations seem not to be rigid, such as “它在身后” (It follows, 2015) and “背水一战” (The last stand, 2013), manifesting keener interest and improving competence of translators from Mainland of China to combine accuracy in meaning with elegance and felicity in wording.

As for liberal translation, the main method employed to achieve such effects is addition, such as adding “派对” (party) in the movie “21岁派对” (21 and Over, 2013), “世界” (world) in the movie “你眼中的世界” ( In Your Eyes, 2014), “天才” (genius) in the movie “天才眼镜狗” (Mr. Peabody amp; Sherman, 2014), as well as “生死” (life and death) in the movie “生死倒数” (Hours, 2013), and etc. The employment of this translation method is most perfectly adopted in movies titles with names, in which circumstances the liberal translation can better bring its superiority into full play, making movie titles more understandable.

We have more examples in the table 2:

Table 2: Movies Titles with Names

3.2.2 Employment of Eye-Catching Words

The employment of eye-catching words and formulas marks as an important difference between movie title translation of recent years in Douban and that of previous time. Now people from Mainland of China may find various information from Taiwan and HongKong much more accessible; in the meantime, discussions about cultural differences in these three areas attract more attention, which makes it easier to understand that people in the Mainland of China grow more fond of some sensational words in translation of movie titles, such as “夺命”, “魔” and “骇客” with strong Taiwanese influence and “急速” with a tinge of HongKong’s influence, and formulas such as “XX情缘/奇缘” in “米其林情缘” (The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2014) and “XX总动员/联盟/队” in “火鸡总动员” (Free Birds, 2013), and etc. The following table show some words of interest frequently used in movie title translations in the Mainland of China in recent years.

Table 3: Words of Interest

3.2.3 Extensive Employment of Four-character Phrases

Among these 400 movies, the most distinct feature of the translation of their titles is the extensive employment of four character phrases with 154 examples, such as 赤焰战场 (Red, 2013); ”神父有难” (Calvary, 2014). A rather common model is the compound of two words, with its translation being two two-character phrases, such as “自由坠落” (Free fall, 2014), “身份窃贼” (Identity Thief, 2013) ; “盛大婚礼” (Big Wedding, 2013), and “美国队长2” (Captain America 2, 2013). This phenomenon indicates the enthusiastic pursuit of concision and aesthetics of form in translation in the Mainland of China.

3.2.4 Inclusiveness

With the rapid development of the Internet service and wider spread of mass culture, more and more translators in the Mainland of China have been more inclined to borrow and copy translation strategies of other areas to equip themselves, namely, to be more inclusive.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：43794字