从信达切角度看美国大片片名的翻译

论文总字数：32155字

摘 要

电影是一种现代流行的商品。随着社会的发展和中西方文化的交流，很多美国大片涌入中国。因为近年来中国大规模的进口英语电影和电影标题的重要性，电影标题的翻译在实践中已经成为一个热门的话题。本文回顾了美国大片片名在中国的翻译历史和美国大片片名的功能：信息功能，文化功能，呼唤功能和美学功能；进而总结了美国大片片名翻译通常使用的的翻译技巧技巧：直译，意译，创造性翻译，并从信达切的角度来分析美国大片片名翻译的技巧。

关键词：电影标题翻译；功能；技巧

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 The History of Film Title Translation 2

2.2 The Principle of Faithfulness, Expressiveness, Closeness 3

3. Functions of American Blockbuster Titles 4

3.1 Informative Function 4

3.2 Cultural Function 5

3.3 Vocative Function 5

3.4 Aesthetic Function 6

4. Current Situation of American Blockbuster Title Translation 7

4.1 Confusion Caused By Region 7

4.2 Confusion Caused By Mass Media 8

4.3 Confusion Caused By Commercial Profits 9

5. Techniques of American Blockbuster Title Translation 10

5.1 Literal Translation 10

5.2 Liberal Translation 11

5.3 Creative Translation 12

6. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

The movie is not only a fashionable art but also a prevalent commodity, which is popular with both the young and the old, the rich and the poor. Film titles are of great importance, for they are the first thing the audience come to know about new films. The film title can deliver the most important information about the films to the audience. An excellent movie title can attract the attention of viewers at their first sight and stimulate their association with plots, moods, and other elements shown in the films. Therefore the proper translation of film titles is particularly important. A good movie title makes great contribution to the charm of the film and plays a very important role in the introduction of a new film. Generally speaking, film title is a label, or a brand trademark of film. And it is always in the eye-catching position of the playbill. It should have both cultural savor and good commercial appeal, not only be faithful to the original, but also cater to their aesthetic taste of the target language spectators and satisfy their psychological needs. It’s known to all that there exist many translation methods or techniques but no one single method or technique can solve all problems of translation. Therefore, film title translation is in fact a very complicated matter. It has its own stylistic, linguistic, and cultural features, all of which need our attention while doing translation.

This thesis tries to analyze the translation techniques of American blockbuster titles from the perspective of faithfulness, expressiveness, closeness. This paper starts with the history of American blockbuster title translation. It then analyzes the translation principle “faithfulness, expressiveness, closeness”, put forth by Liu Zhongde. Next it focuses on the functions of American blockbuster titles, as well as analyzes the current situation of American blockbuster titles translation. Finally the paper tries to summarize the translation techniques commonly used in American blockbuster title translation, namely literal translation, liberal translation, and creative translation.

2. Literature Review

This part firstly analyzes the history and some related achievements of American blockbuster titles translation. Then it touches on the three-character translation principle----faithfulness, expressiveness, and closeness; and reviews the related studies of the certain translation principle. The three-character translation principles: faithfulness expressiveness closeness, put forth by Liu Zhongde, on the basis of Yan Fu’s faithfulness expressiveness elegance and Tytler’s three general principles.

2.1 The History of Film Title Translation

Film titles translation has a long history in the field of translation. Since 1980s, a small number of articles about film title translation have been found in some domestic individual journals, but the translation of film titles started formally in the 1990s. With the entering of a new century, articles about film title translation have appeared in all kinds of domestic journals and newspapers. According to There are three main trends about it.

Firstly, some researchers consider film title translation as a field of cultural translation, which the Chinese traditional translation theories are needed to guide the translation in practice. Faithfulness must comes first to emphasize film titles should be faithful to the original titles. And researchers tend to talk about the techniques of film title translation, like literal translation, free translation, the combination of both. Such as A Brief Analysis of the Principles and Methods of English Film Title Translation by Zhou Baoxue, 2013.

Secondly, some articles about different translation methods used in film title translation in HK, and Taiwan Island.

Finally, some researchers try to divide the nature of film title translation. Some scholars think that film title translation belongs to the translation of advertisement, which commercial factors are needed to take into consideration. A film title is a kind of advertisement. (Qiu Feng, 2000 and Li Qun, 2002). They also advocate rewriting the original film titles with Supplementary translation. For example, Nico and Dani was translated into 《尼克与丹尼》. But it’s difficult to stimulate the desire of viewers, for they probably just make out the two names of persons. It cannot be denied that this kind of literal translation is faithful to the original title, but we can’t think it is reasonable enough. According to the role of hero and the plot, it will be much better to translate it into《西班牙处男》, which reflects not only the style of the film, but also a strong exoticness. It will naturally stimulate the audience desire of watching the film, and achieve its commercial profit. Another film, The wedding Planner, it’s too plain and rational to literally translate it into 《婚礼策划人》. While you will never forget the other translated titles of the film --《爱上新郎》, which has a strong appeal to audience, since the main theme of the film is clear at a glance of this title.

2.2 The Principle of Faithfulness, Expressiveness, Closeness

When it comes to the principles of American blockbuster titles translation, perhaps, you incline to think of Yan Fu, the first advocator for the three-word as criteria of translation, namely, faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance”. It’s a wise choice to follow the certain principles of film title translation.

But the thesis focuses on a new perspective that is the three-word translation principle faithfulness, expressiveness closeness, put forward by Liu Zhongde (Liu Zhongde, 1979), a famous translator in modern China. The translation principle was put forth by Liu Zhongde, on the basis of Yan Fu’s faithfulness expressiveness elegance and Tytler’s three general principles. Due to the characters film titles, the three word translation principle by Liu should be effectively applied in translating film titles. Faithfulness: to be faithful to the content of the original; Expressiveness: to be as expressive as the original; Closeness: to be as close to the original as possible (Liu Zhongde, 1991:14-45).

The certain three - charactered translation principle is regularly applied in translating English of Science and Technology in today’s society. As Professor Yang Shoukang once illustrates that the main characters of English of Science and Technology are accuracy, objectivity, and conciseness, so the three-word translation principle - faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness is applied to of English of Science and Technology.

This thesis will apply the certain translation principle to the translation of American blockbuster titles. According to the current situation of Chinese domestic market, the perspective and field of film title translation should be broadened. On the basis of faithfulness, expressiveness, closeness, the thesis focuses on the following techniques of film title translation, namely, literal translation, liberal translation, and creative translation.

3. Functions of American Blockbuster Titles

There are three main functions of language: the descriptive function, the expressive function, and the social function (Dai Weidong amp; He Zhaoxiong, 2010:10). Besides, Peter New Mark has ever divided the language functions into six categories: Expressive function, Informative function and Vocative function, Aesthetic function, Communicative function as well as Metalingual function (Dai Weidong amp; He Zhaoxiong, 2010:10). Film, as a specific language culture, we can sum up its functions from specificity of its own, there are four main functions of film titles, namely informative function, cultural function, vocative function, and aesthetic function. Next, the thesis will explain each function respectively.

3.1 Informative Function

There’s no doubt that the informative function of film titles means film titles must reflect the main story or main theme of the movie, and make viewers know about the story, theme or background of the movie generally when we see the film title at first sight. For example, we can guess that the film is about the war among stars from Star Wars《星球大战》. and the film Battle of Midway《中途岛战役》can remind the viewers of the history related to the Second World War which took place in Midway islands. Film titles like these, can reflect the event or plot of the movie. While Citizen Kane tells us it’s a film about one certain person named Kane, the famous movies June Eyre 《简爱》tells us the movie is mainly about the life story of a man named June Eyre.

According to Nida’s dynamic equivalence translation theory, “The readers’ response to the translated works should be the same as the response to the original works after appreciating.” (Nida, 2001: 56). When it comes to film title translation, it means the information and impression which got by the readers should be the same as that of original readers. That’s to say, the translated titles must carry the same information as the original titles while some translators don’t obey this basic principle. In order to make the films more attractive, translators in Taiwan prefer to use devil, ghost or something like these as the beginning of films titles when translating Schwarzenegger’s films, whether the films are about devil, ghost or not. In reality, these translated titles may give a wrong impression to the viewers who have not seen the films ever. Here are some examples: Kindergarten Cop《魔鬼孩子王》; Total Recall《魔鬼总动员》; Eraser《魔鬼毁灭者》; True Lies《魔鬼大帝》, End of Days《魔鬼末日》. Film titles, which are the first thing the audience come to know about new films, so the informative function is the basic and the most important function of movie title.

3.2 Cultural Function

In an article by Liu Kelan and Wan Xueqin once mentioned Christane Nord (1991) uses “international communication” to replace word translation, which Holz-Manttari (1989) uses “international cooperation” to replace; while Andre Lefevere (1992) considered translation as “acculturation”. (Liu Kelan amp; Wan Xueqin, 2008) Visibly, every language contains abundant cultural information, so translation is not the transformation of two language codes, but the communication between two languages.

A good translated title can not only give expression to the culture factors of the original titles, which makes viewers to appreciate the exotic differences and strengthen the cultural communication between the two cultures. Let us see one typical film 21 Gram, it is translated into《生命的重量》instead of 《21克》, the former title is better, since 21 Gram means the weight that a person lose when he pass away. Other films like Madam Curie《居里夫人》; Pride and prejudice《傲慢与偏见》; Pearl Harbor 《珍珠港》; Shakespeare in Love 《恋爱中的莎士比亚》; Romeo and Juliet 《罗密欧与茱丽叶》; and Chicago 《芝加哥》. All of these film titles can provide viewers with the original information, and deepen the understanding of western history and culture simultaneously.

3.3 Vocative Function

Movie is the combination of art and commodity. (Chen Ya, 2006: 9-11) Nowadays films have a close relationship with commercial profit. No film companies do chaste for the high profit of films. What’s more, according to the philosophy “everyone has curiosity”. Viewers have a tendency to understand the title and always get to know a new film by hearing about its titles first. If they see something new, fresh and strange, they are influenced easily and delighted to know more about it. To satisfy their curiosity, they must go to watch the movie. Therefore, titles, as the first thing to know about films, should embody the commercial value. In other words, film titles must be vocative. For example, the best-selling documentary film Fahrenheit 9.11, which use the 9.11 events as part of the movie titles, since it plays an important role in attracting viewers.

In HK, translators incline to use words relevant to “passion”, “shaking”, and “general mobilization” in film titles translation, since they can create a tense atmosphere. As a consequence, advocating and inspiring much more people to watch the films. Like the following films: The Three Musketeers 《豪情三剑客》; Casablanca 《北非谍影》; All the President’s Men 《总统班底》; Toy Story 《玩具总动员》.

3.4 Aesthetic Function

Translation can be treated as an art. Excellent translation is a great artistic work. Aesthetic function of film titles mainly lies in term, form and rhetoric.

Because of the culture differences, there are big differences in rhyme, form and rhetoric in film title translation, which causes much trouble in translation. Alliteration and end rhyme are often seen in American blockbuster titles, which create repetition in pronunciation. Alliteration is used to Gone With the Wind 《绝代佳人》and Sense and Sensibility 《理智与情感》, while end rhyme is used to When Harry Met Sally 《当哈利遇见萨利》 and Mutiny on the Bounty 《叛舰喋血记》. On the contrary, the repetition of the same word is used more frequently in Chinese film titles, which create the repetition in structure and rhyme. Such as: 《甲方乙方》、《不见不散》. Although it’s too difficult to translate the rhyme and structure, there are some typical translated titles. Like an English film Singing in the Rain, whose Chinese title is 《雨中曲》. “Singing” and “Rain”, “雨” and “曲” both reflect the usage of end rhyme. Then, let’s see another Chinese film 《芳草碧连天》, whose English title is Green Green Grass of Home, which is an example of alliteration.

Next, the irony used in The Age of Innocence 《纯真年代》, the oxymoron used in True Lies 《真实的谎言》, and the repetition used in A Few Good Men 《好人寥寥》, which are easy for Chinese viewers to understand.

The aesthetic feeling is one of the chief factors that can affect the viewers’ desire of seeing the film. Usually, the aesthetic function is greatly felt on the romantic movies. Here are some typical and excellent examples with high aesthetic feeling. The rendering of The Bridge of Madison Country is《廊桥遗梦》, the version of A River That Runs Through is《大河恋》, the translation of The Legend of the Falls is《燃情岁月》, and Ghost is《人鬼情未了》.

1. Current Situation of American Blockbuster Title Translation

Like the translation of book titles, the translation of American blockbuster titles is an important and creative task as well. But the current situation of film titles translation is not so satisfactory. Whenever we talk about outstanding film titles, there are always a few well-known old film titles spring to our mind at once, such as 《乱世佳人》Gone With the Wind; 《魂断蓝桥》 Waterloo Bridge; 《出水芙蓉》The Bathing Beauty, and so on. Of course, some films have several different titles, which rouse much confusion among viewers and even experts and scholars. As we can see, the quality of American blockbuster titles is not so satisfactory nowadays. The main problems of American blockbuster titles translation can be divided into three categories: The confusion caused by different regions; the confusion caused mass media; the confusion caused by commercial profits.

4.1 Confusion Caused By Region

With the development of society, the cultural communication among Chinese Mainland, HK and Taiwan Island is increasing and more and more frequent. As a result, a large number of American blockbusters swarm into Mainland through HK and Taiwan Island which causes much more confusion. For example, the American film Ghost, which was translated into 《人鬼情未了》 in HK, but 《第六生死恋》 in Taiwan island, while 《幽灵》 and 《鬼魂》in Mainland. Let’s take another American film as an example. Pretty Woman, which was translated into《风丽俏佳人》in HK, but 《麻雀变凤凰》 in Taiwan island, while 《漂亮女人》 in Mainland. Next, an European film, The House of the Spirit was translated into 《第六感生死恋》 in HK, but《金色豪门》 in Taiwan , while《英华世家》in Mainland. Once in a while, the translated titles in the three regions might be united. Such as God Father 《教父》, Dances with Wolves《与狼共舞》, and so on.

Due to the different social systems and cultural backgrounds, as well as the habits in language and words usage, the translation of American blockbuster titles must be quite different among these three regions. Seen from many film titles, the people in different regions might adopt different translation techniques and principles when doing film title translation. Generally speaking, Our Mainland is wild about literal translation, which is relatively serious and faithful to the original title, while in HK and Taiwan free translation is preferred, which is relatively more random and connective with commercial value. Occasionally, there is a certain regularity of American blockbuster title translation in HK and Taiwan. For example, the majority of the translated film titles in Taiwan Island are related to devil and ghost. An typical example is the films acted by Schwarzenegger, like, The Terminator《魔鬼终结者》; Running Man 《魔鬼阿诺》; Kindergarten Cop《魔鬼孩子王》; Total Recall《魔鬼总动员》; True Lie《魔鬼大帝》; and so on.

4.2 Confusion Caused By Mass Media

Nowadays, the mass media is one of the most important approaches to get to know about American blockbusters, because the mass media has become one of the inevitable parts in our daily life. But the mass media pays little attention to the standard of film titles translation, thus rousing much confusion. Like there are different translated titles in different domestic newspapers. Such as the movie Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee, an American black director, are translated into《有所作为》; 《循规蹈矩》 and 《做一件事》 by different journals. What’s more, a famous Oscar Film called The Silence of the Lambs, which was translated into 《沉默的羔羊》by most of the domestic newspapers, while one influential professional film journal insisted translating it into 《羔羊的沉默》. And another film Mrs. Doubtfire, which was translated it into《道特菲尔太太》by one film journal, while《道布特菲尔夫人》by another public journal (Obviously making a mistake in spelling). Besides, some domestic newspaper translated it into 《疑火太太》. What’s worse, the film was translated into《肥妈先生》in HK and《窈窕奶爸》in Taiwan island. Thus the film owns several different confusing titles at the same time, which causes much confusion.

To make matter worse, some film journal may adopt different titles in different time. As a result, there will be much more confusion. Like Sabrina, which is translated into《莎不琳娜》at first, and then《新龙凤配》by the same film journal. It’s a common phenomenon that all sorts of film journals make every effort to compete for the introduction of films when a new film is released. The new film--Mission: Impossible, is translated into《不可完成的任务》 and 《无法完成的使命》successively by different film journals after it is released.

It’s a pity that the confusing phenomena of American blockbuster titles translation, existing in mass media itself, has undoubtedly caused much inconvenience and huge obstacles to cultural communication. It’s difficult for experts to match a variety of film titles with the original film, let alone the ordinary people.

4.3 Confusion Caused By Commercial Profits

Bao Huinan once said that the translated titles should be beneficial to the introduction and promotion of the movie (Bao Huinan, 2001: 92-101). In other words, the translation of American blockbuster titles should process a sort of commercial value. What’s more, the competition in the film market is much fiercer and fiercer. In order to earn the highest commercial profits, some old movies might be given new titles to make it more attractive. As a result, much confusion has been caused. In the past, the film titles were much more standard. Such as Superman was translated into《超人》; First Blood was translated into《第一滴血》. Only a few films had two titles, which made some viewers watch the films again. For example, For a Few Dollars More had two titles at premiere, they are 《金钱与仇恨》 and 《赏金杀手》, recently, with the development of technology, like video cassette, LD, VCD, DVD, etc. The ways to bring in American blockbusters increase rapidly. Sometimes, some films are brought in repeatedly. Besides, video cassettes are always brought in at first, earlier than films. So some films might be given new titles, which are often mistaken for new films. That’s why plenty of exciting, passionate or mysterious titles have emerged. Such as, Ricochet, was translated into《警匪生死劫》at premiere; Robocop, was translated into《铁甲威龙》in HK, while《机器警探》in Mainland, but translated into《威龙争雄》at premiere. Recently, these phenomena have become much more common since the so-called western big films have been brought in. Like Jumanji, The Rock, and Mission: Impossible are translated into《逃出魔幻记》,《石破天惊》 and 《职业特工队》in HK, while they are translated into《朱曼吉》,《石头》 and 《不可完成的使命》 in Mainland . To make matter much more confusing, they are individually translated into《勇敢人的游戏》,《勇闯夺命岛》 and 《碟中谍》at premiere.

In consequence, the confusion has become more and more controversial and complicated seen from the perspective of media.

The confusion has been discussed in three perspectives above. Although these three confusions interact with each other, in fact, the most influential confusion comes from the different film titles in the three regions, for the majority of film titles in video cassette, LD, VCD, and DVD are taken from HK and Taiwan Island directly. Since the confusion of film titles has caused much inconvenience and huge obstacles to cultural communication, it’s time for us to make every effort to clear up the confusion of American blockbuster titles translation and make the titles much more standard.

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