A Comparison of Movie Title Translation among Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong under Skopostheorie 目的论视角下两岸三地电影片名的翻译比较

A Comparison of Movie Title Translation among Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong under Skopostheorie

By Yan Jin

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

May 31, 2016

Acknowledgements

I am very glad to have this opportunity to give my heartfelt thanks to all who have given me a lot of help and encouragement in my preparation of this paper.

First of all, my heartfelt appreciation goes to Ms. Zhang Lan for her wide knowledge, her constant support and endless interest towards my work. In the preparation of the thesis, she has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with inspiring advice. Without her patient instruction, insightful criticism and expert guidance, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible.

I would also like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis, especially to my classmates who gave me encouragement. Last but not least, my gratitude also extends to my family who have been assisting, supporting and caring for me all of my life.

Contents

Abstract. 1

1. Introduction 2

2. Characteristics of Movie Title Translation 3

2.1 Functions of Movie Titles 3

2.1.1 Information Function 3

2.1.2 Cultural Function 3

2.1.3 Aesthetic Function 3

2.1.4 Commercial Function 3

2.2 Characteristics of Movie Title Translation 4

2.2.1 Linguistic Characteristic 4

2.2.2 Aesthetic Characteristic 4

2.2.3 Cultural Characteristic 5

3. Different Versions of Movie Title Translation in China and the Cause Analysis 6

3.1 Current Situation 6

3.2 Cause Analysis 7

4. Skopostheorie 8

4.1 General Introduction to Skopostheorie 8

4.2 Three Principles of Skopostheorie 9

4.2.1 Skopos Rule 9

4.2.2 Coherence Rule 9

4.2.3 Fidelity Rule 10

4.2.4 Relationships among the Three Rules 10

5.Movie Title Translation under the Perspective of Skopostheorie 10

5.1 Three Aspects under the Perspective of Skopostheorie 10

5.1.1 Commerce Aspect 10

5.1.2 Culture Aspect 10

5.1.3 Aesthetics Aspect 11

5.2 The Translation Strategies under the Guidance of Skopostheorie 12

5.2.1 Literal Translation 12

5.2.2 Free translation 13

5.2.3 Transliteration 13

5.2.4 Combination of Literal and Free Translation 14

6. Conclusion 14

References 15

A Comparison of Movie Title Translation among Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong under Skopostheorie

Yan Jin

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: With the development of intercultural communication, as an essential media mean, the movie plays an important role in cultural exchanges of various countries. However, due to the discrepancy in countries’ social and cultural backgrounds, codes of languages and the understanding of translation standards, there exist relatively big differences among translations of the movie titles. From the point view of Skopostheorie, this paper compares the translation of English movie titles in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan and analyzes the causes of the phenomenon of multiple translations, aiming to summarize the methods and techniques of translating movie titles correctly, as well as to translate more classic movie titles and to promote the cultural communication in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Key Words: Skopostheorie; movie title; three places; cultural exchanges

摘要：随着跨文化交流的发展, 电影作为一种必不可少的传媒手段,在各国文化交流中扮演着重要的角色。然而，由于社会文化背景，语言习惯以及对片名翻译标准理解不同,两岸三地译者对电影片名的也相差甚远。本文从德国功能派的目的论出发，比较英文电影片名在两岸三地的差异并分析产生一片多名现象的原因，最后提出分析比较两岸三地间电影片名的翻译是为了总结方法，译出更多经典影名，促进两岸三地的文化交流。

关键词：目的论；电影片名；两岸三地；文化交流

1. Introduction

People’s lasting and soaring enthusiasm for movie studies has given the society an opportunity for cultivating talent who focus on refined or popular movie research, education and appreciation, ranging from youngsters to the elderly. Some suggesting research shows that the movie, a visual storytelling medium, not only molds personage’s characteristics with vivid pictures and tells us dramatic stories, most importantly, but also expresses intrinsic, potential feelings as well as explains storyline’s reasons, which has been used more and more around the world for almost 100 years. These days the movie has been an authentically artistic form adored by the public for its own advantages.

As cultural exchanges and communication between China and Western are strengthened with every passing day, the movie industry has become one of the most important international mass media, spreading far, widely and rather quickly. There is no denying that the foreign movie with its native language title and culture can enrich audiences’ amateurish cultural life, and only in this way can people’s misunderstandings and prejudices be fully removed, especially for these who have completely diverse religions and political backgrounds. The movie title is often refined and concise; furthermore, it centralizes the reflection of the movie to some extent.

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