功能翻译理论指导下的中文电影片名英译探究.pdf

山西大学 硕士学位论文 功能翻译理论指导下的中文电影片名英译探究 姓名：范捷 申请学位级别：硕士 专业：英语语言文学 指导教师：纪墨芳 2011-06 iv 摘摘 要要 进入21世纪后,经济的发展拉动了诸多与其相关的边缘产业,艺术文化市场也随 之成长繁荣.电影成为深受人民群众喜爱的文化娱乐形式之一,它是科学技术发展到 一定高度的产物,也是一种综合性艺术.随着改革开放的深入,中国和外国的交流逐 渐增多,在许多外国电影已经占领中国电影市场的同时,越来越多的国产电影也走上 了世界舞台. 作为国产电影得以深入人心的第一把钥匙,电影片名的英译便显得尤为重要,也 是一项不可回避的问题.好的片名直接影响到观众对影片的兴趣程度甚至是票房的 好坏程度.从这个意义上说,国产影片要想在国外市场收获可观票房,其片名的英译 就显得至关重要. 本文在重点章节第三章中以收集到的大量中文电影片名英译为数据,通过举例 和对比的方法对收集的数据进行分析,对比研究好的中文电影片名英译以及所采用 的翻译策略；差的中文电影片名英译以及所产生的原因,最后指出中文电影片名英译 的目的和重要性.在第四章中主要以描述法介绍功能翻译理论,特别是利用其核心理 论目的论为理论依据,指出翻译是一种有目的的行为,而中文电影片名英译的首要目 的就是让译名能够在译语文化中更多的被接受和理解,以达到吸引眼球的目的.介于 上述目的,在第五章中试论了功能翻译理论在中文电影片名英译中的应用,并通过归 纳法总结出一些中文电影片名英译时可采用的翻译策略. 通过本文的写作,笔者表达自己对当前一些中文电影片名英译的意见,希望经过 分析和举例,找到产生不恰当英译的一些原因以及如何进行更准确翻译的策略和方 法.作者深信我国国产影片能够真正进军国际市场,吸引外国友人的眼球,提高并加 深对我国电影的兴趣,进而促进文化更有效的交流,使我国在电影领域更早的实现国 际化. 关键词：关键词：电影片名；英译；功能翻译理论；翻译策略 ii abstract with the development of economy, the art and culture market has made great progress in the 21st century, as well as many other relevant industries. movie became one of the most popular cultural entertainments, and it was the product of science and technology. movie is also an integrated art. after reform and opening to the outside world, china has increased exchanges with foreign countries in many fields. many foreign movies have dominated the chinese market, meanwhile more and more chinese movies have stepped onto the world stage. as the first key to root deeply in peoples mind, the translation of chinese movie title seems especially important and unavoidable. a good translation of movie title could directly affect the audiences interest, even the success of the box office. in this sense it is vitally important for chinese movies to get a good translation for it is essential to their commercial success. in chapter three, many english translations of chinese movie titles collected are used as the data and examples and comparison methods are used in analyzing. the author compares some good translations with some poor translations. as to good translations, the author tries to find what strategies were used; as to poor translations, the author tries to analyze why these translations occurred. in the end, the purpose and importance of english translation of chinese movie titles are put forward. in chapter four, functionalist theories, especially its basic theory, skopos theory are introduced as the theoretical basis to indicate that as one action of human beings, translation has its particular purpose. the critical purpose of english translation of chinese movie titles is to make the translation better understood and accepted in the target culture, and finally attract the audiences attention. in chapter five the author tries to discuss the application of functionalist theories to the translation of chinese movie titles. and finally, the author concludes some proper strategies used in the english translation of chinese movie titles. in this thesis, the author expresses her opinions on some english translations of chinese movie titles. with detailed examples, she wishes to analyze some reasons why poor translation occurred and suggest some proper translation strategies. the author firmly believes that one day the chinese movies will no doubt open the international market, seize foreigners attention, arouse their interest in chinese movies, promote better iii understanding and exchange of cultures. key words: movie title; translation; functionalist theory; translation strategy 承 诺 书 承承 诺诺 书书 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是在导师指 导下独立完成的， 学位论文的知识产权属于山西大学。 如果今后以其他单位名义发表与在读期间学位论文相 关的内容，将承担法律责任。除文中已经注明引用的 文献资料外，本学位论文不包括任何其他个人或集体 已经发表或撰写过的成果。 学位论文作者（签章） ： 201 年 月 日 学位论文使用授权声明 学位论文使用授权声明学位论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解山西大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学 校有权保留并向国家有关机关或机构送交论文的复印件和电子文档， 允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等手段保存、汇 编学位论文。同意山西大学可以用不同方式在不同媒体上发表、传播 论文的全部或部分内容。 保密的学位论文在解密后遵守此协议。 作者签名： 导师签名： 20 年 月 日 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 research background in the 21st century, with the development and promotion of economy, many relevant industries also made great progress. not only commercial market, but also the art and culture market became prosperous. more and more people realized that it was insufficient that if people just to pursue the satisfaction of material life in their lifetimes. we should also lead a colorful spiritual life. as a result, movie has become one of the most popular cultural entertainments which are beloved by people. it is well known that movie is the product of science and technology. meanwhile, in the process of its successful development, movie also turns out to be a comprehensive art that it absorbs various achievements and experiences of art, drama, painting, music, dancing, sculpture, architecture and photography, etc. in its hundreds of years history, movie continued to create a variety of human myths. every chinese knows that in 1905, the first chinese movie 定军山 was produced. it has been 106 years since chinese movie industry developed. but chinese movies had not spread overseas until the fifth generation directors grew. in 1984, they led the way of chinese movies abroad. many years ago, foreign movies began to earn their fame and money in chinese market, for example, the most famous love movie like “titanic”, the cartoon movie “the lion king”, the motivational movie “forrest gump”, etc. while on the other hand, at that time chinese movies can hardly be popularized abroad. in 1988, the chinese movie “red sorghum” directed by zhang yimou won the golden bear award in berlin. chinese movies began to win a lot of awards at some international movie festivals since then and more and more attention was paid to chinese movies, such as “crouching tiger, hidden dragon”, “hero”, “house of flying daggers”, etc. they are known to lots of foreigners. this turned out a good opportunity to develop chinese movie industry, transmit chinese traditional culture, and finally deepen influenc. to survive chinese movie industry, great efforts should be taken in the worlds severe competition, but first of all, it is very indispensable and serviceable to have an excellent movie title. in the era of globalization, movie is helpful to build a national image. it can be seen on the translation of chinese movie titles under functionalist theories 2 as an influential medium. the outstanding hollywood movies are tools to advocate the sense of worth of americans, as well as americans life style and their cultural accomplishment. meanwhile the spread of chinese movies, such as “house of flying daggers”, can indeed attract more attention from the world in every field. movie title can be called as the appearance of a movie, which is also the first key to be impressed by. it plays a vital role. the research on chinese translation of foreign movies has developed for many years and achieved some remarkable achievements. nowadays with the prosperous development of our chinese movies, the english translations of chinese movies become an unavoidable problem. whether the translation is good will directly affect peoples interest and even the box office. in this sense, in order to get high box office on the foreign market, the translation of movie title seems very important. lets consider whether we can get some strategies according to the existing research results to guide our translation of chinese movie titles, thus to promote better communication and exchanges between different countries and cultures. 1.2 research methods the collection of data: according to some english translations of our chinese movie titles from the internet, magazines, some related books, movie posters and some brochures. the analysis of data: the aim of this thesis is mainly to make out some good strategies with which we can make a better english translation of the chinese movie titles. all the study is based on the previous research about the chinese translations of english movie titles, which has been studied for many years and has gained a lot of achievements. as a result, in the process of analyzing texts and introducing theories, descriptive method is used. examples and comparative method is used in the third part, which is the comparison of good translation and poor translation. in the chapter of translation strategies under the functionalist theories, induction method is used. 1.3 structure of the thesis the first chapter is an overview of the research background of the movie and the situation of our chinese movies. it indicates that in order to bring chinese movies to the world we must first focus on the english translation of the movie titles. the second chapter is the literature review. in this part, the author lists some overseas research and domestic research done about the translation of chinese movie titles, as well chapter one introduction 3 as some developments. finally some strengths and weaknesses of the current research are shown through the comparison of the two. in the third chapter, the author particularly describes the translation of movie titles. firstly, the author introduces what is a movie title in general and some features of chinese movie titles are listed. secondly, the author analyzes some data collected about good translation and poor translation of chinese movie titles. strategies should be summed up from good translation while reasons should be found from poor translation. in the end, the importance of movie title translation is clearly summarized. the fourth chapter is the theory support to the whole thesis. functionalist theory is introduced, as well as its basic theory that is the skopos theory. the last part is skopos theory in the translation of movie titles. the fifth part is the introduction to application of functionalist theories to the translation of chinese movie titles. and there lists some available strategies for chinese movie titles. according to skopos theory, the author tries to analyze the advantage of these translation strategies. the last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. it pointes out the significance and limitations of the study and then put forward suggestions for future studies. on the translation of chinese movie titles under functionalist theories 4 chapter two literature review 2.1 overseas research about the translation of chinese movie titles up to now, the english translation of chinese movies is briefly done by the chinese translators. overseas research is absolutely limited. in fact there are some advantages that chinese have better understanding of the language, culture, expressions and customs than foreigners, whats more, the inner meaning would be easily caught. so it will be a good idea if we could find some chinese people who are good at english to translate movies and movie titles, and then spread them to the world. in fact some foreigners have tried to translate the chinese movie titles but got opposite results that always make us confused. for example, “farewell my concubine （再 见了,我的小老婆） ”, you can never guess it is the translation of our classic 霸王别姬 ; “all men are brothers：blood of the leopard (四海之内皆兄弟：豹子的血)” is the translation of 水浒传. “in the heat of the sun(在炎热的太阳下)” is for 阳光灿烂 的日子. “once upon a time in china(从前在中国) is for 黄飞鸿”. translation is a process of cultural exchange, as well as cultural fusion. misunderstanding often occurs in different cultures and causes trouble. 2.2 domestic research about the translation of chinese movie titles everyone knows that english belongs to indo-european family while chinese belongs to sino-tibetan family, so there are some considerable differences between english and chinese. for example syntax, grammar, lexicology, cultural connotation. there is a famous translator named xu yuanchong in china, he said that translations between western languages are very simple because 90% of western words that could be similar. but translations between western languages and chinese are more difficult because there is only 40% of words could be similar with each other between western chapter two literature review 5 languages and chinese. therefore, when it comes to the translation of movie titles, it is badly needed to have a better understanding of the two languages. now more and more chinese scholars have transferred their view on the theoretical guidance toward the translation of chinese movie titles and have gained several achievements. in this sense the translation quality of movie titles promoted greatly. the following are some achievements achieved in domestic research in the resent years: in “a brief analysis of translating chinese movie titles into english” (浅谈中国电 影片名的英译)(张廷波 2002), the author said: the principle of functional equivalence should be employed while translating the movie titles from chinese to english. associated with this principle, and in the process of translating four values, that is to say, the informative value, the cultural value, the aesthetic value and the commercial values are taken into consideration. he mentioned that on the basis of the analysis of the chinese movie titles, four different translating methods are applied to piloting the english translation of chinese movie titles. in “on the translation of chinese movie titles from the perspective of skopos theory” (从目的论角度谈汉语电影片名的英译)(陶丹丹 2007), the author mentioned that the translation of chinese movie titles is descriptively studied from the perspective of skopos theory. it finds that in contrast to literal translation, such strategies as addition, omission, generalization, and adaptation are frequently adopted for the main purpose of gaining profits for the movie producer. this finding bears an implication that faithfulness should give way to treason (e.g. using adaptation strategy) if the latter can better achieve the expected purposes of the translated movie titles. in “from english teaching to practical applicationapproaches to translating chinese movie titles into english” (从英语教学到实际应用探析华语电影片名英 译的方法)(袁园 2008), the author analyzes the basic principles of english version of chinese movie titles on the basis of the functional concept of translation, together with several translating methods to pilot chinese to english movie title translation. in “the functional equivalence in chinese movie title translations” (试论中文电 影片名英译的功能对等性)(张成国 2009), the author pointed out that the translation of chinese movie titles is an important and creative job. good translations can push the chinese movies up to the world, and promote worldwide cultural and artistic exchanges. on the translation of chinese movie titles under functionalist theories 6 within the framework of functional equivalence, in his article he also analyses four basic values of the movie title translations from chinese to english, namely, the informative value, the cultural value, the aesthetic value and the commercial value, then finally sum up some basic translation methods under the guidance of the four values. the following are also some researches done in the field: “english translation of chinese movie titles” (中国电影片名的英译探讨)(曹佩升 2007); “translation strategies of chinese movie title: domestication and foreignization” (中文影片名的英 译策略:归化与异化) (邓静 2008); “on chinese movie title translation from the perspective of skopostheorie” (功能目的论视角下的中文电影片名英译) (刘丽艳 2009); “nominalization in english movie titles and in english translation of chinese movie titles” (英文电影片名和中文电影片名英译过程中的名物化研究) (张艳 2009); “translating the titles of chinese moviesfrom the perspective of andr lefeveres rewriting theory” (从勒菲弗尔的改写论角度研究华语片名英译) (卢英 2009); “application of domestication and foreignization to translation of chinese movie titles” (浅谈归化与异化翻译策略在中文影片名英译中的应用) (周培 2010). 2.3 strengths and weaknesses existing in the current research translation of movie titles should follow some proper principles and standards, and the translator should also have solid language command. researches on translation of chinese movie titles are based on the researches on the translation of english movie titles. in fact, many translation strategies are quite similar to those for english movie titles. the author thinks that translation of chinese movie titles cannot be copied easily and mechanically. the differences of language and culture must be considered, as well as varieties of points. so what does culture have to do with translating? more and more people now begin to focus on the cultural problem and try to find out how it affects translating. culture is widening of mind and of spirit. on the contrary of some hard data from measurable things, culture is soft and slippery. culture cannot be caught in our hands. more and more translators are finding themselves involved in translating across cultures, between cultures, and among cultures. if cultures can be found out, then translating is not just put into words but about implication. in order to comprehend the meaning and significance of the translation, we need to understand peoples way of seeing the world, meanwhile, the values that weigh heavily in chapter two literature review 7 the cultural background. the meaning cannot be just put into words. for instance, people consider the famous chinese movie 刘三姐as a movie of chinese history. and the english translation of the movie title is “third sister liu”. but chinese people consider that this is typically a poor translation. the reason why this occurs is not only that the translator supplies a word-for-word translation, but also that the translator has little knowledge about chinese history and the background information of the movie. so the serious subject of revolution turned out to be a funny title. finally we see translation as a kind of cross-cultural communication activity. the translation of a movie title directly impact on whether the movie can get success in cross-cultural communication. we can see, both of the two have an inseparable relationship. on the translation of chinese movie titles under functionalist theories 8 chapter three translation of movi