A Study Of English And Chinese Film Title Translation: A Relevance Translation Theory Approach

Culture exchange plays a crucial role in the present globalization process. Films, as one of the most influential and universal audio-visual form of recreation, have developed into an indispensable medium of intercultural communication.Since the reform and opening up to the outside world in the late 1970s, China has increasingly involved in the world market, introducing foreign films to its people, and with a rapid growth in Chinese film industry, Chinese films exert worldwide influence, winning international awards and popularity among foreign audiences. Thus, with the trend of ever frequent intercultural exchange, film translation has been flourishing in China. The past two decades have witnessed a vast and rapid development of film translation, but film translation is far from being explored, and little attention has been paid to the translation of film titles.Film titles, of informative, expressive, aesthetic and vocative functions, serving as a guide and advertisement of films, deliver the most important information about the film, leave the first impression of films on the audience, and contribute a great deal to the charm and success at the box office of films. A good film title not only attracts eyeballs, but also helps the film win an everlasting fame. Therefore, the translation of film titles deserves special study.Chinese scholars'study on film title translation started from 1990s which is inadequate, and there is still no commonly accepted systematic and effective guiding theory in the practice of film title translation yet. The reality indicates that it is not only necessary but urgent that some academic efforts be needed to guide and describe the translation of film titles. Gutt's Relevance Translation Theory has been proved valuable and useful through its utilization in the translation of diversified texts during the past two decades, but the translation of film titles have not been touched upon in depth by relevance theory.In the light of the urgent but inadequate study of film title translation at the age of film prosperity, this thesis aims to do a research on film title translation from the perspective of relevance translation theory in the hope of elaborating the application area of relevance translation theory and attempting to propose a systematic and effective guiding theory for film title translation between English and Chinese.Through the analysis of relevance translation theory and the feature of film title translation, the author proves the applicability and effectiveness of relevance translation theory in the translation of film titles. With respect to the differences between the characteristics of American and Chinese film titles and the special feature of film as a combination product of both art and commodity, which needs to be appreciated aesthetically and commercially at the same time, the author proposes four principles which also serve as criteria in guiding and evaluating the practice of film title translation between American and Chinese mainly based on the principle of optimal relevance. The four principles in the light of optimal relevance are:a) To achieve the optimal relevance between the translated text and the source language and culture; b) To achieve optimal relevance between the translated text and the target language and culture; c) To achieve optimal relevance between the translated text and the content of the film; d) To achieve optimal relevance between the translated text and marketing. Through abundant and thorough study of examples, the principles are proved reasonable, feasible and effective.It is hoped that the present study can contribute more or less to film title translation studies between English and Chinese, as well as elaborating the application area of relevance translation theory.