On English Film Title Translation

As a more direct aesthetic form with its unique commercial features and rich culturalconnotations, film has won the affection of the audience and made tremendous contributionsto promote culture exchanges between China and other foreign countries. With theenhancement of China’s international status and the prosperous development of the domesticfilm industry, Chinese film market has become the second battlefield of Hollywood. A filmtitle, the mirror and trademark of the film, transfers the most important information about thefilm. An excellent and appealing film title not only contributes a lot to the informative andaesthetic values of a film but also stimulates the audiences’ desire to appreciate the film.Consequently, the quality of film title translation has a far-reaching influence on the spreadingof the film and also the box office. However, the current status of English film title translationfails to keep up with the times and the audiences’ constantly changing tastes, what’s worse,the messy situation of film title translation has already caused a negative influence on the filmmarket. In this case, it is of certain practical significance to make a research on EFTT.However, being different from the traditional literary works, the particular commercialproperties of a film and the inevitably commercialized tendency of the global film industrydetermine that EFTT should never be confined to translation itself. The traditionalequivalence-based translation theory seems to be no longer constructive and feasible to thepractice of EFTT. Therefore, a systematic and effective guiding theory is urgently needed toguide the translation of English film titles.With Skopostheorie as its core, the functionalist translation theory smashes the shacklesof the traditional equivalence-based translation theory and emphasizes that translation, is byno means a kind of simple linguistic conversion from one language to another, which shouldbe regarded as a complicated, interpersonal and intercultural communication aims to achieve aspecific purpose in a particular circumstance. What’s more, guided by the essence ofSkopostheorie,“the end justifies the means”, the translation strategies are determined by theSkopos and the expected functions of the target text. German functionalist translation theoryhas opened up a completely new perspective for the purposeful EFTT.In this paper, the author tries to carry out the study of EFTT from the perspective ofGerman functionalist translation theory. According to translational action theory, FTT is akind of target-oriented, complicated and cross-cultural activity with the ultimate purpose of pursuing economic benefits, and the expected functions of the rendered film titles areessential to fulfill this final Skopos. Therefore, the author tries to explore some effectivetranslation strategies for EFTT from the four expected functions of film titles. The authorsuggests that the target-oriented translation strategies be highly advocated, and the translatorshave to take the target audience’s aesthetic standards, information requirement, and culturalbackground into consideration so as to make the rendered titles acceptable and meaningful.Applying the essence of functionalist translation theory to EFTT, the author tries toprobe into effective translation strategies expect to be meaningful and helpful in improvingthe present situation of EFTT. Furthermore, it aims to prove that functionalist approach can beconstructive and feasible to the practice of EFTT.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter1introduces the research background,the motivation and objectives of the research, research questions, and the research data andmethodology. Chapter2is the part of literature review, firstly the author introduces someessential information about film titles, and then the current status of film title translation studyis mentioned, and finally the domestic study on functionalist translation theory is touchedupon. Chapter3deals with the theoretical framework. Chapter4is the top priority of thethesis. First, it analyzes the principles of EFTT under the guidance of Skopostheorie. Second,it offers a detailed description of the features of EFTT from the perspective of functionalisttranslation theory. Third, the author probes into some specific translation strategies and offerssuggestions to realize the four expected functions of the rendered titles. Finally, guided by thefunctionalist translation theory, the author illustrates some translation methods usuallyadopted in EFTT and points out the corresponding applicable scope. Chapter5is theconclusion part, the author reiterates the viewpoint of this thesis and points out the limitations.