On The Chinese Translation Of English Songs Titles

As the cooperation between nations becomes closer and the cultural exchange throughout the world increases daily, music has bridged the gap between nations. The widely spread of English songs leads to attracting amount of people who have interest in music. Undoubtedly, songs titles are the important part of songs and the songs titles persist the functions of the general titles. The quality of the translation of English songs titles can directly influence the acceptance and spread by the Chinese audience. However, the history of the translation of English songs titles has experienced ups and downs, and this activity can’t obtain enough attention which leads to the weak theoretical foundation and unsystematic strategies and skills in translating the English songs titles for people. In order to reveal the characteristics and fully play the functions of English songs as well as make the English songs unforgettable and prevail in China, we conduct the study in this paper.By studying 500 English songs titles, more or less, this study provides the characteristics and functions of English songs titles by using the methods of analysis, classification, summary partly based on the previous data. Apart from that, this paper gets the basic principles of the translation of English songs titles by studying the misinterpreted translations. Under the guidance of Nida’s functional equivalence theory, this paper puts forward some specific strategies in the Chinese translation of English songs titles: abridgment, addition, free translation, conversion of word classes, literal translation and transliteration.Chapter 1 makes an introduction of the research background, purpose and significance as well as the layout of the thesis. Chapter 2 is the literature review. Firstly, this part presents the general introduction to the English songs titles, including the characteristics and functions. Secondly, this part makes an overview of the previous studies overseas and at home of the Chinese translation of the English songs titles. Furthermore, this part also makes comments on the previous studies, including the contribution and problems. Chapter 3 presents the theoretical foundation and methodology applied in this essay. Firstly, it introduces Nida and his functional equivalence theory. Moreover, this part briefly introduces the methods of data collection and research method which are widely applied in this essay. Chapter 4 focuses on the errors and the causes of the errors. This chapter applies Nida’s functional equivalence theory to analyze the Chinese translation of the English songs titles and makes detailed discussion of lexical equivalence, semantic equivalence and pragmatic equivalence. Chapter 5 concentrates on the principles and strategies of the Chinese translation of the English songs titles. What is deserved to be mentioned is that this part is the main part of the essay. Chapter 6 is the conclusion part of the essay. This part summarizes the findings in the thesis and talks about the limitations. At last, it gives the suggestions to the future research.