论文：英语电影片名的翻译

中文文摘 电影是一种集艺术性和商业性于一体的艺术形式，是最具有影响力的媒体之一。越来越多的英语电影被引入中国，促进了中西方文化交流。电影片名作为电影的重要组成部份之一，具有传达信息，表现美感和吸引观众的功能。在过去的二三十年里，影视翻译取得了很大的发展，但作为翻译领域一个重要组成部份，电影片名的研究工作还做得远远不够。目前似乎还没有人提出一套比较完整可行的原则指导片名翻译。目前英语片名翻译的问题主要表现为译名不统一，呈现出“一名多译，良荞不齐”的状况。 本文以新兴的功能翻译理论作为研究基础，大力提倡以观众为取向的英语片名翻译方法。功能翻译理论不同于传统的翻译理论，它强调了翻译及目的文本在其文化中的功能。作为功能翻译理论的“目的论”认为，翻译是一种有目的行为，“目的”决定所有翻译行为。根据“目的论”，决定翻译目的的最重要因素之一就是译文的接受对象，他们作为译文预期的接受者有其各自特定的文化背景和不同的交际需求。此外，功能理论还赋予译者更高的地位和更多的自由，认为为了达到翻译的目的与功能，译者可以最大限度地利用原文的文本信息，并在实践中采用行之有效的不同翻译策略。这也符合了当今影视翻译鼓励 译者具有一定个性和创造性的趋势。 在以上理论研究的基础上，文章将功能理论应用于分析英语电影片名翻译的现象，对英语片名的翻译进行了深入系统而全面的描述与分析，探讨了功能翻译理论指导电影片名翻译的合理性与可行性，以及在该理论指导下英语电影片名翻译的一些策略。全文共分五早。 论文第一章首先介绍了英文电影片名的重要性，阐明了本文的写作目的、研究方法和组织结构。 第二章主要介绍了本研究的理论基础一功能翻译理论。本章首先介绍了功能翻译理论的发展;其次介绍了指导功能翻译理论的三大法则，即目的性法则，连贯性法则和忠诚性法则。指出功能翻译理论的评价标准是“合适”，而不是“对等”。该理论作为对传统翻译理论的一个重大突破和翻译理论研究的重要补充，为电影片名翻译的理论研究开辟了一个新视角。 第三章介绍了电影的分类，定义了电影片名，分析了电影片名的功能和特点。并指出片名翻译的最终目的和主要功能是激发观众的观看欲望。电影片名不仅是物质产品，同时又是精神产品。为了更好地实现片名翻译的最终目的，译者不仅要使得电影译名具有导看功能，即片名能给观众提供影片的基本信息，还要使观众获得美感并受到感召，最终采取行动。这也就是要求译者在译文中努力实现电影片名的三种基本功能，即信息功能，美感功能和祈使功能。 III 第四章是理论与实践相结合的一个章节，即将功能翻译理论结合到具体的片名翻译实践中。作者分析了英语电影片名翻译的主要方法和策略，即音译、直译、意译及改译，以及各种方法的优势和不足，指出了各种翻译方法密不可分，优势互补。本文引用了大量丰富的例子来探讨功能翻译策略在电影片名翻译中的运用，认为原英语片名只是信息提供者之一。除了原电影片名，电影本身也可能提供信息。因此，译名与原名是否对等并不十分重要，充分满足信息、美感、祈使三个功能的要求才是英语电影片名翻译的首要标准。 第五章总结全文，指出电影片名翻译的功能能否实现是英语电影片名汉译的基本原则。要实现电影片名翻译的功能，就要求译者要明确片名翻译的目的，了解电影的类型及主要内容，并基于此选择适当的翻译策略来实现电影片名翻译的功能。

IV Synopsis The film, a particular art with both artistic and commercial values, is one of the most influential mass media with large quantities of English films being introduced into China. The film title, as an important part of the film, is of referential, expressive and appellative functions and its translation is a challenging job. Although film translation has been developing quickly in the past two or three decades, film title translation is a far less explored field. Up till now, no systematic and feasible theory on English film title translation has been put forward. Actually, film title translation is very problematic in that it is in a state of disunity. From the aspects of the functions and skopos of film titles, the author makes an analysis of the translation of film titles. Skopos theory, a newly developed theory, is adopted as the theoretical background of this thesis and an audience-oriented film title translation approach is highly advocated. Functionalism sheds new lights on the translation field. It reflects a shift from traditional linguistic and formal translation theories to a more functionally and socio-culturally oriented concept of translation. As a kernel of functionalism, Skopos theory holds that translation is an intentional action, and the skopos is the prime principle to determine the overall translational action. According to Skopos theory, one of the most important factors determines the purpose of a translation is the target receivers with their culture-specific backgrounds, their expectations and communicative needs. Moreover, functionalism gives the translator much more freedom than ever. The translator is encouraged to make good use of the source information and enjoys the freedom of choosing what strategy to follow to achieve the expected functions of the translation. In this thesis, the author applies the functionalist approaches to explain the phenomena of film title translation. The thesis makes an intensive and comprehensive study of the translation of English film titles. It proves the rationality and applicability of the functionalist approach and probes into the translation strategies of translation of English film titles under the guideline of functionalism. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction. It presents the significance of the study, and also describes the skopos, research methodology and the structure of thesis. Chapter Two elaborates the theoretical basis—the functionalist approach, on

V which the present study is founded. This chapter first introduces the historical views of the functional translation theory. After this, the chapter illuminates the three rules for any translation under the framework of functionalism: the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule; and indicates that criterion for translation evaluation is "adequacy". Therefore, the functionalist theory has given a new perspective to the study of the translation of film title. Chapter Three introduces the genre of films, defines the film title to be examined in this thesis and discusses the features and functions of film titles. It points out that the ultimate purpose of film title translation is to induce the audience to see the film. But unlike commercial advertisement, the film title is not only a commercial product, but a spiritual product as well. In order to achieve the purpose, the title not only has to provide necessary information about the film to the audience but to entertain the audience and attract them. Only when the audience have been entertained and attracted by the title will they be persuaded to go to the cinema. That is to say, a translator should try to achieve three basic functions in target translation, namely thereferential, expressive and appellative functions. Chapter Four discusses the combination of theory with practice. This chapter applies the functionalist approach explain to the English film title translation. It first uses the functionalist approaches to the phenomena of film title translation. And it elaborates the strategies mainly applied in English film title translation, namely transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption, and discusses the merits and limitations of each method. This thesis argues that all the translation strategies are indispensable and supplementary to each other. It holds that equivalence to the original is not very important but the translation's adequacy to the requirement of the three functions is just the first and foremost criterion for the fulfillment of the skopos of reproducing the referential, expressive and appellative functions of original film titles Chapter Five is the conclusion that summarizes the whole thesis. It reaffirms that the translator should translate the English film titles under the basic principle of fulfilling the specific functions of it by applying translation methods in a flexible way.