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。

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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。

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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

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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.

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Table of Contents

中文摘要........................................................................................................................I

Abstract........................................................................................................................II 中文文摘.....................................................................................................................III Synopsis........................................................................................................................V

Chapter One Introduction (1)

1.1 Research Background (1)

1.2 Data and Methodology (2)

1.3 The Structure of the Thesis (2)

Chapter Two Literature Review (4)

2.1 The Emergence of Functional Approaches (4)

2.2 Functionalist Translation Theory (5)

2.2.1 Development of Functionalist Translation Theory (5)

2.2.2 Basic Concepts of Skopos Theory (6)

2.2.3 Adequacy, Standard of Evaluation (6)

2.2.4 Translation Brief (6)

2.2.5 Merits of Skopos Theory (7)

Chapter Three A Profile of Film Title Translation (8)

3.1 Genre of Film (8)

3.2 Definition of Film Titles (8)

3.3 Sources of Film Titles (8)

3.3.1 The Indication of the Subject (9)

3.3.2 The Indication of the Object/Clue (9)

3.3.3 The Indication of the Background (9)

3.3.4 The Indication of the Plot (10)

3.3.5 The Indication of the Theme (10)

3.4 Features of Film Titles (10)

3.5 Functions of Film Titles (11)

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3.6 Skopos of Film Title Translation (11)

Chapter Four Application of the Functionalist Approach to the English Film Title Translation (13)

4.1 Strategies Employed in the Translation of English Film Titles (13)

4.2 Strategies Employed in the Translation of Film TItles (13)

4.3 Summary (13)

Chapter Five Conclusion (15)

5.1 Summary and Conclusion of the Research (15)

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions of the Research (15)

R eferences (17)

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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research background

The year 1895 witnessed the first film in world history in France. Having developed for over a century, the film has become one of the most popular ways of entertainment for people. Additionally, it is also a means of expression as well as a vehicle for cultural communication. The film has included so much of various historical periods that people believe that by watching films of various types from various times and various countries, they can learn many aspects of history. The film is, so to speak, an acting and talking encyclopedia of culture and society.

With the increasing pace of China's opening to the outside world as well as the development of cultural communication between China and English-speaking countries, more and more English films have entered Chinese market. In order to enable the audience to understand and appreciate the film, the whole film should be translated. Thus, there is an urgent demand for the translation of films. And because the film, as a specific form of literature and audio-visual art, is bound to have promising prospects in our age, it is of great significance to study and develop film-translating too.

Film translation is the translating of languages and cultures, and the promotion of cross-cultural exchanges. And the film title, like the title to a literary text, delivers the most important information about the film to the audience. Therefore, as an indispensable part of the film translation, the film title translation naturally becomes an important branch of the general translation study. Whether the film is appealing or not, the title is one and the first deciding factor, for it is often the first that comes into the potential viewer's attention. It is expected to be eye-catching, ear-pleasing and curiosity-stimulating.

The film titles generally bear three principal functions: the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative function. The referential function means that the translation informs the audience the background and the plots of the film. It tells the audience as much of the information of the film as it can within several words and help them have a basic understanding of the film. The expressive function means that the translation sets the feeling-tone reflected in each film genre, which is very important to its communicative effectiveness; The appellative function means

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that the translation must be written in a language that is immediately comprehensible to the audience so as to attract their attention, and triggerthem to enter the cinema to appreciate the film.

And the film title, being short in form but rich in meaning, has its own linguistic, aesthetic, cultural and commercial features, all of which contribute a lot to the charm and the success of the film.

Nowadays, the film title translation has attracted the attentions of many scholars. Many thesises of this topic could be seen in various kinds of academic periodicals. However, the studies in this field are not adequate and comprehensive enough. In this thesis, the author will try to make some theoretical explanations by examples which are taken from original texts and published translations.

1.2 Data and Methodology

The present research is a descriptive analysis of English film title translation. It mainly focuses on the feature films which carry a greater variety than documentary films and science and educational films. They are usually intended to attract wide and varied audience. Thus, various feature film titles are collected from various sources such as books, journals, DVDs and the Internet for this research. The research is carried out in the light of the functionalist approaches to discover the principles of film title translation, and to see how the translation strategies are adequate to the requirements of the three functions in serving the skopos of film title translation.

1.3 The Structure of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters: l) introduction, 2) literature review, 3) a profile of filmtitle translation, 4) an analysis of the film title translation from the functional perspective, 5)conclusion.

The first chapter introduces the background and methodology of this research.

The second chapter is the literature review which introduces the Skopos theory, including its development, basic concepts, basic rules and its influence on translation.

The third chapter makes a profile of film titles. It introduces the genre of films, defines the film titles, analyzes its features and functions, and points out that the

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skopos of English film title translation is to win the heart of the audience and be rewarded by a great box-office hit.

The fourth chapter is the practical part of my thesis, where English film title translations are collected, reviewed and analyzed, for the purpose of discussing how the Chinese translation in various strategies are feasible in serving the skopos of entertaining the audiences and promoting the box-office.

The fifth chapter is the last part. It summarizes the research conducted in the thesis to draw a conclusion.

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Chapter two Literature Review

2.1 The Emergence of functionalist approaches

The functional approaches originated in Germany in 1970s. Before its emergence, those linguistic-oriented theories had a great influence on translation. Many definitions of translation emphasized the linguistic aspect. For example, Catford thought translation is "the replacement of textual material in a language(SL) by equivalent material in another language(TL)"(cf. Nord, 2001:7);and according to Nida and Taber, the process of translation is "reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message"(Eugene A. Nida & Charles R. Taber, 2004:12). Because the linguistic approaches basically saw translation as a procedure of trans-coding, "equivalence" seems to be basic and somewhat indispensable. Werner Koller even indicated that the translation must preserve the source-language content, form, style, function, or "at least must seek to preserve them as far as possible"(cf. Nord, 2001:7). It declared the target text which is not equivalent to the source text to be a failed translation.

Though many theorists still emphasize the equivalence in translation, they have to recognize that there may be non-equivalence in translation caused by the culture differences. Just as Koller stated in his recent work, "adaptation may be appropriate, or even inevitable, in order to make the translation reach its audience.(cf. Nord, 2001:7) And as for some pragmatic texts, such as advertisements and products instructions, "equivalence" can't be well applied for them. Thus, some translation scholars shift their focus from equivalence-based approaches to functionalist approaches, and "a new theory was called for".(Nord, 2001:8)

"The emergence of a functionalist translation theory marks an important moment in the evolution of translation theory by breaking the two-thousand-year old chain of theory revolving around the faithful vs. freeaxis.”

(Gentzler, 2004: 71)

Functionalism is a broad term for various theories that approach translation in this way. The major contribution to functionalism is the functionalist translation theory with the Skopos theory to its core.

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2.2 Functionalist Translation Theory

2.2.1 Development of functionalist translation theory

The development of the functionalist translation theory experienced four stages, with Katharina Reiss, Hans J. Vermeer, Holz-Manttari and Christiane Nord as the main representatives.

2.2.2 Basic Concepts of Skopos theory

“Skopos is the Greek word for …aim?or …purpose' and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970 by Hans J. Vermeer as a technical term for the purpose of a translation and of the action of translating.”

(Munday, 2001:78-79)

Nord indicates that the main idea of Skopos theory is that translation should be purpose-oriented. Vermeer has divided the purpose of translation into three possible kinds, including "the general purpose aimed at by the translator in the translation process" (cf. Nord, 2001;27), "the communicative purpose aimed at by the target text situation"(ibid: 27), and "purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy or procedure"(ibid:28). And the term Skopos usually refers to the purpose of the target text.

Except the term Skopos, Vermeer also uses some related words aim, purpose, intention and function in his theory:

1. …Aim’is defined as the final results an agent intends to achieve勿means of

an action.

2. …Purpose' is defined as a provisional stage in the process of attaining an

aim.

3. …Function' refers to what a text means or is intended to mean from the

receiver's point of view, whereas the aim is the purpose for which it is

needed or supposed to be need.

4. …Intention' is conceived as aim-oriented plan of action.

(cf. Nord,2001: 28)

He considers teleological concepts of these words to be equivalent, subsuming them under the generic concept of Skopos.

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However, Christiane proposed a basic distinction between intention and function, which is particularly useful in translation. Because the sender and the receiver usually belong to different cultural and situational settings, "intention and function may have to be analyzed from two different angles". (Nord, 2001:29)

2.2.3 Adequacy, Standard of Evaluation

Instead of equivalence, "adequacy" is highly emphasized within the framework of skopos theory. According to Skopos theory, the intended purposes of the target text determine the translation strategies, and criterion for translation evaluation is "adequacy", which refers to "the qualities of a target text with regard to the translation brief' (Nord, 2001:35), which will be discussed later in this chapter. The translation should be "adequate to“the requirements of the brief'. (Nord, 2001:35).

“'Adequate' is a dy namic concept related to the process of translational action and referring to the "goal-oriented" selection of signs that are considered appropriate for the communicative purpose defined in the translation assignment.”

(cf. Nord, 2001:35)

The skopos of the translation determines the form of equivalence required for an adequate translation. Therefore, equivalence means adequacy to a skopos that requires that the target text serves the same communicative function or functions as the source text,山us preserving invariance of function between source and target text. That is, the concept of equivalence is reduced to "functional equivalence" on the text level of what Reiss refers to as "communicative translation". (cf. Nord, 2001:36) 2.2.4 Translation Brief

The translation brief indicates the text type, format or terminology of a translation. In the professional practice of translation, translators seldom start a translating activity out of their own reasons. Translation is usually done by assignment; that is, a client needs a text for a particular purpose and calls upon the translator for a translation. In the process of translational action, the initiator decides the communicative purpose.

However, on real occasions, clients do not give the translators an explicit translation brief,they often do not know that a good brief spells a better translation. Based on the source text in the source settings, an experienced translator is able to infer the brief himself and make some variations upon the target text, in order to make

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it meaningful to target culture receivers. In addition, the translation brief does not tell the translator how to go about their translation job, what translation strategy to use, or what translation type to choose. These decisions depend entirely on the translator's responsibility and competence. (Nord, 2001:30)

In terms of Skopos theory, the variability of the brief depends on the circumstances of the target culture, not on the source culture. Since translation has been defined as a translational action involving a source text, the source is usually a part of the brief. In terms of action theory, agents (sender, receiver, initiator, translator) play the most important parts.

2.2.5 Merits of Skopos theory

Compared with traditional translation theory prevailing before 1970s, Skopos theory has so many distinctive characteristics that it becomes a trigger of revolution in translation studies.

"The two most important shifts in theoretical developments in translation theory overthe past two decades have been (1) the shift from source-text oriented theories to target-text oriented theories and (2) the shift to include cultural factors as well as linguistic elements in the translation training models. Those advocating functionalist approaches have been pioneers in both areas.”

(Gentzler, 2004:70)

And the theory is also considered by Nord exactly as the translation model that is needed. Nord summarizes the advantages of it as "pragmatic, culture-oriented and consistent". (cf. Quan Xunlian, 2006)

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Chapter Three A Profile of English Film Title

The film title, like the title to a literary text, delivers the most important information about the film to the audience. A good film title can grip the attention of the audience and contribute a lot in box-office. Film title translation is an important job which is full of creation. It seems to be a simple and easy task, but actually it is complicated. It has its own features and unique functions all of which deserve the attention of translation scholars. A brief survey of English film titles will be conducted in this chapter before coming to the application stage.

3.1 Genre of film

In film theory, "genre" refers to the primary method of film categorization based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Just like literary genres, there are many types of films, but the most significant categories are feature films, documentary films, educational films, experimental and animated films as suggested in The Complete Film Dictionary. (cf. Xu Lin, 2005)

3.2 Definition of film titles

The title, according to The Complete Film Dictionary, means any words that appear on the screen not as part of the scene but as a means of conveying information to the audience. "Credit titles" appear at the start and conclusion of a film to cite the various personnel responsible for the motion picture; "the main title" gives the name of the film; "subtitle" are placed at the bottom of the scene to translate foreign languages; "the end title" tells the audience that the film is concluded and "end titles" give us the credits.(cf. Xu Lin, 2005) The thesis will discuss the "main title" which gives the name of the film.

3.3 Sources of film titles

The film title usually summarizes the main idea of the film and exposes the theme. If a translator wants to grasp the full meaning of the original title, and translate the film titles properly, he should first identify the sources of film titles. That means, he should know on what bases the films are named. The sources can be roughly

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categorized into five types: 1) subject; 2) objecbclue; 3) background; 4) plot; 5) theme. (He Ying, 2001)

3.3.1 The Indication of the Subject

The subject here refers to the protagonist-hero or heroine of the film. More often than not, the screenwriters either adopt the names of the main characters as the film titles, or entitle the film with the characteristics of the protagonist. Following are some examples of this type of source:

Romeo and Juliet Batman Alexander

The Fantastic Four 《罗密欧与茱丽叶》《蝙蝠侠》

《亚历山大帝》《神奇四侠》

3.3.2 The Indication of the

The clue or the most important object appearing in the film serving to be the thread that connects the whole plot is often adopted as the title. Following are some examples of this type of source:

Schindler's List

7axi

Golden Eye

A Clockwork Orange 《辛德勒名单》《的士速递》《黄金眼》《发条橙》

3.3.3 The Indication of the Background

The background, which plays a very important part in the developing the plot, conveying the theme and portraying the characters, also serves as one of the chief sources for naming a film. This type of source originates from the place or time that is crucial for the development of the plot and the portrait of the protagonists, providing the audience with some basic background information of the film. Following are some examples of this type of source:

Troy

The Longest Day Mr. Bean's Holiday Air Force One

《特洛伊》

《最长的一天》

《憨豆先生的假期》

《空军一号》

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3.3.4 The Indication of the Plot

It's the most common type of source of film titles. The title always provides a glimpse of the film plot, or summarizes the content of the film. Following are some examples of this type of source:

Around the World in 80 days Kill Bill

Star War

Saving Private Ryan 《环游世界80天》《杀死比尔》

《星球大战》

《拯救大兵莱恩》

3.3.5 The Indication of the Theme

Some of the films are entitled with the theme that the film intended to convey. Such titles are comparatively abstract, but contain much more symbolized meanings than the other types. They are very thought-provoking, profound and far-reaching in mood. Following are some examples of this type of source:

Pride and Prejudice Brave Heart

Top Gun

The Sound of the Music 《傲慢与偏见》《勇敢的心》《壮志凌云》《音乐之声》

3.4 Features of film titles

Film titles are commonly short and brief to be eye-catching for people. And because the intended addressee of film titles is the general public, the language should be popular and comprehensive. Many rhetoric devices, such as simile, metaphor and oxymoron are employed in the film title to make them vivid and attractive, therefore, they can grab the audience's attention, arouse their curiosity and trigger their action. The overall features of the English film titles will be approached from linguistic, aesthetic, cultural and commercial aspects as follows.

In general, English film titles are simple, concise and compact. A lot of film titles employ only one word, which are usually to be nouns. They may be the main character, the place or the time when the story takes place. For example,Speed, Mummy, Titanic and so on. Although there are some long film titles, such as When a Man Loves a Woman and It happened One Night, they are just a small number.

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Additionally, phrases enjoy the great popularity in the film titles. Most of them are noun phrases, verb phrases and prepositional phrases.

3. 5 Functions of film titles

"Function" is a topic largely discussed by the translation scholars. Vermeer defines ction as "what a text means or is intended to mean from the receiver's point of view". (Nord, 1:28). Each text is produced for a certain function and work this function. The station of a text should also be intended to function for the target receivers. Functionalism draws on Karl Biihler's organon (1934) about the text function. Biihler proposed that there were three basic text functions: referential, expressive and appellative functions. And because the film is a material product as well as a spiritual product, this dual decides that film titles have both functions of artistic appreciation and commercial advertisement, therefore the titles should bear the aesthetic function as well.

3.6 Skopos of film title translation

The film is more than just an entertaining system. It is also a means of expression as well as a vehicle for cultural communication.

According to Vermeer's Skopos theory, the possible purposes in the translational action can be divided into three kinds: the general purpose aimed at by the translator, the communicative purpose aimed at by the target text, and the purpose aimed at by a particular translation strategy or procedure. (cf. Nord,2001:27-28) Applying this classification in film title translation, we can see that the general purpose of a translator of film title translation is to earn living; the communicative purpose of film title translation is to induce the audience to go the cinema; and the purpose of using particular strategies in film title translation is to preserve or recreate the referential function, expressive function and appellative function to please the audience, regardless of whether the immediately feeling is amusement (comedy), fear (horror) or anything else. Among the three purposes, the communicative purpose is the most important one.

A successful film title should be the one that can attract people to the cinema and contribute a lot to the box office. That is to say, the skopos of film title translation is to add the viewer with a translated film title, which can contribute to a good

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understanding of the contents of the film, provide information of the background and the plots of the film, set the feeling-tone of the film, increase the title's artistic appeal, win the heart of the audience and promote the box-office.

Generally speaking, to make a hit on box-office is the ultimate goal of film title translation.. In order to fulfill this purpose, the translator's task is to apply suitable strategies of translation, to provide the clear and concise film titles and induce the audience to watch the film.

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Chapter Four

Application of the Functionalist Approach to the English

Film Title Translation

4.1 Strategies Employed in the Translation of Film Titles

There is no single translation strategy that can solve all the problems in film title translation. According to the three functions of film title, which we have discussed in chapter three, four main types of strategies can be applied in film title translation. They are transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption. The following part discusses the four strategies applied in film title translation with rich examples to see how they are adequate to the translation brief, that is the requirements of the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative as an integrated whole in fulfilling the purpose of entertaining the Chinese audience and promoting the box-office.

4.2 Strategies Employed in the translation of Film Titles

There is no single translation strategy that can solve all the problems in film title translation. According to the three functions of film title, which we have discussed in chapter three, four main types of strategies can be applied in film title translation. They are transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation and adaption. The following part discusses the four strategies applied in film title translation with rich examples to see how they are adequate to the translation brief, that is the requirements of the referential function, the expressive function, and the appellative as an integrated whole in fulfilling the purpose of entertaining the Chinese audience and promoting the box-office.

4.3 Summary

From the analysis above, we can draw a conclusion that the translation of English film titles doesn't simply mean copying the content and the form of the original title. It a re-creative process based on the functional theories. There isn't a sole method for the film title translation. All methods has its limitations. When one

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method does not work owing to linguistic, customary, cultural or other factors, naturally the translator must at once turn to the other means for help. He should have a better understanding of the type and the content of the original film, then he can choose a method which is adequate to the translation brief and well reproduces the referential, expressive and appellative functions of the film title.

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