英语电影片名的翻译-开题报告(十二)

ordinary people, who watch a film mainly for entertainment. However, there are also viewers seeing the film for both entertainment and broadening their visions. For this reason, the translator should take into consideration of the expectations, the communicative needs and the culture-specific world-knowledge of the audience in order to translate a film title which is attractive enough and could trigger them to buy the ticket.

    In practice, the process of such translational action may be much more complicated than what has been stated in the preceding paragraph. Not being expert .in intercultural communication, the film company may disagree with the translator as to what kind of translated text would serve the intended purpose best. They may have different opinions on how to translate a film title, for example, when translating a film title the company may ask the translator to translate it literally, while the translator may regard the liberal translation to be a better choice. In this case, instead一of succumbing to the requirements of the film company, the translator could explain this to the film company and give advice about what kind of translation method should be adopted in such specific case, since "the translator is the expert in translational action" (Monday, 2001:77). From this one may easily draw a conclusion that translating film title is not a simple task, which requires that the communicative relations involved in

the translation process should be well dealt with. Only through the good cooperation of all sides can an excellent translated work be produced.

4.1.3 EFTT as an Intercultural Action

    According to Bassnett and Lefevere, ."culture" refers to "the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community." (Bassnett&Lefevere, 2001:123). Peter Newmark (2001a: 94) defines culture as the "way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression." As an act of cultural-specific communication, "translation is not a matter of words only, but a matter of making intelligible a whole culture." (Schaffner, 1995: 4). Similarly,

Vermeer holds that translation is primarily a cross-cultural transfer. "Translating means comparing cultures."ord, 2004: 34)

    With the  cultural  exchange  between nations becoming more  and more prosperous, each year hundreds of English audiovisual products enter the Chinese market. Being the tsocial product of cultural phenomena and ideological trend, films abound in cultural elements, which enable the ordinary Chinese people to experience the exoticism such as different life patterns, unique social customs, value systems, etc.. As a part of films, film titles are inevitably branded by the typical nation

characteristics and cultural value. It is a common practice for the screenwriters to present film titles with cultural-loaded words, typically idioms, slang and allusions. Therefore, film title translation is a cross-cultural activity in nature. With the increasing exposure to the English culture, the influence of culture on film title translation must be carefully considered in the translating process.

    For a long time, bilingual competence has always been regarded as an essential requirement for translator; however, being a receiver of the ST as well as the producer of the TT, this is really not enough. In his book Transculturation: The Cultural Factors in Translation and Other Communication Tasks, R. Daniel Shaw points out that translator should know well the cultures of both source language and target language. In the process of translation, the task of a translator is to be a communicator between these two cultures. He holds that the translator should first understand both the surface and deep structure of languages in order to transfer the meanings of the messages in the source text. In this case, the surface structure refers to the formal linguistic features while the deep structure refers to the intended meanings carried by

such features including all kinds of cultural factors such as worldview, values, thinking ways, and so on. Generally speaking, being implicit, the deep structure, which can be universally acknowledged by members of source culture, may be difficult to be understood by readers from the target culture. Therefore, to be a fully competent translator, one needs to be bicultural in order to read between the lines. He should be able to sense what is left implicit in the ST and to express it clearly and correctly in the TT.

    In the specific case of translation of English film titles, what the translator deals with is various film titles, but what he actually confronts with is two different cultures. Translators should not just deal with words; most importantly they should take the cultural aspect into account. As has been stated in Chapter Two, film tines are closely relate; to various aspects of societies, such: as religion history, philpsophy, social customs, and so on. More often than not, cultural features are closely related to the quotation of idioms and allusions, which convey rich cultural meanings. The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest((飞越疯人院》serves as a good example. The title was

once translated into((飞越杜鹃窝》，which sounds strange and pointless to the Chinese audience. Actually, the phrase "cuckoo's nest" is an English idiom, meaning `mental asylum'. It is obvious that if the translator is not familiar with the source culture or is unaware of the importance of the cultural background knowledge, he will certainly make a mistake and sometime even become a laughingstock.

4.2 Application of Functionalist Principles to EFTT

4.2.1 Target-text Orientation

    Just as Vermeer puts, the overall frame of reference for the translator should not be the original and its function, as equivalence-based theory would have it, but the function or set of functions the target-text is to achieve in the target culture. Based on this, the functional translation theory dethrones the authority of the ST and the original is no longer the only criterion for translation. In order to meet the demands of the target-text's function, new communicative situation and the target readers, the functional translation theory requires that the translator put himself in the position of the target readers and decide his translation strategies according to the target-text's intended function so that the translation can coherently express the source-text's intention in conformity to the target-language's norms and cultural conventions. This is especially true in film title translation when the feeling of the target audience is prioritized.

    After receiving the source text, the translator proceeds to inform the audience located under target-culture conditions about the offer of information made by the source text. Since source-text addressees and target addressees belong to different cultures and language communities, the translator cannot offer the same amount and kind of'information as the source-text producer. What the translator does is to focus his attention on the target audience, making assumptions about 'their needs, expectations, previous knowledge and so on and make some adequate riiodifications to the original film titles. In this way, the translator can make the target audience understand the text in terms of their own cultural context by catering to their interests and fulfill the ultimate purpose.

4.2.2 The Source Text as an Offer of Information

    From the previous analysis in Chapter Three, one can easily draw that in Skopos theory, instead of being the first and foremost criterion for the translator's decisions, the status of the source text is much lower than in equivalence-based theories. However, "the priority of the target-text purpose does not mean the source text is completely irrelevant, as is sometimes assumed. The source text provides the offer of information that forms the starting point for the offer of information formulated in the

target text." (Nord, 2004: 62). As for the case of film title translation, the information "formulated in the target text" refers not only to the original title but also to the film's content or plot in some cases. That is to say, in film title translating, the concept of "source text" is no longer confined to the original film title. In addition, the movie's

content should be included in the concept of "source text". When translating an English film title, if the translator could not produce a satisfactory version only on the base of the original title, he should consult the plot of the film.

    Let's look at an example in order to make this point clear. The film Erin Brockovich, based on a true story happened in America, tells a story of Erin Brockovich, a divorced mother of three kids with no employable skills, who struggles for her daily life and finally makes a big success. After losing a personal injury lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in, she asks her lawyer, Edward L. Masry, if he can find her a job in compensation for the loss. Ed gives her a work as a file clerk in his office, and she runs across some files on a pro bono case involving real-estate and medical records against Pacific Gas and Electric Company. As Erin begins digging into the particulars of the case, she is convinced that the facts simply do not add up, and persuades Ed to allow her further research. After investigation, she discovers a systematic cover-up of the industrial poisoning of the town of Hinkley's water supply tha threatens the health of an entire community. She finds that PG&E is responsible for the extensive. illnesses residents of Hinkley have been diagnosed with and fights to bring the company to justice. Although in this process Erin encounters many difficulties, including the misunderstanding of the local residents of Hinkley and the resistance from PG&E, Erin never gives up. Erin Brockovich, this low-born woman, depending on her own untiring efforts, finally achieves her self-worth. The

original film title is taken from the name of the heroine, with which the source audience may quite familiar. However, for most Chinese audience, they may know nothing about it. If the title were translated into((埃琳·布罗克维奇》literally, the

Chinese audience would only regard it as a biography of a person named Erin Brockovich and may have less interest in seeing it. In this case, the translator should first get to know the main plot of the film in order to produce a satisfactory version.

((永不妥协)) is the final translated title and it is considered as a successful one.“永 不妥协”shows the fine character and the never-giving-up spirit of the heroine, which are the nm-through theme the film is designed to praise. It is the grittiness that leads to the final success of Erin, which can also inspires the ordinary people greatly.

    This example shows the importance of analyzing the other aspect of the source text in film title translation: the film's plot. Since translation is "a new offer of information in the target culture about some information offered in the source culture and language (Nord, 2004: 26)", the translator can, through analyzing the plot of the film, select the crucial information of the ST and make some adaptations to produce an excellent version when the literal meaning of the English title does not make much

sense to the Chinese audience.

4.2.3 Translator's Role and Responsibility in Translating Process

    From the previous analysis, it is easily seen that in the framework of Skopos theory the status of translators is greatly elevated. A translator is regarded as expert by functionalists while traditional translation theories emphasize the invisibility of translator and thus neglect the translator's initiative.

    Although the Skopos is determined by the initiator's needs and wishes with regard to the communicative action they intend to realize by means of the TT, the responsibilities foc the translation will always rest with the translator and the acbaal procedures are entirely up to the translator as}'a competent expert in translation.

   Translators are not only responsible for transferring linguistic codes through different cultures, but also allowed to decide which approach would work the best in translating a given text in a given situation. As far as English film title translation is concerned, translators are supposed to be not only bilingual, but also to possess other qualities.

    Firstly, the translator should know well the characteristics and functions of film titles, which are quite different from other kinds of literary works. Being the representation of a film, the title and its version should be concise in its spelling and pronunciation, which makes it eye-catching for people to read and sonorous for