英文电影标题翻译的商业效果

T ranslationofEn g l i s h F i l m TitlesandtheCommercialEffect

Abstr act: The film , an important part of modern li fe as w ell as a special k ind of a rt, pla y s an im portantrolenotonlyineducationandentertainmentbutalsoincommerce.WithChina’s l arge-scaleimportofEnglishfilmsinrecentyears,thetranslationofmovietitleshasbecomemoreandmoreimportant.Therefore,go odtranslationoffilmtitlescanaddsplendortotheoriginalfilmsandhelpenhancethecommercialvalue.Shortas movie ti tles a re, they incarnate the essence of the fi lm s and are important in bring ing them successfully tothe market. This paper analy zes l ing uistic features of movie ti tles, discusses the principles and m ethods and

show s the com mercial effect a g ood m ovie ti tle ma yhave.

Keywords:linguisticfeaturesoffilmtitles,principles,methods,commercialeffect

摘要：近些年来,电影已经成为现代生活中不可缺少的组成部分,不仅在教育和娱乐等方面有了长足的发展,其商业功能也随着经济的发展越来越受到人们的重视。加之当今中国大规模地引进外国影片且以英语影片居多,这一切都对电影的翻译,特别是电影名称的翻译提出了新的挑战。优秀的片名翻译不仅为影片锦上添花,而且也在新片的推介过程中具有举足轻重的作用。电影片名虽然短小,却是整部电影的高度浓缩和点睛之笔,还是打开观众心灵之门的一把钥匙,也很大程度上决定了影片是否能成功走向国际市场。本文从一些实例入手,简单论述了片名语言特点、片名翻译的原则、方法及成功翻译的商业效应。

关键词：片名语言特点, 翻译原则，翻译方法, 商业效应

Introduction

Films are the product of entertainment mixed with art, which decides that the translation of movie titles is different from some other kind of translations. Translators are supposed notto s t i ck t oth e pri nc ipl e sof t ransla t ion nor to s earchfornovel t ywit hout cons i deringt h e orig ina lmeaning, buttofindthebestpointofartandmarketbasedonprinciples.Thisarticlemakesa discussionaboutthecomme rcialeffectagoodtitletranslationmayhaveonthebasisofsome i ns t ances, c om bine d w ith t he featu r es of movie t it l es and the meth ods of title translation.

1.Fea tures of filmtitles

Filmtitleisthefinishingtouchofthefilm.Itconveystheinformationaboutthefilmandaims to attract the audience. Therefore, it is important to have a good knowledge of thefeatures of film titles so that a proper translation can be made. The main feature of the movie titlesis briefandvivid,thoughsometimestherearealsosomelongones.Rhetoricaldevices,asakindof literary mean, are often used in English movie titles; as a result, they make thelanguageexcitingandfullofwitandhumor. Inaddition,someidioms,allusionsandslangarealso

adopted in the translation of movie titles. Now, the paper lists some features of the movietitlesfol low.

1.1L inguisticfeatures

Obviously,thelanguagefeatureoffilmtitleisconcisewithasimplestructure.Manyfilmsde no m i na tethe msel ve saftert hen am e softheheroe s or he r oi nes,s uc h a s J aneEyre,E dward Scissorhands,HarryPotterVan Helsing;Somefilmsare named after the place or time thestory happened, such as Grand Hotel，Pearl Harbor，The Apartment，Con Air，Sahara; Still some aft e r the pl ot, The C ol e，Die H ard 3，Brief Encount e r， A Lot L i ke Love; and som ea f terthetheme,Serendipity，Ghost,etc.Mostofthetitlesareveryshort,justonewordortwo.Butundoubtedlytherearealsosomerelative longones,evena complete sentence. For instance,Wh e n a Man Lov e s a Wo m a n，It Happened One Night and I Know W hat You Did LastSumme r.Ofcourse,therearemoreshorttitlesthanthelongones. Besides, phrases, especially nounphrasesareusedinalargenumberinfilmtitles,suchasAWalkintheClouds，DanceWith Wolves，A lmos t F am ous，H om eAloneandIn t he B edroom.I n Engl i s h,noun i spredom i nant,becauseitprovidesamorevariablechoice ofexpressions.Itiswidelyusedtodescribeactions,changes, emotions and soon.

1.2Artisticf e atur e s

The film is a modern art which has its unique artistic characteristics, and the movietitles can fully reflect its artistry. Generally speaking, the artistic of the movie title is embodied intheskillfulus eof rhetoricalde vi ceswhich a reoft e na dopt edin E ngli s hmovi e titles.Rhet or ical devices can make the title more vivid and attractive so as to get a better effect of publicity. The oftenusedrhetoricaldevicesinthemovietitlesincludemetaphor,personification,oxymoron,contra st, irony, rhyme a nd so on, ea c h havi n g it s s pe cia l f eat ur e a n d effec t. Take i r onyfo rinstance,ironyisamethodofhumorousorsarcasticexpressioninwhichtheintendedmeaning ofthew ordsisthedirectoppositeoftheirusualsense.Theironyusedinthemovietitlescanlea d t he audience to dee ply tho u g ht an d inspire them t o watch the fi l m. F or anot he r example,the use of metaphor in movie titles can concisely and clearly reveals the theme of the film,firing people's imagination. At the same time, the cantabile and vivid language guidestheaudience to enjoy the charm of art. For example:

Sense and

Sensibility(alliteration)Tiger! Tiger!

Tiger!(repetition)True

Lies(oxymoron)

OneFlewoverthe Cuckoo’s Nest(metaphor)The

Green Grass of Home(alliteration)