Typical translation strategies applied in English movie titles translation

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Typical translation strategies applied in English movie titles translation

Wan Qiao

Аннотация

Over the long history of translation works, translators have made a lot of efforts and achieved a great success in a movie translation and output plenty of famous and classical translated movies, from which audiences learned about various and colorful foreign culture and customs and feel the charming and impaction of different languages. English movies have left great impression on people. However, a translator should employ many translation strategies to the movie title translation to get a harmonious and perfect transmission from one language to another language and benefit audiences.

Выпуск: №2 / 2018 (апрель - июнь)

УДК: 891'25:791.43

Автор(ы): Wan Qiao

student of master degree, Foreign language department, Federal state budgetary educational institution of higher education «National research N. P. Ogarev Mordovian state University», Saransk

Страна: Россия

Библиографическое описание статьи для цитирования: Цяо Вань. Typical translation strategies applied in english movie titles translation [Электронный ресурс] / Вань Цяо // Научное обозрение : электрон. журн. - 2018. - № 2. - 1 электрон. опт. диск (CD-ROM). - Систем. требования: Pentium III, процессор с тактовой частотой 800 МГц; 128 Мб; 10 Мб; Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10; Acrobat 6 х.

title translation english film

This article mainly deals with the definition of different types of translation strategies and how they are well-employed in the English movie title translation. There are also comparisons of Chinese and Russian movie titles translated from English. By analyzing some typical translation strategies like literal translation, free translation, transcription, transliteration, calque translation, amplification and omission, the way how movie titles are translated what a translator should do to translate a movie title should be clear.

«Free translation is the reproduction of the source form and content in a loose way.» [4]. It means adding extra elements of information or losing some essential but not necessaries ones. Besides, it is said that free translation reproduces the matter without keeping the manner or the content without taking the form of original. [2] It is not an easy task for a translator to add some information or details not described by the author. However, free translation is appropriate in some cases. For example, the movie title translation is often been dealt with a certain degree of freedom.

Take an English movie I Spy for example, it has won a great success when it is translated into Chinese title ‹а”vјдµэ as a consequence of Chinese culture tends to be more descriptive. If it is translated literally, it will turn to be ‰дјдµэ which is not as attractive and impressive as the first translation version. The Chinese words “‹а”v” means the top one or a very good thing. What's more, the movie title is translated into Russian Обмануть всех which means all the people are cheated. An English subject «I» disappeared and a Russian word «всех» is placed. Grammar order, subject and object are changed so as to get a better effect. Another English movie is called Usual Suspects and it is well-known by Chinese as ”сЏнЊ™‹^”Ж. The English word «usual» is translated into the opposite meaning as «unusual» that expresses the hidden meaning that this people are rather different and he or she is a special suspect.

Literal translation is the reproduction that reproduces communicatively irrelevant elements of the source text. This usually happens when a translator copies the source language from this or that level of the language.

1. On the sound level: this type of translation results in what is called a translator's false friend which means that words have the similar sound but they are different in meanings.

2. On the syntactic level: leaving the same structure of the source language. The translator usually has a good understanding of the grammar skills of the languages. He or she pretends to break the words order in order to achieve the “accuracy” of the translation. For example, English movie Mission Impossible which is almost accurately by its Russian name - Миссия Невыполнима. The Chinese translation version •s‰В”\“I”CОс is informational equivalent to the English movie title, however, Chinese word order is not as flexible as English or Russian. The predictive part should be put in the end of a sentence. So it is translated into •s‰В”\“I”CОс instead of ”CОсІ»їЙДЬµД without changing the meaning of the source language.

3. On the sematic level: it means giving a primary meaning of a word or some of its part but a semantic transaformation is necessary. As Peter Newmark emphasizes that transaltion version should be faithful to the original one [3].УпТеУ°ПмґКТе

4. Etymological error: words acquired new meaning over the time but the language changes have been ignored.

5. Following the style of the source text: acceptors are an important factor which should be taken into consideraton. Therefore, in order to acheive the same impact upon the accpector as the orginal text does, a transaltor should make some changes to make English more adaptable to Russian or Chinese acceptors. Taking English movie «Battle of wits» for example, it makes no difference when it is translated as Russian movie title which is called Битва Умов but when it turns to Chinese, it is named –nЌU. The reason why it is translated as –nЌU is that as it is known by Chinese that –nЋq is a famous military strategist and all his adventures and experience turned into a famous Chinese classical bookЃs–nЋqЃt, therefore, when it is translated as –nЌUЃCit means some one who is wise enough to won the battle. So the Chinese translation –nЌU is no doubt a good translation as it takes acceptors into consideration and produces a good impact upon Chinese audiences.

From above, we can see that it is often the case that literal translation is not a word-for-word translation although it is often associated with a rather negative evolution of the translation it is functional and informational equivalent translation which high elaborates the main idea of the source text. Literal translation usually means formal or grammar translation though it is not the same.

However, sometimes literal translation is inevitable on this or that level when translating a movie title. The translator cannot do without rending geographical or appropriate names. Person's names like English movie David Copperfield which has its Chinese translation ‘еОАїЖІЁ·Ж¶ы and Russian translation Дэвид Копперфилд and another good movie Elizabeth which is translated into Chinese name €ЙАцЙЇ°Ч and Russian translation Елизавета.

What's more movie Casablanca is translated literally because it is about the geographical name thus it gains a Chinese name ?ИшІјАјїЁ and a Russian translation Касабланка.

Transcription is a method of writing down speech sounds. It is necessary to differentiate between a phonetic transcription and a practical transcription. Sounds are depicted by special symbols on the basis of auditory or articulatory identity in a phonetic transcription.

A phonetic transcription is an intralinguistic operation which means that it deals with only one language.

A practical transcription is an interlinguistic operation because it copes with two languages. The sound of the source language word is rendered by the letters of the target language. English ж is represented in Russian by э/е/а: Bandits - Бандит and Chinese transaltion is Љ®”ь“ђФф; Batman - Бэтмен and Chinese transaltion is еће•‹ .

It is necessary to remember the differences between Chinese language and English or Russian languages because of the existing differences in phonetic systems.

Transliteration is a translation to describe (a word, etc, in one alphabet) into corresponding letters of other alphabets. It means something in language other than the one in which it was said/written. Transliteration gives the word from a different language in letters that you can understand so as to be able to pronounce it. Different languages have different equivalents for English letters. There are several systems for transliteration of modern Russian and Chinese in English, which range from the system suitable for works intended for the general reading public to those suitable intended for the needs of special in various fields. When transliteration is considered, it is better to use the version which is most closely approximates the source language word. When it comes to a movie title translation, transliteration is usually related to the person's name and names of some places. English movie Cleopatra is translated into Russian title Клеопатра which is the name of Egyptian queen and when it is translated as a Chinese movie љє‹yСЮєу, it is just the description of the name Cleopatra which results in misunderstanding of the English movie title and audiences will ask about what does word Cleopatra mean? English movie series Harry Potter is translated into Chinese title ™ы—ў”g“Б and Russian name Гарри Поттер. They are both successful translation because the movies are the story of a boy named Harry Potter that is easy for audiences to remember when using transliteration. English movie Philadelphia is named after a famous city of America. Chinese name ·СіЗ№ККВ “fei cheng” is the transliteration of Philadelphia besides Russian version is called Филадельфия. A well-known city Troy is also translated as Chinese “Б—Њ€Й and Russian Троя.

It is the translation of a word or phrase by parts. There can be half-calques in cases where half of the word is borrowed through transcription or transliteration and the other half is translated. There are two famous English movies adapted calque translation: The Great Gatsby. The first movie The Great Gatsby is divided into two parts when it is translated the first part “Great” is literally translated as Chinese adjective—№•s‹N“I and the other part Gatsby is translated as бі€п”д which is so called transliteration. So the movie title as a whole translated into Chinese version —№•s‹N“Iбі€п”д as well as its Russian translation Великий Гэтсби. It is a good example of half calque translation. Another example is English movie Sleepless in Seattle as word Seattle is a geographic name so it is better to adapt transliteration in order to leave an impressive impression on audiences. Therefore, it is translated into Chinese movie ђј‰лНјТ№ОґГЯ while its Russian translation also has the same impact as it is half calque translated as Russian Неспящие в Сиэтле.

In a word, calque translation is necessary in movie title translation, especially when it refers to names, as there is not always the same expression between languages. Calque translation may help to solve the problems and make the target title more natural and suitable to audiences. «As one of the requirements of translation is that the language of the translated version is supposed to be natural, idiomatic and intelligible for the target readers in order to avoid misunderstanding.» [3] But it can be so tricky that it may result in «translators false friends» which means when translation some name into another language, the target language may differ from its source text, so when translating, full understanding of both languages should be taken into consideration.

Amplification means supplying necessary words in our translation on the basis of accurate understanding of the source text. Usually a translator is not supposed to add or subtract any meaning from the original work. However, it does not mean a translator should refrain from supply necessary words to make the target text semantically probable. Preciously, it aimed at giving a faithful representation of the thought of the author. This is because English, Russian and Chinese are different languages and each has it is own historical and cultural backgrounds and besides, many ideas and expressions are different. Therefore, it is so hard for audiences to make a full understanding of the target text without adding some explanations. For example, English movie title Tarzan is translated into Chinese title ђl‰Ћ‘ЧЋR, only by seeing from the Chinese title we can see that it is a film about a monkey. However, when it is translated into Russian as Тарзан Легенда, the word Легенда is added to give the information that the movie is about a legend of a man called Tarzan. Another example is English movie The Piano whose Russian title Пианино seems nothing special when seeing the movie title, but when it is translated as Chinese title ёЦЗЩ±рБµ we know that it is a love story by the choice of Chinese word “—ц”.

Omission means something that has not been included or has not been translated as there are differences between languages and the concepts also varies among different languages. When translating a movie title, some information is supposed to be neglected. As it is known, there is no one hundred percent correspondence between English preposition and Chinese. So the English movie title From beyond is translated as Chinese title Љ€–‚ђl and the preposition is neglected, and the Russian name is translated as Извне correspondently. And the famous English movie Gone with the Wind whose Chinese name is just one word Ж®, therefore there is a lot of information ignored but the soul of the movie is expressed fully and into Russian as Унесенные Ветром.

In conclusion, in order to translate a movie title except the strategies like literal translation, free translation, transcription, transliteration, calque translation, amplification and omission lots of translation strategies should be considered. And a translator should think about every movie title carfully based on the cultural and languages differences and applies translation skills properly. Only by understanding of each skill and distinguishes between languages can a movie title be successfully translated.

Cписок использованных источников

1. Newmark P. Approaches to Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2002. 214 p.

2. Newmark P. Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice hall, 1988. 311 p.

3. Nida E. Language and Culture: Contexts in Translating. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001. 289 p.

4. Venuti L. The translation studies reader. London; New York: Routledge, 2000. 524 p.

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