Means of expressiveness in film titles and their translation features

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Film industry is one of the most developed art directions of our time. At present cinematography is among the most popular and demanded spheres of our life. One can hardly imagine the life of a modern person without visits to the cinema, quite often these visits are commenced by the whole families. Film popularity if often defined by the film names, as an effective name in the majority of cases can attract a viewer's attention much easier than the plot description of this movie.

Researches state that about 80% of newspapers and magazines readers pay attention to the name only. The same tendency is observed regarding film names. A viewer is able to shape his or her opinion and attitude to the film just by the film name; they easily know if they should pay attention to this or that film. A film name is the key to success, and its effective perception can immediately influence the box office sales which is the best index of a movie success. The authors try to label their works with precise and vivid names as a name is called to attract as much audience as possible. Besides, a film name should be clearly understood as it summarizes the whole film plot and should be easily memorized.

Film names abundantly function in mass media, in particular, in modern publicist work and constitute a certain part of lexical and phraseological language bulk of mass media language. Alongside with other names a lot of filmonyms turned to be the set phrases which is the evidence of language preferences and knowledge of our contemporary. It is quite interesting to mention that despite a great amount of films that are released every year and their popularity among the viewers there is a scares number of works dedicated to creation and especially translation of film names features in comparison to the investigation of the fiction pieces of literature where the essence of a film name is investigated from different perspectives. Film names are mostly investigated by copywriters and marketing specialists who try to do their best in order to coin the best ever names for their movies to get success in the market. Thus the state of investigation of film names expressiveness means is not at the proper level from linguistic point of view. However a considerable amount of filmonyms is very active in circulation in mass media, a lot of names took their exclusive niche in lexical and phraseological language fund, and with the course of time depending on the film popularity they can turn into idioms. film name attractive

Taking into consideration everything mentioned the topicality of the investigation is of no doubt, especially in the view of the pragmatic direction growing importance. The aim of the research is to find out and investigate the means of expressiveness in modern film titles.

A film name possesses a considerable pragmatic potential which is aimed by film authors to attract the viewers' attention to the film. At the moment in the majority of cases pragmatic potential of the film name is measured by the financial index as the box-office revenue greatly depends on the precision or non-precision of the film name which gives the viewer the first impression of the movie. The original name of a movie as a rule is made up by the creators who, being the representatives of the world of art, try to make it as much image-bearing, symbolic and vivid as possible. At the same time for distribution companies a movie is a product first place; it has to be sold, and the name or the title is one of the most important factors in its promotion in the rollout market.

The first thing a viewer comes across with while dealing with a film is a title. It is the reason why the films authors try to select the title that would coincide with their pragmatic aims best. The titles containing bright and powerful lexical and stylistic means are potentially more influential for the audience: a recipient is more inclined to respond to the text which is full figures of speech [1, p. 224].

One of the tasks while creating a film title is to make it easy to comprehend, more informative and interesting at the same time. As a rule one of two ways of a title composing is chosen: creating “own” new title or selecting a precedent phenomenon. Every precedent text possesses a unique system of associations that arises in the consciousness of the native speakers that is actively used for attention attraction.

The titles created by means of the figures of speech realize their main function - to attract person's attention to the plot of the movie, intrigue and induce a viewer to get acquainted with it. That's the reason authors often use a number of different ways of expressiveness to add expressiveness to the tiles, enhancing its attractive function. Among the analyzed films titles there was singled out a number of expressive means that was divided into the following categories:

Graphic means. Various contractions and abbreviations immediately attract viewers' attention. In the majority of the analysed cases graphic means favour creating youth mood. Thus, for example, in the titles of the films Love & Friendship (Любов i дружбй), Elvis & Nixon (Елвктa Шксон)[2] there is used a special sign ampersand - & (and) which is usually used in non-formal cases to save time as well as to keep a “foreign character”. Avoiding ampersand while translating a translator as if “domesticates” the title making it closer to the viewer.

One more sign # - hashtag is often used in films titles. Hashtag is the character used to separate the messages by the topics in social nets and blogs. This sign is more directed to the modern youth audience. That's why it is no wander that the sign is used in the movies titles, i.e., #SefieParty (Селфіпаті) [2]. The title itself suggests that the plot of the movie is connected to selfie pictures in a certain social net. However omitting this sign in translation does not favour a complete understanding of the plot just being based on the title.

Another graphic means of imagery in the films titles is the use of abbreviations. Mostly they are used when they are well-known and can be translated without the help of tracing not destroying the author's message, i. e. IT (IT.) [2]. In this case a viewer can clearly understand that the movie is connected to IT sphere.

Phonetic means. Using various phonetic means helps create a bright phonetic expressive and emotional colouring. Applying assonance and alliteration often promotes the features of the genre of a movie. For example, in the title The Legend of Longwood (Легенда Лонгвуда)[2] one can feel the atmosphere of a small quiet village where the events take place. Repetition of the letter “l” remains in Ukrainian translation that helps to produce the same impression on a Ukrainian-speaking viewer.

The analysis showed the extensive use of onomatopoeia in the film titles, e. g. Knock Knock [2] which keeps a viewer in suspense and gives a hint regarding the film genre. It is different with the title translation Хто там[2], which sounds “softer” and does not predict an exciting plot.

Stylistic means. Metaphoric, symbolic and imagery character are very typical of English film titles. So stylistic means are extremely important for a good film title. First it's necessary to mention a great amount of epithets in film titles. Epithets highlight brightness, figurativeness, make the audience think of the real sense, as the titles with epithets are very poliassociative, i. e.: Crazy, Stupid, Love (Це безглузде кохання)[2]. In Ukrainian translation the level of emotions is much lower due to the avoidance of one of the epithets. In opposition in the next example the level of emotional tone is much higher in Ukrainian translation due to the addition of one component «дуже»: BadMoms (Дуже погані матусі)[2].

In the following example while having the same amount of epithets in the original and translated versions the pragmatic meaning is much higher in Ukrainian variant due to the concretization used in translation thus a viewer understands the conflict of the movie more precise: Dirty Grandpa - Хтивий дідусь[2]. There has been selected a number of cases where the translated title loses figurativeness completely: Dark Summer - Неупокоєна[2].

The use of intertextuality is one of the key issues of modern film discourse and the importance of precedent texts, names etc. is constantly growing [3]. At present there is a tendency to use well- known things; in this case the audience completely understands the author's intention. For example, the title of the film All Roads Lead to Rome [2] is translated by its Ukrainian equivalent Усі дороги ведуть до Риму [2]: in this case emotional colouring is equal in both versions of the title.

In some cases the change of one certain component is made. In the following example one can easily understand the initial saying Home, Sweet Home which is put in the basis of the film title Home Sweet Hell [2]. The same meaning is preserved in Ukrainian title: Дім, миле пекло[2].

Allusion can also be put in the basis of the film title: a well- known movie Ffty Shades of Gray was transformed into у Ffty Shades of Bhck (50 відтінків чорного)[2]. However the name of the film presupposes a kind of parody for the original movie.

Lexical grammatical means. These categories play a great role in the effect that is produced on the audience; it is one of the widest categories used in the film titles composing. As it is evident from the analyzed material one of the most used cases is the use of the definite article before nouns. These are mostly one- or two-word names which sense would be lost without the article. The article in the title indicates the importance of the thing that is described, e. g.: The Forest, The Physkkn, The Boss [2] i etc.

It is a rather interesting fact that the use of the definite article can be rendered into Ukrainian in a number of ways: The Forest - Ліс привидів[2] (addition that explains the essence of the plot), a very abstract title The Physkkn [2] gets more clear while being added Лікар: учень Авіценни[2]. The same refers to the title The Boss [2], which is translated like - Леді Бос[2]. Ukrainian translation evokes more wish to watch the movie than the original title.

Sometimes, to our mind, Ukrainian translation is much more adequate than the original title as the pragmatic force is much better revealed in the translated version. The original film title The Model [2] can be understood in a number of different ways, however Ukrainian translation Топ-модель [2] suggest the idea of the model business of high level.

Unfortunately translators do not always manage to reveal author's pragmatic intention especially in case of the definite article use. Thus, for example, the title of the film The Fmest Hours [2] has nothing to do with the Ukrainian translation Проти шторму[2], which can hardly give the idea of the film plot.

There are often the cases when the film title combines different means of expressiveness. In the following example emotionally unloaded epithet “nice” in the combination with the definite article help to revel the “cool” meaning of the jargonism which is adequately translated into Ukrainian: The Nke Guys - Круті чуваки [2].

Substantiation example is evident in the following film title The Magnificent Seven [66], that is successfully rendered into Ukrainian like Чудовасімка [2].

It is common to use digits to inform the audience about the sequel of a movie. It helps the audience clearly define their intention to watch or not to watch the movie: Now You See Me 2 - Ілюзія обману 2, Zooknder 2 - Зразковий самець 2 [2]. As a rule these figures remain in the Ukrainian translation which is the half of the film success.

Syntactic means. Imperative has a high potential of influence on the addressee. Verb imperative mostly contributes to the realization of the main text aim - influences the addressee to force somebody to do something. Quite often film titles authors use syntactic means of expressiveness that can have a significant pragmatic potential influencing the decision of the audience to watch the movie. Film titles with the verb imperatives can influence the consciousness of a person which help to get high box office results. Imperative is actively used I the names of the films, like: КШ the Messenger, Рауthe Ghost [2] etc. This imperative intention is rarely kept in Ukrainian translation; instead quite often infinitive constructions are used: Убити посланця, Заплати привиду [2]. This translation tendency was initiated in 2003 after the release of the film КШ BUl [2] that was translated like Вбити Білла [2].

Exclamatory sentences are equally used in the film titles with the aim to attract the audience attention, e. g.: Chk! [2]. Exclamatory sentences mostly preserve their structure in the translated version: Шик! [2]. The titles with increased emotional modality stimulate the wish to watch the movie.

The use of interrogative constructions is a common tendency in the titles composing, however as a rule the interrogative mark is omitted in such titles which makes them similar to the guidance or instructions, e. g.: How to Make Love Like an Englishman, How to Train Your Dragon 2 [2]. Such constructions are more emotionally loaded than a statement or negation. As far as the answer is absent such films tend to keep the audience attention till the end of the film. The translation mostly preserves the sentence structure, e. g.: Як кохaтися no-amnmcbm, Як прибортти dparnna 2 [2], however in some cases syntactic structures do not coincide, e. g.: How to Be Single - В amueno My пошуку [2].

To conclude it is necessary to state that in search of expressiveness translators think of some absolutely unacceptable titles, e. g.: Before I Wake - Сомпія [2].

Thus the authors entitle their films with laconic and noticeable names. The title of the film text has to be relatively clear regarding the plot it illustrates and has to be easily remembered by form. All the tricks mentioned influence the way the audience perceives the film, if it will evoke the interest to it. All in all film title composing is a very difficult process; it has to reflect the intention and the main idea of the author. The title has to be not only correctly composed from the language point of view, but with a great help of stylistic means and devices depending on the film genre. Ideal film title is the starting point of everything that is going on the screen, defines the film plot and is the first indication of the film success.

References

1. Иванова П. О моделях перевода художественных фильмов / П. Иванова // Учен. зап. Ленингр. гос. обл. ун-та им. А.С. Пушкина. - СПб., 2005. - Т. 14, Вып. 3. Вопросы германской и романской филологии. - C. 218-226.

2. Кіно Простір. СОМ - Знaйди своє кіно [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://kinoprostir.com/.

3. Левик В. Перевод как искусство / В. Левик [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: http://vvl00.narod.ru/vl-002.htm.

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