摘要:In movie title translation, it is the most important for the translator to make the TT have the imperative function. To make the TT have the same informative function with the ST is less important. In practice, some English movie titles can be translated literally. However, most have some changes in their Chinese translations more or less.
ave any changes in the form. Therefore, the Chinese translation usually does not contain such information as long as the original meaning is not distorted. Generally, it does not matter for a movie title. The silence of the lambs and A Beautiful Mind are translated into《沉默的羔羊》and《美丽心灵》respectively. For Chinese audiences, they don’t mind the number of the lambs or the minds in the titles. Here, such loss in information does not have a significant influence on the audiences ‘appreciation of the movies themselves.
Yet sometimes we may consider if there is a better translation. Use of a Chinese character may be closely related to whether the original meaning is conveyed properly. Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is such an example. It is translated into《世界大战》by some people. This translation has two problems. First, our first reaction to the title is that the movie is about World WarⅠorⅡ. Second, the story is in fact about a war between two worlds, which can be seen in its English title. 《世界大战》cannot tell us such information. 《世界之战》is more appropriate after the change of one character only, since“之”means “between” in Chinese, indicating the war is between two worlds. This revised translation is much better, avoiding the above two problems. (张浩,2005:17)
Similarly, Flags of Our Fathers is translated into《父辈的旗帜》. Here,
“fathers” is a plural. It has a Chinese equivalent“父辈”, which indicates the plural
form and is more accurate than“父亲(father)”.
5)Order
Some English movie titles need changing parts of speech in their Chinese translations, e. g. The silence of the lambs is translated into《沉默的羔羊》, not《羔羊的沉默》. In Chinese, the word“沉默”is less used as a noun than as a verb or adjective. We are apt to accept the former translation.
3. 2. 2. 2 Perspective of Chinese Customs
The Last Emperor is translated into《末代皇帝》,since in China the four characters have been generally used to refer to Pu Yi, the last emperor in Chinese
history. That’s to say, such way of wording did exist even before the screenplay was started. Also, the Chinese translation is quite appropriate here as the TT. Here, we don’t say“最后的皇帝”.
Reservoir Dogs, a movie tile, is in fact the combination of two other movie titles. We have a phrase“落水狗”in Chinese. Coincidentally, the term here conforms to the plot. The translator uses《落水狗》as the TT.
3. 2. 2. 3 Perspective of Complementary Information
Home alone is rendered into《小鬼当家》, better than《独自在家》. The two tiles both have four characters, yet the former tells us more information. The translator adds the hero“小鬼”in the title while emphasizing one alone is at home. In the meantime, the former has more aesthetic sense
Some movies have ship, spaceship or other names as their titles. For Chinese translations, we usually add a character“号”at the end for we Chinese think in terms of images and try to achieve exactness. The addition makes the thing in the title clearer. Such titles are The African Queen vs. 《非洲皇后号》, Poseidon vs. 《海神号》and Air Force One vs. 《空军一号》. Titanic is an exception for we are very familiar to the ship. Sometimes it is translated into《泰坦尼克》without any addition.
In addition, sometimes, in order to embody more about the plot, the translator adds adjectives or verbs in the TT. For example, The Terminal is translated into 《幸福终点站》and Night at the Museum is《博物馆奇妙夜》. “幸福”and“奇妙”are complementary words here. The translation of 16 Blocks is《勇闯16区》
本论文由英语论文网提供整理,提供论文代写,英语论文代写,代写论文,代写英语论文,代写留学生论文,代写英文论文,留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。