A Study On The Translation Of English Film Titles Into Chinese From The Perspective Of The Functionalist Translation Theory

It cannot be denied that as an important channel of culture exchanges films are influential in modern society. With China's reform and opening to the outside world in the past three decades, especially after we entered WTO, the number of imported films has been increasing, among which British and American films are the main stream. Film translation has entered a new epoch. However, as an essential part of film translation, the translation of film titles has not gained its due position, let alone making specific studies on how to translate English film titles into Chinese. Therefore, the research in this thesis is necessary.In this thesis, the author deals with the translation of film titles from English to Chinese (the E-C translation of film titles for short:similarly hereinafter) from the perspective of the Functionalist Translation Theory. The Functionalist Translation Theory, which sees translation as a purpose-guiding and a target-culture-oriented translational action, is appropriate for the E-C translation of film titles. The author holds that the E-C translation of film titles has a strong and clear purpose, which is to attract Chinese audience and persuade them to see a film. In this way, the film titles can make contributions to the box office of the imported films.The author believes that a Chinese-translated film title has three functions, that is, the informative function, the expressive function and the appellative function. These three functions can be regarded as the translation brief. Meanwhile, the four important rules of the Functionalist Translation Theory should be obeyed. In this way, the purpose of the E-C translation of film titles can be achieved. Finally, the author sums up some relevant translation strategies for the E-C translation of film titles.