A Study Of E-C Film Title Translation From The Perspective Of Functional Translation Theory

With the influence of China's policy of reformation and opening and international cultural exchanges, film translation is becoming a new study field which attracts some translators'attention. It is reported that a large scale of film translations in our country can be traced back to 1980s (the reform and open period). Film title's translation, as an important field of film translation, is also arisen in recent years so that there are few monographs about it at home and abroad and only several chapters in some monographs have some study on it. Thus study on this field is few. This thesis carries on the inspection to study and discuss the English film titles'Chinese translation from a comprehensive point of view. Through the inspection we find that because the films own the characteristics of aesthetic and entertainment and public, so the audience's social psychology, the esthetic emotion and cultural orientation are the factors which all affect the English film titles'the translation directly or indirectly. In other words, the translators should pay more attention to Chinese audiences' feelings, aesthetic expectation and cultural psychology during the translation. Whether the audience understand the translated titles and accept them should be the main weight standard and during the translation the translators should consider fully about the factors which will affect the translation methodologies. At last the thesis proposes the problems existing in the translation of English films'titles for a long time and provides some methods to solve the problems that there are many translated names for a film exist in the translation.In this age of globalization, in the development of culture, movies play an increasingly critical role as culture media. Title is the sign of movie, as well as the first impression on audience. The film will be much less attractive with a inaccurately translated name. The study of English film title translation began in 1990s. Great achievements were made in the research of English movie translation, but deficiency still exists. Film title translation is still in its initial stage, which means the further study has a great prospect. Eugene Nida's theory of "functional equivalence" can serve as the theoretical basis of English film title translation, and it provides guidance to the translation. The essence of the theory of "functional equivalence" is that translator should not rigidly adhere to the language structure or form correspondence, but rather place emphasis on the meaning and spirit of the original. Translators should use proper translating skills. Because of the divergence between Chinese and English language, Chinese audience on various levels of English, and lack of understanding of western culture, translators should flexibly handle the differences and conflicts of languages in order to avoid cultural misunderstanding. On the basis of original title, translator can add some cultural information, or emphasize the story's meaning and spirit regardless of the language structure.The structure of the thesis is organized in the following way. Chapter one is mainly about introduction, including the background, purposes and significance of the research. Chapter Two reviews the situation of film title translation and its research so far. Taking the Hollywood films, most of which were honored Oscar, as example, this chapter introduces the film title's translation from the translator and anesthetic's perspective. It also points out the English films'Chinese translated titles'existing problems. Chapter Three lays the theoretical frame work for the whole thesis. Functional equivalence theory and closest natural equivalence theory are being emphasized. The author proposes that the factors of reader and audience could affect film title's translation. Chapter Four puts forwards the research questions, research methodology as well as the process of data collection of this study. Chapter Five analyzes English-Chinese film title translation from diachronic and synchronic perspectives and finds the characteristics of aesthetic and entertainment and public, so the audience's social psychology, the esthetic emotion and cultural orientation are the factors which all affect the English film titles'the translation directly or indirectly. Chapter Six is the conclusion, giving the summary of the whole thesis and points out the limitations of the present study and the suggestions for the further researches.