Translation Of Film Titles: A Perspective Of Functionalist Theories

The film is a popular art which has both artistic and commercial values. Having developed for over a century, the film has become one of the most influential mass media. Film translation has been flourishing in China since the implementation of her reform and opening up policy. However, the translation of film titles, as a special and significant part of film translation, is a far less explored field. According to our current situation in the translation of film titles, we need further research. Although we have plenty of books about translation theory, the translation of film titles was involved only in very few chapters. Although the relevant subjects occasionally appeared in some thesis, they are far too enough to set up a complete translation theory for the translation of film titles. Film title translation is still delayed in such shallow stage and still lack of effective direction and supervise. As for the same original film title, the mainland version, Hong Kong version and Taiwan version coexist, bringing confusion to the audience and bringing barrier to communication across the Straits.The functionalist theory, a newly developed theory, is adopted as the theoretical background of this thesis and an audience-oriented film title translation approach is highly advocated. As an important complement to translation studies, the functionalist theory has given a new perspective to the study of the translation of film titles.According to the functionalist theory, translation is a purposeful activity. The Skopos of a translation task serves as the prime rule guiding the translation process. In the functionalist theory, translation is regarded as an interpersonal interaction, rather than an action solely decided by the translator himself/herself. Therefore, a translation is the result of choices after analysis, guided by the Skopos of the translation task, of elements involved in the translation process. The translation of film titles is also a purposeful activity. The main purpose of film title translation is to render translated film titles appealing to target audience. Based on the Skopos of film title translation, the strategies used in the translation of film titles such as transliteration, literal translation, free translation and adaptation are introduced. These strategies treat the source text information in different ways such as complete preservation, proper selection, information addition or complete abandonment. It can be seen that the film title is only one of the information providers. Apart from the film title, the film itself can also offer information. A detailed study of some cases shows that only those translated film titles which not only meet the linguistic and aesthetic preferences of the target audience but also conform to the target culture are likely to remain lively and magnetic as time passes by.The conclusion is that film titles should not be seen and translated as pure literature under the direction of "equivalence" and "reception atheistic" theories. This thesis, based on Skopostheorie, sees translation as a purposeful activity and has an exploratory discussion on film title translation. The application of Skopostheorie in film title translation would meet the new challenge of film title translation put forward by the rapid commercialization of film industry and help to realize the industrialization and commercial value of film.