On The Translation Of English Film Titles

The film, the art with both commercial and artistic values, becomes more and more popular among the audience. Meanwhile, a large amount of foreign films, especially English films, are introduced into the Chinese film market. This causes growing concern to the film-makers and translators about the translation of films. Nevertheless, the translation of the film title, as a significant part of film translation, has not been paid due attention to. Therefore, it’s necessary to study on the translation of English film titles.The thesis commences with the texts studied, gives an introduction to film genres, concludes the functions, main characteristics of film titles, as well as approaches to entitling films. The thesis then elaborates Skopostheorie, including the origin and development and the relationship between Skopostheorie and translation. In the end, the thesis emphasizes on the application of Skopostheorie in the translation of English film titles. Guided by Skopostheorie, the thesis analyses purposes of English film title translation from commercial, cultural, informative and aesthetic aspects, and concludes common methods adopted in the translation of English film titles. Then it makes an analysis of the differences in the translation of English film titles in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and sums up characteristics of translations in those three regions accordingly. The author then compares the translations with examples and figures out the potential reasons for differences. In addition, the thesis analyses and proves the application of Skopostheorie in the translation of English film titles.All in all, the thesis aims at arousing translators’attention to the translation of English film titles. Based on the examples and the comparative study, the thesis proves the feasibility and applicability of Skopostheorie in the translation of English film titles.