功能翻译理论在英语电影标题翻译中的应用.docx

功能翻译理论在英语电影标题翻译中的应用.docx

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功能翻译理论在英语电影标题翻译中的应用

ApplicationoftheFunctionalistApproachtotheEnglishFilmTitleTranslation

功能翻译理论在英语电影标题翻译中的应用

Abstract

Thefilm,aparticularartwithbothartisticandcommercialvalues,isoneofthemostinfluentialmassmedia.Thefilmtitleisofreferential,expressiveandappellativefunctions.Althoughfilmtranslationhasbeendevelopingquicklyinthepasttwoorthreedecades,filmtitletranslationisafarlessexploredfield.Uptillnow,nosystematicandfeasibletheoryonEnglishfilmtitletranslationhasbeenputforward.

Fromtheaspectsofthefunctionsandskoposoffilmtitles,theauthormakesananalysisofthetranslationoffilmtitles.Skopostheoryisadoptedasthetheoreticalbackgroundofthispaperandanaudience-orientedfilmtitletranslationapproachishighlyadvocated.Functionalismshedsnewlightsonthetranslationfield.Itreflectsashiftfromtraditionallinguisticandformal-equivalencetranslationtheoriestoamorefunctionallyandsocio-culturallyorientedconceptoftranslation.Asakerneloffunctionalism,Skopostheoryholdsthattranslationisanintentionalaction,andtheskoposistheprimeprincipletodeterminetheoveralltranslationalaction.AccordingtoSkopostheory,oneofthemostimportantfactorsdeterminesthepurposeofatranslationisthetargetreceiverswiththeirculture-specificbackgrounds,theirexpectationsandcommunicativeneeds.

Inthispaper,theauthorappliesthefunctionalistapproachestoexplainthephenomenaoffilmtitletranslation.ItprovestherationalityandapplicabilityofthefunctionalistapproachandprobesintothetranslationstrategiesoftranslationofEnglishfilmtitlesundertheguidelineoffunctionalism.

Keywords:

EnglishFilmTitleTranslation;FunctionalistTranslationTheory;TranslationStrategies;SkopsTheory

摘要

电影作为一种集艺术性和商业性于一体的艺术形式，是最具有影响力的媒体之一。

电影片名具有传达信息，表现美感和吸引观众的功能。

尽管在过去的二三十年里，影视翻译取得了很大的发展，但电影片名的研究工作还做得远远不够。

目前似乎还没有人提出一套比较完整可行的原则指导片名翻译。

本文以电影片名的功能和目的为视角，分析了电影片名的翻译。

以功能翻译理论作为本文理论研究背景并且大力提倡以观众为取向的英语片名翻译方法。

功能翻译理论给予翻译领域新的启发，它反应了从传统的语言学及形式对等翻译理论到更加注重功能和以社会文化为导向的翻译观念的改变。

作为功能翻译理论的“目的论”认为，翻译是一种有目的行为，“目的”决定所有翻译行为。

根据“目的论”，决定翻译目的的最重要因素之一就是译文的接受对象，他们作为译文预期的接受者有其各自特定的文化背景和不同的交际需求。

文章中，作者将功能理论应用于分析英语电影片名翻译的现象，探讨了功能翻译理论指导电影片名翻译的合理性与可行性，以及在该理论指导下英语电影片名翻译的一些策略。

关键词：

英语电影标题翻译；功能翻译理论；翻译策略；目的论

Contents

AbstractⅠ

摘要Ⅱ

1Introduction

WiththeincreasingpaceofChina’sopeningtotheoutsideworldaswellasthedevelopmentofculturalcommunicationbetweenChinaandEnglish-speakingcountries,moreandmoreEnglishfilmshaveenteredChinesemarket.Inordertoenabletheaudiencetounderstandandappreciatethefilm,thewholefilmshouldbetranslated.Thus,thereisanurgentdemandforthetranslationoffilms.Andbecausethefilm,asaspecificformofliteratureandaudio-visualart,isboundtohavepromisingprospectsinourage,itisofgreatsignificancetostudyanddevelopfilm-translatingtoo.

Filmtranslationisthetranslatingoflanguagesandcultures,andthepromotionofcross-culturalexchanges.Andthefilmtitle,likethetitletoaliterarytext,deliversthemostimportantinformationaboutthefilmtotheaudience.Therefore,asanindispensablepartofthefilmtranslation,thefilmtitletranslationnaturallybecomesanimportantbranchofthegeneraltranslationstudy.Whetherthefilmisappealingornot,thetitleisoneandthefirstdecidingfactor,foritisoftenthefirstthatcomesintothepotentialviewer’sattention.Itisexpectedtobeeye-catching,ear-pleasingandcuriosity-stimulating.

Thefilmtitlesgenerallybearthreeprincipalfunctions:

thereferentialfunction,theexpressivefunction,andtheappellativefunction.Thereferentialfunctionmeansthatthetranslationinformstheaudienceandthebackgroundandtheplotsofthefilm.Ittellstheaudienceasmuchoftheinformationofthefilmasitcanuseseveralwordsandhelpthemhaveabasicunderstandingofthefilm.Theexpressivefunctionmeansthatthetranslationsetsthefeeling-tonereflectedineachfilmgenre,whichisveryimportanttoitscommunicativeeffectiveness;Theappellativefunctionmeansthatthetranslationmustbewritteninalanguagethatisimmediatelycomprehensibletotheaudiencesoastoattracttheirattention,andtriggerthemtoenterthecinematoappreciatethefilm.Andthefilmtitle,beingshortinformbutrichinmeaning,hasitsownlinguistic,aesthetic,culturalandcommercialfeatures,allofwhichcontributealottothecharmandthesuccessofthefilm.

Nowadays,thefilmtitletranslationhasattractedtheattentionsofmanyscholars.Manypapersofthistopiccouldbeseeninvariouskindsofacademicperiodicals.However,thestudiesinthisfieldarenotadequateandcomprehensiveenough.Inthispaper,theauthorwilltrytomakesometheoreticalexplanationsbyexampleswhicharetakenfromoriginaltextsandpublishedtranslations.

2LiteratureReview

2.1TheEmergenceandtheDevelopmentofFunctionalistApproaches

ThefunctionalapproachesoriginatedinGermanyin1970s.Beforeitsemergence,thoselinguistic-orientedtheorieshadagreatinfluenceontranslation.Manydefinitionsoftranslationemphasizedthelinguisticaspect.Forexample,Catfordthoughttranslationis“thereplacementoftextualmaterialinalanguage（SL）byequivalentmaterialinanotherlanguage（TL）”（Nord2001）;andaccordingtoNidaandTaber,theprocessoftranslationis“reproducinginthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnaturalequivalentofthesource-languagemessage”（EugeneA.Nida&CharlesR.Taber2004）.Becausethelinguisticapproachesbasicallysawtranslationasaprocedureoftrans-coding,“equivalence”seemstobebasicandsomewhatindispensable.WernerKollerevenindicatedthatthetranslationmustpreservethesource-languagecontent,form,style,function,or“atleastmustseektopreservethemasfaraspossible”（2001）.Itdeclaredthetargettextwhichisnotequivalenttothesourcetexttobeafailedtranslation.

Thoughmanytheoristsstillemphasizetheequivalenceintranslation,theyhavetorecognizethattheremaybenon-equivalenceintranslationcausedbytheculturedifferences.JustasKollerstatedinhisrecentwork,“adaptationmaybeappropriate,oreveninevitable,inordertomakethetranslationreachitsaudience.（2001）Andasforsomepragmatictexts,suchasadvertisementsandproductsinstructions,“equivalence”can’tbewellappliedforthem.Thus,sometranslationscholarsshifttheirfocusfromequivalence-basedapproachestofunctionalistapproaches,and“anewtheorywascalledfor”（2001）.

“Theemergenceofafunctionalisttranslationtheorymarksanimportantmomentintheevolutionoftranslationtheorybybreakingthetwo-thousand-yearoldchainoftheoryrevolvingaroundthefaithfulvs.Freeaxis”（Gentzler2004）.

Functionalismisabroadtermforvarioustheoriesthatapproachtranslationinthisway.ThemajorcontributiontofunctionalismisthefunctionalisttranslationtheorywiththeSkopostheorytoitscore.Thedevelopmentofthefunctionalisttranslationtheoryexperiencedfourstages,withKatharinaReiss,HansJ.Vermeer,Holz-ManttariandChristianeNordasthemainrepresentatives.

2.2TheBasicConceptsofSkoposTheory

“SkoposistheGreekwordfor‘aim’or‘purpose’andwasintroducedintotranslationtheoryinthe1970byHansJ.Vermeerasatechnicaltermforthepurposeofatranslationandoftheactionoftranslating”（Munday2001）.

NordindicatesthatthemainideaofSkopostheoryisthattranslationshouldbepurpose-oriented.Vermeerhasdividedthepurposeoftranslationintothreepossiblekinds,including“thegeneralpurposeaimedatbythetranslatorinthetranslationprocess”（2001）.“thecommunicativepurposeaimedatbythetargettextsituation”（2001）,and“purposeaimedatbyaparticulartranslationstrategyorprocedure”（2001）.AndthetermSkoposusuallyreferstothepurposeofthetargettext.ExceptthetermSkopos,Vermeeralsousessomerelatedwordsaim,purpose,intentionandfunctioninhistheory:

1.‘Aim’isdefinedasthefinalresultsanagentintendstoachievemeansofanaction.

2.‘Purpose’isdefinedasaprovisionalstageintheprocessofattaininganaim.

3.‘Function’referstowhatatextmeansorisintendedtomeanfromthereceiver’spointofview,whereastheaimisthepurposeforwhichitisneededorsupposedtobeneed.

4.‘Intention’isconceivedasaim-orientedplanofaction.（2001）.

Heconsidersteleologicalconceptsofthesewordstobeequivalent,subsumingthemunderthegenericconceptofSkopos.However,Christianeproposedabasicdistinctionbetweenintentionandfunction,whichisparticularlyusefulintranslation.Becausethesenderandthereceiverusuallybelongtodifferentculturalandsituationalsettings,“intentionandfunctionmayhavetobeanalyzedfromtwodifferentangles”（2001）.

2.3TheMeritsofSkoposTheory

Comparedwithtraditionaltranslationtheoryprevailingbefore1970s,Skopostheoryhassomanydistinctivecharacteristicsthatitbecomesatriggerofrevolutionintranslationstudies.

“Thetwomostimportantshiftsintheoreticaldevelopmentsintranslationtheoryoverthepasttwodecadeshavebeen

（1）theshiftfromsource-textorientedtheoriestotarget-textorientedtheoriesand

（2）theshifttoincludeculturalfactorsaswellaslinguisticelementsinthetranslationtrainingmodels.Thoseadvocatingfunctionalistapproacheshavebeenpioneersinbothareas.”（Gentzler2004）.

AndthetheoryisalsoconsideredbyNordexactlyasthetranslationmodelthatisneeded.Nordsummarizestheadvantagesofitaspragmatic,culture-orientedandconsistent.

3AProfileofEnglishFilmTitle

Thefilmtitle,likethetitletoal