A study on translation of film titles from
domestication and foreignization perspective
摘 要
电影作为一种雅俗共赏的艺术形式，在文化传播交流方面起着举足轻重的作用。而电影片名是电影的浓缩精华，也是向受众展示的第一件宣传品，片名佳译既可吸引观众又能体现出译者深厚的文化内涵和良好的翻译功底。然而，东西方由于地理位置、种族渊源、自然环境、宗教信仰、经济发展等背景的不同人们的认知角度、思维方式、审美情趣、消费观念等方面也存在着许多差异。因此，电影片名的翻译要做到既体现民族特色又符合目标国家观众的认知习惯，这着实不是件易事。本文首先总结了中英电影片名翻译的特点和翻译现状，并提出电影片名翻译的四原则，再分析归化与异化的概念，然后研究出这两种理论在片名翻译中的应用并给出实例，最后提出目前电影片名翻译的趋势是从归化到异化。
关键词: 电影片名翻译；归化；异化；
ABSTRACT
As a popular art form, film plays a significant role in cultural exchange and communication. Film title is the essential part of films, and also is the first publicity material shown to the audience. Hence, a good translation of film title can not only best attract the audience, but well reflect the translator’s cultural awareness and good command of translation skills. However, as a result of the differences in geographical location, ethnic origin, natural environment, religious beliefs and economic development, the western and eastern people are quite different in their cognitive power, ways of thinking, aesthetic tastes, and consumption concepts. Therefore, it is hard to make film titles translation reflect the original national traits and be in line with target audience’s cognitive habits at the same time. First, this article summarizes the functions, features and current situation of Chinese and English film titles translation, and puts forward the four principles of film title translation. Second, it analyses the concept of domestication and foreignization, then respectively discusses these two strategies’ applications in film title translation by the analysis of examples. Finally, it concludes that the trend for film titles translation is from domestication to foreignization.
Keywords：film title translation; domestication; foreignization
Contents
1.Introduction 1
2. Film title 2
2.1 Functions and characteristics of film titles 2
2.2 Current status quo of film title translation 3
2.3 Principles of film title translation 4
3. Domestication in film title translation 6
3.1 Domestication 6
3.2 Application of domestication in film title translation 6
3.2 Case study 7
4. Foreignization in film title translation 9
4.1 Foreignization 9
4.2 Application of foreignization in film title translation 9
4.3 Case study 10
5．Trend towards foreignization 12
6．Conclusion 13
Acknowledgements 14
References 15
