淺析電影名字及其特征

摘 要：電影，以其受眾面廣，表達形式多樣而在信息傳播和文化交流中有著特殊的地位。一方面電影名稱包含了源語言中的某些文化因素，另一方面電影名稱所受到電影內容的語言環境的限制相對寬松，為翻譯過程中對商業元素的考慮提供了余地。人們在生活中經常通過電影來進行學習。本文通過對電影名稱及其基本特征的分析，為人們的翻譯和學習提供了幫助。

Abstract：The film， a special kind of art， functions not only in education and entertainment but also in commerce. Compared with other kinds of literature works， films function more efficiently in the broadcasting of information and spreading of culture as they have a much wider scope of receivers and usually it takes less time for people to learn something through films rather than through novels. But it doesn’t follow that films deserve less attention from the translators when introduced to non-native audiences.

關鍵詞：電影名字 語言風格 一般特征

Key words：Film title; language style Basic feature

1. Film Title

Film title is the head of film， with the functions of identification， differentiation， etc. Unlike book titles and news headlines， film titles receive inadequate analysis study， with the English version of Chinese film titles in particular. What's worsgeneral pattern of film title translation is one of disagreement and diversity.

Generally， film title acts as a logo of publicity as well as a sign of differentiation， with its linguistic and cultural traits. Based on the British translation theorist Peter Newmark'stheory that language serves six functions， film title， particularly， serves three: (1) informative function， (2) aesthetic function， (3) vocative function. The informative function displays what the film is about， so as to assist the film-viewers in the comprehension of the film. It also endows the title with the sign of differentiation. The second function film title serves is aesthetic function， which leaves film-viewers a vivid impression of the film with outstanding wording. In this regard， the film-viewers could have a direct sense of film genre， followed by a desire for appreciation. The last function， vocative function， is all the end of informative and aesthetic functions. The ultimate function that film title serves is to arouse the interest and attention from the audience， so as to increase box income by inducing them to watch it. That is why film title is a logo of publicity or advertisement.

2. Main Features of Film Titles

2.1 The language style of film titles

Film titles of the first two categories are characterized by their formal and plain style in diction， like the examples of‘激光’，‘Stories from the Quilt’，etc. As for the feature film， it can be further divided into 4 categories， each of which is marked by its distinctive style in the language used in the title. They are:

A) Adventurous film

Horror films， action films， horse operas and so on belong to this type. The title usually employs the midget word which is meant to highlight the breathtaking atmosphere， such as‘Mission Impossible’，‘Blade: Trinity’，‘新警察故事’，‘男兒本色’， etc.

B) Science fiction film

Its title tends to reveal the novelty of the content and to arouse the audience’s curiosity， e.g. ‘Star Wars’，‘Back to Future’，‘Jurassic Park’，etc.

C) Comedy

The title of this type itself tends to contain a sense of humor， such as’ The Nutty Professor’，‘Beverly Hills Cop’ Romance filmed)Lyric films， musical films and ethical films are of this category. The titles of this type share some common characteristics with poems and prose: plain but with a strong favor of lyrics， e.g. ‘巍巍昆侖’，‘秋天里的春天’，‘On the Golden Pond’，‘A Walk in the Clouds’ and so on.

2.2 Characteristics of Titles

Film titles differ from each other in that the title and the body of a film can be connected in various ways. Meanwhile， film titles share some common features， as it is a general requirement that film titles should be unexceptionally as concise and appealing as possible. A good title always tries to realize fullness .But Fullness has nothing to do with wordiness(Guo Xiumei，1985，P16)，which means what the title should achieve is the balance between fullness and brevity instead of either single factor .Besides， its lexical features， as the title also functions as a certain form of language， also need weighing as to better serve the film title translation.

2.2.1 Concision

As we know， there are no certain rules about the length of the title of a film .But it doesn’t mean that the title could be either as long or short as we expect to be. Among all the titles of the films that were awarded Oscar prize from 1981-1990， about eighty percent are within six characters .In them， titles made up of two characters take about 40 percent. What these data imply can’t be coincidence but reflection of the basic feature of film titles .As titles are to appear on the advertisement board or the wide screen; they are not expected to take too much space. Occupying too much will leave little room for the background， which means narrow imagination left to the audience .What more; a title with a quite long body is not very easy for people to remember in a short time. Usually when we are introduced to something， a short and convincing name strikes more deeply than a long and loose body .That’s why we don’t claim that all film titles should be short but at least concise and to be concise doesn’t necessarily mean to be short.

Actually almost every title exists by presenting to the audience an image， which is made of two parts， namely physical image and connation. In most cases， a title can achieve these two points at the same time. For example， Dances With Wolves takes us little effort to form a picture that may be not very vivid but clear enough with the presentation of one of the key characters-wolves and a symbolized action-dances .But it is also very clear that the title doesn’t bring the whole set of factors involved .Of course the dancer ，the location ，the time as well as how and why“ dances with wolves ”are indispensable to the film， which are certain to be explained in the main part of the movie.

On the other hand， we should realize that titles are not always complete but should be independent .In other words; the brief content of the film is clarified into several levels. Basic level as foundation is not only simple but also important .To keep the independence requires completeness in a microscope， which is usually subject to the guide’s idea. And this should also apply to the translation of tiles. That is ，in dealing with the translation of titles， we should strive to make it as concise as the former while trying to keep the completeness of the image .

2.2.2 Appeal

It is not very difficult for us to understand why the film titles should be appealing to the audience .At first glance ，an attractive title may manage to absorb your attention for a continuous period of more than ten seconds while a title of little interest will not only fail to catch the eyes of the audience but also get the body of the film rejected in advance .From this point of view ，the appeal of film titles plays a very important role in two ways， namely the introduction of the body of the movie and the promotion of the movie in the market. Actually as concise expression of the main plot of a movie， it ensures that the content is of more or less interest to the readers and what deserves attention is how the language should be applied to present a better and more appealing title to the public.

Usually the appeal of film titles can be basically divided into two aspects， logical appeal and emotional appeal just as a girl may look beautiful in others ’eyes due to her super wisdom or her physical beauty. Titles of logical appeal tend to stimulate people’s interest with numerous questions starting with how， why and so on .Such kinds of titles themselves are always“ illogical” or “incomplete” .But for those weak points against logical thinking ，the readers wouldn’t get reminded so easily of the“ abnormal ”parts in the movie. The weaker the logy is， the more attractive the title would be .For example， the title North by North west gives us nothing but an idea about some direction. And various people may have various understanding about it and thus is generated the desire of people to watch the movie to see whether his or her idea will match the content .The other kind of appeal aims to raise people’s sympathy towards something extremely miserable or something perfectly wonderful. In this situation， the audience will have very clear knowledge about what is to happen but they just can’t fully believe it， as it is too good or bad to believe until they can experience it themselves in the theatre .Even what the title presents may be true ，it is sure to be very rare. So almost everyone would believe that such a movie absolutely deserves a watch .This type of persuasive skill is typically illustrated in the title， Extra-Terrestrial， which tells a story about a life visiting the earth from outer space. Obviously the existence of life on other planets has still remained a controversy till now .And whether people believe it or not， they will feel greatly interested in it.

Conclusion

Due to the rapid development， films are catching the attention from an increasing number of people. a film title should be firstly concise and appealing and secondly convincing. The same requirement should be also applied in the translation of film titles. What’s more， as the translated film faces new audience speaking a different type of language and enjoying a different kind of culture， it is necessary for the translator to put into account the audience’s psychological condition in translating films titles of various topics， which helps to keep the title attractive， persuasive and durable in the audience’s mind.

In the translation of film titles， it means that the title of the source language should fully and accurately present either the image or the connotation or both that are contained in the original titles and do some changes when necessary. It is strongly recommended that literal translation， as the most basic translating method that always help hold most of the original intact， should be first considered. But only literal translation is not to solve all the problems.

In a word， translation of film titles should try to achieve in both academic and pragmatic way， the most rewarding way for films’ development.

Works Cited：

[1]Larry， A.S.Richard， E.P communication between Cultures， Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000

[2] Lin Yutang， My Country and My People， Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 1998

[3]晨曦，《奧斯卡獎70年》，世界圖書出版社，1999

[4]大衛·鮑德韋爾編，麥永雄譯《后理論：重建電影研究》，中國社會科學出版社，2000

[5]張光明，《英漢互譯文思維概論》，外語教學與研究出版社，2001

作者簡介：劉媛媛，河南農業職業學院教師，助教，自2008年9月上班以來一直擔任《商務英語》、《汽車英語》課等。