FILM TITLE IN TRANSLATION: FROM LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Rusu Natalia, the 4th year student

Specialty: English and French Language and Literature
Modern Languages Department
Faculty of Philology and History
Cahul State University B.P. Hasdeu, Republic of Moldova
Abstract

The subject of film titles in translation is a quite new study and it has not been deeply
analysed so far. The film title is a whole art as it involves a process of creating a new product.
Throughout the research paper a very important aspect is to be treated that of the cultural
influence upon the film titles translation. However, the leading level to take into account all
through the thesis is the linguistic aspect.

The Film Title in Translation: From linguistic perspective research paper aims to identify
the main difficulties in the process of film titles translation and to analyse the most appropriate
ways to translate film titles from English into Romanian taking into consideration the linguistic
features of both Source Language and Target Language. The respective study could help film
translators in transferring film titles from SL into TL when encountering certain difficulties at
the linguistic level.

Key words: film title, audiovisual translation, equivalence, non-equivalence, etc.

A film title is a given name to the whole picture. Generally, the word title comes from
Old French title (Modern French titre) which has the meaning of inscription or heading. [3]
When the cinematography was invented, the films were short lasting just a few minutes. They
were not always narrative, but they often displayed descriptive scenes of daily life. Considering
this fact, the film titles looked like newspaper headlines and not like novel titles. [2]

From the cultural perspective, the film depicts our attitudes, philosophies, values and the
contemporary lifestyle. Besides this, the film title has got a communicative function, it generates
an intercultural and intracultural communication. Therefore, while translating a film title one
should take into consideration the cultural difference. [18, p.77]

The film title translation does not include only the equivalent function but also the values
and the principles between the target title and the source title. [19, p.607] While translating, the
translator has to take into account several functions that the film title performs. Hence, according
to C. Nord, the title perform six functions, which are divided into two groups:
 - Essential function comprises the following types of function:
a Distinctive (each title differs from the other which belong to the same
corpus and culture);
b Metatextual (each title should carry out the genre conventions of the
culture it belongs to);
c Phatic (each title should capture the specific cultural audience).
- Optional function comprises the following additional types of function:
a Referential (the information that the title communicates should be easily
understood by the specific cultural audience );
b Expressive (the emotions or the evaluations involved in the source title text
should go beyond the target title text);

Appellative (the appellative intention should be taken into account the audiences
susceptibility and expectations) [4, p. 306]

Speaking of linguistic features of film title translation one meets the requirement to
research the Linguistic Translation Theory as it analyses the linguistic features of the source text
and the linguistic techniques utilised while transferring it to target text. The branch of linguistic
approach to translation theory was widely studied by Eugene Nida, Roman Jakobson, Peter
Newmark and Mona Baker, especially the equivalence and the non-equivalence.

As far as the Roman Jakobsons equivalence theory is concerned, one can claim that he
focused upon three types of translation:

Intralingual that refers to paraphrasing, rewording, summarising or commenting in

the framework of a language:
E.g. Safe Heaven, USA, 2013- Refugiu pentru via; [10]
Lions for Lambs, USA, 2007- Leii mor pentru miei; [7]
Interlingual depicts the traditional conception of transferring the ST to the TT:
E.g. Up in the Air, USA, 2009- Sus n aer; [10]
Dancing at the Harvest Moon, USA, 2002- Dansnd la Harvest Moon; [10]
Intersemiotic concerns transforming the written form of the ST into another form,
such as arts, this type of equivalence cannot be referred to the film title study as
the title considers a written text and it implies an impossibility of rendering it
abstract.

Jakobson refers the equivalence approach to the interlingual type of translation since it
involves an equivalent message encoded in two different languages. His equivalence theory
considers grammatical and lexical differences between the SL and the TL, as well as the
semantics.

According to Eugene Nidas equivalence theory, there are two kinds of equivalence:
 Formal equivalence (also known as formal correspondence), this type of
equivalence is mainly focused upon word-for-word and faithful translations:
E.g. 8 Mile, USA, 2002- 8 mile; [10]
Flying Lessons, USA, 2010- Lecii de zbor; [7]
Dynamic equivalence that concerns the meaning-for-meaning translation, it
stresses the importance of the message of content:
E.g. True Colors, USA, 1991- Adevrata fa a lucrurilor; [8]
The Green Mile, USA, 1999- Culoarul morii; [9]

Regarding his classification of equivalence, one can identify the researched linguistic
fields as semantics and pragmatics.

As for Peter Newmarks theory of equivalence, it can be noticed the fact that his concept
of equivalence, more or less, coincides with the Nidas classification of equivalence. Therefore,
according to Newmarks types of equivalence semantic and communicative translation stand for
Nidas formal and dynamic equivalence respectively. However, there is an appreciable distinction
between these two classifications; it consists in their foci, the semantic translation bases upon
meaning, as the Nidas dynamic equivalence (e.g. A little bit of Heaven, USA, 2005- Un col de
rai [TVmania magazine nr.3 (767) 21 ianuarie 2013], Random Hearts, USA, 1999- Ironia sorii
[TVmania magazine nr. 6 (749) 11 februarie 2013]), whereas the communicative one centres the
effect. [4, p.4]

Regarding Mona Bakers types of equivalence, it can be stated several levels:

Equivalence at word level, considering the lexical meaning of a word, the

semantic fields of lexical units, etc.;
E.g. I am Sam, USA, 2001- Eu sunt Sam [17]
Martian Child, USA, 2007- Copilul de Marte [16]
Equivalence above word level, dealing with collocations and idiomatic
expressions:
E.g. Lucky Them, USA, 2013- Norocoii [10]
Is There Life Out There?, USA, 1994- Mai mult de la via [13]
Grammatical equivalence, discussing the transference certain grammatical units
from the SL into TL and considering the grammatical systems of both languages:
E.g. The Opportunities, USA, 2000- Oportunitii [13]
Grandmas Boy, USA, 2006- Biatulubunica [6]
Textual equivalence, investigating the word order within both SL and TL systems:
E.g. Last Shot, USA, 2004- Ultima secvena [6]
School of Rock, USA, 2003- coala de rock [8]
Pragmatic equivalence, highlighting cross-cultural communication: coherence
and implicature; [1, p.9-271]
 Besides the mentioned above linguists classifications of equivalence, none of them ignore the
occasional appearance of non-equivalence phenomenon. Hence, non-equivalence considers
lexical, semantic, grammatical and pragmatic units of SL, which cannot find their equivalence in
the TL. Of course, there are several problems of non-equivalence, these are:

Culture-specific concepts:
E.g. Pineapple Express, USA, 2008- Pineapple Express [7]
Oceans Eleven, USA, 2001- Oceans Eleven- Faci jocurile! [12]
The SL concept is not lexicalised in the TL:
E.g. Catwoman, USA, 2004- Catwoman [11]
Shutter Island, USA, 2010- Shutter Island [8]
The SL word is semantically complex:
E.g. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, USA, 2009- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 [8]
8 MM, USA, 1999- 8 MM [15]
The SL and the TL make different distinctions in meaning:
E.g. Underdog, USA, 2007- Super-cine [8]
Homeworld, USA, 2008- Secret letal [14]
The TL lacks a specific term (hyponym);
The use of loan words in the ST; [1, p. 18-22]

To sum up, a title is a way of giving the possibility to the audience to ascertain its
position towards the film at the first sight, to decide whether to watch the picture or not.
Resulting from this, it should be characteristic for a film title the precision of film content
expression, i.e. the clarity and the accessibility of its form, so it should be explicit to everyone.
Capturing the audiences attention, any film title should be easily perceived, it should be
effortlessly read.

REFERENCES

1 Baker, Mona, In other words: a course of translation, 2011;

2 http://bibliofond.ru/view.aspx?id=134230;
3 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=title&searchmode=none;

4 Panou, Despoina, Equivalence in translation theories: a critical evaluation, 2013;

5 Pea-Cervel, Sandra, Motivating film title translation: a cognitive analysis, 2016;
6 Telemania magazine nr. 18 (865) 4 mai 2015;
7 Tvmania magazin nr.19 (866), 11 mai 2015;
8 TVmania magazine nr. 16 (863) 20 aprilie 2015;
9 TVmania magazine nr. 17 (864) 27 aprilie 2015;
10 TVmania magazine nr. 21 (868), 25 mai 2015 ;
11 TVmania magazine nr. 22 (712) 28 mai 2012;
12 TVmania magazine nr. 23 (713) 4 iunie 2012;
13 Tvmania magazine nr. 29 (563) 20 iulie 2009;
14 Tvmania magazine nr. 31 (565) 3 august 2009;
15 TVmania magazine nr. 6 (749) 11 februarie 2013;
16 TVmania magazine nr. 7 (750) 18 februarie 2013;
17 TVmania magazine nr.3 (767) 21 ianuarie 2013;
18 Xuedong, SHI, Film Title Translation Methods From the Cultural Difference Aspects, 2014;
19 Xuedong, SHI, The English Film Title Translation Strategies, 2014;