VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES *********** TRẦN THỊ MINH ASSESSING THE TRANSLATIONS OF ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES RELEASED IN CGV CINEPLEX FROM 2011 TO 2014 (Đánh giá chất lượng bản dịch tựa đề phim tiếng Anh phát hành tại cụm rạp CGV từ năm 2011 đến năm 2014) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI – 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ******** TRẦN THỊ MINH ASSESSING THE TRANSLATIONS OF ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES RELEASED IN CGV CINEPLEX FROM 2011 TO 2014 (Đánh giá chất lượng bản dịch tựa đề phim tiếng Anh phát hành tại cụm rạp CGV từ năm 2011 đến năm 2014) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: ASSOC.LÊ HÙNG TIẾN HANOI - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Tran Thi Minh, QH2013, being a candidate for the degree of Master accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Hanoi, 2016 Trầ n Thi Minh ̣ i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all the people who have supported and inspired me to complete this thesis. The success of this paper is also attributable to them. First and foremost, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude towards my beloved supervisor, Assoc.Le Hung Tien for his enthusiasm and dedication, his critical comments and timely feedback, his constant understanding and encouragement. Had it not been for his tremendous support, I could never have been able to complete this research.
I would also like to express the sincerest thanks to Quang, Thu, and Thanh, who willingly spent time participating in the study and openly shared their experiences and opinions. Without their help, this paper would not have been finished. Furthermore, I would love to extend my profound gratitude to all the teachers who have taught me translation, interpreting, and research methodology as well as my family and friends who have never neglected to support and encourage me so that I could overcome many obstacles during the study. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the readers for their interest in the paper.
i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT In Vietnam, together with the rapid development of the movie industry, movie translation has become a dominant aspect of translation. Aware of the importance of movie translation, quite a few domestic researches have investigated the issue. Although movie title translation seems to be surrounded by intense controversy, the quality of translated titles has received little attention of Vietnamese researchers. Thus, in an attempt to settle controversy, this research investigates the quality of the translations of English movie titles released by CGV, which is regarded as the leading company in theatre business in Vietnam and techniques that can be used by the translators here to produce successful translations.
This goal was achieved by qualitative and quantitative approaches in the two phases of the study. In the first phase, document analysis method with movie titles serving as instrument was utilized to examine the quality of the translations based on the translation quality assessment model proposed by Newmark. In the second phase, three translators who produced successful translations were requested to participate in the face-to-face semi-structured interviews in order to find some techniques that can be used in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in CGV Cineplex. The results from both phases show that (1) most of the translations meet one criterion in the TQA model introduced by Newmark; (2) translators share some common techniques while still having their own way to deal with movie title translation.
The findings from the study hopefully will benefit not only translators who work with movie title translation but also researchers and people who are interested in the issue. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE. Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Organization of the paper.
An overview on translation strategies and equivalence. The concept of translation. Strategies of translation. Methods of translation.
Procedures of translation. An overview on translation equivalence. Translation quality assessment. A review on models of translation quality assessment.
TQA model by Newmark. An overview on movie titles. Definition of movie. Classification of movies:.
Movie titles in English. Functions of movie titles in English. Characteristics of movie titles in English. Principles in translating movie titles.
39 iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Design of the study. Data collection method. Data collection procedures.
Data collection method. Data collection procedures. Data analysis procedures. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Assessing the translations of animation titles. Assessing the translations of action movies’ titles. Assessing the translations of comedy titles. Summary of findings in cases.
Summary of findings. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. VI iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS List of figures Figure 1.1 Newmark‟s V_diagram of translation methods Figure 1.2 House‟s TQA model Figure 2. The process of releasing a local movie title in CGV Cineplex Figure 3.
Strategies employed in translating titles of animations Figure 3. Quality of translations of animation titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework Figure 3. Strategies employed in translating titles of action movies Figure 3. Quality of translations of action movie titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework Figure 3.
Strategies employed in translating titles of comedies Figure 3. Quality of translations of comedy titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework List of tables Table 3. Translations of animation titles fully meet the TQA framework Table 3. Translations of animation titles only meet assessor‟s standard Table 3.
Translations of animation titles only meet the translator‟s standard Table 3. Translations of animation titles fail to meet the TQA framework Table 3. Translations of action movie titles fully meet the TQA framework Table 3. Translations of action movie titles only meet the assessor‟s standard Table 3.
Translations of action movie titles only meet translator‟s standard Table 3. Translations of action movie titles fail to meet the TQA framework Table 3. Translations of comedy titles fully meet the TQA framework Table 3. Translations of comedy titles only meet translator‟s standard Table 3.
Translations of comedy titles fail to meet the TQA framework v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com List of abbreviations OALD Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary SL Source language ST Source text TL Target language TT Target text TQA Translation quality assessment vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com INTRODUCTION In this initial part, the problem and the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, and the significance of the whole paper are presented. Most importantly, the research questions are identified to serve as a guideline for the whole research. Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study The French artist and novelist, Baker (2004, p.40) believes that “Movie is so important that it has become the first arts of human world”. In Vietnam, despite being a fledgling industry, motion pictures have been rapidly developed and widely loved by Vietnamese people, young and old alike.
According to Trinh (cited in Megastar Hé Lộ Doanh Số, 2012), in Vietnam, film industry “has maintained significant growth” in the past few years and “the box office revenue of Megastar alone rises from $13.8 million in 2009 to $47. In 2012, Hollywood‟s films occupied up to “80% of the movies screened in Megastar Cineplex alone” (Thị Trường Điện Ảnh, 2012). As a result, movie translation, apart from book translation or news translation, has become a dominant aspect of translation in the country. Aware of this trend, quite a lot of dedicated Vietnamese researchers have conducted studies on movie translation.
“A Study on Film Translation” by Van (1999) and “A Study on the Translation of Filmscripts in English to Vietnamese” by Thanh (2001) are some examples, to name but a few. The studies cover many facets of movie translation such as translating film scripts, translating idioms in movies. However, translating movie titles are not addressed in these researches despite its importance. Meanwhile, as Prendergast (n.) states, one of the factors that can help movie-makers “market” their product” and “plays a critical role” in the success of a movie is its title.
This viewpoint is shared by many other researchers and translators such as Patterson (2008), May (2010), etc. As a good title can “arouse the readers‟ interest to see a movie”, the translation of film title is of importance” (Mei, 2010). 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Then, as an initial attempt to discover the translation of movie titles in Vietnam, Duong (2006) conducted a study on “Translation of English Movie Titles into Vietnamese”. Furthermore, Minh (2014) did a research to investigate the principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese.
These researches have helped to reveal many aspects related to movie title translation like functions and features of movie titles, strategies and principles in translating titles. However, translation quality assessment, which is one of the main concerns of translation theorists, members of translation revision boards Benhaddou, 1991), has not been investigated yet. Meanwhile, the quality of film title translation is considered more significant as more movies are “released internationally” under the “effect of globalization” (Translation of Film Titles, n. Quite a lot of controversies have emerged over the quality of translated titles in the countries where Hollywood‟s movies are distributed.
Hawley (2008) remarks that the translation of movie titles can “lead to the loss” of cultural and aesthetic features of the original titles. Besides, Andersen (2010) states that translation “causes misunderstandings in relation to the movie and its audience.” In addition, Kelan and Wei (2006) also points out the existing problems in translating English movie titles, including “the messy and low-quality” and “alienation and assimilation”. Back to the situation of movie translation in Vietnam, translating movie titles has perplexed not only translators but also many others including film critics, moviegoers, etc. Thus, in his article discussing inadequacies of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, Kha (2012) describes this issue as a “war”.
Meanwhile, Ruelle (2010) also lists out several problems including the lack of feeling and original meaning faced by many Vietnamese translators when translating movie titles from Vietnamese into English and vice versa. Nevertheless, what can be regarded as a good translated title is still open to question. It is said that “reframing a linguistic expression or a cultural phenomenon” 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com that may be foreign to “non-American ears” is often “inevitable” (Heller, 2014). In addition, those who criticize translations of movie titles appear to base themselves on their own feeling and knowledge.
Without a solid theoretical framework, it is very likely that those criticisms are biased and cannot be justified. Therefore, it will be useful and essential to use an appropriate theoretical framework to assess the quality of the translation of movie titles that have been released in Vietnam so far in order to provide audience with an acceptable explanation on why a translated title should be appropriate or not and to help rectify the situation. Besides, titles have three main functions including “informative function”, “aesthetic function” and “vocative function” (Newmark, 1988, p.