CHIẾN lược VÀ THỦ THUẬT TRONG DỊCH TIÊU đề PHIM từ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT TẠI RẠP CHIẾU PHIM MEGASTAR

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 international and domestic researches have investigated the issue. However, so far, movie title translation has received little attention of Vietnamese researchers. Hence, in an attempt to gain more insights into movie title translation, this research investigates the strategies and techniques that are employed in translating film titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex, which is regarded as the leading company in theatre business in Vietnam. This goal was achieved by both quantitative and qualitative approaches. They were respectively applied 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 strategies in translating English movie titles. In the second phase, three translators having experience of working for Megastar Cineplex were requested to participate in the facetoface semistructured interviews in order to investigate the process of releasing movie titles as well as the principles and techniques utilized by the participants in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex. The results from both phases show that (1) seven procedures and one method were applied for translating movie titles in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012; (2) a translated title must undergo certain phases of internal and external examinations before being released in Vietnam; (3) there are five major principles to be followed the participants when translating movie titles; and (4) each translator has their own techniques 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 interested in the issue.

In Vietnam, together with the rapid development of the movie industry, movietranslation has become a dominant aspect of translation Aware of the importance ofmovie translation, quite a few international and domestic researches have investigatedthe issue However, so far, movie title translation has received little attention ofVietnamese researchers Hence, in an attempt to gain more insights into movie titletranslation, this research investigates the strategies and techniques that are employed intranslating film titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex, which isregarded as the leading company in theatre business in Vietnam This goal was achieved

by both quantitative and qualitative approaches They were respectively applied in thetwo phases of the study In the first phase, document analysis method with movie titlesserving as instrument was utilized to examine the strategies in translating English movietitles In the second phase, three translators having experience of working for MegastarCineplex were requested to participate in the face-to-face semi-structured interviews inorder to investigate the process of releasing movie titles as well as the principles andtechniques utilized by the participants in translating movie titles from English intoVietnamese in Megastar Cineplex The results from both phases show that (1) sevenprocedures and one method were applied for translating movie titles in MegastarCineplex from 2011 to 2012; (2) a translated title must undergo certain phases ofinternal and external examinations before being released in Vietnam; (3) there are fivemajor principles to be followed the participants when translating movie titles; and (4)each translator has their own techniques to deal with movie title translation The findingsfrom the study hopefully will benefit not only translators who work with movie titletranslation but also researchers and people interested in the issue

Table of Contents

ACCEPTANCE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 3

1.3 Significance of the study 4

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Organization of the paper 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 An overview on translation strategies 6

2.1.1 Definition of translation 6

2.1.2 Strategies of translation 7

2.1.2.1 Methods of translation 7

2.1.2.2 Procedures of translation 9

2.2 An overview on movie titles 14

2.2.1 Definition of movie 14

2.2.2 Movie titles in English 14

2.2.2.1 Functions of movie titles in English 14

2.2.2.2 Characteristics of movie titles in English 15

2.3 Principles of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese 17

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Qualitative and quantitative approaches 19

3.2 Design of the study 19

3.3 Phase one 20

3.3.1 Sampling 20

3.3.2 Data collection method 20

3.3.3 Data collection procedures 21

3.3.4 Data analysis procedures 22

3.4 Phase two 22

3.4.1 Sampling 22

3.4.2 Data collection method 23

3.4.3 Data collection procedures 24

3.4.4 Data analysis procedures 24

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Phase one 26

4.1.1 Research question 1: The translation strategies employed in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 26

4.2 Phase two 31

4.2.1 Case analysis 31

4.2.2 Summary of findings in cases 38

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43

5.1 Summary of findings 43

5.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 44

REFERENCES 46

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX (2011 – 2012) 52

APPENDIX 2: ALLUSIVE ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX (2011 – 2012) 58

APPENDIX 3: ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES CONTAINING PROPER NAMES AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX (2011 – 2012) .60 APPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH MR.QUANG (in Vietnamese) 63

APPENDIX 5: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH MR.THANH (in Vietnamese) 71

APPENDIX 6: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH MS.SOPHIE (in Vietnamese) 77

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

List of figures

Figure 3.1 Ratio of movie titles with and without proper names

Figure 4.1 Movie titles without proper names translated by different strategiesFigure 4.2 Distribution of strategies applied for translating movie titles without

proper namesFigure 4.3 Process of releasing a local movie title in Megastar Cineplex

List of tables

Table 4.1 Allusive movie titles translated by adaptation

Table 4.2 Movie titles without proper names translated by through translationTable 4.3 Titles of movie sequels translated by transference

Table 4.4 Titles without proper names of movies shown in the U.S before

released in Vietnam translated by transferenceTable 4.5 Movie titles without proper names translated by shift

Table 4.6 Movie titles without proper names translated by expansion

Table 4.7 Movie titles containing proper names translated by adaptation

Table 4.8 Movie titles containing proper names translated by transferenceTable 4.9 Frequency of couplet strategies

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter presents the problem and the rationale, the aims andobjectives, the scope, and the significance of the whole paper Most importantly, theresearch questions are identified to serve as a guideline for the whole research

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study

The French artist and novelist, Baker (2004, p.40) believes that “Movie is soimportant that it has become the first arts of human world In Vietnam, despite being afledgling industry, motion pictures have been rapidly developed and widely loved byVietnamese people, young and old alike According to Trinh (cited in Megastar Hé LộDoanh Số, 2012), film industry “has maintained significant growth” in the past fewyears and “the box office revenue of Megastar alone rises from $13.8 million in 2009 to

$47.8 million in 2012” In 2012, Hollywood’s films occupied up to “80% of the moviesscreened in Megastar Cineplex alone” (Thị Trường Điện Ảnh, 2012) As a result, movietranslation, apart from book translation or news translation, has become a dominantaspect of translation in the country Aware of this trend, quite a lot of dedicatedVietnamese researchers have conducted studies on movie translation “A Study on FilmTranslation” by Le (1999) and “A Study on the Translation of Filmscripts in English toVietnamese” by Le (2001) are some examples to name, just a few The studies covermany facets of movie translation such as translating film scripts, translating idioms inmovies However, translating film titles has remained undiscovered in those researches

Then, in an attempt to discover the translation of movie titles, in 2006, Tranconducted a study on “Translation of English Movie Titles into Vietnamese” Thisresearch, which may be regarded as the initial discussion about movie title translation inVietnam, covers many aspects of movie titles translation like functions and features ofmovie titles, and assumptions about principles in translating movie titles Although it is athorough and admirable research project, the study still exposes some inadequacies.First, the movie titles and the translators serving as the samples for the research wereselected from VTVs, HTV and Q.net It should have been noticed that films screened bythose entities were already released by a large number of cinemas Hence, employingthose sources might lead to inaccuracy as the translated titles might be borrowed ortaken from the previous screened ones Moreover, the study was asserted to be

concerned with the translation of English movie titles into Vietnamese, the researcher,however, also provided English movie titles, which were translated into other languagesincluding Russia, Germany, Japanese, etc without properly reasoning as well asanalyzing This might lead to questions about the role of those examples as well as theconfusion among readers However, in Vietnam, little to no research has been conducted

to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding about film title translationsince Tran’s work was released in 2006

Furthermore, Lu (2009) states that “the translation of English movie titles” hasnot “received due attention” despite “their importance” Discussing the importance ofthe titles to the success of movies, Prendergast (n.d.), a famous screenwriter, short film-maker, novelist and teacher at the University of Sydney and TropNest, says in her articlethat “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is not true in the case of film title.She also states that a title can help movie-makers “market” their products and “the title

of a film or a book or even a TV show plays a critical role in its success” This opinion iswidely shared by many other researchers and translators such as Patterson (2008), May(2010), etc Furthermore, Mei (2010) emphasizes the role of translation of movie titles inhis journal: “A good film title can arouse the readers’ interest to see a movie So, thetranslation of film title is of importance” Nevertheless, quite a lot of controversies haveemerged over translating movie title Hawley (2008) remarks that the translation ofmovie titles can “lead to the loss” of cultural and aesthetic features of the original titles

On the other hand, Andersen (2010) states that translation “causes misunderstandings inrelation to the movie and its audience.” In addition, Kelan and Wei (2006) also pointsout the existing problems in translating English movie titles, including “the messy andlow-quality” and “alienation and assimilation” Back to the situation of movietranslation in Vietnam, translating movie titles has perplexed not only translators butalso many others including film critics, moviegoers, etc Thus, in his article discussinginadequacies of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, Kha (2012)describes this issue as a “war” Meanwhile, Ruelle (2010) also lists out several problemsincluding the lack of feeling and original meaning faced by many Vietnamese translatorswhen translating movie titles Nowadays, the quality of film title translation isconsidered more significant as more movies are “released internationally” under the

“effect of globalization” (Translation of Film Titles, n.d.) How to translate the film titles

and how to make the translation attractive to the audience, therefore, become questionsthat the translators should consider during translation Hence, it will be useful andessential to figure out strategies as well as techniques in translating movie titles fromEnglish into Vietnamese in order to rectify the situation

Moreover, according to Hong (2010), regarding the “quality and quantity ofmovies shown in Vietnam”, Megastar “has advantage over other cinemas” In the annualreport from HSC (2011), Megastar is also regarded as the “leading company in theatrebusiness” in Vietnam Hence, it will be a wise choice to utilize film title resources andtranslators from Megastar Cineplex as the samples in order to fulfill the aims andobjectives of the research This will probably confirm the validity and assure thereliability of the paper

All the above reasons have inspired the researcher to conduct a study on

“Strategies and Techniques in Translating Movie Titles from English into Vietnamese

in Megastar Cineplex”.

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

First of all, the research paper is expected to determine the translation strategies,including methods and procedures which were employed to translate film titles inMegastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 Then, by investigating the translators who havethe experience of working for the Cineplex, the process of releasing a Vietnamese titlefor an English one, the principles and the techniques in translating movie titles areunveiled Hopefully, helpful implications may be made in order to ease the task oftranslating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in cinemas

In order to gain the objectives, the research attempts to seek the answers to thefollowing research questions:

1 What translation strategies were employed to translate titles of films screened inMegastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012?

2 What is the process of releasing Vietnamese titles for English movie titles in MegastarCineplex?

3 What are the principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, asperceived by the participants?

4 What are the techniques adopted by those translators in translating movie titles fromEnglish into Vietnamese?

1.3 Significance of the study

The paper will be particularly helpful for students and translators who have towork with movie titles Besides, it can be of some service to researchers who happen tohave an interest in the topic

First and foremost, the study is expected to be beneficial for students andtranslators who have to translate movie titles They will, to a certain extent, be aware oftranslation methods and procedures that can be applied in translating movie titles Then,based on the real context, they may be able to apply the most appropriate one in order toproduce the best translated titles In addition, the paper also offers a closer look at thejob of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese by examining translatorsworking for Megastar Cineplex Thence, students and other translators can gain and usesome experiences from the studied participants to deal with their own situation intranslating movie titles As a result, this will, to some extent, help to ease movie titletranslation

Secondly, the study is also expected to serve as a preliminary for furtherinvestigation on the issue The study has no ambition of forming any universal laws orgeneralizations Rather, it is meant to provide an in-depth understanding on thecomplexities of the issue Thence, it is hoped to establish the foundation for futurefurther investigation on movie title translation in particular, on title translation ingeneral In a nutshell, the study may act as the first step towards that end

1.4 Scope of the study

It is known that translation is complicated and involves a lot of theory.Meanwhile, the timeframe and the researcher’s expertise are limited Therefore, as it is

indicated in the title “Strategies and Techniques in Translating Movie Titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex”, this study is not expected to cover all

related themes of translation theory, but just focused on translation strategies employed

in translating movie titles in Megastar Cineplex and techniques suggested by the movietitle translators

Besides, it is noteworthy that the samples of the study are confined to the titles offilms that were shown in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 The researcher didacknowledge that the study would be much more trustworthy and efficient if she couldinvestigate all the titles of movies shown in Megastar Cineplex since 2006 (when the

Cineplex opened its first cinema in Vietnam) Despite her repeated attempts, theresearcher could not find any database containing such a huge number of movie titles.Hence, it was impossible to fulfill the ambition Moreover, because of their up-datedness, titles of movie shown in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 wereexamined instead

In addition, the translators acting as the participants in this research all haveexperience of working for Megastar Cineplex They were deliberately selected so thatthey could be available for the study and able to provide highly in-depth information oftheir situations, which might be helpful in understanding the complexities of the studiedissue

1.5 Organization of the paper

The rest of the paper includes following chapters:

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides the theoretical background of the study,including the overview of translation in general, a closer look on translation strategiesincluding methods and procedures in particular, and a discussion of the findings andassumptions related to movie titles

Chapter 3 (Research Methodology) describes the participants, the instruments aswell as the procedures that were employed to conduct the study

Chapter 4 (Results and Discussion) answers the research questions with datapresentation, data analysis and the comparison among the findings themselves and offerssome implications

Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, thelimitations of the research and some suggestions for further investigation

After chapter 5 are the references and appendices

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter presents the literature review of the study, specifically thebackground of translation, strategies of translation, movie and movie titles To beginwith, translation’s definition and translation strategies including translation methods andprocedures are provided Next, the chapter also introduces an overview on movie titles,which comprises of definition of movie and the background of movie titles with thecharacteristics and functions of movie titles Finally, the chapter ends with a brief review

of the assumptions related to principles in translating movie titles from English intoVietnamese, which discloses the research gap for the current study

2.1 An overview on translation strategies

Besides, from a specific perspective, Le and Nguyen (2008, p.3) say thattranslation can be considered either as “a product” or “a process” On the one hand, beingregarded as “a product”, translation may be seen as the text that has been translated Onthe other hand, translation means “a process” when it refers to the activity of translating

Moreover, translation scholars also introduce various opinions about translation as

a process Banja (2009) regards a translator as a “message conveyor”; hence, a translationmay be understood as “the process” In 1972, Harmant and Stork states that translationaims to render as close as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the “sourcelanguage” by finding equivalents in the “target language” Dubois (1973) shares the sameviewpoint: “Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of whathas been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylisticequivalences.” Newmark (1982, p.7) describes translation as “a craft consisting in anattempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the samemessage and/or statement in another language.” In his “A Textbook of Translation”

Newmark simplifies the definition of translation as “the rendering” of “the meaning of atext into another language in the same way that the author intended the text” (1988, p.5).

Thence, it can be concluded that translation, should be perceived in the scope ofthis paper as the process of conveying as accurately as possible the meaning and aestheticeffects of the ST into the TT

2.1.2.1 Methods of translation

Concerning translation methods, different ideas using different terms have beenintroduced by translation scholars Among those theories, the one offered by Newmark iswidely recognized for its significant influence on many successors

Eight translation methods proposed by Newmark are presented as follows:

Word-for-word translation

According to Newmark (1988, p.45), word-for-word translation is explained as

“interlinear translation, with the TL immediately below the SL words” Regarding thismethod, the word-order in the SL is preserved Words are translated by their “mostcommon meanings” despite other factors which may exert influences on the translationsuch as cultural differences, context, etc This is illustrated with the following instance:

He is a big liar.

 Anh ta là một lớn người nói dối.

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.22)

Literal translation

Similar to word-for-word translation, in literal translation, Newmark (1988, p.46)states that “lexical words” are translated singly, out of context Nevertheless, literaltranslation differs itself from word-for-word translation in the ability to convert the SLgrammatical constructions into their “nearest TL equivalents” Example is given below:

He is a big liar.

 Anh ta là một kẻ nói dối lớn

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.22)

Faithful translation

Newmark (1988, p.46) suggests that faithful translation seeks to “reproduce” the

“precise contextual meaning” of the ST within the “constraints” of the TT grammaticalstructures Hence, it renders cultural words and preserves the level of grammatical andlexical “abnormality” in the translation Furthermore, it tries to be absolutely “faithful” tothe “intentions” and “text-realization” of the SL author Below is an example:

He is as fast as a kangaroo.

 Nó nhanh như một con kanguru

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.23)

Semantic translation

Semantic translation puts great focus on the aesthetic value of the ST,

“compromising” on “meaning” where “appropriate” to avoid “assonance, word-play orrepetition jars” in the TT (Newmark, 1988, p.46) Moreover, it may translate “lessimportant cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms” The TT and STbelow can serve as the illustration of this translation method:

Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a peaceful oasis away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.

 Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê hồn, một ốc đảo yên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố.

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.25)

Communicative translation

Newmark (1988, p.47) mentions that communicative translation seeks to conveythe “exact contextual meaning” of the ST “in such a way that both content and languageare readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.” The “effectiveness of themessage to be communicated is the priority of this method” (Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.27)

An example of communicative translation is presented below:

Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a peaceful oasis away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.

 Hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp, yên tĩnh nằm ở trung tâm Hà Nội ồn ào.

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.27)

Idiomatic translation

Newmark (1988, p.47) states that idiomatic translation “reproduces the message”

of the ST but it is likely to “distort nuances of meaning” by employing “colloquialisms

and idioms” although these do not appear in the ST Below is the demonstration of thismethod:

Không ai nghe lời khuyên của cô ấy cả.

 Her advice fell on deaf ears.

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.31)

Free translation

As proposed by Newmark (1988, p.46), free translation translates the “content”without the “form” of the original text Hence, normally, it is a “paraphrase much longerthan the original” It is illustrated in the following instance:

Tide in, dirt out

“a kind of rewriting the text in translation” (Le & Nguyen, 2010, 32) The followingextract lyric of a song can demonstrate this translation method:

Nắm tay nhau cùng bước bên nhau vì hạnh phúc nhân loại Nắng phương đông chiếu sáng SEAGAMES Việt Nam hân hoan chào đón.

(Quang Vinh, cited in Nguyen, 2005)

 Hand in hand for happiness mankind we walk together Eastern sun shines up SEAGAMES Vietnam’s been expecting for long.

(Nguyen Ha, cited in Nguyen, 2005)

2.1.2.2 Procedures of translation

Regarding translation procedures, different scholars have different classifications.For example, Nida (cited in Le & Nguyen, 2010) groups them into 4 types, including

changes of order, omission, structure and addition Meanwhile, Vinay and Darbelnet

(cited in Le & Nguyen, 2010) proposes seven translation procedures, comprising of loan,

caique, literal, translation, transposition, modulation, total syntagmatic change, adaptation Among theories related to translation procedures, the one introduced by

Newmark seems widely recognized for its significant influence on many successors.

Translation procedures proposed by Newmark are presented as follows:

Transference

Newmark (1988, p.81) states that transference, which is also called

“transcription”, is the “process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translationprocedure” This means translators will directly take the SL word into TL with notranslation Two examples offered by the researcher are given below:

Naturalisation

According to Newmark (1988, p.82), this procedure “adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then – to the normal morphology (word- forms) of the TL” Naturalisation procedure can be seen in the following translations:

(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.35)

Through translation

Through-translation is defined by Newmark (1988, p.82) as “the literal translation

of common colocations, names of organizations, the components of compounds and

perhaps phrases” and it is known as “caique or loan translation” (Newmark, 1988, p.82).

Some examples are given below:

of the adjective, the change of an SL verb to a TL noun and so forth Some examples are:

After her return Sau khi cô ấy trở lại

Hat-trick (sport term) Hat-trick Madonna (name of a singer) Madonna

(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.37)

Modulation

The term modulation is used to define “a variation through a change of viewpoint,

or perspective and very often of category of thought” (Vinay & Darbelnet, cited inNewmark, 1988, p 88) This procedure includes three main types, namely one part for another, passive for active or vice versa, positive for double-negative or vice versa The following instances illustrate this procedure:

She cleared her throat… Cô ấy hắng giọng… One part <=>another

The roof was damaged by the storm. Trận bão phá hỏng cả

mái nhà. Passive <=>active

(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.37-38)

Cultural equivalent

In this procedure, a SL “cultural word” is translated by an equivalent “culturalword” in TL (Newmark, 1988, p 82-83) This is used in the following translation:

He graduated after obtaining a degree with (high) distinction.

 Anh ta tốt nghiệp loại giỏi (xuất sắc).

(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.38)

Functional equivalent

As it is suggested by Newmark (1988, p.83), this procedure is “applied to translate

“cultural words” in the SL, which “requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimeswith a new specific term” in the TL; hence, “it neutralizes or generalizes the SL, andsometimes adds a particular” This is shown in the instance given by the researcher:

The White House decided to lift trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994.

 Vào năm 1994, Chính phủ Hoa Kỳ đã quyết định bãi bỏ lệnh cấm vận thương mại đối với Việt Nam.

Descriptive equivalent

When this procedure is used, the meaning of the “original word is explained inseveral words” (Newmark, 1988, p 83) Descriptive equivalent procedure is often usedwith “transference to translate a cultural word” (Newmark, 1988, p.84) This is illustrated

in the following example given by the researcher:

To attend the Salsa course, you must pay the tuition fee first.

 Để có thể tham gia khóa học Salsa (một điệu nhảy kết hợp giữa các điệu nhảy Latin) trước tiên bạn phải trả học phí

Synonym

According to Newmark (1988, p.84), this procedure is a "near TL equivalent” andemployed “for a SL word where there is no clear one-to-one equivalent, and the word isnot important in the text, in particular for adjectives or adverbs of quality” Thisprocedure is shown in the instance offered by the researcher:

He is a good student.

 Em ấy là một học trò ngoan.

Recognised translation

A translator should normally use the “official or the generally accepted translation

of any institutional term” (Newmark, 1988, p.89) In other word, a in translating a SLterm, translator should accept the translated term that is widely “recognised” in TLinstead of creating his own new translation, for example:

Ủy Ban Dân Tộc

 State Committee of Ethnic Minority Affairs.

(Vu, 2005, p.17)

Compensation

According to Newmark (1988, p.90), this occurs when “loss of meaning, effect, metaphor or pragmatic effect in one part of a sentence is compensated in anotherpart, or in a contiguous sentence This is shown in the instance given by the researcher:

sound-Hey buddy! Today is this dude’s due date Have anything to cheer him up.

 Này anh bạn, hôm nay gã này đen đủ đường Có gì giúp cậu ta giải sầu không?

Translation label

Newmark (1988, p 90) regards this as “provisional translation, usually of a newinstitutional term” and it “should be made in inverted commas, which can later bediscreetly withdrawn” In other words, the translation must be put in quotation marks

“until and unless it becomes generally accepted”(Newmark, n.d) This is illustrated byone example given by the researcher:

Harvard is one of eight universities in Ivy League.

 Harvard là một trong tám trường đại học thuộc “Liên đoàn Ivy”.

Componential analysis

According to Newmark (1988, p 90), this is “the splitting up of a lexical unit intoits sense components, often one-to-two, -three or –four translations” Newmark also adds:

“Normally the SL word has a more specific meaning than the TL, and the translator has toadd one or two TL sense components to the corresponding TL” (1988, p.114) Below is

an instance offered by the researcher:

Họ khiêu vũ rất đẹp.

 They dance ( + couple, + gently) very well.

Paraphrase

“This is an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of the text It

is used in an ‘anonymous’ text when it is poorly written, or has important implicationsand omissions” (Newmark, 1988, p 90) An example is provided by the researcher:

Năm 1945, tại quảng trường Ba Đình, Người đã đọc bản Tuyên ngôn độc lập

 In 1911, at Ba Dinh square, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence

Reduction and expansion

According to Newmark (1988, p 90), these are rather imprecise translationprocedures In simple terms, reduction implies “omission of a word from an expression”,which “is not essential for understanding”; whereas “expansion is a rather descriptiveway of translating an expression and involves the use of a greater number of words in TLthan in SL” (Václavíková, 2006) Two examples of the procedures are given below:

or a cultural equivalent.”

To attend the barbecue, you must have a student ID

 Để được dự tiêc barbecue (bữa tiệc ngoài trời, đồ ăn được nướng trên bết cũng đặt ngoài trời), anh phải mang theo thẻ sinh viên.

(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p 39)

2.2 An overview on movie titles

2.2.1 Definition of movie

The word “movie” sounds simple and familiar to people, however; it is stillnecessary to clearly define the term in order to avoid any ambiguity

According to OALD, Movie (n.d.) is “a series of moving pictures recorded with

sound that tells a story, shown at the cinema/movie theater” and its synonym is “film”

When it comes to the definition of Film (n.d.), OALD says that the term means “a series

of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown on television or at thecinema/movie theater” There is a slight difference between them: Both can be shown atthe cinema, however, only film can refer to “moving pictures” shown “on television”.However, the research only concerns movies or films shown in Megastar Cineplex.Hence, within the scope of the paper, the two terms are used interchangeably to denote “aseries of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown at thecinema/movie theater”

2.2.2 Movie titles in English

2.2.2.1 Functions of movie titles in English

Discussing the functions of movie titles, Tran (2006) states that titles can “provideinformation” about the film by “summarizing the main plot, uncovering the theme, oroffering some ideas” Although a title might be “vague, abstract or hard to capture themeaning”, people still catch a certain notion of the film She also adds that movie titlesshould act as audience “attracter” because it can stimulate the interest and desire forwatching the movies of audience

Sharing the same point of view, Andersen (2010) also suggests that film titlesmainly aim to attract moviegoers Movie titles is “privileged and prioritized” becausethey are the most “visual of a movie’s promotional features” and they are “displayed” topublic before films “run” in the cinemas

The two viewpoints are obviously right However, restricting the functions ofmovie titles within supplying some information about the film and attracting audiencedoes not seem very appropriate because naming a movie is “the play writer’s painstakingconception” (Wang, 2007) Hence, titles surely contain artistic creativity Acknowledgingthis, Wang (2010) and Sun (2007) agree that movie titles have three main functionsincluding “informative function”, “aesthetic function” and “vocative function”

Informative function

Discussing the functions of language, Newmark (1988, p.40) states “The core ofthe informative function of language is external situation, the facts of a topic, realityoutside language” Similarly, the informative function of movie titles means providing the

“potential audience” some “relevant information” about the movies (Wang, 2007) The

“relevant information” may include the genre, the main characters, the plot or setting, etc

of the movie For example, the title The dark knight rises (2012) may let moviegoers

know that this is an action film about hero called “the dark knight”

Aesthetic function

Newmark (1988, p.42) suggests that aesthetic function means “please the senses”.Regarding movie titles, this function allows audience to gain sensory “enjoyment” byusing “delicate language” which may contain “vivid images, musical words or variousrhetorical devices” (Sun, 2007) In fact, not all the movie titles can perform this function

Vocative function

The vocative function of language aims at the “readership”, “addressee” and callsupon them to “act, think or feel”, which means to “react” in the way “intended by thetext” (Newmark, 1988, p.41) When the theory of vocative function is applied to movietitles, the “readership” and the “addressees” here refer to “moviegoers” (Sun, 2007).Hence, regarding movie titles, the vocative function is to “draw attention of audience”and “make them psychologically interested” in watching the movies (Sun, 2007)

2.2.2.2 Characteristics of movie titles in English

According to Wang (2007), English movie titles have four main characteristics.These include being “brief and concentrated”, having “heroes’ and heroines’ names astitles”, having “settings as titles” and being “attractive”

This point of view is similar to that of Tran (2006), who proposes three maincharacteristics of English movie titles The first one is being “brief and concise” The tworemaining characteristics are “descriptive” and “containing proper names”

It seems that of the two conclusions, Tran’s appears to be the better for somereasons Firstly, Wang’s ideas about characteristics of movie titles are presented based onthe researcher’s assumptions without evidence while Tran’s are strongly supported withvarious samples Moreover, Tran groups names of hero and heroine, and settings into

“proper names”, which appears to be more concise Besides, the word “attractive” may be

vague because whether a movie title is attractive or not depends much on sensoryperception of each individual Hence, it seems hasty for Wang (2007) to say that being

“attractive” is a characteristic of English movie titles

Furthermore, Newmark (1988, p.57) suggests that titles can be “descriptive” or

“allusive” It is quite easy to list out allusive English movie titles such as The silence of

the lambs (1991), Red (2010), etc Hence, Tran (2006) appears to miss “allusive”

characteristic of English movie titles

Thence, it can be concluded in this paper that English movie titles generally havethree main characteristics, namely brief and concise, containing proper names anddescriptive or allusive These characteristics are further explained, as follows:

Brief and concise

Generally, English movie titles appear in the forms of a word, a phrase or asentence When being a phrase, movie titles usually consist of one or several “key words”

(Wang, 2007) Some titles can be given as examples such as At World’s End (2007), On

Stranger Tides (2011), etc As a sentence, they appear “succinct and simple in structure”

(Tran, 2006) Some examples are Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not

Enough (1999), etc Although English movie titles are brief, they are “expressive and

suggestive” words which convey much information (Tran, 2006)

Containing proper names

“One outstanding feature of English movies is that they often contain propernames” (Tran, 2006) that are "names of a particular person, place or thing" and arespelled "with a capital letter" (Richards, Platt & Weber, 1985, p.68) In other words, theyare often named after the main character(s) or the setting where the story occurs Some

titles include main character’s name are Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), Sherlock Holmes: A

Game of Shadows (2011), etc Meanwhile, a lot of titles contain names of the setting in

the movie such as Pearl Harbor (2001), Nothing Hill (1999), etc

Descriptive or allusive

According to Newmark (1988, p.57), titles which are descriptive “describe thetopic” directly while those, allusive, “have some kind of referential or figurativerelationship to the topic” Hence, a descriptive title is able to “provide the audience with a

general idea of a story” (Tran, 2006) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

(2012), which unveils the adventure to a totally strange place of a pirate captain (Jack

Sparrow), is such a title Besides, an allusive title “serves” as the connection between the

“work” and “certain things outside it”, which the “artist” wants to “resonate with the

work as it is experienced” (Levinson, 2011) The Vow (2012) is an example The movie

portraits the abiding love between a couple, in which the husband, Leo works to winPaige’s, his wife, heart again after a car accident makes her suffer from severe memoryloss In fact, it appears that “more descriptive movie titles than allusive ones are found” inEnglish because the language is “straight to the point” as declared by Tran (2006)

2.3 Principles of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese

Quite a few assumptions about the principles in translating movie titles have beenmade so far Wang (2007) advocates 4 main principles:

1) Faithfulness: It requires the translator to put in time and energy on the conciseness of the script and try to display the connotation of the movie

2) Cultural awareness: The translator should be aware of cultural information, fully understand it, and properly translate it to the understanding of the target audience.

3) Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects: A well-translated title should be a perfect combination of attractiveness and quaintness, and capable of achieving both commercial and aesthetic effects.

4) Artistic quality: The movie title itself is an art A good translation must be a good artistic work

The assumption seems to expose inadequacy This lies in the vague differentiation

of “aesthetic effects” and “artistic quality” while Wang (2007) offers little adequateexplanation Hence, this may lead to the confusion among readers

Meanwhile, Tran (2006) remarks 4 principles of English movie title translation:1) Faithfulness to the context: The faithfulness is shown in the way that the title should be in either direct or indirect connection with the movie itself.

2) Consideration of movie genres: It is necessary to take movie genres into account The translated titles should be produced in a way that can convey the movie genre

3) Cultural awareness: Translation should be acculturation and negotiation between two cultures and translation is now culturally oriented A translator should be aware of and knowledgeable about the extinctive features of English movie titles to avoid mistranslation

4) Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects: Commercially, a movie title is crucial in marketing and appealing to the moviegoers However, the translation cannot go too far out of the original and the movie itself

Tran (2006) and Wang (2007) appear to share the similar ideas However, here, Tranproposes “consideration of movie genre” which is not mentioned by Wang (2007)

Nevertheless, these are all only assumptions about the principles in translatingEnglish movie titles Until now, little to no research investigating the translators whowork with movie titles has been conducted on this matter Thus, this is a gap for thepresent study to examine

Chapter summary

In this chapter, an overview of translation strategies has been provided.Translation can be perceived as the process of conveying as accurately as possible themeaning and aesthetic effects of the source text into the target text Furthermore,discussing strategies of translation, eight methods and sixteen procedures of translationhave been mentioned The former consists of Word-for-word, Literal, Faithful, Semantic,Adaptation, Free, Idiomatic and Communicative translation Meanwhile, the lattercomprises of Transference, Naturalization, Through Translation, Shift, Modulation,Cultural Equivalent, Functional equivalent, Descriptive Equivalent, Synonym,Recognised translation, Compensation, Translation label, Componential analysis,Paraphrase, Reduction/ Expansion and Couplet

Next, an overview on movie and movie titles has been offered Movie can bedefined as a series of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown at thecinema Regarding movie titles in English, they have three main functions, namelyinformative, aesthetic and vocative It seems that because of those functions, Englishmovie titles generally share some notable characteristics A great number of movie titles

in English contain proper names which might be names of the movie’s character or ofsettings Besides, they are usually brief and concise, which means they appear in the form

of only a word, phrase and sometimes a sentence The last characteristic is that Englishmovie titles can be descriptive (describing the topic) or allusive (connecting the title withcertain things outside it)

Finally, the brief review of the assumptions of some principles in translatingEnglish movie titles has detected a research gap for the researcher to bridge by seekinganswers for the research questions

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to the presentation of the methodology of the research.This includes the research approach, the sampling, the methods of data collection and theprocedures of data collection and analysis

3.1 Qualitative and quantitative approaches

In the study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed becauseintegrating them has “certain advantages” (Creswell, Clark, Gutman, & Handson, 2003).First of all, integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches in development researchcan help achieve insightful results that “neither approach would produce on its own”

(Woolcock & Rao, 2003) Besides, this particular research concerns two major issues,

namely strategies and techniques employed in translating movie titles For the formerissue, it was necessary to examine translated movie titles from English into Vietnamesethen counting and calculating the methods and procedures that were employed Thencequantitative approach was used because it concerns with “the collection and analysis ofdata in numeric form” and “tends to emphasize relatively large-scale and representativesets of data” (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 1996, p.61) Meanwhile, the latter issue, morecomplicated one, would be explored by investigating a number of specific translators.Hence, only by utilizing qualitative can the researcher gain “an insider's view of the field”(Burns, cited in Le, 2010) Therefore, only by integrating both quantitative and qualitativeapproach could the research study both translated movie titles and translators toultimately discover the answers for the research issues

3.2 Design of the study

As mentioned above, the research ultimately sought to explore the strategies andtechniques employed among translators in translating English movie title intoVietnamese Because of this nature, it was necessary to investigate both translated movietitles and movie title translators Hence, the study was divided into two phases Phase onedealt with movie titles in order to make general description of the strategies applied intranslating movie titles Meanwhile, in phase a number of translators would be examined,aiming to provide a closer understanding about the process of releasing movie titles, theprinciples and techniques employed by the participants in translating English movie titles

into Vietnamese Therefore, two different instruments were used in the two phases tocollect the needed data so that it could answer different research questions

3.3 Phase one

This phase aimed to seek the answers for the first research question:

1) What translation strategies were employed to translate titles of films screened inMegastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012?

3.3.1 Sampling

The study took advantage of purposive sampling, in which samples are “selectedbecause it serves the real purpose and objectives of the researcher of discovering, gaininginsight and understanding into a particular chosen phenomenon” (Burns, 2000, p.465) As

it was indicated in the title, the study only concerns the translated movie titles inMegastar Cineplex Hence, movie titles investigated in the research were chosenpurposively

At first, the researcher intended to choose all the English titles of movies that hadbeen released by Megastar Cineplex since 2006 so that the findings would be moretrustworthy However, there were certain obstacles that made the intention unfeasible Onthe one hand, given that approximately 70 movies were shown every year, there would beabout 500 titles from 2006 to 2012 The researcher was uncertain whether she couldinvestigate such a huge number of samples within four months On the other hand, nomatter how hard she attempted, the researcher could not find the database containingnames of movies shown in Megastar since 2006

Thence, movie titles were selected based on the following criteria First, the titlesmust belong to movies that were released by Megastar Cineplex In addition, all of thetitles must be original in English Besides, movie titles must be up-to-date so that theywould be accessible and reliable to serve as the samples for the research

Finally, 146 titles of movies shown by Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 wereselected based on the above criteria Then, they were listed in time order This means thatthe films shown first would be ranked first in the list

3.3.2 Data collection method

Data collection method

In this phase of the study, document analysis served as the method of datacollection After careful consideration, this method was chosen for the following reasons.Firstly, by using document analysis, the researcher “attempts” to provide “a confluence of

evidence that breeds credibility” (Eisner, 1991, p 110) Besides, as a research method,document analysis is particularly applicable to produce rich descriptions of a singlephenomenon, event, organization, or program (Stake, 1995)

Data collection instrument

As document analysis was chosen as the data collection method, the instrumentsemployed to gather data would be 146 selected movie titles in English and theirVietnamese translated version

A brief description of selected English movie titles would be provided First of all,regarding the briefness and conciseness of the selected movie titles, 39 titles are formed

by one word, occupying 26.71% Meanwhile, 102 titles are formed by phrase, accounting69.86% and only 5 titles are formed by one sentence, making up 3.42% In addition, 41(28.08%) out of 146 titles contain proper names Moreover, 126 (86.30%) titles aredescriptive Meanwhile, only 20 (13.70%) titles are allusive

3.3.3 Data collection procedures

In this phase, the data collection procedure basically consisted of three mainsteps as follows:

Step 1: Collecting movie titles

The very initial and essential step of this research is collecting movie titles.Unfortunately, no database containing names of movies that were shown in Megastar in

2011 was available on the official website of the Cineplex This forced the researcher tofind the 2011 session times on the third-party website, 24h.com.vn However, there wereonly Vietnamese titles of the movies shown in Megastar in 2011 on the website Hence,

an attempt to find the English original names of the movies was made by typing theVietnamese translated titles adding with Megastar on Google This led the researcher tothe official pages of Megastar, which showed the movie’s trailers and original Englishtitles

Step 2: Establishing database of original and translated movie titles

It was necessary to establish a database containing both original English titles andtheir Vietnamese translated version so that it would be easier and more convenient toinvestigate the samples in order to find out the employed translation strategies Hence, allthe collected titles were arranged chronologically This means the movie shown firstwould rank first in the database

The list would be enclosed in Appendix 1.

Step 3: Localizing the titles containing proper names

From the established database, the researcher continued to further classify Englishmovie titles As it was mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, movie titles generally have threemain characteristics, namely brief and concise, containing proper names and descriptive

or allusive However, in order to facilitate data analysis procedure and avoid anyoverlapping, movie titles were divided into two main categories based on thecharacteristic of containing proper names These include titles containing proper names(41 titles) and without proper names (105 titles) It is noteworthy that all of 20 allusivetitles belong to the category of movie titles without proper names The ratio of thesecategories would be present in the following chart:

Figure 3.1 Ratio of movie titles with and without proper names

3.3.4 Data analysis procedures

First, movie titles without proper names were analyzed and compared with theirtranslations in order find out the strategies applied for translating such movie titles inMegastar Cineplex

Then, the titles containing proper names were also analyzed and compared withtheir translations in order find out the strategies employed in translating them

After each step, the findings were statistically synthesized to answer the firstresearch question regarding the strategies utilized in translating English movie titles intoVietnamese The results would be, then, presented in tables and charts

3.4 Phase two

This phase aimed to seek the answers for the three last research questions:

2 What is the process of releasing Vietnamese titles for English movie titles in MegastarCineplex?

3 What are the principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, asperceived by the selected translators?

4 What are the techniques adopted by those translators in translating movie titles fromEnglish into Vietnamese?

3.4.1 Sampling

In order to answer the three last research questions, it was necessary to ask for theparticipation of translators working for Megastar Cineplex The selection criterion wasthat the participants must have experience of working for Megastar and translating movietitles At first, five translators were purposively chosen based on these criteria However,due to their rigorous and rigid schedule, and heavy workload, not all of them could beavailable for the study Hence, convenience sampling in which “people are sampledsimply because they are convenient sources of data for researcher” (Lavrakas, 2008) wasutilized to select three participants

3.4.2 Data collection method

Data collection method

Interview is “verbal interchange” in which the interviewer tries to “obtaininformation or expressions of opinion or belief from another person or persons” (King &Horrocks, 2010, p.20) Interview can be used to “elicit information in order to achieve aholistic understanding of the interviewee’s point of view or situation” (Berry, 1999).Furthermore, Maykut and Morehouse (1994, p.46) also state that one of the most usefulways of gathering “data of qualitative” which inquires “most often people’s words andactions” is “interview” In this phase of the study, the experience of the translators wasconcerned; hence, interview would be utilized as the data collection method

Data collection instrument

Face-to-face or “in-person” (Fink, 2003, p.1) interviews of semi-structured typewere employed because of their enormous advantages First of all, face-to-face interviewshave a “distinct advantage of enabling the researcher to establish rapport with potentialparticipants”, “gain their cooperation”, “yield highest response rates in survey research”and “allow the researcher to clarify ambiguous answers and when appropriate as well asseek follow-up information” (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001) In addition, semi-structured ofinterview involves “a number of interviewer questions prepared in advance”, but they are

“designed to be sufficiently open” (Wengraf, 2001, p.5) With the prepared questions, itmay be ensured that “the same general areas of information are collected” (McNamara,cited in Le, 2010) Furthermore, with semi-structured interview, researchers can have

“enough flexibility to adapt questions to the answers of participants” or “avoid someissues when deemed necessary by the situation” (Watzlawik & Born, 2007, p 41).

Both closed and open-ended questions were included in the interviews Theparticipants were separately interviewed Each interview lasted about 20 minutes

3.4.3 Data collection procedures

The data collection procedures basically consisted of three main steps, whichwould be presented as follows:

Step 1: Preparation

At this phase, the interview questions were first drafted out Next, the interviewquestions were sent to the supervisor for comments and corrections Subsequently, threetranslators were contacted to request for their participation Here, the purpose of the studyand the guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity of their participation in the researchwere mentioned Subsequently, the draft of interview questions was sent to threetranslators in advance This aimed to correct and clarify the interview questions ifnecessary for the official interviews Not until the interview questions were approved bythe supervisor and the translators did the researcher arrange the interview schedules

Step 2: Conducting the interviews

Three interviews were conducted face-to-face and in Vietnamese The researcherbegan each interview by ensuring the respondent of their being anonymous in the currentstudy During the interview process, apart from the designed questions, some additionalones were also asked to obtain further information and improve the clarity whennecessary

Moreover, the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that all the mattersrelevant to the researched issues would be clearly stated and the participants could freelyexpress their opinions

Besides, for the convenience of later revision of the data, all the interviews wererecorded with the permission of the informants In addition, note-taking was alsoemployed as a useful additional tool to record the interview and help the researcher easilyrecognize where and when to raise questions for clarity

3.4.4 Data analysis procedures

According to Gubrium and Holstein (2002, p 133), the two steps in the interview stage” are “transcription and interpretation Hence, in order to analyze collecteddata, the interviews were firstly transcribed Subsequently, the researcher studied the

“post-transcripts for several times in order to interpret the emerging themes relating to thestudied issue

Next, the data would be coded and integrated into different themes and presentedsystematically in order to answer research questions

Then, the data of different cases would be compared to each other and to theliterature review in order to find out any similarities and differences The data wereanalyzed and discussed in accordance with research questions

Chapter summary

In brief, the research was conducted with both qualitative and quantitativeapproaches This could investigate a great number of movie titles as well as provide aninsightful description of the data from three participants 146 titles of movies shown from

2011 to 2012 in Megastar Cineplex were chosen purposively Three out of fivepurposively selected translators were picked based on convenience sampling The movietitles and their translations were analyzed and calculated to find out the employedtranslation methods and procedures Meanwhile, three participants who have experience

of translating movie titles were invited to take part in the in-person semi-structuredinterviews The interviews were recorded and then transcribed to look for emergingthemes Then, all the data collected from calculating the methods and procedures intranslating English movie titles and from the interviews would be categorized andanalyzed according to different themes related to the research issues The results of thestudy would be presented and discussed in Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, what was found from the collected data would be summarizedaccording to the research questions

4.1 Phase one

The data gained from analyzing 146 English movie titles and their translatedversions in the first phase were to answer the first research question regarding thetranslation strategies employed in translating movie titles

4.1.1 Research question 1: The translation strategies employed in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012

4.1.1.1 Strategies applied for translating 105 movie titles without proper names

Data analysis revealed that six procedures and one method were employed intranslating English movie titles into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012.The number of titles translated by each strategy was converted into percentage andpresented in the pie chart below:

Figure 4.1 Movie titles without proper names translated by different strategies

As can be seen from the pie chart, the most dominant strategy was adaptation with33.33% (35 titles) of the selected movie titles translated by this method Data analysisalso revealed that when adaptation was used, new titles were always reproduced based on

the movies’ content In addition, almost all of 20 allusive titles (apart from 50/50, Treelife and Winter’s Bones) were translated by this strategy This showed a trend of turning

allusive titles in English into descriptive ones in Vietnamese Some titles can be listed inthe table below:

English title Vietnamese

Limitless Trí lực siêu phàm A writer takes an experimental drug that

allows him to use 100 percent of his mind Asone man evolves into the perfect version ofhimself, forces more corrupt than he canimagine mark him for assassination

The Vow Yêu lại từ đầu A car accident puts Paige in a coma, and

when she wakes up with severe memory loss,her husband Leo works to win her heart again

Table 4.1 Allusive movie titles translated by adaptation

The percentage of 23.81% (26 titles) made through translation the second-mostcommonly used strategy The literally translated titles sounded natural in Vietnamese.Some examples are given in the table below:

English title Vietnamese translation

Man on the Edge Người đàn ông trên gờ tường

Table 4.2 Movie titles without proper names translated by through translation

Transference was employed to translate 20% of the titles It seemed that Englishtitles widely known by Vietnamese audience were translated by this strategy Thoseincluded sequels of movie series, films screened widely in the producing place a longtime before being shown in Vietnam Some examples are given in the tables below:

English title Vietnamese translation

Kungfu Panda 2 Kungfu Panda 2

Men in Black III Men in Black III

Table 4.3 Titles of movie sequels translated by transference

English title Vietnamese

translation

Releasing date in the

U.S

Releasing date in Vietnam

The King’s Speech The King’s Speech September 10, 2010 June 10, 2011

Mirror Mirror Mirror Mirror March 30, 2012 April 20, 2012

The Descendants The Descendants December 9, 2011 April 13, 2012

Table 4.4 Titles without proper names of movies shown in the U.S before released in

Vietnam translated by transference

In addition, shift was utilized to translate 8.57% of the movie titles Translatorshad no choice but changing the position of adjective when translating the English titlesforming by an adjective and a noun into Vietnamese Meanwhile, noun phrases seemed to

be changed into the combinations of a noun and a verb Some instances are given in thetable below:

English title Vietnamese translation

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift Kỷ băng hà 4: Lục địa trôi dạt

Resident Evil: Retribution Vùng đất dữ báo thù

Table 4.5 Movie titles without proper names translated by shift

Also, expansion and reduction were employed to translate 8.57% of the movie

titles Reduction was used twice to translate I am number 4 into Số 4 and The Twilight

Saga: Breaking Dawn in to Hừng đông The rest were translated by expansion Generally,

the translations were added adjectives Some are listed in the table below:

English title Vietnamese translation

No Strings Attached Yêu không ràng buộc

Winter’s Bones Xương trắng mùa đông

Table 4.6 Movie titles without proper names translated by expansion

Finally, the least utilized strategies were couplet and cultural equivalent Each was

employed to translate 2.86% of the titles Couplet was used to translate Big Mommas 3:

Like Father Like Son into Big Mommas 3: Cha nào con nấy; Spy kid 4: All the Time in the World into Spy Kid 4: Kẻ cắp thời gian and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 into The Twilight Saga: Hừng đông 2 Those titles shared a common feature that: they are the

sequels of movie series The parts that showed the name of movie series were all

translated by transference and the rest were translated by cultural equivalent, adaptationand through translation respectively Meanwhile, the titles translated by cultural

equivalent included Puss in Boots, The Smurfs and 50/50 Those titles were translated into

Mèo Đi Hia, Xì Trum and Hên – xui respectively It appeared that the titles containing

cultural words tended to be translated by this procedure

In conclusion, to translate movie titles from English into Vietnamese in MegastarCineplex from 2011 to 2012, six procedures and one method were employed Thoseincluded transference, through translation, shift, expansion/reduction, cultural equivalentand couplet; and adaptation, the only method Adaptation, which was the most dominantstrategy, together with shift and expansion or reduction was applied for translating morethan half of the investigated titles, showing the tendency towards naturalness in TL

4.1.1.2 Strategies applied for translating 41 movie titles containing proper names

Data analysis revealed that transference, adaptation and couplet were utilized asthe strategies to translate movie titles containing proper names in Megastar Cineplex from

2011 to 2012 The details of employed strategies are shown in the chart below:

Figure 4.2 Distribution of trategies used to translate movie titles without proper namesFirstly, 21.95% (9 titles) of the titles containing proper names were translated byadaptation When the method was adopted, new titles were reproduced based on themovies’ content and all the proper names in the original titles were eliminated in thetranslated versions Some titles are illustrated in the table below:

English title Vietnamese

English title Vietnamese

translation

Storyline

Burlesque Vũ nữ A small town singer moves to the big city for her

chance at stardom when she discovers Burlesque, aglamorous nightclub packed with dancers, sizzlingmusical numbers, and an owner in need of a star

21 Jump

Street

Cớm học đường A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a

local high school to blend in and bring down asynthetic drug ring

Table 4.7 Movie titles containing proper names translated by adaptation

It seemed that adaptation was employed because translations remaining faithful tothe original titles might fail to fulfill two functions of movie titles: informative and

vocative For instance, if 21 Jump Street was translated into Số 21 phố Jump, the translation might sound unattractive and fail to convey the movie’s genre to the majority

of moviegoers

Besides, 26.83% (11) titles were translated by transference procedure Most of thetitles contained one or two key words, which are also the names of the main characters They are listed in the table below:

English title Vietnamese translation

Table 4.8 Movie titles containing proper names translated by transference

Meanwhile, 51.22% of the selected titles containing proper names were translated

by couplets They were the combinations of transference or naturalization or throughtranslation with paraphrase, shift, expansion/reduction and synonym Transference,naturalization and through translation were used to translate proper names This can bedescribed by this formula: Transference/Naturalization/Through + Other procedure Thefrequency of such couplets is shown in the table below:

Type of couplet Frequency

Transference + Through 5

Transference + Paraphrase 4

Transference + Expansion/Reduction 4Naturalization + Through 1

Table 4.9 Frequency of couplet strategies

It can be seen from the table that when two procedures were combined to translateone title, transference seemed to be preferred to deal with proper names

In conclusion, the couplets of transference and other procedures was the mostdominant strategy in dealing with movie titles containing proper names Transference wascommonly used for the titles containing one or two words which are also names of themain characters Meanwhile, adaptation appeared to be employed when translationsfaithful to the original titles failed to fulfill informative and vocative functions of movietitles

4.2 Phase two

The data obtained in the second phase provide the answers to the last threeresearch questions related to the process of releasing movie titles, principles, andtechniques in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex.First, an analysis of three cases with emerging themes would be presented Then, asummary of findings would be provided in response to the research questions.

4.2.1 Case analysis

4.2.1.1 Case 1: Quang

 Background information

Quang is a professional movie translator He worked for Megastar Cineplex from

2009 to middle 2012 In Megastar, he translated both movie subtitles and titles Quangsaid that he had translated 100 movies or so for Megastar Now, he works for PlatinumMedia Company Limited and occupies the position of Film Marketing Manager Amongthe three participants, Quang appears to be the most experienced movie translator

 The process of releasing a movie title in Megastar

According to Quang, before being released in Vietnam, one translated title has toundergo certain phases First, marketing staffs in Megastar introduces the movie which isabout to be screened Next, one group of translators will be assigned to translate themovie’s title and subtitle Then, the group will discuss to choose the most suitableVietnamese title to submit to distribution manager in Megastar If the title is notapproved at this stage, the group will have to re-translate it After being approved by thedistribution manager, the title will then be submitted to the original studio producing anddistributing the movie Here, the Vietnamese title is termed “local title” If the local title isapproved by the original studio, it will be released; otherwise, it will be sent back toMegastar for edition Quang said that the strictness of the process depended much on theoriginal studios and the “blockbusters” that would be shown In his opinion, the process,generally, is not difficult He also added that it was the Cinema Department of Vietnam

who stipulated that English movie titles had to be translated into Vietnamese: “90% of

movie titles are required to be translated by Cinema Department of Vietnam” However,

certain movies like Avatar (2009), Parker (2012), Thor (2011), etc were still released in

Vietnamese under the original English titles For these cases, Quang asserted that they had

to ask for permission from the Cinema Department of Vietnam

 The principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese:

The first principle Quang mentioned was “being faithful to the originals” “Itmeans a translated title must help audience know exactly the original movie it addresses”,Quang said If the title is descriptive and easy-to-understand, his translation would befaithful to the original one Otherwise, the translated title should be loyal to the content ofthe movie “I think the content of the movie decides 70 – 80% of how the title will betranslated into Vietnamese”, Quang emphasized

The second principle discussed by Quang was “fulfilling the commercial purpose”.This means, according to him, translated titles should be ear-catching and appealingenough to attract moviegoers Furthermore, Quang noted that movie’s brand name, ineither English or Vietnamese, which was familiar to and popular among Vietnameseaudience, should be unchanged “This is particularly true for blockbusters, movie series ormovie adapted from famous books, novels, comics or cartoons, etc.”, Quang stated Heillustrated this with an example:

“The Host (2013) is such a case […] The Vietnamese translated title Vật chủ sounds conventional However, it is so popular that I just need to mention Vật chủ without any explanation, Vietnamese fans of the novel will know it is a movie adapted from The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

Therefore, we did not edit or create new Vietnamese title but used the translated one.”

Quang added another important rule to fulfill commercial purpose: “Vietnamesetranslated titles ought to have no namesake and must be unique.” He further explained this

of developing political sensitivity […] Hence, the translated titles’d better contain nosensitive words”, Quang explained He also gave an example:

“World Trade Center is a film about September 11th I think it’s ok to translate the title into

Trung tâm thương mại 11/9 or Trung tâm thương mại Thế Giới However, I think that such names

contain sensitive words about September 11 th, hence, the original title was translated into Cận kề cái chết based on the movie’s content.”

Another principle Quang talked about was “facilitating key art” He explained thatthis was a specific term denoting movie’s poster, banner, fliers and trailer He affirmedthat this was an important principle to bear in mind because the original poster and trailerwere designed with a fixed space for the title Hence, if the translated title is too longcompared to the original one, key art design will encounter difficulties Quangemphasized that the principle had rather significant influence on the way he translatedmovie titles: “I always try to make translations brief and concise so that it will not, atleast, exceed the length of the original title much.”

When mentioning “conveying movie genre”, Quang said that this had considerableinfluence on his translation However, he did not think this should be a separate principle

In his opinion, the originals, including movie’s title or content, do reflect its genre; hence,being faithful to the originals also means conveying movie genre

Quang remarked that all the principles he mentioned were of equal importance Agood translated title should fulfill all of the principles He also noted that under anycircumstances the two first principles of being faithful to the originals and fulfillingcommercial purpose must be abided by

 Techniques in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese

Quang emphasized consultation was the most important technique He affirmedthat normally, titles had to be translated before the movies were released so all he had fortitle translation were English titles and production notes Therefore, he said only byconsultation could a translator understand the title and the movie’s content; thence,translating it correctly and beautifully He illustrated with the following example:

“I was not in charge of translating the title Winter’s Bones, which was translated into Xương trắng mùa đông The Vietnamese title sounds correct and beautiful In fact, it is not accurate I found

out that “bones” in the title, in fact, means a small gift or blessing, as in the phrase to throw someone a bone and Ree's blessing occurs in winter, both literally and metaphorically Hence, if I were the

translator, I would translate it into Phước lành mùa đông.”

Some consulting sources he suggested include original studios,

Another technique shared by Quang was the formula of Vietnamese translation for

one-word or two-one-word title: Original one-word (translated in Vietnamese) plus one or two Vietnamese word to explain the movie genre or movie content

“For example, The Tourist was translated into Du khách bí ẩn The original title could be absolutely translated into Du khách, which must be understandable by the Vietnamese and faithful to