DSpace at VNU: Assessing the translations of English movie titles released in CGV Cineplex from 2011 to 2014

DSpace at VNU: Assessing the translations of English movie titles released in CGV Cineplex from 2011 to 2014 tài liệu, g...

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.A COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI – 2016

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.A COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: ASSOC.PROF.DR.LÊ HÙNG TIẾN

HANOI - 2016

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

Trần Thi ̣ Minh

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.Prof.Dr.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

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

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

I 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 $47.8 million in 2012” 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.d.) 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)

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.d.)

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”

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