Assessing the translations of english movie titles released in CGV cineplex from 2011 to 2014 m a thesis linguistics 60 22 02 01

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 dịch tựa đề phim tiếng Anh phát hành 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 dịch tựa đề phim tiếng Anh phát hành 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 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.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 i 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 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii INTRODUCTION I Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study II Aims and objectives of the study III Significance of the study IV Scope of the study V Methods of the study VI Organization of the paper CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 1.1.1 An overview on translation strategies and equivalence .8 The concept of translation 1.1.2 Strategies of translation 1.1.2.1 Methods of translation 11 1.1.2.2 Procedures of translation 14 1.1.3 An overview on translation equivalence 20 1.2 Translation quality assessment 22 1.2.1 A review on models of translation quality assessment 22 1.2.2 TQA model by Newmark 25 1.3 An overview on movie titles 27 1.3.1 Definition of movie 27 1.3.2 Classification of movies: 28 1.3.3 Movie titles in English 30 1.3.3.1 Functions of movie titles in English 30 1.3.3.2 Characteristics of movie titles in English 32 1.4 Principles in translating movie titles 34 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 39 2.1 Qualitative approach 39 2.2 Setting 39 iii 2.3 Design of the study 40 2.3.1 Phase 41 2.3.1.1 Sampling 41 2.3.1.2 Data collection method 42 2.3.1.3 Data collection procedures 42 2.3.2 Phase 45 2.3.2.1 Sampling 45 2.3.2.2 Data collection method 46 2.3.2.3 Data collection procedures 47 2.3.2.4 Data analysis procedures 48 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 49 3.1 Phase one 49 3.1.1 Assessing the translations of animation titles 49 3.1.2 Assessing the translations of action movies’ titles 57 3.1.3 Assessing the translations of comedy titles 68 3.2 Phase two 74 3.2.1 Case 1: Quang 74 3.2.2 Case 2: Thanh 76 3.2.3 Case 3: Thu 78 3.2.4 Summary of findings in cases 79 CONCLUSIONS 81 I Summary of findings 81 II Recommendations 82 III Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 83 REFERENCES 86 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: I APPENDIX 2: II APPENDIX 3: VI iv 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 2.1 The process of releasing a local movie title in CGV Cineplex Figure 3.1 Strategies employed in translating titles of animations Figure 3.2 Quality of translations of animation titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework Figure 3.3 Strategies employed in translating titles of action movies Figure 3.4 Quality of translations of action movie titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework Figure 3.5 Strategies employed in translating titles of comedies Figure 3.6 Quality of translations of comedy titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework List of tables Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Table 3.7 Table 3.8 Table 3.9 Table 3.10 Table 3.11 v List of abbreviations OALD SL ST TL TT TQA vi 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 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II Aims and... “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... influential principle to bear in mind because the aim of a title and, also, its translation is to attract as many moviegoers as possible Adhering to the principle, translators must make their translations