Chinese Translation of English Film Titles Guided by Relevance Theory

Abstract

As a form of artistic expression, film is loved by the public. Film title, as a precise summary of the film content, plays a significant role in expressing the film theme. In the context of great differences between Chinese and western cultures, the translation of English film titles is undoubtedly faced with many difficulties, such as language differences, cultural conflicts and deficiencies, misunderstanding of the audience and so on. This paper studies the E-C translation of film titles from the perspective of relevance theory, to discuss how to reflect the functions of film titles precisely on the premise of considering the audience’s response. This thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is the introduction, which will introduce the research background, research significance and research methods. The second is a review of the research situation of the Chinese translation of English film titles. The third part is the main part. This chapter will point out the needs of English film title translation by analyzing a large number of examples of film title translation. The fourth part is a summary of how to choose translation strategies and techniques in the translation of English film titles into Chinese, and how to use relevance theory to make the Chinese translation of film titles meet the needs of the audience.