AMERICAN MOVIE TITLE TRANSLATION AND FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE: A ROMANIAN-FRENCH COMPARISON
AMERICAN MOVIE TITLE TRANSLATION AND FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE: A ROMANIAN-FRENCH COMPARISON

Summary/Abstract: How many times have we decided to watch a movie simply because its title caught our attention? A film’s title does much more than name the story; it sets the mood, offers a glimpse into the plot or central concept, and often provides a memorable tagline. At the same time, it works as a marketing tool, much like the poster, trailer, or promotional campaign. Because films are often released at the intersection of different cultural moments and audiences, crafting the right title has become an art form in itself. This study explores how American movie titles are translated into Romanian and French, examining the linguistic, cultural, and promotional strategies that shape their adaptation. Drawing on Nida’s (1964, 1986) theory of formal and dynamic equivalence, as refined by He’s (2025) model of functional equivalence, the analysis applies four evaluative parameters: informational, expressive, aesthetic, and promotional. The selected corpus includes twelve American film titles, followed by their Romanian and French translation. Each translation is then examined at both the semantic and pragmatic levels to determine how meaning, emotion, and marketing appeal are negotiated across languages. The findings reveal clear differences between the two translation cultures. These tendencies depict each country’s cinematic identity: Romania’s emphasis on realism and communicative clarity versus France’s combination of marketable skills and international orientation.

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