Translator’s Tasks and Actions in Doing Translations of Film Titles Cover Image

Prevodilac i njegovi zadaci i postupci pri prevođenju naslova filmova
Translator’s Tasks and Actions in Doing Translations of Film Titles

Author(s): Slobodan Jovanović, Katarina Brnjada
Subject(s): Translation Studies
Published by: Fakultet za pravne i poslovne studije dr Latar Vrkatić
Keywords: film title; translator; translation; mistranslations; total fauilures

Summary/Abstract: This paper starts from the fact that the process of doing translations of titles does not differ much from what one does when translating other language units, at least when mental operations in the translator’s mind are concerned. What does make a difference, however, is seen in the concrete approach, which places special emphasis on stylistic and pragmatic aspects. The choice itself of syntactic and semantic equivalents is seldom sufficient for a title to convey the effect produced by the original phrasing. Doing translations of titles does not allow for linear sequencing of certain actions, rather prescribing the unwritten rules instead, the ones that seem to be chaotic at first sight, however the true task being to bring system to that chaos in order to produce an accountable outcome of the whole process. Numerous are the factors interwoven in their immediate influences on the translation offered, and the translator must be aware of all of such, exerting an effort to organize them and bring them to harmony. Out of the struggle to overcome lexical obstacles, after all the striving to produce the expected additional effect enhancing the film promotion, out of the need to have a translation accorded to the period of the exact film production, there appear successful creations, titles in translations that need some polishing, as well as those featuring obvious mistakes. Unfortunately, there are also mistranslations deserving to be labeled total failures, and the genuine mission of this work is to point to the fact that there are too many of such in media programe announcements, in lists of cinema repertoires, also in film related publications.

  • Issue Year: 6/2016
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 9-23
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Serbian