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Doganay Yakup
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УДК 791
Yakup Doganay
PhD, Assist Professor.
Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Philology,
Two Foreign Languages Department
Abstract
In this paper, the issues, problems and difficulties of translating the titles of movies, mass
media and literary works have been discussed and alternative ways of solutions have been
searched.
Key words: film titles’ translation, translation strategies, cognition in translation, cross-
cultural interpretation, intercultural communication, education of translation.
For these reasons, interpreters should, not their audience various clues about the genre
only competent in the source language, tar- and the plot of a film itself on the other hands
get language, relevant fields and different newspaper headings and books’ names are
professional knowledge, but also be familiar also quite important as for giving ideas about
with the two different kinds of cultures and the content of them, messages to be sent and
the reflection of them in languages’ expres- to attract audience’s attention.Headlines and
sions. Tareva says that, ‘translation is not film titles contain emotionally colored words,
only a translation between two languages, phrases, sayings, expressions and special
but also a kind of cross-cultural communi- terms to produce a strong emotional effect.
cation; interpretation is full of challenges’ From a linguistic point of view, all titles and
(Tareva, 2011). So it can be said thattransla- headings are just like literature, that is, art
tion is rather complex and complicated phe- work of which original intentions, functions
nomena necessitating great deal of skills, and flavor should be preserved as much as
rather deep knowledge and understanding, possible in translation. From a cultural point
intellectual capacity, intuition and compe- of view, theyare bound to the original au-
tence especially in the 21st century where thor’s cultural setting and, as such, they can
there is quite immense international and be viewed as an expression of cultural identity
intercultural communication take place. which may pose problems in translation. From
We think it would be convenient to discuss a marketing point of view, film titles and pub-
about difficulties in translation of film titles, licistic headlines are held responsible for the
publicistic headlines and ways of overcom- success or failure at the box office.
ing these problems. Although, it is almost impossible to con-
Translation of Publicistic Headlines vey all the details of films, books and news
and Film Titles or information of any news infilm titles and
The title is an identifying name given publicistic headlines, it seems that strate-
to a book, play, film, musical composi- gies employed to deal with it are justified by
tion, or other work. It comes from old Eng- commercial needs beside cultural differenc-
lish “titul” – superscription, and from old es or linguistic difficulties. Cultural differ-
French “title” – title; both from Latin “titu- ences between source text viewers and tar-
lus” [James, 1999]. Titles, by their nature, get text viewers inevitably affect the transla-
should provide readers and viewers enough tion of film titles, newspapers headings and
information about the text or the film they books’ names and “the extent to which a
refer to.They are often more innovative than text is translatable varies with the degree to
the films, books and the content of the news which it is embedded in its own specific cul-
in newspapers themselves and can also be ture, also with the distance that separates the
dramatically and emotionally satisfying. cultural background of source text and tar-
Most of the time, readers note the headlines get audience” (Snell-Hornby 1988: 41). The
of an article, title of a film and newspapers question is, therefore, whether and how to
and then decide whether to read and watch translate film titles and publicistic headlines
them or not. Therefore the headlines are one in order to be successful. Newmark (1988:
of the most important components of the lit- 56), with regard to titles in general, claims
erary works. In the words of Martin Scorse- that “if the SL text title adequately describes
se, “titles have the unique function of setting the content, and is brief, then leave it”. The
the tone, providing the mood and foreshad- translated versions of titles should sound at-
owing the action”. [The American Heritage tractive, allusive, suggestive, even if it is a
Dictionary, 2003] proper name, and should usually bear some
On the one hand Film titles play an impor- relation to the original, to attract the audi-
tant role in the media field because they give ence attention.Some of the strategies to be
Peace” !, to be able to reflect the cognitive Hornby, Mary Snell, (2006),The Turns of
lingua-cultural backgrounds and aspects the Translation Studies, John Benhamins, Amster-
titles carry in original ones. dam, The Nertharlendas.
Conclusion Komisserov, V, (1981), Teaching Transla-
It is evident that lingua-culture back- tion, Linguistica Pravda, Kiev.
ground does play an important role in the Lefevere, A. & S. Bassnett (1998). Where
translation of film titles and publicistic head- are we in Translation Studies? In Bassnett, S.
lines as it does the commercial component. & A. Lefevere: Constructing Cultures. Essays
A title is an expression of the source text’s on Literary Translation. Clevedon: Multilin-
lingua-cultural background but it has to at- gual Matters.
tract, at the same time, the attention of the Marash, 30, (2010), quoted from Koca-
people if it to result in a success at the busi- man, A., Boztash, İ. Aksoy, Z., ‘İngilizce
ness life. Language allows communication Çeviri Kılavuzu (A Guidebook for English
but culture plays a crucial role in the success Translation) ’, HacettepeTash, Ankara
of communication itself. Translation allows The American Heritage Dictionary of the
cross-cultural communication but, in do- English Language. Fourth Edition/ Houghton
ing so, it should take the cultural elements, Mifflin Company, 2003.- 1115p.
logic, mentality,lingua-cultural background Vardar, 172, (2010), quoted from Koca-
and cognition of them into account. In or- man, A., Boztash, İ. Aksoy, Z., ‘İngilizce
der overcome the translation problems, ap- Çeviri Kılavuzu’ (A Guidebook for English
pear especially in film titles and publicistics Translation), Hacettepetash, Ankara
translation, a translator must use his/her full
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