The Contrastive Analysis of the Translation of English Film Titles into Lithuanian and Russian

Abstract

Titles are most important in terms of information they carry about the text, the film, radio programme, etc. Translation of titles is a challenging task that is fulfilled by employing specific translation methods. The aim of the theoretical part of this article is to present the problem of title translation into the target language, to give an overview of major translation theories and methods used in the translation of film titles and titles in general. The practical analysis in the article is based on Vinay and Darbelnet’s model of translation procedures. The model was applied for the contrastive analysis of the translation of comedy and thriller titles into Lithuanian and Russian in order: a) to compare the translation methods used to translate the same film title into the two languages, b) to identify the most commonly used translation methods for both genres and both target languages, and c) to determine whether or not the genre has any influence on the selection of the translation method. The research has shown that literal translation is the most frequently used translation procedure in the translation of comedy titles into Lithuanian and in the translation of thriller titles into Lithuanian and Russian and is the first procedure by frequency of usage overall. The statistical data allows to state that in the translation of film titles transcreation is much more frequent in the Russian translation, as compared to the Lithuanian translation. When compared by genre, the distribution of the statistical data varied, thereby allowing to state that the genre may have a specific influence on the choice of translation procedures.