CHIẾN lược VÀ THỦ THUẬT TRONG DỊCH TIÊU đề PHIM từ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT TẠI RẠP CHIẾU PHIM MEGASTAR

ABSTRACT
In Vietnam, together with the rapid development of the movie industry, movie
translation has become a dominant aspect of translation. Aware of the importance of
movie translation, quite a few international and domestic researches have investigated
the issue. However, so far, movie title translation has received little attention of
Vietnamese researchers. Hence, in an attempt to gain more insights into movie title
translation, this research investigates the strategies and techniques that are employed in
translating film titles from English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex, which is
regarded as the leading company in theatre business in Vietnam. This goal was achieved
by both quantitative and qualitative approaches. They were respectively applied in the
two phases of the study. In the first phase, document analysis method with movie titles
serving as instrument was utilized to examine the strategies in translating English movie
titles. In the second phase, three translators having experience of working for Megastar
Cineplex were requested to participate in the face-to-face semi-structured interviews in
order to investigate the process of releasing movie titles as well as the principles and
techniques utilized by the participants in translating movie titles from English into
Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex. The results from both phases show that (1) seven
procedures and one method were applied for translating movie titles in Megastar
Cineplex from 2011 to 2012; (2) a translated title must undergo certain phases of
internal and external examinations before being released in Vietnam; (3) there are five
major principles to be followed the participants when translating movie titles; and (4)
each translator has their own techniques to deal with movie title translation. The findings
from the study hopefully will benefit not only translators who work with movie title
translation but also researchers and people interested in the issue.
i
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT i
Table of Contents ii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1.2.1. Methods of translaon 7
2.1.2.2. Procedures of translaon 9
2.2.2.1. Funcons of movie tles in English 13
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18
4.1. Phase one 25
REFERENCES 45
APPENDIX 1: ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX (2011 – 2012) 51
APPENDIX 2: ALLUSIVE ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES AND THEIR
TRANSLATIONS IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX (2011 – 2012) 56
APPENDIX 3: ENGLISH MOVIE TITLES CONTAINING PROPER
NAMES AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS IN MEGASTAR CINEPLEX
(2011 – 2012) 57
APPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH
MR.QUANG (in Vietnamese) 60
APPENDIX 5: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH
MR.THANH (in Vietnamese) 68
APPENDIX 6: TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW WITH
MS.SOPHIE (in Vietnamese) 73
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
List of figures
Figure 3.1. Ratio of movie titles with and without proper names
Figure 4.1. Movie titles without proper names translated by different strategies
ii
Figure 4.2. Distribution of strategies applied for translating movie titles without
proper names
Figure 4.3. Process of releasing a local movie title in Megastar Cineplex
List of tables
Table 4.1. Allusive movie titles translated by adaptation
Table 4.2. Movie titles without proper names translated by through translation

Table 4.3. Titles of movie sequels translated by transference
Table 4.4 Titles without proper names of movies shown in the U.S before
released in Vietnam translated by transference
Table 4.5 Movie titles without proper names translated by shift
Table 4.6 Movie titles without proper names translated by expansion
Table 4.7 Movie titles containing proper names translated by adaptation
Table 4.8 Movie titles containing proper names translated by transference
Table 4.9 Frequency of couplet strategies
iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
OALD Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
SL Source language
ST Source text
TL Target language
TT Target text
iv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This initial chapter presents the problem and the rationale, the aims and
objectives, the scope, and the significance of the whole paper. Most importantly, the
research questions are identified to serve as a guideline for the whole research.
1.1. Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study
The French artist and novelist, Baker (2004, p.40) believes that “Movie is so
important that it has become the first arts of human world. In Vietnam, despite being a
fledgling industry, motion pictures have been rapidly developed and widely loved by
Vietnamese people, young and old alike. According to Trinh (cited in Megastar Hé Lộ
Doanh Số, 2012), film industry “has maintained significant growth” in the past few
years and “the box office revenue of Megastar alone rises from $13.8 million in 2009 to
$47.8 million in 2012”. In 2012, Hollywood’s films occupied up to “80% of the movies
screened in Megastar Cineplex alone” (Thị Trường Điện Ảnh, 2012). As a result, movie
translation, apart from book translation or news translation, has become a dominant

aspect of translation in the country. Aware of this trend, quite a lot of dedicated
Vietnamese researchers have conducted studies on movie translation. “A Study on Film
Translation” by Le (1999) and “A Study on the Translation of Filmscripts in English to
Vietnamese” by Le (2001) are some examples to name, just a few. The studies cover
many facets of movie translation such as translating film scripts, translating idioms in
movies. However, translating film titles has remained undiscovered in those researches.
Then, in an attempt to discover the translation of movie titles, in 2006, Tran
conducted a study on “Translation of English Movie Titles into Vietnamese”. This
research, which may be regarded as the initial discussion about movie title translation in
Vietnam, covers many aspects of movie titles translation like functions and features of
movie titles, and assumptions about principles in translating movie titles. Although it is a
thorough and admirable research project, the study still exposes some inadequacies.
First, the movie titles and the translators serving as the samples for the research were
selected from VTVs, HTV and Q.net. It should have been noticed that films screened by
those entities were already released by a large number of cinemas. Hence, employing
those sources might lead to inaccuracy as the translated titles might be borrowed or
taken from the previous screened ones. Moreover, the study was asserted to be
concerned with the translation of English movie titles into Vietnamese, the researcher,
1
however, also provided English movie titles, which were translated into other languages
including Russia, Germany, Japanese, etc. without properly reasoning as well as
analyzing. This might lead to questions about the role of those examples as well as the
confusion among readers. However, in Vietnam, little to no research has been conducted
to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding about film title translation
since Tran’s work was released in 2006.
Furthermore, Lu (2009) states that “the translation of English movie titles” has
not “received due attention” despite “their importance”. Discussing the importance of
the titles to the success of movies, Prendergast (n.d.), a famous screenwriter, short film-
maker, novelist and teacher at the University of Sydney and TropNest, says in her article
that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is not true in the case of film title.

She also states that a title can help movie-makers “market” their products and “the title
of a film or a book or even a TV show plays a critical role in its success”. This opinion is
widely shared by many other researchers and translators such as Patterson (2008), May
(2010), etc. Furthermore, Mei (2010) emphasizes the role of translation of movie titles in
his journal: “A good film title can arouse the readers’ interest to see a movie. So, the
translation of film title is of importance”. Nevertheless, quite a lot of controversies have
emerged over translating movie title. Hawley (2008) remarks that the translation of
movie titles can “lead to the loss” of cultural and aesthetic features of the original titles.
On the other hand, Andersen (2010) states that translation “causes misunderstandings in
relation to the movie and its audience.” In addition, Kelan and Wei (2006) also points
out the existing problems in translating English movie titles, including “the messy and
low-quality” and “alienation and assimilation”. Back to the situation of movie
translation in Vietnam, translating movie titles has perplexed not only translators but
also many others including film critics, moviegoers, etc. Thus, in his article discussing
inadequacies of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, Kha (2012)
describes this issue as a “war”. Meanwhile, Ruelle (2010) also lists out several problems
including the lack of feeling and original meaning faced by many Vietnamese translators
when translating movie titles. Nowadays, the quality of film title translation is
considered more significant as more movies are “released internationally” under the
“effect of globalization” (Translation of Film Titles, n.d.). How to translate the film titles
and how to make the translation attractive to the audience, therefore, become questions
2
that the translators should consider during translation. Hence, it will be useful and
essential to figure out strategies as well as techniques in translating movie titles from
English into Vietnamese in order to rectify the situation.
Moreover, according to Hong (2010), regarding the “quality and quantity of
movies shown in Vietnam”, Megastar “has advantage over other cinemas”. In the annual
report from HSC (2011), Megastar is also regarded as the “leading company in theatre
business” in Vietnam. Hence, it will be a wise choice to utilize film title resources and
translators from Megastar Cineplex as the samples in order to fulfill the aims and

objectives of the research. This will probably confirm the validity and assure the
reliability of the paper.
All the above reasons have inspired the researcher to conduct a study on
“Strategies and Techniques in Translating Movie Titles from English into Vietnamese
in Megastar Cineplex”.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
First of all, the research paper is expected to determine the translation strategies,
including methods and procedures which were employed to translate film titles in
Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012. Then, by investigating the translators who have
the experience of working for the Cineplex, the process of releasing a Vietnamese title
for an English one, the principles and the techniques in translating movie titles are
unveiled. Hopefully, helpful implications may be made in order to ease the task of
translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese in cinemas.
In order to gain the objectives, the research attempts to seek the answers to the
following research questions:
1. What translation strategies were employed to translate titles of films screened in
Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012?
2. What is the process of releasing Vietnamese titles for English movie titles in Megastar
Cineplex?
3. What are the principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, as
perceived by the participants?
4. What are the techniques adopted by those translators in translating movie titles from
English into Vietnamese?
1.3. Significance of the study
The paper will be particularly helpful for students and translators who have to
work with movie titles. Besides, it can be of some service to researchers who happen to
have an interest in the topic.
3
First and foremost, the study is expected to be beneficial for students and
translators who have to translate movie titles. They will, to a certain extent, be aware of

translation methods and procedures that can be applied in translating movie titles. Then,
based on the real context, they may be able to apply the most appropriate one in order to
produce the best translated titles. In addition, the paper also offers a closer look at the
job of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese by examining translators
working for Megastar Cineplex. Thence, students and other translators can gain and use
some experiences from the studied participants to deal with their own situation in
translating movie titles. As a result, this will, to some extent, help to ease movie title
translation.
Secondly, the study is also expected to serve as a preliminary for further
investigation on the issue. The study has no ambition of forming any universal laws or
generalizations. Rather, it is meant to provide an in-depth understanding on the
complexities of the issue. Thence, it is hoped to establish the foundation for future
further investigation on movie title translation in particular, on title translation in
general. In a nutshell, the study may act as the first step towards that end.
1.4. Scope of the study
It is known that translation is complicated and involves a lot of theory.
Meanwhile, the timeframe and the researcher’s expertise are limited. Therefore, as it is
indicated in the title “Strategies and Techniques in Translating Movie Titles from
English into Vietnamese in Megastar Cineplex”, this study is not expected to cover all
related themes of translation theory, but just focused on translation strategies employed
in translating movie titles in Megastar Cineplex and techniques suggested by the movie
title translators.
Besides, it is noteworthy that the samples of the study are confined to the titles of
films that were shown in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012. The researcher did
acknowledge that the study would be much more trustworthy and efficient if she could
investigate all the titles of movies shown in Megastar Cineplex since 2006 (when the
Cineplex opened its first cinema in Vietnam). Despite her repeated attempts, the
researcher could not find any database containing such a huge number of movie titles.
Hence, it was impossible to fulfill the ambition. Moreover, because of their up-
datedness, titles of movie shown in Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 were

examined instead.
4
In addition, the translators acting as the participants in this research all have
experience of working for Megastar Cineplex. They were deliberately selected so that
they could be available for the study and able to provide highly in-depth information of
their situations, which might be helpful in understanding the complexities of the studied
issue.
1.5. Organization of the paper
The rest of the paper includes following chapters:
Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides the theoretical background of the study,
including the overview of translation in general, a closer look on translation strategies
including methods and procedures in particular, and a discussion of the findings and
assumptions related to movie titles.
Chapter 3 (Research Methodology) describes the participants, the instruments as
well as the procedures that were employed to conduct the study.
Chapter 4 (Results and Discussion) answers the research questions with data
presentation, data analysis and the comparison among the findings themselves and offers
some implications.
Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the
limitations of the research and some suggestions for further investigation.
After chapter 5 are the references and appendices.
5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This second chapter presents the literature review of the study, specifically the
background of translation, strategies of translation, movie and movie titles. To begin
with, translation’s definition and translation strategies including translation methods and
procedures are provided. Next, the chapter also introduces an overview on movie titles,
which comprises of definition of movie and the background of movie titles with the
characteristics and functions of movie titles. Finally, the chapter ends with a brief review
of the assumptions related to principles in translating movie titles from English into

Vietnamese, which discloses the research gap for the current study.
2.1. An overview on translation strategies
2.1.1. Definition of translation
In order to establish the theoretical foundation for the study, it is necessary to
explain the term “translation” first.
Translation may be defined differently. Wassety (cited in Ghadi, 2010) regards
translation as “a legitimate offspring of the phenomenon of language”. Also, Ghadi
(2010) states “Translation is actually an activity performed by human beings in order to
convey ideas and thoughts despite different languages”. These points of view provide
general understanding about translation.
Besides, from a specific perspective, Le and Nguyen (2008, p.3) say that
translation can be considered either as “a product” or “a process”. On the one hand, being
regarded as “a product”, translation may be seen as the text that has been translated. On
the other hand, translation means “a process” when it refers to the activity of translating.
Moreover, translation scholars also introduce various opinions about translation as
a process. Banja (2009) regards a translator as a “message conveyor”; hence, a translation
may be understood as “the process”. In 1972, Harmant and Stork states that translation
aims to render as close as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the “source
language” by finding equivalents in the “target language”. Dubois (1973) shares the same
viewpoint: “Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what
has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic
equivalences.” Newmark (1982, p.7) describes translation as “a craft consisting in an
attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same
message and/or statement in another language.” In his “A Textbook of Translation”
6
Newmark simplifies the definition of translation as “the rendering” of “the meaning of a
text into another language in the same way that the author intended the text” (1988, p.5).
Thence, it can be concluded that translation, should be perceived in the scope of
this paper as the process of conveying as accurately as possible the meaning and aesthetic
effects of the ST into the TT.

2.1.2. Strategies of translation
As the term “translation strategies” appears in the title of the paper, explaining the
term is of necessity. Bell (cited in Ordudari, 2007) states that translation strategies include
“global” (those dealing with whole texts) and “local” (those dealing with text segments)
strategies. In addition, “global” and “local” strategies are actually other ways of naming
translation methods and procedures (Basics of translation, 2010). Hence, in this paper, the
term “translation strategies” refers to methods and procedures of translation.
2.1.2.1. Methods of translation
Concerning translation methods, different ideas using different terms have been
introduced by translation scholars. Among those theories, the one offered by Newmark is
widely recognized for its significant influence on many successors.
Eight translation methods proposed by Newmark are presented as follows:
Word-for-word translation
According to Newmark (1988, p.45), word-for-word translation is explained as
“interlinear translation, with the TL immediately below the SL words”. Regarding this
method, the word-order in the SL is preserved. Words are translated by their “most
common meanings” despite other factors which may exert influences on the translation
such as cultural differences, context, etc. This is illustrated with the following instance:
He is a big liar.
 Anh ta là một lớn người nói dối.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.22)
Literal translation
Similar to word-for-word translation, in literal translation, Newmark (1988, p.46)
states that “lexical words” are translated singly, out of context. Nevertheless, literal
translation differs itself from word-for-word translation in the ability to convert the SL
grammatical constructions into their “nearest TL equivalents”. Example is given below:
He is a big liar.
 Anh ta là một kẻ nói dối lớn.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.22)
Faithful translation

Newmark (1988, p.46) suggests that faithful translation seeks to “reproduce” the
“precise contextual meaning” of the ST within the “constraints” of the TT grammatical
7
structures. Hence, it renders cultural words and preserves the level of grammatical and
lexical “abnormality” in the translation. Furthermore, it tries to be absolutely “faithful” to
the “intentions” and “text-realization” of the SL author. Below is an example:
He is as fast as a kangaroo.
 Nó nhanh như một con kanguru
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.23)
Semantic translation
Semantic translation puts great focus on the aesthetic value of the ST,
“compromising” on “meaning” where “appropriate” to avoid “assonance, word-play or
repetition jars” in the TT (Newmark, 1988, p.46). Moreover, it may translate “less
important cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms”. The TT and ST
below can serve as the illustration of this translation method:
Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a peaceful oasis
away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.
 Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê hồn, một ốc đảo
yên bình tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.25)
Communicative translation
Newmark (1988, p.47) mentions that communicative translation seeks to convey
the “exact contextual meaning” of the ST “in such a way that both content and language
are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.” The “effectiveness of the
message to be communicated is the priority of this method” (Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.27).
An example of communicative translation is presented below:
Right in the heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is an enchanting body of water, a peaceful oasis
away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.
 Hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp, yên tĩnh nằm ở trung tâm Hà Nội ồn ào.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.27)

Idiomatic translation
Newmark (1988, p.47) states that idiomatic translation “reproduces the message”
of the ST but it is likely to “distort nuances of meaning” by employing “colloquialisms
and idioms” although these do not appear in the ST. Below is the demonstration of this
method:
Không ai nghe lời khuyên của cô ấy cả.
 Her advice fell on deaf ears.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p.31)
Free translation
As proposed by Newmark (1988, p.46), free translation translates the “content”
without the “form” of the original text. Hence, normally, it is a “paraphrase much longer
than the original”. It is illustrated in the following instance:
Tide in, dirt out
8
 Tide, thách thức mọi vết bẩn.
(Nguyen, 2005)
Adaptation
The “freest” translation method, according to Newmark (1988, p.46), is
adaptation. It preserves the “themes, characters, plots” with the SL culture being
converted into the TL culture and the text being recomposed. This method is regarded as
“a kind of rewriting the text in translation” (Le & Nguyen, 2010, 32). The following
extract lyric of a song can demonstrate this translation method:
Nắm tay nhau cùng bước bên nhau vì hạnh phúc nhân loại. Nắng phương đông chiếu sáng
SEAGAMES Việt Nam hân hoan chào đón.
(Quang Vinh, cited in Nguyen, 2005)
 Hand in hand for happiness mankind we walk together. Eastern sun shines up
SEAGAMES Vietnam’s been expecting for long.
(Nguyen Ha, cited in Nguyen, 2005)
2.1.2.2. Procedures of translation
Regarding translation procedures, different scholars have different classifications.

For example, Nida (cited in Le & Nguyen, 2010) groups them into 4 types, including
changes of order, omission, structure and addition. Meanwhile, Vinay and Darbelnet
(cited in Le & Nguyen, 2010) proposes seven translation procedures, comprising of loan,
caique, literal, translation, transposition, modulation, total syntagmatic change,
adaptation. Among theories related to translation procedures, the one introduced by
Newmark seems widely recognized for its significant influence on many successors.
Translation procedures proposed by Newmark are presented as follows:
Transference
Newmark (1988, p.81) states that transference, which is also called
“transcription”, is the “process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation
procedure”. This means translators will directly take the SL word into TL with no
translation. Two examples offered by the researcher are given below:
Naturalisation
According to Newmark (1988, p.82), this procedure “adapts the SL word first to
the normal pronunciation, then – to the normal morphology (word-forms) of the TL”.
Naturalisation procedure can be seen in the following translations:
ST TT
Coffee Cà phê
9
ST TT
Hat-trick (sport term) Hat-trick
Madonna (name of a singer) Madonna
Turbine Tua bin
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.35)
Through translation
Through-translation is defined by Newmark (1988, p.82) as “the literal translation
of common colocations, names of organizations, the components of compounds and
perhaps phrases” and it is known as “caique or loan translation” (Newmark, 1988, p.82).
Some examples are given below:
ST TT

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Hội chứng Suy giảm Miễn dịch Mắc phải
United Nations Development Assistance Framework Khuôn khổ Hỗ trợ Phát triển Liên Hợp Quốc
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.36)
Shifts or transpositions
A shifts or transposition procedure involves “a change in the grammar from SL to
TL.” (Newmark, 1988, p.85). These include changing from singular to plural, the change
required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, the change in the position
of the adjective, the change of an SL verb to a TL noun and so forth. Some examples are:
ST TT
After her return Sau khi cô ấy trở lại
Help will come Sẽ có người tới giúp
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.37)
Modulation
The term modulation is used to define “a variation through a change of viewpoint,
or perspective and very often of category of thought” (Vinay & Darbelnet, cited in
Newmark, 1988, p. 88). This procedure includes three main types, namely one part for
another, passive for active or vice versa, positive for double-negative or vice versa. The
following instances illustrate this procedure:
ST TT Type
She cleared her throat… Cô ấy hắng giọng…. One part <=>another
The roof was damaged by the storm.
Trận bão phá hỏng cả mái
nhà.
Passive <=>active
Flawless Hoàn hảo Positive <=> double-negative
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.37-38)
Cultural equivalent
In this procedure, a SL “cultural word” is translated by an equivalent “cultural
word” in TL (Newmark, 1988, p. 82-83). This is used in the following translation:
He graduated after obtaining a degree with (high) distinction.

 Anh ta tốt nghiệp loại giỏi (xuất sắc).
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.38)
10
Functional equivalent
As it is suggested by Newmark (1988, p.83), this procedure is “applied to translate
“cultural words” in the SL, which “requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimes
with a new specific term” in the TL; hence, “it neutralizes or generalizes the SL, and
sometimes adds a particular”. This is shown in the instance given by the researcher:
The White House decided to lift trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994.
 Vào năm 1994, Chính phủ Hoa Kỳ đã quyết định bãi bỏ lệnh cấm vận thương mại đối với
Việt Nam.
Descriptive equivalent
When this procedure is used, the meaning of the “original word is explained in
several words” (Newmark, 1988, p. 83). Descriptive equivalent procedure is often used
with “transference to translate a cultural word” (Newmark, 1988, p.84). This is illustrated
in the following example given by the researcher:
To attend the Salsa course, you must pay the tuition fee first.
 Để có thể tham gia khóa học Salsa (một điệu nhảy kết hợp giữa các điệu nhảy Latin)
trước tiên bạn phải trả học phí.
Synonym
According to Newmark (1988, p.84), this procedure is a "near TL equivalent” and
employed “for a SL word where there is no clear one-to-one equivalent, and the word is
not important in the text, in particular for adjectives or adverbs of quality”. This
procedure is shown in the instance offered by the researcher:
He is a good student.
 Em ấy là một học trò ngoan.
Recognised translation
A translator should normally use the “official or the generally accepted translation
of any institutional term” (Newmark, 1988, p.89). In other word, a in translating a SL
term, translator should accept the translated term that is widely “recognised” in TL

instead of creating his own new translation, for example:
Ủy Ban Dân Tộc
 State Committee of Ethnic Minority Affairs.
(Vu, 2005, p.17)
Compensation
According to Newmark (1988, p.90), this occurs when “loss of meaning, sound-
effect, metaphor or pragmatic effect in one part of a sentence is compensated in another
part, or in a contiguous sentence. This is shown in the instance given by the researcher:
Hey buddy! Today is this dude’s due date. Have anything to cheer him up.
 Này anh bạn, hôm nay gã này đen đủ đường. Có gì giúp cậu ta giải sầu không?
Translation label
11
Newmark (1988, p. 90) regards this as “provisional translation, usually of a new
institutional term” and it “should be made in inverted commas, which can later be
discreetly withdrawn”. In other words, the translation must be put in quotation marks
“until and unless it becomes generally accepted”(Newmark, n.d). This is illustrated by
one example given by the researcher:
Harvard is one of eight universities in Ivy League.
 Harvard là một trong tám trường đại học thuộc “Liên đoàn Ivy”.
Componential analysis
According to Newmark (1988, p. 90), this is “the splitting up of a lexical unit into
its sense components, often one-to-two, -three or –four translations”. Newmark also adds:
“Normally the SL word has a more specific meaning than the TL, and the translator has to
add one or two TL sense components to the corresponding TL” (1988, p.114). Below is
an instance offered by the researcher:
Họ khiêu vũ rất đẹp.
 They dance ( + couple, + gently) very well.
Paraphrase
“This is an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of the text. It
is used in an ‘anonymous’ text when it is poorly written, or has important implications

and omissions” (Newmark, 1988, p. 90). An example is provided by the researcher:
Năm 1945, tại quảng trường Ba Đình, Người đã đọc bản Tuyên ngôn độc lập.
 In 1911, at Ba Dinh square, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence.
Reduction and expansion
According to Newmark (1988, p. 90), these are rather imprecise translation
procedures. In simple terms, reduction implies “omission of a word from an expression”,
which “is not essential for understanding”; whereas “expansion is a rather descriptive
way of translating an expression and involves the use of a greater number of words in TL
than in SL” (Václavíková, 2006). Two examples of the procedures are given below:
Linguistics
 Khoa học ngôn ngữ
Voltage stabilizer
 Ổn áp.
(Vu, 2005, p.17)
Couplet
Newmark (1988, p. 91) states: “Couplets, triplets and quadruplets combine two,
three or four of the above-mentioned procedures for dealing with a single problem. They
are particularly common for cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional
or a cultural equivalent.”
To attend the barbecue, you must have a student ID.
12
 Để được dự tiêc barbecue (bữa tiệc ngoài trời, đồ ăn được nướng trên bết cũng đặt ngoài
trời), anh phải mang theo thẻ sinh viên.
(Le & Nguyen, 2008, p. 39)
2.2. An overview on movie titles
2.2.1. Definition of movie
The word “movie” sounds simple and familiar to people, however; it is still
necessary to clearly define the term in order to avoid any ambiguity.
According to OALD, Movie (n.d.) is “a series of moving pictures recorded with
sound that tells a story, shown at the cinema/movie theater” and its synonym is “film”.

When it comes to the definition of Film (n.d.), OALD says that the term means “a series
of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown on television or at the
cinema/movie theater”. There is a slight difference between them: Both can be shown at
the cinema, however, only film can refer to “moving pictures” shown “on television”.
However, the research only concerns movies or films shown in Megastar Cineplex.
Hence, within the scope of the paper, the two terms are used interchangeably to denote “a
series of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown at the
cinema/movie theater”.
2.2.2. Movie titles in English
2.2.2.1. Functions of movie titles in English
Discussing the functions of movie titles, Tran (2006) states that titles can “provide
information” about the film by “summarizing the main plot, uncovering the theme, or
offering some ideas”. Although a title might be “vague, abstract or hard to capture the
meaning”, people still catch a certain notion of the film. She also adds that movie titles
should act as audience “attracter” because it can stimulate the interest and desire for
watching the movies of audience.
Sharing the same point of view, Andersen (2010) also suggests that film titles
mainly aim to attract moviegoers. Movie titles is “privileged and prioritized” because
they are the most “visual of a movie’s promotional features” and they are “displayed” to
public before films “run” in the cinemas.
The two viewpoints are obviously right. However, restricting the functions of
movie titles within supplying some information about the film and attracting audience
does not seem very appropriate because naming a movie is “the play writer’s painstaking
conception” (Wang, 2007). Hence, titles surely contain artistic creativity. Acknowledging
this, Wang (2010) and Sun (2007) agree that movie titles have three main functions
including “informative function”, “aesthetic function” and “vocative function”.
13
Informative function
Discussing the functions of language, Newmark (1988, p.40) states “The core of
the informative function of language is external situation, the facts of a topic, reality

outside language”. Similarly, the informative function of movie titles means providing the
“potential audience” some “relevant information” about the movies (Wang, 2007). The
“relevant information” may include the genre, the main characters, the plot or setting, etc.
of the movie. For example, the title The dark knight rises (2012) may let moviegoers
know that this is an action film about hero called “the dark knight”.
Aesthetic function
Newmark (1988, p.42) suggests that aesthetic function means “please the senses”.
Regarding movie titles, this function allows audience to gain sensory “enjoyment” by
using “delicate language” which may contain “vivid images, musical words or various
rhetorical devices” (Sun, 2007). In fact, not all the movie titles can perform this function.
Vocative function
The vocative function of language aims at the “readership”, “addressee” and calls
upon them to “act, think or feel”, which means to “react” in the way “intended by the
text” (Newmark, 1988, p.41). When the theory of vocative function is applied to movie
titles, the “readership” and the “addressees” here refer to “moviegoers” (Sun, 2007).
Hence, regarding movie titles, the vocative function is to “draw attention of audience”
and “make them psychologically interested” in watching the movies (Sun, 2007).
2.2.2.2. Characteristics of movie titles in English
According to Wang (2007), English movie titles have four main characteristics.
These include being “brief and concentrated”, having “heroes’ and heroines’ names as
titles”, having “settings as titles” and being “attractive”.
This point of view is similar to that of Tran (2006), who proposes three main
characteristics of English movie titles. The first one is being “brief and concise”. The two
remaining characteristics are “descriptive” and “containing proper names”.
It seems that of the two conclusions, Tran’s appears to be the better for some
reasons. Firstly, Wang’s ideas about characteristics of movie titles are presented based on
the researcher’s assumptions without evidence while Tran’s are strongly supported with
various samples. Moreover, Tran groups names of hero and heroine, and settings into
“proper names”, which appears to be more concise. Besides, the word “attractive” may be
vague because whether a movie title is attractive or not depends much on sensory

14
perception of each individual. Hence, it seems hasty for Wang (2007) to say that being
“attractive” is a characteristic of English movie titles.
Furthermore, Newmark (1988, p.57) suggests that titles can be “descriptive” or
“allusive”. It is quite easy to list out allusive English movie titles such as The silence of
the lambs (1991), Red (2010), etc. Hence, Tran (2006) appears to miss “allusive”
characteristic of English movie titles.
Thence, it can be concluded in this paper that English movie titles generally have
three main characteristics, namely brief and concise, containing proper names and
descriptive or allusive. These characteristics are further explained, as follows:
Brief and concise
Generally, English movie titles appear in the forms of a word, a phrase or a
sentence. When being a phrase, movie titles usually consist of one or several “key words”
(Wang, 2007). Some titles can be given as examples such as At World’s End (2007), On
Stranger Tides (2011), etc. As a sentence, they appear “succinct and simple in structure”
(Tran, 2006). Some examples are Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not
Enough (1999), etc. Although English movie titles are brief, they are “expressive and
suggestive” words which convey much information (Tran, 2006).
Containing proper names
“One outstanding feature of English movies is that they often contain proper
names” (Tran, 2006) that are "names of a particular person, place or thing" and are
spelled "with a capital letter" (Richards, Platt & Weber, 1985, p.68). In other words, they
are often named after the main character(s) or the setting where the story occurs. Some
titles include main character’s name are Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), Sherlock Holmes: A
Game of Shadows (2011), etc. Meanwhile, a lot of titles contain names of the setting in
the movie such as Pearl Harbor (2001), Nothing Hill (1999), etc.
Descriptive or allusive
According to Newmark (1988, p.57), titles which are descriptive “describe the
topic” directly while those, allusive, “have some kind of referential or figurative
relationship to the topic”. Hence, a descriptive title is able to “provide the audience with a

general idea of a story” (Tran, 2006). Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
(2012), which unveils the adventure to a totally strange place of a pirate captain (Jack
Sparrow), is such a title. Besides, an allusive title “serves” as the connection between the
“work” and “certain things outside it”, which the “artist” wants to “resonate with the
work as it is experienced” (Levinson, 2011). The Vow (2012) is an example. The movie
15
portraits the abiding love between a couple, in which the husband, Leo works to win
Paige’s, his wife, heart again after a car accident makes her suffer from severe memory
loss. In fact, it appears that “more descriptive movie titles than allusive ones are found” in
English because the language is “straight to the point” as declared by Tran (2006).
2.3. Principles of translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese
Quite a few assumptions about the principles in translating movie titles have been
made so far. Wang (2007) advocates 4 main principles:
1) Faithfulness: It requires the translator to put in time and energy on the conciseness of the
script and try to display the connotation of the movie.
2) Cultural awareness: The translator should be aware of cultural information, fully
understand it, and properly translate it to the understanding of the target audience.
3) Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects: A well-translated title should be a
perfect combination of attractiveness and quaintness, and capable of achieving both
commercial and aesthetic effects.
4) Artistic quality: The movie title itself is an art. A good translation must be a good artistic
work.
The assumption seems to expose inadequacy. This lies in the vague differentiation
of “aesthetic effects” and “artistic quality” while Wang (2007) offers little adequate
explanation. Hence, this may lead to the confusion among readers.
Meanwhile, Tran (2006) remarks 4 principles of English movie title translation:
1) Faithfulness to the context: The faithfulness is shown in the way that the title should be in
either direct or indirect connection with the movie itself.
2) Consideration of movie genres: It is necessary to take movie genres into account. The
translated titles should be produced in a way that can convey the movie genre.

3) Cultural awareness: Translation should be acculturation and negotiation between two cultures
and translation is now culturally oriented. A translator should be aware of and knowledgeable
about the extinctive features of English movie titles to avoid mistranslation.
4) Combination of commercial and aesthetic effects: Commercially, a movie title is crucial in
marketing and appealing to the moviegoers. However, the translation cannot go too far out of
the original and the movie itself.
Tran (2006) and Wang (2007) appear to share the similar ideas. However, here, Tran
proposes “consideration of movie genre” which is not mentioned by Wang (2007).
Nevertheless, these are all only assumptions about the principles in translating
English movie titles. Until now, little to no research investigating the translators who
work with movie titles has been conducted on this matter. Thus, this is a gap for the
present study to examine.
Chapter summary
16
In this chapter, an overview of translation strategies has been provided.
Translation can be perceived as the process of conveying as accurately as possible the
meaning and aesthetic effects of the source text into the target text. Furthermore,
discussing strategies of translation, eight methods and sixteen procedures of translation
have been mentioned. The former consists of Word-for-word, Literal, Faithful, Semantic,
Adaptation, Free, Idiomatic and Communicative translation. Meanwhile, the latter
comprises of Transference, Naturalization, Through Translation, Shift, Modulation,
Cultural Equivalent, Functional equivalent, Descriptive Equivalent, Synonym,
Recognised translation, Compensation, Translation label, Componential analysis,
Paraphrase, Reduction/ Expansion and Couplet
Next, an overview on movie and movie titles has been offered. Movie can be
defined as a series of moving pictures recorded with sound that tells a story, shown at the
cinema. Regarding movie titles in English, they have three main functions, namely
informative, aesthetic and vocative. It seems that because of those functions, English
movie titles generally share some notable characteristics. A great number of movie titles
in English contain proper names which might be names of the movie’s character or of

settings. Besides, they are usually brief and concise, which means they appear in the form
of only a word, phrase and sometimes a sentence. The last characteristic is that English
movie titles can be descriptive (describing the topic) or allusive (connecting the title with
certain things outside it).
Finally, the brief review of the assumptions of some principles in translating
English movie titles has detected a research gap for the researcher to bridge by seeking
answers for the research questions.
17
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter is devoted to the presentation of the methodology of the research.
This includes the research approach, the sampling, the methods of data collection and the
procedures of data collection and analysis.
3.1. Qualitative and quantitative approaches
In the study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed because
integrating them has “certain advantages” (Creswell, Clark, Gutman, & Handson, 2003).
First of all, integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches in development research
can help achieve insightful results that “neither approach would produce on its own”
(Woolcock & Rao, 2003). Besides, this particular research concerns two major issues,
namely strategies and techniques employed in translating movie titles. For the former
issue, it was necessary to examine translated movie titles from English into Vietnamese
then counting and calculating the methods and procedures that were employed. Thence
quantitative approach was used because it concerns with “the collection and analysis of
data in numeric form” and “tends to emphasize relatively large-scale and representative
sets of data” (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 1996, p.61). Meanwhile, the latter issue, more
complicated one, would be explored by investigating a number of specific translators.
Hence, only by utilizing qualitative can the researcher gain “an insider's view of the field”
(Burns, cited in Le, 2010). Therefore, only by integrating both quantitative and qualitative
approach could the research study both translated movie titles and translators to
ultimately discover the answers for the research issues.
3.2. Design of the study

As mentioned above, the research ultimately sought to explore the strategies and
techniques employed among translators in translating English movie title into
Vietnamese. Because of this nature, it was necessary to investigate both translated movie
titles and movie title translators. Hence, the study was divided into two phases. Phase one
dealt with movie titles in order to make general description of the strategies applied in
translating movie titles. Meanwhile, in phase a number of translators would be examined,
aiming to provide a closer understanding about the process of releasing movie titles, the
principles and techniques employed by the participants in translating English movie titles
into Vietnamese. Therefore, two different instruments were used in the two phases to
collect the needed data so that it could answer different research questions.
18
3.3. Phase one
This phase aimed to seek the answers for the first research question:
1) What translation strategies were employed to translate titles of films screened in
Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012?
3.3.1. Sampling
The study took advantage of purposive sampling, in which samples are “selected
because it serves the real purpose and objectives of the researcher of discovering, gaining
insight and understanding into a particular chosen phenomenon” (Burns, 2000, p.465). As
it was indicated in the title, the study only concerns the translated movie titles in
Megastar Cineplex. Hence, movie titles investigated in the research were chosen
purposively.
At first, the researcher intended to choose all the English titles of movies that had
been released by Megastar Cineplex since 2006 so that the findings would be more
trustworthy. However, there were certain obstacles that made the intention unfeasible. On
the one hand, given that approximately 70 movies were shown every year, there would be
about 500 titles from 2006 to 2012. The researcher was uncertain whether she could
investigate such a huge number of samples within four months. On the other hand, no
matter how hard she attempted, the researcher could not find the database containing
names of movies shown in Megastar since 2006.

Thence, movie titles were selected based on the following criteria. First, the titles
must belong to movies that were released by Megastar Cineplex. In addition, all of the
titles must be original in English. Besides, movie titles must be up-to-date so that they
would be accessible and reliable to serve as the samples for the research.
Finally, 146 titles of movies shown by Megastar Cineplex from 2011 to 2012 were
selected based on the above criteria. Then, they were listed in time order. This means that
the films shown first would be ranked first in the list.
3.3.2. Data collection method
Data collection method
In this phase of the study, document analysis served as the method of data
collection. After careful consideration, this method was chosen for the following reasons.
Firstly, by using document analysis, the researcher “attempts” to provide “a confluence of
evidence that breeds credibility” (Eisner, 1991, p. 110). Besides, as a research method,
document analysis is particularly applicable to produce rich descriptions of a single
phenomenon, event, organization, or program (Stake, 1995).
Data collection instrument
19
As document analysis was chosen as the data collection method, the instruments
employed to gather data would be 146 selected movie titles in English and their
Vietnamese translated version.
A brief description of selected English movie titles would be provided. First of all,
regarding the briefness and conciseness of the selected movie titles, 39 titles are formed
by one word, occupying 26.71%. Meanwhile, 102 titles are formed by phrase, accounting
69.86% and only 5 titles are formed by one sentence, making up 3.42%. In addition, 41
(28.08%) out of 146 titles contain proper names. Moreover, 126 (86.30%) titles are
descriptive. Meanwhile, only 20 (13.70%) titles are allusive.
3.3.3. Data collection procedures
In this phase, the data collection procedure basically consisted of three main
steps as follows:
Step 1: Collecting movie titles

The very initial and essential step of this research is collecting movie titles.
Unfortunately, no database containing names of movies that were shown in Megastar in
2011 was available on the official website of the Cineplex. This forced the researcher to
find the 2011 session times on the third-party website, 24h.com.vn. However, there were
only Vietnamese titles of the movies shown in Megastar in 2011 on the website. Hence,
an attempt to find the English original names of the movies was made by typing the
Vietnamese translated titles adding with Megastar on Google. This led the researcher to
the official pages of Megastar, which showed the movie’s trailers and original English
titles.
Step 2: Establishing database of original and translated movie titles
It was necessary to establish a database containing both original English titles and
their Vietnamese translated version so that it would be easier and more convenient to
investigate the samples in order to find out the employed translation strategies. Hence, all
the collected titles were arranged chronologically. This means the movie shown first
would rank first in the database.
The list would be enclosed in Appendix 1.
Step 3: Localizing the titles containing proper names
From the established database, the researcher continued to further classify English
movie titles. As it was mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, movie titles generally have three
main characteristics, namely brief and concise, containing proper names and descriptive
or allusive. However, in order to facilitate data analysis procedure and avoid any
overlapping, movie titles were divided into two main categories based on the
20
characteristic of containing proper names. These include titles containing proper names
(41 titles) and without proper names (105 titles). It is noteworthy that all of 20 allusive
titles belong to the category of movie titles without proper names. The ratio of these
categories would be present in the following chart:
Figure 3.1. Ratio of movie titles with and without proper names
3.3.4. Data analysis procedures
First, movie titles without proper names were analyzed and compared with their

translations in order find out the strategies applied for translating such movie titles in
Megastar Cineplex.
Then, the titles containing proper names were also analyzed and compared with
their translations in order find out the strategies employed in translating them.
After each step, the findings were statistically synthesized to answer the first
research question regarding the strategies utilized in translating English movie titles into
Vietnamese. The results would be, then, presented in tables and charts.
3.4. Phase two
This phase aimed to seek the answers for the three last research questions:
2. What is the process of releasing Vietnamese titles for English movie titles in Megastar
Cineplex?
3. What are the principles in translating movie titles from English into Vietnamese, as
perceived by the selected translators?
4. What are the techniques adopted by those translators in translating movie titles from
English into Vietnamese?
3.4.1. Sampling
In order to answer the three last research questions, it was necessary to ask for the
participation of translators working for Megastar Cineplex. The selection criterion was
that the participants must have experience of working for Megastar and translating movie
titles. At first, five translators were purposively chosen based on these criteria. However,
due to their rigorous and rigid schedule, and heavy workload, not all of them could be
available for the study. Hence, convenience sampling in which “people are sampled
simply because they are convenient sources of data for researcher” (Lavrakas, 2008) was
utilized to select three participants.
21