PROCEDURES USED IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE MOVIE TITLES INTO ENGLISH = THỦ THUẬT DỊCH tên PHIM VIỆT NAM SANG TIÉNG ANH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

PROCEDURES USED IN TRANSLATING
VIETNAMESE MOVIE TITLES INTO ENGLISH

Supervisor: Tống Thị Mỹ Liên, MA
Student: Đặng Phương Hoa
Year of Enrollment: QH2017.F1.E22.PDCLC

HANOI, 2021


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THỦ THUẬT DỊCH TÊN PHIM VIỆT NAM
SANG TIÉNG ANH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS. Tống Thị Mỹ Liên
Sinh viên: Đặng Phương Hoa
Khóa: QH2017.F1.E22.PDCLC

HÀ NỘI, 2021

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Dang Phuong Hoa, class QH.2017.F1.E22.PDCLC,
being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the
College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited
in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,
loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Date: 29/04/2021

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ABSTRACT
Recently, Vietnam has witnessed an unprecedented fast-paced development
of the film industry. Not only have international movies been brought into
Vietnamese movie market but Vietnamese ones have also been increasingly
introduced to the global market. As a result, in Vietnam, movie translation
generally and movie title translation specifically have gained a great deal of
attention from translators and experts. There have been quite a few domestic
studies conducted to investigate movie translation and movie title translation from
other languages into Vietnamese. The inverse translation of movie titles from

Vietnamese to other tongues, nevertheless, has not received sufficient attention
and research. In other words, there are a mere number of investigations into
Vietnamese-English translation of movie titles. Urged by this situation, the
researcher decided to carry out a study to figure out which procedures had been
applied in translating Vietnamese movie titles into English with a qualitative
approach. The number of movies chosen was 45 with both Vietnamese titles and
their English counterparts from online databases such as Netflix. Data congregated
from document analysis was converted to figures illustrated via tables and charts,
enabling the researcher to attain the optimal results and draw conclusions. All in
all, six out of 11 procedures from the predefined set of Newmark’s procedures
were applied: Transference, Modulation, Cultural equivalent, Literal Translation,
Transposition and Couplets.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to express the most sincere gratitude to my
supervisor, Ms Tống Thị Mỹ Liên for her dedication and enthusiasm as well as her
motivation and vast knowledge in the field; her patience, constructive comments
as well as understanding and support with numerous challenges and obstacles I
have been facing throughout my research. Her continuous guidance and valuable
feedback assisted me in not only reinforcing theories for conducting a study but
also writing my thesis holistically.
I also feel thankful to some of my friends who inspired me to discover the
topic for my research and accomplish this thesis. Without their encouragement, I
could have not had motivation to fulfill this challenge.
Of the equal importance, I would also want to acknowledge the help of
Learning Resources Center of the University of Languages and International
Studies as the ample source of information and references for my thesis. Besides,

my grateful thanks also go to all of the teachers who instructed me during my
years at this university.
Last but not least, I am gratefully indebted to my family who has provided
me unfailing mental and physical support throughout my years of knowledge
acquisition and different phases of completing my thesis.

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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Statement of research problem & rationale for the study ........................................... 8
1.2. Research objectives and research questions ................................................................... 10
1.3. Significance of the study ........................................................................................................... 10
1.4. Scope of the research .................................................................................................................. 11
1.5. Methods of the research ............................................................................................................ 11
1.6. Organization of the research .................................................................................................. 11
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 13
2.1. An overview of translation and translation procedures ........................................... 13
2.1.1.

Definition of translation .............................................................................................. 13

2.1.2.

Translation procedures ............................................................................................... 15

2.2. An overview of a movie title .................................................................................................... 21
2.2.1.

Movie title........................................................................................................................... 21

2.2.2.

Function of a movie title .............................................................................................. 21

2.2.3. Characteristics of Vietnamese and English movie titles ................................ 22
2.2.4. Principles in movie titles translation .......................................................................... 25
2.4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY........................................................................ 28
3.1. The research design..................................................................................................................... 28
3.2. Subjects of the study ................................................................................................................... 28
3.3. Data collection methods and procedures .......................................................................... 31
3.3.1. Data collection methods ................................................................................................... 31
3.3.2. Data collection procedures .............................................................................................. 32
3.4. Data analysis methods and procedures ............................................................................. 33
3.5. Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................ 33
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................................... 34
4.1. Findings............................................................................................................................................. 34
4.1.1. Procedures in translation of Vietnamese movie titles with proper nouns34
4.1.2. Procedures in translation of Vietnamese movie titles without proper
nouns ...................................................................................................................................................... 40
4.2.3. Summary ................................................................................................................................. 51
4.2. Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 53
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 57
5.1. Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 57
5.2. Limitations and suggestions .................................................................................................... 57

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 60

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In this initial chapter, the problem and rationale, research objectives and
questions as well as the significance and the scope of the study are presented.
1.1 Statement of research problem & rationale for the study
Since the 19th century, the movie industry has become one of the most
flourishing worldwide. There has been an enormous increase in the number of
movies produced as well as audiences enjoying this kind of entertainment. In
addition to serving as a means of entertainment, movies have also been a form of
business in a range of countries. Considered a massive business, it generates a
significant amount of revenue to a country. Furthermore, in the era of global
integration, movies are also regarded as an effective way for cross-national and
cross-cultural communications, thus boosting the transnational understanding in
the contemporary world. Therefore, myriad countries including both developed
and developing ones put a high premium on producing intriguing movies to appeal
to not only domestic but also international audience. In the current time, Vietnam
is not an exception. The country has been paying increasing attention to its movie
industry, thus creating a considerable increase in Vietnamese films, many of
which are introduced to the international movie market. The typical example is
“Hai Phuong” (“Furie”), which ranks 27th in the American movie market
according to Nhan Dan Newspaper leading to the promising future of the
Vietnamese movie industry. This has resulted in the rising need of Vietnamese
movie translation generally and Vietnamese movie title translation particularly.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the success of a movie such
as the plot, the cast, film promoting strategies, and so on, one of which is the
movie title. According to Wallyadmin (2013), “the title you pick can set the tone

for your screenplay and give people a reason to see (or avoid) it” (). In other
words, a title not only plays a preponderant role in conveying the contents of a
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movie to the audience but also helps to create a strong impression on viewers,
hence making them remember that movie. As a consequence, it is undeniable that
if Vietnamese films aim to catch the attention of the outside world, a good title
along with its precise translation is a must. Understanding the titles is the very first
step that foreign audiences need to take before watching Vietnamese movies and
the foremost element for them to decide whether to watch the movies or not.
The translation version of Vietnamese movie titles has a significant impact
on the viewers’ interest and promotes the values of the movies (both artistic and
commercial ones). Hence, the translated titles have to be both correctly equivalent
to the Vietnamese ones and appropriate as well as thorough enough to express the
contents of the movies. Moreover, the translated titles also need to be thoughtprovoking and impressive enough to trigger audience’s interest in the movies. In
other words, translated versions of Vietnamese movie titles, just like other types of
translation, need to abide by the core principles of translation. First, the Englishtranslated title has to be appropriately faithful to its original title in Vietnamese.
Second, it is important to convey the accurate content of the original Vietnamese
film name through the English translated one, which helps the audience to
conjecture the plot of the movie. Last but not least, it is vital for the name of a
Vietnamese movie to be translated naturally in English.
Owing to its significance, translation of Vietnamese movie titles needs
great attention from translation scholars. In other countries such as China, movie
title translation has obtained a great deal of academic attention, and plenty of
research has been done regarding this aspect of translation. Nevertheless, in
Vietnam, there have been few academic studies into this translation field. Based
on my searching, even though the number of studies is limited, translating English
or foreign movie titles into Vietnamese has been academically studied by those
like Dung (2010) and Ngan (2013). Nonetheless, translating the names of

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Vietnamese movies into foreign languages has not received adequate attention
despite its importance in bringing Vietnamese movies to the world community.
For all the reasons above, the author of the paper was inspired to conduct a
research entitled “Procedures used in translating Vietnamese movie titles into
English” with a view to studying how translators deal with this aspect of
translation.
1.2. Research objectives and research questions
As emphasized through the title of the research paper, the sole aim was to
find out the most commonly applied procedures or strategies to translate
Vietnamese-to-English movie titles. The author hoped to help the readers in
general and students majoring Translation and Interpreting in particular in
developing an overview as well as an insightful understanding of this field of
translation. This would assist the translation students in learning from the Englishtranslated version of Vietnamese movie titles.
The objectives of a research project were to address the research problem
and answer the research question:
-

What are the procedures which translators usually use when they translate

Vietnamese movie titles into English?
1.3. Significance of the study
As mentioned above, the Vietnamese-English movie title translation did not
attain enough academic research. Therefore, the thesis paper was of great
significance to the study of this translation aspect, clarifying certain procedures
applied by translators when Vietnamese movie titles were translated. It would be
fairly helpful for either people whose job is to translate movie titles or students

majoring in Translation.
For those whose task is to translate movie titles, this thesis would assist
them in understanding thoroughly the theory of translation procedures and how
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these procedures are applied in real situations of translating film titles. Novice
translators could also learn from the existing translation of Vietnamese movie
titles, hence avoiding several mistakes of previous translators with a view to
producing a good translated version of a movie title.
More importantly, the thesis was expected to set a foundation for further
investigation in Vietnam on the Vietnamese-English translation of movie titles.
1.4. Scope of the research
As mentioned above, the focus of the study is the translation of movie titles
from Vietnamese to English. The scope of the study does not restrict itself to any
specific movie genre. Therefore, the research covers a wide range of movies
representative of various genres. Nevertheless, movies are chosen based on the
release time which is from 2013 to 2020.
The samples of the study will be confined to successful Vietnamese movies
that have officially approved English translation. The main sources for collecting
the titles of Vietnamese movies are online platforms, Netflix and Wikipedia in
particular, along with banners and advertisements from official websites of
cinemas.
1.5. Methods of the research
With a view to congregating data to seek answers to the research question,
the researcher decided to utilize qualitative approach. Abiding by the framework
of translation procedures by Newmark (1988), Vietnamese movie titles and their
English translated version were synthesized and analyzed to answer the question.
Owing to the complexity of the research method, the detailed methodology of this
study would be presented thoroughly in chapter 3 of this paper.

1.6. Organization of the research
The paper comprises of five main chapters as follows:
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Chapter 1: Introduction. This part includes the statement of research
problem, research objectives and research question, significance and organization
of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review. The chapter contains theoretical background
related to the research topic. Definition of key terms and presentation about
previous research are provided in this part.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology. This chapter depicts the data collection
methods and procedure as well as the data analysis methods.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion. In this part, all results from the data
collection and analysis are demonstrated. The answer to the research question is
also indicated.
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations. The final chapter provides
the well-round conclusions of the paper and proposes several suggestions for the
following research on the topic of this paper.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter gives an overview of translation in general and principles of
movie title translation in specific. In the chapter, definitions of key terms
(translation and movie title) and selected theoretical background such as
translation procedures are presented. Then the review of relevant previous
studies is also provided. In addition, characteristics and functions of a movie
title are discussed in this chapter.

2.1. An overview of translation and translation procedures
2.1.1. Definition of translation
Throughout centuries, translation has been a paramount part in
transnational communication, helping countries to discuss with one another in
various fields and solve different problems regarding those fields. Therefore, in
the era of global integration nowadays, translation increasingly claims its
indispensability in every demand of human. As a result, in order to set the
theoretical foundation for the research, it is of great importance to understand the
concept of translation.
Regarding the meaning in the dictionary, translation is regarded as “the
activity or process of changing the words of one language into the words in
another language that have the same meaning” (Cambridge Dictionary).
According to the Dictionary of Translation Studies by Shuttleworth and
Cowie, translation can be understood as follows:
Translation An incredibly broad notion which can be understood in many
different ways. For example, one may talk of translation as a process or a
product, and identify such sub-types as literary translation, technical
translation, subtitling and machine translation; moreover, while more
typically it just refers to the transfer of written texts, the term sometimes
also includes interpreting.
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(Shuttleworth and Cowie, 1997, p. 181)
This explanation of Shuttleworth and Cowie of translation demonstrates
that translation not only is viewed as a process or a product but also has variables
which are known as “sub-types”. It can be seen from this definition that those subtypes contain both conventional translations such as literary and technical
translations and newly-updated translation such as subtitling and machine
translations which can be spotted in modern kinds of entertainment.
As regards the definition of translation, different researchers may introduce

multiple ways of understanding.
In the eye of Bell (1991), translation is “the expression in another language
(or target language) of what has been expressed in one language (source
language), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences” (p. 5). In addition, he
also stated in his work that “translation is the replacement of a representation of a
text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second
language”.
Several scholars majoring in translation also propose various opinions
about translation as a process. Harmant and Stork (1972, p. 36) expressed that the
aim of translating is to transfer all grammatical and lexical features from the
“source language” into the “target language” as close as possible by searching for
equivalents. In the same vein, Nida (1959) expressed the understanding of
translation as follows: “Translation consists of producing in the target language
the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, firstly with respect
to meaning and secondly with respect to style.” Barnwell (1986) shared the same
viewpoint that translation is the as-exact-and-natural-as-possible rendering process
of meaning from this language to another. This view of definition is also
introduced by Newmark, who depicted translation as “a craft consisting in the
attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same
message and/or statement in another language” (Newmark, 1988, p. 7). Newmark
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(1988) simplified his way of viewing translation as “the rendering” of “the
meaning of a text into another language in the same way that the author intended
the text” (p. 5).
There has been a discrepancy in the definition of translation provided by
different experts in the field. Nevertheless, those definitions apparently share one
similarity that translation is the process of language transferring the source text
into the target language without making the translated version either inaccurate or

unnatural in that language. In other words, translation needs to meet the
requirement of conveying accurately the content as well as the naturalness of one
language into another one in written form.

2.1.2. Translation procedures
Translation procedures or translation strategies are one of primary terms
when it comes to translation. Hence, it is of critical importance to understand
thoroughly different frameworks of translation procedures before a certain system
of translation strategies is chosen to analyze.
Taking into account the translation strategies, Seguinot (1989) proposes the
three most used strategies in the translation process which are translating without
interruption for as long as possible; correcting surface errors immediately;
leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision
stage.
Meanwhile, Venuti (1998) believes that translation procedures constitute
“the basic tasks of choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a
method to translate it.” He also divides translation strategies into two main
concepts: domestication and foreignization. Domestication is the act of making the
target text closely adhere to the culture of the source language, whereas
foreignization is meant to maintain the source text information even by
deliberately breaking the conventions of the target language and culture.
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Pursuant to Jaaskelainen (1999), translation procedures are “a series of
competencies, a set of steps or processes that favor the acquisition, storage, and/or
utilization of information." He classifies strategies into two core categories: those
relate to what happens to texts and those relate to what happens in the process.
This thesis paper applies the classification of translation procedures by
Newmark (1988) because his categorization is highly recommended by myriad

professionals. Similarly important is that Newmark’s framework of translation
procedures is of great efficiency and sufficiency. Considering the translation
procedures, he states that “while translation methods relate to whole texts,
translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language” (p.
81). According to Newmark (1988), translation procedures are classified into
disparate categories including literal translation, transference, naturalization,
cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive equivalent, through
translation, shift or transposition, modulation, couplets, reduction and expansion.
Each procedure has its own characteristics and is used differently.
Literal translation
As stated by Newmark (1988), in literal translation, the SL grammar
structures are transferred into their nearest TL equivalents, which is different from
word-for-word translation. However, “lexical words” are still translated singly and
out of context.
He also postulated that literal translation is a coincidental procedure that
can be applied when the SL word has transparency or semantic motivation and it is
in standardized language.
Literal translation can be considered as “correct and must not be avoided if
it secures referential and pragmatic equivalence to the original” (Newmark, 1988,
p.69)
The example is provided below:
He is deaf to all of his mother’s advice.
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=> Anh ấy điếc với mọi lời khuyên của mẹ anh ấy.
Transference
Transference is known as loan word, emprunt or transcription, simply
understood as borrowing words from other languages. In other words, transference
allows the SL words to be taken directly into the TT with no translation.

This is possibly the simplest procedure among all procedures suggested by
Newmark(1988) because translators can use the source-language terms in the
translated version. Albeit simply applied the most among procedures of
Newmark’s classification, transference generally is only used in specific situations
when there are cultural objects or concepts related to a small group without
“national characteristics”, names of people, geographical and topographical
names, street names, titles of untranslated literary works, plays, movies and, titles
of private institutions.
This procedure is also recommended in translating technical terminologies
that do not own any equivalence in the target language or those that are familiar to
the multitude. The examples are Google, Internet, blog, Facebook, Wifi, and so on.
Naturalization
This is the procedure that “succeeds transference and adapts the SL word
first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology (word-forms) of
the TL” (Nguyen and Vuong, 2019, p. 36).
Example is given below:
ST

TT

Farcist

Phát xít

Coffee

Cà phê

Meeting

Mít tinh

Cultural equivalent
This procedure is an approximate translation that the translators use when it
is necessary to translate a SL cultural word into a TL cultural word. Newmark
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(1988) also emphasized that cultural equivalent aims at gaining the support or
supplementation of another translation procedure in a couplet.
The example is provided below:
Don Jon (movie name)
=> Chàng Sở Khanh tốt số
The woman in charge of the accounts department is an absolute dragon!
=> Người đàn bà phụ trách phịng kế tốn là một bà chằn đích thị!
(Nguyen, 2020)
Functional equivalent
This procedure can be mistaken with the previous one, cultural equivalent.
Nonetheless, one important feature of functional equivalent is the utilization of a
TL culture-free word to translate cultural words in the source text. Occasionally,
even new terms can be created. According to Newmark, functional equivalent is “a
cultural componential analysis” as well as “the most accurate way of translating
i.e. deculturalizing a cultural word” (Nguyen and Vuong, 2019, p. 37).
This is shown below in the two examples given by the researcher:
A cupid face
=> Một khuôn mặt đa tình
Vắng như chùa Bà Đanh
=> As unpopulated as desert
Descriptive equivalent
This procedure can also be mistaken with functional equivalent. However,

descriptive equivalent is commonly used to describe the meaning of the SL words
which have not yet had the TL equivalent. Normally, it is used to demonstrate the
meaning of the original term in several words and often combined with other
procedures
An example below is extracted from the original Romeo and Juliet by
William Shakespeare and the translated version of Dang The Binh:
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The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed
 Vừa kéo màn lên khỏi giường ngủ của Nữ thần Bình Minh
Through translation
According to Newmark (1988), through translation can be referred to as the
literal translation of different expressions such as names of organizations, the
component of chemical compounds from the source language into the target one,
etc. Moreover, in through translation, translators should not create the translated
version of the SL phrases but need to use the already-recognized terms.
ST

TT

Sports car

Xe thể thao

Superman

Siêu nhân

Shift/ transposition

The procedure “involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL” (Nguyen
and Vuong, 2019, p. 38). He categorized this procedure into 4 main types. The
first type is the variation from singular to plural, or the change in adjective
position. The second one is used when the TL does not possess the SL
grammatical structures. The third type is required when literal translation is
grammatically possible but may not be concordant with the naturalness of the TL.
The last type of shift is the replacement of a virtual lexical gap by a grammatical
structure.
The examples are given by the researcher:
ST

TT

shoes

giày

Smart phone

Điện thoại thông minh

It is said that he is good Người ta nói rằng anh ta
rất ưa nhìn.

looking
Modulation
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The word modulation is defined as “a variation through a change of

viewpoint, or perspective and very often of category of thought” (Vinay &
Darbelnet, cited in Newmark, 1988, p. 88).
Newmark emphasized two types of modulation: active for passive and
reversal of terms.
“Active for passive” (and vice versa) is a common transposition and is
compulsory when no passive exists. This type is advisable in the situation when a
reflexive is normally preferred to a passive.
Regarding reversal of terms, this type is habitually optional for making
language sound natural.
SL

TL

Types

Không thể không thử

Must-try

Positive <=> Negative

Your presence at my Tôi rất ngạc nhiên khi Reversal of terms
party really surprises me. bạn xuất hiện ở bữa tiệc
của tôi.
It’s said that pink is a Người ta nói rằng màu Passive <=> Active
sweet color.

hồng là một màu sắc
ngọt ngào.

Reduction and Expansion
Reduction and Expansion are considered imprecise translation strategies,
which are polished instinctively sometimes. The strategy is used when the
translator wants to add several important details or diminish some unsuitable
information of the SL in the TL version.
SL

TL

Types

Quần tây ống rộng

Trouser

Reduction/Expansion

Couplets
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With regards to couplets, 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.”
Terms

Equivalents

Procedures

Văn hóa Quan họ

Quan họ culture

Transference + Shift

Nhà chứa

Nhà chứa (Hosting house) Transference

+

descriptive equivalent
2.2. An overview of a movie title
2.2.1. Movie title
“Movie title” is a compound word, a combination of “movie” and “title”. In
order to understand “movie title”, it is essential to have know-how about the two
separate terms which are “movie” and “title”.
Below are the definitions of “movie” and “title”:
Movie: A series of sequentially ordered photographs or drawings (known
as frames) recorded on one or more reels of film and projected at speed on
to a screen by strong, focused light, giving an impression of natural
motion”
(McArthur, 1999, p. 671)
Title: The name of a book, poem, picture, piece of music, or the like; a
heading in a book or periodical, or of an article, chapter, or section in a
text”
(McArthur, 1999, p. 1044)
As can be inferred from the meanings above, “movie title” is the name of a

film. This way of understanding is commonly shared among scholars in this field.
2.2.2. Function of a movie title
As mentioned by Kolstrup (1996), “the prime function [of a movie title] is
to identify the text or the film. Without this initial identification we would not be
21


able to talk about the film or the novel, sales promotion would be impossible, and
researchers could not analyze the text! The title makes the unit.”
Based on this statement of Kolstrup, it is undeniable that a movie title had
an indispensable role in helping to arouse the attention and interest of audiences. A
movie title performs its task as informing audiences about the type of the movie, a
succinct summary plot of the movie, the theme and other aspects of that movie. Of
the equal importance, a movie title also stimulates the curiosity and predictions
about the film of the audience. In other words, it gives people the hints to discuss
the content as well as aesthetic values of a movie.
Another function of a title is promotion and advertisement for the movie.
An excellent title will bring the producers a surge in the revenue of the movie’s
ticket office, in other words, a dramatic amount of profit.
2.2.3. Characteristics of Vietnamese and English movie titles
According to Wang (2007),

movie titles have four underlying

characteristics, which are “brief and concentrated”, having “heroes and heroines”,
having “settings as titles” and being “attractive”. In the same vein, Duong (2006)
also gave her opinion on the noticeable features of movie titles. They are “brief
and concise”, “descriptive” and “containing proper names”. In addition, Newmark
(1988, p. 57) proposed that titles can be either “descriptive” or “allusive”.
Combining the two abovementioned conclusions with Newmark’s idea,

Tran (2008) concluded in her thesis paper that the main characteristics of movie
titles comprise of “brief and concise”, “containing proper names”, and “descriptive
or allusive”. Her viewpoint was indicated with various examples and concrete
explanation.
Another view on the characteristics of English movie titles was also offered
by Bai (2018). In her work, Bai (2018) mentioned four main features known as
“brevity quality”, “cultural quality”, “artistic quality” and “commercial quality”
with apparent clarification and evidence.
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Having scrutinized the similarities and differences among these
standpoints, the researcher concludes that movie titles including both English and
Vietnamese ones have four main characteristics, namely brief and concise, cultural
quality, containing proper names and descriptive or allusive. These features are
further analyzed as follows:
Brief and concise
Movie titles are generally succinct and straight to the point, appearing in a
form of a word, a phrase or a short sentence. According to Smith (1981), the most
common pattern is ARTICLE + ADJECTIVE + NOUN. The most conspicuous
and frequent elements of movie titles are nouns which may be “the main figure,
the place or the time when the story takes place” (Bai, 2018, p. 121). Concerning
movie titles in the form of phrases, Bai (2018) stated that they could be noun
phrases, verb phrases and prepositional phrases.
With respect to Vietnamese movies, the titles are short and profound, with
less than around six words such as “Tiệc trăng máu” (2020), “Cua lại vợ bầu”
(2019), “Em chưa 18” (2017), “Mùi cỏ cháy” (2012), “Mỹ nhân kế” (2013), etc.
As regards English films, there are also multiple brief titles such as “The
Baby Boss” (2017), “About Time” (2013), “The Notebook” (2004), “Home
Alone” (1990), etc.

Cultural quality
As movie is widely regarded as a means of cross-cultural communication, it
is believed to carry a certain cultural exchange function. In other words, Bai
(2018) stated “the film as a part of culture, it inevitably reflects their personal
characteristics”. Consequently, movie titles may contain cultural, historical or
even religious elements from the English-speaking countries. For instance, the
movie “Seven” (1995) has the name implying the catholic culture of the seven
deadly sins in the Bible. Another example can be taken from the movies “Trạng

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Quỳnh” (2019), “Dạ cổ hoài lang” (2017), “Tấm Cám: Chuyện chưa kể” (2016),
etc.
Containing proper names
“One outstanding feature of English movies is that they often contain
proper names” (Duong, 2006, cited in Tran, 2008, p. 33). These proper names can
be the name of a hero, a heroine, a famous figure, a place or even a thing. They are
frequently named after the name of the main character(s) (either a person or a
thing) or the setting where the story takes place. Several titles of movie containing
the main character’s name are “Iron Man” (2008), “Sherlock Holmes” (2009),
Enola Holmes (2020), and so on. Some of the movie having the name of a place
are “When in Rome” (2010), “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” (2007),
and “Nothing Hill” (1999).
Nevertheless, Vietnamese movie titles do not share the same feature
because “in Vietnamese movies, usually only famous people or well-known
characters in novels adapted for the movie can have their names as movie titles”
(Duong, 2006, cited in Nguyen, 2018, p. 15):“Tấm Cám: Chuyện chưa kể” (2016),
“Nguyễn Ái Quốc ở Hồng Kông” (2003), and “Chị Dậu” (1981).
Descriptive or allusive

A title that is considered descriptive if it “describe the topic” (Newmark,
1988, p. 57) directly while an allusive title “have some kind of referential or
figurative relationship to the topic” (Newmark, 1988, p. 57). In terms of
descriptive titles, the film’s plot is provided on the overall scale. For example, the
movie title “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) reveals the inner conflict
between Captain America and his ally in his group (Avengers). With regard to
allusive titles, although the plot is not directly expressed, audiences can still
envisage the story of the movie. A typical of this is “The Notebook” (2004). The
movie focuses on the story that an old man reads to an old woman in a nursing
home. The story talks about the hurtful love between a poor young man and a rich
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young woman. Turning to Vietnamese movies, there are some allusive titles such
as “Tiệc trăng máu” (2020), “Mắt biếc” (2019), “Quả tim máu” (2014), and so on.
2.2.4. Principles in movie titles translation
There have been different ideas about the principles in movie titles
translation. Bai (2018) proposed four principles regarding this field of translation.
Faithful Value: This is considered “the best translation of film names” (Bai,
2018, p.122). The translators need to maintain both the cultural know-how and the
functional features when translating the movie titles. In other words, practitioners
have to accomplish the contents of the original movie concisely with no translating
errors such as distortion, omissions, and deletion.
Aesthetic Value: Movie titles often employ the beauty of language and
language is a form of art. Therefore, a translated movie title needs to secure this
aspect of the original movie title, or “the translation of movie titles should be able
to highlight the beauty of the language on harmony” (Bai, 2018, p. 122).
Commercial Value: Commercial elements in any original movie titles need
to be taken into great consideration during the course of translating film names. As
movie titles play an important role in improving the box office, the translated

version should also follow these goals.
Focus on the Art of Title: Translation will be regarded as a work of art and
the film is an art. A qualified translation must be an adequate artistic task.
Pursuant to Duong (2006), there are other four main standards in the
translation of movie titles:
Faithfulness to the context: The translation of the title should either directly
or indirectly have connection with the movie itself.
Consideration of movie genres: In title translation, it is vital that
practitioners take the genre or the type of film into account. “The translated title is
produced in a way that can convey the movie genre” (Duong, 2006, p. 16).
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