VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

AN INSIGHT INTO THE TRANSLATION STRATEGIES EMPLOYED IN THE

TRANSLATION OF MOVIE TITLES FROM VIETNAMESE TO ENGLISH

A proposal submitted to
The Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature
In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the course in
Research Methodology

by
NGUYEN LE TRUNG NGON

Supervised by
Dr. LE HOANG DUNG

Ho Chi Minh City, November 25, 2012

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Abstract
(To be written)
1.2. Background of the research
1.2.1. Rationale
Movie is one of the most important forms of modern entertainment, and it also serves as a
medium for the cultural communication between countries, including Vietnam and the Englishspeaking nations. As a result, movie translation has arisen as an integral part of making a
Vietnamese-speaking film an enjoyable experience for the English-speaking audience. In the
process, movie title translation has proved itself to be too important a task to be neglected. As the
first outlet of a movie to its audience, along with posters and advertisements, movie titles often
determine the chance of success of the whole movie. A good movie title can benefit the movie
and a bad one can bust it. The same goes to movie title translation.
However, unlike many forms of literary translation, movie title translation has not yet received
the appropriate amount of scholarly attention, although its importance is undeniable. This is
caused by many reasons. First of all, scholars usually think movie is just a mean of entertainment
and no more, no less. That said, a mean of entertainment is not worthy of academic attention,
at any level. However, as the rapid expansion of mass-media entertainment industry goes on, this
obsolete point of view (POV) is not relevant anymore. Therefore, the need for a study such as
this one is obvious. Secondly, as many people consider subtitle translating as the superior to
movie title translating, the need for a study in movie title translation strategy seems diminished

in comparison to the need for a study in movie subtitle translation. Nevertheless, it is not difficult
to refute this POV, simply because movie titles and subtitles serve different purposes. While
movie subtitle is the medium of transferring the content of the movie to the audience inside the
movie theatre, movie title is the one that do exactly the same job outside of the theatre an eyecatcher. A successful movie can have bad subtitles, but never a bad title. Therefore, it is also
important to conduct a study on how to translate movie titles successfully. Thirdly, in Vietnam,
there is still not many movies that are officially translated to English and introduced abroad,
which makes it hard for researchers to conduct a research on this matter. However, in the recent
years, the number of Vietnamese movies (or at the very least, movie titles) that is translated into
English is increasing, and it is not a major concern anymore. Last but not least, in the academic
sphere of the Vietnam National University, although there are some meager academic attention
on movie title translating, most of them are concentrated on the translation from English to
Vietnamese, not the other way around. These causes, combined with the mediocre quality of
movie title translations in Vietnam nowadays, have encouraged the researcher to conduct this
study.
In fact, the quality of title translation is in great concern not only in Vietnam but also in other
countries, as there are many complaints voiced in the recent years on the poor quality of
Vietnamese-to-English movie title translations. Yet there has not been much academic attention
on this matter, except for the general translation theorists. For example, Peter Newmark has
called on the translators to bring their attention to two underplayed aspects of translation, one
of which is the approach to non-literary translation (Newmark ,1987, 135). Eugene Nida also
called for more attention to exploring new fields in translation (Nida, 2001, 17). But still, as
presented above, there is a severe lack of study on the translation of movie titles, especially from

Vietnamese to English. This study, based on the analysis of the present situation, will attempt to
fill that gap by analyzing the quality of current translation work on most Vietnamese movie titles
that are translated into English and provide a practical framework for other students and
translators to follow.
1.2.2. Scope of the study
Due to the abundance of English-to-Vietnamese movie title translation studies, this study will
focus on the translation of Vietnamese-to-English movie only. The study aims at:

Analyzing the general characteristics of Vietnamese and English movie titles

Analyzing a number of Vietnamese movie titles that was translated into English to identify
their translation strategies, the pros and cons of the strategies, and to offer some improvement

on those ones.
Proposing some feasible translation strategies for Vietnamese-to-English movie title
translation in general.

1.3. Research question

The research aims to answer the following research question:

What are the strategies which translators often use to translate a movie title from Vietnamese
to English?

To answer this question, the research decides to do an internet survey, in which the samples are a
number of movie titles that were translated from Vietnamese to English. By applying a
combination of research methods, the research is expected to reveal an answer that would have a
good level of both internal and external validity.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Overview of key terms
2.1.1. What is translation?
Lexically speaking, Translation is the restatement of the forms of one language in another: the
chief means of exchanging information between different language communities. (McArthur,
1992, 1052). In this definition, translation is defined as a process of exchanging texts between
two languages, but is it really that simple?
Other dictionaries would say no without any hesitation, such as the specialist Dictionary of
Translation Studies:
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 subtypes 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. (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997, 181, as quoted in
Hatim & Munday, 2004, 3-4)
In the definition above, not only the authors regarded translation as a process, but they also
viewed it as a product, which consisted of many sub-types. In those subtypes, one can easily spot
the traditional subtypes, which are literary translation, technical translation as well as the upto-date ones such as subtitling and machine translation. However, for an in-depth and
appropriate definition for the study, this one is not enough.

Besides, scholars have their own way of defining things and translation is no exception. For
example, Reinhardt Hartmann and F. Stork stated Translation is the replacement of a
representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second
language (Hartmann & Stork, 1972, 713, as quoted in Bell, 1991, 6). As far as the definition
suggested, one can easily interpret that, to translate a text is to transform the text from a language
to another one, which involve the consideration of reproducing only some parts of the source text
(ST) and omitting or changing others, due to the inherent differences between both languages.
The researcher agrees with most of the ideas presented in this definition, but he doesnt agree
with the vague word equivalent, as his own experience suggests that in some cases, the texts in
the second language doesnt completely equal to the ones in the first language in terms of
grammatical structures, of the whole meanings, etc., but those texts are still considered good
translations by the readers and researchers alike.
Likewise, Peter Newmark (1987) asserted a similar definition, Translation is 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 message (Newmark, 1987, 7). Mona Baker (1992) agreed
with this notion, but suggested that the ideal equivalence at word-level as well as above wordlevel between the source language (SL) and target language (TL) is extremely hard to maintain
because of various differences in grammar structure and culture between the two languages. To
help maintaining this equivalence, translators and theorists have proposed many translation
strategies in the last century. However, as this is the most complete definition in the researchers
own opinion, this definition will be adopt as the sole definition of translation in the study.
2.1.2. What are translation strategies?

According to Wolfgang Lorscher, a remarkable professor and translation theoretician from

Leipzig University, a translation strategy is a potentially conscious procedure for the solution of
a problem which an individual is faced when translation a text segment from a language into
another (Lorscher, 1991, 76). While this is a decent definition, others (including the researcher)
are not satisfied with it, as it is too simple to contain the complete meaning of translation
strategy.
In addition, Roman Jakobson, a prominent structuralism theoretician, proposed a new way of
classifying translation strategies by stating, All cognitive experience and its classication is
conveyable in any existing language (Jakobson, 1959/2004, 238, as quoted in Hatim & Munday,
2004, 10), which means that although there are some concepts that exists in the SL but not in the
TL, these concepts can be expressed in some way to convey their meanings to the readers in the
TL. For example, modern financial concepts such as stock market, equity or capital may not have
their equivalents in more traditional languages such as Swahili or Somali, but they can be
expressed either way. In summary, this approach split translation strategies in half, with one side
opts to preserve the content of the text and the other to preserve the form of it. One can easily see
that the sense may be translated, while the form often cannot (Hatim & Munday, 2004, 10).
The researcher doesnt agree with Roman Jakobsons POV, as he feels that this kind of
translation strategy that Jakobson proposed is just another word for explanation, which is not
even a kind of translation in the researchers opinion. As the definition of translation
suggested above, the result of a translation is the same unit of language in the TL as the one in
the SL, which implies that a good translation cannot, should not, and must not transform a single
term in the SL into a whole paragraph in the TL. That is not what people called translation, just
explanation.

Another way to define translation strategy is to categorize them into procedural and textual
strategies. Wolfgang Lorscher (1991, 68 81) differentiated translation strategy in a
procedural sense to translation rules, which are often less subject to particular circumstances,
to translation tactics, which are less sequential, and to translation plans, which are more
concerned with mental representation than with procedural knowledge. Based on earlier studies
on translation procedures (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1958/1995, quoted in Baker, 2008, 283) and
translation shifts between ST and target text (TT) (Catford, 1965; Popovic, 1970, quoted in
Baker, 2008, 283), Andrew Chesterman (2005, 20, as quoted in Baker, 2008,283) remarked that
strategy cannot be a universal word to describe both the procedures and the results, as many
words used to describe textual translation procedures are nominalizations of verbs:
compensation, omission, etc. He proposed a new type of translation strategy known as
textual translation strategy, which focuses more on the result of procedures than the procedures
themselves. The researcher feels that although this approach is pretty straightforward, it still
lacks the depth to be the complete definition. In another word, the researcher thinks that this
approach is best served as the groundwork for other linguists to build on, as proved in the works
below.
Furthermore, other linguists (Jaaskelainen, 1993, 115-116; Seguinot, 1989; Lorscher, 1991, 71,
as quoted in Baker, 2008, 283) proposed a new way of defining translation strategies by
classifying them into global and local strategies. While local strategies mostly affect
individuals in lexical and language units of a specific language, global ones are mainly used at
a broader scope, associate with general problems such as the importance of styles or the dilemma
between depreciating and appreciating particular aspects of the ST. This approach is, in the
researchers opinion, a similar effort to the one above to categorize translation strategies, not

define them, thus is not feasible enough to be the main definition of translation strategy in the
study.
Besides, there are much cultural and grammatical dissimilarity between languages. That said, a
term in the SL may or may not have an equivalent in the TL. In fact, Vladimir Ivir, a Croatian
translator and linguist, suggested that,
When a translator face an element in the source culture which is absent from the target
culture, the translator relies on different procedures that enable him to convey to
members of the target culture the content of that particular element. When the target
culture lacks an element (object, concept, social institution, pattern of behavior, etc.), its
language will normally lack an expression in the target language that will adequately
convey the missing element to the speakers of the language. (Ivir, 1987,37)
Those unmatched elements are huge stumbling blocks that translators have to overcome. And to
help them achieve the ideal equivalence in translating, Ivir (1987, 38) provided them with seven
strategies, that is: borrowing, definition, literal translation, substitution, lexical creation, addition
and omission. Nevertheless, the borrowing strategy was refuted by Newmark (1988, 81), as he
thought it was not a translation strategy at all. The POV of Ivir is somehow similar to Mona
Bakers one which is eventually adopted by the researcher albeit not as complete, in the
researchers opinion.
Interestingly, Mona Baker (1992) offered certain strategies, some of which are very similar to
Ivirs ones, to solve particular problems that arise in the translation process. These strategies
were created to cope with the lack of equivalence between two languages at word, sentence and
textual levels. The first strategy that she suggested is using words with general meanings, or in

another word, superordinate. According to Mona Baker, This is one of the commonest
strategies for dealing with many types of non-equivalents, particularly in the area of
propositional meaning (Baker, 1992, 26). Secondly, she proposed that the translator should use
a more neutral\less expressive word (Baker, 1992, 26). Thirdly, he or she can use cultural
substitution in translation. Fourthly, Baker (1992) also supported loan words or loan words plus
explanations usage, which she also considered a viable strategy, regardless of Peter Newmark
(1988) opposition. In addition, one can translate effectively using a related word to paraphrase.
The sixth strategy is also a paraphrasing one, but this time with an unrelated word. The seventh
one, the use of omission, which is the act of omitting some minor parts in the source text in his or
her translation, is also accepted in Baker (1992)s view. Last but not least, she suggested the use
of illustration in translation. According to her, this is a useful option if the word which lacks an
equivalent in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly
if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point
(Baker, 1992, 42).
Surprisingly, although Peter Newmark (1988) didnt agree much with the strategies provided by
Mona Baker, his list of translation strategies had many affinities to those of her, such as the
technique of paraphrasing and omission, or deletion in his words. He also appreciated the use
of loan words plus explanation, dubbing it translation couplet. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Finch
(1998), in his book How to Study Linguistics, commented that in working out the meaning of
what is said to us we have to take into account not only the words themselves as individual
items, but also the circumstances in which they are uttered, the medium used, and the person
who is addressing us (Finch, 1998, 134). In this statement, one can easily see that the
importance of the relationship between the addresser and the addressee was emphasized. For

example, one cannot fully understand the meaning of the expression I dare you if he or she
doesnt know about the relationship between the speaker and the listener, as well as the context
in which the expression was uttered. The meaning of the expression will be completely different
in a friendly conversation and an intense one (a joke versus an insult). Finch summarized that it
is not enough to know what words mean in isolation. We have to be able to interpret them in
concrete situations (Finch, 1998, 135). He argued that people are usually misunderstood each
others words, as their vocabularies are different. In the application of this knowledge to the case
of movie titles, the reader can infer that it is possible for people to understand a movie title
differently, even when they saw them at the same time and the same place, as each person is a
unique entity, which has his/her own way of thinking, feeling and appreciating things. That is
why the same movie (title) can be regard as good or bad by different people, even when they
watched it in the same theatre.
In summary, the researcher will use the combination of the definition of translation strategy
from both Mona Baker and Geoffrey Finch, in appreciation of the sensibility in Bakers ones and
the flexibility in Finchs, as the theoretical framework of the study, in order to analyze the
strategies and procedures. To be more clearer, translation strategies, in this research, are the
methods that translators employed when translating a text from one language to another.
2.1.3. What is a movie title?
As a compound noun, the definition of movie title can be found in virtually every dictionary
under the entries of movie and title. The Oxford Companion to the English Language
defined movie as 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, 671) and title is defined as
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, 1044). By combining
the meanings of those two, one can get a clear picture of what a movie title is, lexically.
In the researchers own view, movie title is simply the identifying name that is given to a
movie. The name can be long or short, attractive or boring, or even lame, but it is often a special
message from the producer to the audience of the film, a message that can draw peoples
attention and make the film a blockbusting hit, or diminish their attention and make it an
embarrassing flop. However, the importance of movie title translation is usually underestimated,
and the task of translating movie title is often neglected, especially in Vietnam. This
phenomenon is evidently reflected by the meager number of materials in translation research,
possibly due to the lack of awareness in the function of movie title (as far as the researcher has
researched, in the academic sphere of Vietnam National University, there is only one study
conducted by a student from the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities on the
translation of movie title, from English to Vietnamese).
2.2. Movie title
2.2.1. Functions of a movie title
According to Soren Kolstrup, an accomplished Danish scholar in history and social studies, in
his article The Film Title and its Historical Ancestors,
The prime function [of a movie title] is to identify the text or the film. Without this initial
identification we would not be 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.
(Kolstrup, 1996)
Almost every single object in the world has a name, especially those that has literature value. If it
doesnt have a name, one must give it one in order to talk about it. For example, before a new file
in the computer was named, its default name has always been something like untitled until
the user decides to give it a name at all. The same goes to the movie title, although its more than
just that. Movie titles are also used to provide the audience a brief summary of the plot, the
theme, or some other ideas. As it is one of the first details that the audience would know about a
film, a movie title also play an important role in directing the audiences curiosity, predictions
and expectations about the film. In short, a movie title is not only an indispensable part of a
movie, but it is also one of the most important parts of it.
Moreover, as mentioned above, movie titles also help arousing attention, interest and viewing
desire for the audience, which serve as a huge drive in increasing the movies box office income.
Therefore, movie titles play an integral role in the movies promotional campaigns, which is
evidently reflected by the key and eye-catching position of them on advertisements and in
posters for any film. Upon seeing a well-crafted, meaningful and/or attractive movie title placed
in a nice and catchy poster, many would surely consider spending their money and weekend in
the cinema, instead of golfing or picnicking. Thats the enormous power of movie title in
determine the movies success, as evidently reflected in the list of highest grossing films of all
time. In the list on Wikipedia, most of the 50 highest grossing films have catchy movie titles
such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Dark Knight Rises or Transformers:
Dark of the Moon; curiosity-arousing titles such as The Lion King, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or
Shrek the Third; or both such as 2012, Avatar or Jurassic Park.

However, for a more functionalist approach, Peter Newmark (1987) offered six functions of
language: informative, vocative, aesthetic, phatic, expressive and metalingual functions. As far as
we can see, movie titles tend to be an ultra-brief summary of the whole movie and/or a tool to
provoke the need of going to movies of the audience, which means that it will have the first three
functions listed above, namely informative, vocative and aesthetic functions.
Firstly, the informative function of a movie title is the function that helps the audience to access
the idea and story of the movie better. For example, the title Dictator will provide the audience
with the basic knowledge that the film will be story of a dictator, not an actor or mentor.
Likewise, the title Iwo Jima will remind them of the historical event in World War II. As this
function helps establishing the groundwork for the audiences comprehension of the movie, we
can easily see that it is the most important function of a movie title.
Secondly, the vocative function is the function that stimulates the audiences curiosity and
interest. A good example of this function is the title Sex and other drugs, which include two
controversial but at the same time, temping entities: sex and drugs. An average moviegoer,
without any moral strictness, will found the title attractive and exciting, as he or she expects that
those two entities will be included in the movie. Therefore, this is the function that generates the
most commercial success for the movie.
And finally, the aesthetic function is the function that brings a sense of aesthetic beauty to the
title. This is often seen in romantic and classic movie titles such as Titanic, Gone with the wind
or Norwegian Wood.
In summary, the functions of a movie title consist of: identification, summary of the movies
ideas, directing the audiences feelings about the film, attracting people to the theatre, thus

increasing the films revenue. Another approach is that the functions of a movie title are that they
can also be informative, vocative and aesthetic functions. As the two sets of functions above
overlapped in some areas and mutually perfected themselves, the researcher decided to use the
combination of both of them in this research.
2.2.2. Characteristics of Vietnamese and English movie titles
It is common knowledge that Vietnam and most English-speaking nations belong to different
cultural hemisphere. While Vietnam has a traditional Oriental (or Eastern) culture, most Englishspeaking nations is situated in the Western cultural zone. Due to this inherent difference, the
movie titles of each side also have many differences in the following aspects.
2.2.2.1. Form
In general, the titles of Vietnamese movies are brief and profound, with no more than six words,
such as Ghen, Xe p, Mi ng gai, Dng mu anh hng, i qua ngy bin ng, and Cuc
phiu lu ca Ong Vng, with very few exceptions such as Hot boy ni lon v cu chuyn v
thng Ci, c gi im v con vt. It is interesting to note that, according to the List of
Vietnamese films and Danh sch phim Vit Nam of Wikipedia, most Vietnamese movies are three
or four words long.
Meanwhile, as a concise language, English often takes less words to form a meaningful phrase
than Vietnamese. As a result, English movie titles is often shorter than its Vietnamese
counterparts, ranging from one to five words in general, such as Ultraviolet, Underworld:
Evolution, Trust the Man, You, Me and Dupree and The Monster of Phantom Lake, although
there might be some exceptions such as Don't be a menace to South Central while drinking your
juice in the hood.

Another worth noting characteristic of English movie titles is that hero, heroine and other names
are often employed as movie titles. For example, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Hulk, Spiderman,
Catwoman and Jane Eyre are names of the protagonists in the movies and also the titles of those
movies. On the contrary, Vietnamese movies do not share this feature with their English
counterparts, as names in Vietnamese are often too casual to be well-known. Therefore, if a
Vietnamese movie adopts a persons name as a movie title, it has to be somewhat special, such as
Ch Du or Long Rui.
2.2.2.2. Style
Having a young movie industry, Vietnam sure has learned a lot from pioneers such as the US and
the UK. As a result, in terms of movie title style, there are many similarities between English
movie titles and Vietnamese movie titles.
One the one hand, both of them have very simple appearances, for example, Xm nc en, Xch
l, Kill Bill and The Ring. This is largely due to the simple nature of the Latin alphabet, but it
also has the origin from the general taste of many Vietnamese and English-speaking people, who
prefer things to be short, simple and easy to understand.
On the other hand, some Vietnamese and English movie titles are often curiosity-provoking such
as Ct mc 23 and The Saw. Combining with a well-designed poster, those interesting movie
titles will make the audience want to find out what makes the 23rd milestone or that saw so
special, and what do they has to do with the movie. To achieve this goal, many Vietnamese and
English movie producers have decided to name their films as vaguely as possible. Aside from the
two examples above, there are countless other ones such as Ghen, ng th, By rng, etc. and
Ghost, The pianist, Goldfinger, etc.

2.2.2.3. Meaning
As the prominent translator and linguist Fu Lei remarked, people from the Western countries
value analysis and details. Therefore, they try to be as specific and complete as possible in their
writings. Accuracy and specificity are emphasized in western culture, and the westerners see
from the angle of parts or factors (as quoted in Kelan & Wei, 2006). What the western thinking
way of analyzing and valuing parts reflects in movies is that names, the main factor of storyline,
are frequently used as titles. The extensive use of proper names as movie titles also suggests a
hint of individualism in western culture, which values the rights and independence of people.
This can be seen in any movie lists of Hollywood or Europe, because the movie titles that are
proper names always account for a significant percentage of the list. It is not exaggerate to say
that this is the most important characteristic in the meaning of a western movie title.
It is a pity, but also a truth, to say that in this aspect, Vietnamese movie titles have no such
unified characteristic. Having a young and inexperienced movie industry, Vietnamese didnt
make enough film on a regular basis, with a constant way of naming it, to establish a concrete
characteristic for movie titles. However, with the rapid growth of the Vietnamese movie industry,
it is hopeful that this situation can be improved over time.
2.3. Similar researches on the translation of movie titles
In the past, there are a few studies that have investigated the translation of movie titles. One of
them is the one by Luo Ying (2007), in which the author investigated the translation of movie
titles from English to Chinese by applying Newmark's translation theory. Eventually, Ying found
out that there are four main translation procedures that are most frequently used in movie title
translation. They were literal translation, transliteration, free translation and semantic translation.

It was suggested that by integrating different translation strategies and procedures with a theory,
a translator can provide suitable translations to "get the audience a better understanding of the
film itself" (p. 83). This study is a decent one. However, by adopting Newmarks translation
theory, a theory that is still in controversy, the authors argument seemed weak and unconvincing
to the researcher.
The second study was another one on English Chinese movie title translation. Yin (2009)
studied the techniques that are used in translating movie titles. The author categorized them into
two groups: the first one, which consisted of transliteration, literal and explication, keeps the
original title while the second one, including adaptation and providing a new title, get rid of it.
Yin proposed, a good movie title "should obey such principles: faithfulness, cultural awareness,
combination of commercial and aesthetic effects" (p. 173). This study is a good one in the
researchs opinion, with good ideas and strong arguments. However, the lack of a proper
theoretical framework (or the lack of a proper introduction for that framework) sometimes
greatly confused the researcher.
Thirdly, Yo-ou and Jin-hai (2010) discussed unfaithfulness in movie title translation from three
different aspects: categorization, manifestation, and causal relationship. They categorized
unfaithfulness that "is an inevitable phenomenon in translation" (p. 58) into two categories:
unconscious which "will cause mistranslation" (p. 58) and conscious which is deliberate
deviation from the original. This one is so good a research that it really helped the researcher a
lot in conducting his own study.
Fourthly is the research of Liu Kelan and Xiang Wei (2006) which introduced very briefly about
the translation of movie titles from English to Chinese. The study discussed about the features of

English and Chinese movies, the outstanding problems of the translation of movie titles between
the two languages and the proposal of some strategies on translating them effectively. However,
as mentioned before, this study attempted to introduce very briefly on the matter, so one
shouldnt expect any higher than that. Furthermore, the tone of writing in this study is very
dogmatic and baseless, with the author committed the fallacy of over-generalization again and
again. Therefore, this research is a below-average one in the researchers opinion.
Fifthly, Yan Chang (2012) attempted to summarize the characteristics, classification, constraints
and special principles of film translation. It is important to note that this study devoted to the
translation of the whole film, not the movie title only. Even though, the analysis of the author on
the translation of movie titles was very convincing, combined with good writing, in-depth ideas,
this is not a study to be easily forgotten.
The sixth one is almost the same as this study, with the direction of translation reversed, from
English to Vietnamese. An unknown author from the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies did a
very good job by examining some 100 movie titles in English and their translations in
Vietnamese, then passed on his/her own verdict and suggested further improvements to those
translations. The study concluded with a brief questionnaire to ask about the feelings and
emotions of various famous movie translators, which is very convenient, but at the same time,
seemed biased, un-academic and made the intentions of the author and the study unclear.
The final research on this matter that the researcher has found was a study from the Middle East.
Bahareh Lotfollahi (2012) discussed the translation strategies that are often used in translating
movie titles from English to Persian and their effects. The text of this study is very brief, but its
tables and graphs, on the contrary, are huge and numerous. This is also what differentiated this

study from the others, together with its strong arguments and concrete results. However, the look
and feel of this study somehow seemed like a summary of other researches and its ultra-short
length prevent the researcher from recommending it to anybody.
2.4. Conclusion
The definition of key terms, as well as the functions of movie title in this literature review will
serve as groundwork for the reader to advance to the next part of the paper. The issue regarding
the translation of movie titles is an important one, as it will assist in the task of creating a
theoretical framework for analyzing the quality of Vietnamese-to-English movie title
translations, which is one of the cores of the research.

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1.

Research Method
As the research aims to answer the research question, it will employ a qualitative method. The
researcher uses this method because the nature of the research:

seeks answers to a question (which is the research question)

systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question (which is the

procedures supplied below)

produces findings that were not determined in advance (the number/ratio of translation

strategies)
produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the study
(further recommendations to make the titles sound more natural)

This method consists of a book review (or a library research) and a survey to a base of subjects
that are movie titles translated from Vietnamese to English. The book review served as a mean
for the researcher to establish his theoretical framework about translation strategies and movie
titles in the previous chapter. On the other hand, the survey uses the findings from the book
review to apply to reality and reveals the answer for the research question. Moreover, the
researcher also employed the use of statistical softwares to enhance the reliability of the statistics
and the research in general. It is important to note that, the focus of this research is translation
strategies, everything else, such as the quality of the translations, is just unimportant addition to
make this research more diverse and valid.
3.1.1. Research Tools and Procedures

As the target group of subjects of this research is a number of movie titles, the main tools of the
research will mostly be electronic tools. Because of the qualitative nature of the research, the
researcher thinks that using electronic tools would be beneficial. Because:

Electronic tools (Internet survey, Statistical softwares) are easier to use and thus are

appropriate to the rather small scale of the research.

The population of subjects available on the internet is massive and diverse.
The use of statistical softwares will help the researcher to cover his limitations on
mathematical skills.

That said, the researcher will:

1. Use an internet survey to pick out the samples, which will be movie titles that undertook
translations from Vietnamese to English.
2. Categorize the samples into different categories of translation strategies.
3. Using statistical software to reveal the number/percentage of strategies the titles undertook to
find out the answer for the research question.
4. Comment on the translations and recommend further improvements on those translations.
3.1.2. Research Sites
As a matter of fact, there are not many Vietnamese movies that were translated and introduced
abroad officially. Nevertheless, many of them are given an English name since their production.
This phenomenon has increased the number of Vietnamese-English movie translations
drastically. Therefore, the researcher cannot access large number of movie translations in real life
without being biased, so most of the movie titles taken this way (would make up a very minor
part of samples, so as not to affect the internal and external validity of the research) will be
picked conveniently. To ensure the arbitrariness of the samples, the movie title collection will be
done from both daily life and the internet.

The researcher will search from various sources, such as official websites, commercials,
advertisements on the internet, newspapers and magazines, banners on the streets, or the
brochure of the movie, just to name a few. However, most of the movie title translations will be
taken from the internet, because of its abundance and reliability.
The researcher will use random sampling method to pick out the research sample. This means
that the movie titles will use Successive Independent Samples, which means that the researcher
will draw multiple random samples from a population at one time. The sample must be
Vietnamese movie titles that were translated into English and will not be limited by any other
criteria. E.g. Samples will be taken from both professional and amateur translators, mainly from
a number of sites below:

http://www.imdb.com : the largest movie database on the internet. This site is a reliable,
popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. IMDb was
launched on October 17, 1990, and in 1998 was acquired by Amazon.com, which made it
a professional and authoritative source for movie information. As of January 7, 2013,
IMDb had 2,393,341 titles and 5,010,177 personalities in its database. With such huge
number of films featured (including Vietnamese films) this site is one of the core sites of

this research.
http://www.amazon.com : one of the largest online trade posts on the internet, the direct
owner of IMDb. This site is renowned by the diversity of its products, including films.
The reviews on this site are mostly written by experts at the company, so its reliability is
ensured. However, there are only a few Vietnamese movies over there, so this would be a

drawback for this site.]

http://www.ebay.com : the largest rival to www.amazon.com , this site offers even more
products than Amazon, however, the reviews and quality of products on this site is

questionable, because they were not from experts like on Amazon, so this site will serve

as a reference site.
http://www.dienanh.net : similar to IMDb, dienanh.net is a very old and reliable source of
Vietnamese film information; with many of its members are professionals in the movie
industry (mostly translators). However, due to the openness nature of the site, some
movie information in this site are not as objective and precise as in IMDb, so this site will

mostly serve as a reference site.

http://www.yxine.com : although this site is quite new, its database is quite intuitive, large

and precise. Thats why the researcher will rely on this website a lot.
Movies titles that are taken from real life will present, but only to increase the diversity and
randomization of the samples. However, they cant be the main focus of the study because of the
meager numbers of them.
Sampling Procedures
3.2.1. Research Samples

3.2.

80 Vietnamese movie titles that have Vietnamese English (V-E) translations, which are
collected from many sources from June 8, 2012, will be the sample of the research. As the study
aspires to reveal the methods that are usually employed by translators to translate movie titles,
those without a V-E translation will be excluded. For the sake of internal validity of the research,
samples will be chosen randomly, without any predestined prejudice intended when choosing
them.
3.2.2. Sampling Procedures
The procedures of sampling are:
1. Surf the web: The researcher will go to the websites listed above and retrieve as many
Vietnamese movie titles that have V-E translations as possible.

2. Go to the cinemas: The researcher will go to Galaxy Tan Binh, Megastar Pandora City
and Dong Da cinemas in Ho Chi Minh City to collect the list of Vietnamese movies that
had V-E translations. The database of each cinema is the same among their respective
cinema system, so the location of the cinemas will not affect the result of the retrieval.
3. Look for V-E movie title translations: on Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien and Nguoi Lao Dong
newspaper and Dien Anh magazine, because those publications are fairly objective and
reliable. The researcher will also look for V-E movie title translations in the banners on
the street.
4. Sampling: The researcher will use a the SPSS software to randomly choose a population
of sample consisting 80 movie titles from the translations retrieved in the first three steps.
3.3. Analysis procedures
The 80 Vietnamese movie titles will be put into comparison with English movie titles to reveal
the similarities as well as dissimilarities between the movie titles of the two languages. Based on
the aspects above, the comparison will help find out the features that the translations of
Vietnamese movie titles need to have in order not to sound awkward in English, while keeping
the faithfulness and fidelity to Vietnamese movie titles.
Then the strategies for translating the 80 Vietnamese movie titles will be analyzed. They will be
divided into different units of translation depended on the translation procedures which were
applied to them. Finally, based on the results, the researcher will pass on his verdict.

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