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

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

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
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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

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

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”
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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.

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)

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

 Anh ta tốt nghiệp loại giỏi (xuất sắc).
(Le & Nguyen, 2010, p.38)
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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

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.
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 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”.

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

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.

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.
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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

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
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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

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