Information Repackaging Revisited: Finding the Balance between Translation Accuracy and Appeal
Keywords:
information repackaging, translation accuracy and appeal, Kiswahili and Spanish translations, movie titles, equivalenceAbstract
There is a global rise in movie adaptations. This has contributed to the movies gaining popularity worldwide due to the socio-cultural and linguistic connections among viewers. The current study analyzes Nollywood (English) movie titles translated into Kiswahili and English movie titles translated into Spanish. Findings from a previous study serve as a springboard for the current study. The previous study analyzed Nollywood movie titles adapted for Kiswahili speakers. It outlined several strategies, including translation ellipses, transference, codeswitching, literal translations, insertion, and paraphrasing. The translation methods illustrate the difficulties translators face when they pursue either equivalence or alternative approaches in their target titles. Similar trends can be observed in English movie titles when translated into Spanish. The current study aims to extend this investigation by analyzing Nollywood movie titles in Kiswahili compared to English movie titles translated into Spanish. It analyzes different translation approaches among these contexts to understand how accurately maintaining original content compares to developing appealing titles for people with diverse backgrounds. The research collects data through questionnaires to contribute to existing views on movie title translation and adaptation. The comparative analysis expands understanding of how information repackaging through movie title translation affects socio-cultural and linguistic communication.
Downloads
References
Aboluwade, I. (2019). Beyond interlingual translation: Transforming history, corporeality, and spatiality in Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu. Adaptation, 12(3), 257-270.https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apz004
Arroihana, F. Z., & Kurniarahman, I. (2024). Analyzing Translation Methods in the Hidden Figures Movie. IREELL Indonesian Review of English Education Linguistics and Literature, 2(2), 137. https://doi.org/10.30762/ireell.v2i2.3720
Bassnett, S. (2006). Cultural, Colonialism and Gender Oriented Approaches to Translation. In Elsevier eBooks (p. 311). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/00459-4
Dassanayake, N. (2022). Exploring Coherence among Sri Lankan CFL Learners in Chinese-English Translation: Decoding and Interpreting of Culture-loaded Content. International Journal of Language and Literary Studies, 4(1), 350-363.
Darder, L. (2022). Revoicing Vernaculars? Racialised and Stereotyped Characters in Dubbing into Spanish and Catalan. Modern Languages Open, 1. https://doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.335
Dweik, B. S., & Suleiman, M. (2013). Problems encountered in translating cultural expressions from Arabic into English. International Journal of English Linguistics, 3(5), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v3n5p47
Fakharzadeh, M. (2021). A Sociological Approach to Official and Non-Official Audiovisual Translators’ Practice in Iran: The Case of Movie Title Translation. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 51(4), 430–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2021.1966075
Gu, Q., & Yang, L. (2024). The translation of animation titles: A case study on English, Japanese, and Chinese titles. In Forum for Linguistic Studies (Transferred) (Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1961-1961).
Heng, X. (2018). A study of college English translation teaching based on functional translation theory. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Education, Management, Arts, Economics and Social Science (ICEMAESS 2018) (pp. 668–674). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/icemaess-18.2018.135
Juma, M. J., & Ghaeb, R. A.-A. (2018). The Americanization of film subtitles: A sociocultural linguistic perspective to subtitling translation in the Arab world. Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences, 1(225), 1–20.
Kaneeva, A., & Bagdasaryan, T. (2021). Features of translation transformations in film titles as a linguoculturological specificity of the language. E3S Web of Conferences, 273, 11035. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202127311035
Li, Y. (2024). A Study on Chinese Translation of English-Japanese Movie Titles from the Perspective of Linguistic Conformity Theory. Journal of Education Humanities and Social Sciences, 38, 270. https://doi.org/10.54097/k3agcd19
Lotfollahi, B., & Moinzadeh, A. (2012). Translation of movie titles from English into Persian: Strategies and effects. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(3), 511–516. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2012.v3n3p511
Marjie, S. (2024). Information repackaging: Investigating translation strategies of Nollywood movie titles in Kiswahili. Ghana Library Journal, 29(1), 51. https://doi.org/10.4314/glj.v29i1.5
Mounadil, T. (2023). Strategies for translating idioms and proverbs from English into Arabic. British Journal of Translation, Linguistics and Literature, 3(2), 02-09.
Munday, J. (2001). Introducing Translation Studies, theories and applications. London: London and New York.
Pasaribu, A. E. A., Siregar, M., & Meisuri, M. (2022). Translation Strategies of Subtitling Java Heat Movie. LingLit Journal Scientific Journal for Linguistics and Literature, 3(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.33258/linglit.v3i1.623
Sapta, A. A., Azwandi, A., & Arasuli, A. (2020). Translation strategies applied by the fifth semester students of English Education Study Program in translating English written texts into Indonesian language. Journal of English Education and Teaching, 4(1), 102–114. https://doi.org/10.33369/jeet.4.1.102 114
Suima, I. P. (2024). Literary Translation as Dialogue of Cultures. Редакційна колегія, 102.
Singh, P., Patidar, M., & Vig, L. (2024, November). Translating Across Cultures: LLMs for Intralingual Cultural Adaptation. In Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (pp. 400-418).
Shokri, S. (2014). Translating Movie Titles: Strategies Applied on Persian to English Cases. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2568
Tingfang, X., & Enríquez-Aranda, M. (2024). The Translation of Video Game Titles in the Chinese Market.https://dx.doi.org/10.33542/JTI2024-1-2
Vermeer, H. J. (1998). Starting to Unask What Translatology Is About. Target: International Journal of Translation Studies, 10(1), 41–68.
Xu, S. (2021). The Translator-Editor Collaboration in Translating Chinese Literature: Three Short Stories by Bi Feiyu as Case Studies. Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia, 11(1), 4.
Yi, W. X., Amini, M., & Alipour, M. (2023). Genre and Translation Style in Chinese Translation of Hollywood Blockbuster Movie Titles in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Journal of Modern Languages, 33(2), 120. https://doi.org/10.22452/jml.vol33no2.7
Yin, R., & Tian, C. (2020). Ecotranslatology based research on the strategies and methods for translating English film titles into Chinese. International Journal of Humanities and Education Development (IJHED), 2(5), 355–361. https://doi.org/10.22161/
Yin-hua, X. (2011). Dynamic Equivalence: Features and Merits. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(9). https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.1.9.1253-1255
Yin, L. (2009). On the translation of English movie titles. Asian Social Science, 5(3), 171–175. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v5n3p171
Ying, S. (2019). A Study on Screen Translation Criteria from the Perspective of the Audience. Linguistics and Literature Studies, 7(5), 177.
Zhang, Y. (2018). Effectiveness on international cultural communication in terms of cultural Variational translation and full translation. Shanghai J Transl, 4, 78-82.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2025 Franklina Kabio-Danlebo, Dr. Sarah Marjie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
