The Dialogical Nature of Localized Filmonyms

Abstract

The article introduces readers to the problem of localization of English filmonyms as exemplified by a subgroup of film titles with a dialogic nature. The research features the phenomena of mass communication discursivity based on film titles with a dialogic nature in modern Russian film distribution. The method of typological synchronous comparison (juxtaposition) allowed the author to compare filmonyms and their translations in order to discover their functional peculiarities, similarities, and differences. The material shows that modern cinematography, unlike film industry abroad, makes an active use of dialogical filmonyms as a manipulative instrument of attracting filmgoers to cinema halls. The translation activates an adaptive tactics in order to accustom filmonyms to the peculiarities of the accepting cultural background. The classification revealed that a range of filmonyms with a dialogical nature, i. e. exclamations, stickers, appeals, declarations, and questions, reflect the mass conscience due to their emotivity. In the last decades, the shift in mass conscience signifies the tendency for tolerance to everything immodest, impudent, seductive, and blatant, which was previously uncharacteristic for the Russian film industry. The article postulates that learning a foreign language implies the ability to tune on the same wavelength with the foreign culture, whereas disrespect for the foreign cultural specifics doesn’t facilitate the cultural dialogue and mutual understanding.