What about a situation in which the work in question has been translated under multiple titles? One example that comes to mind is Menander's play "Dyskolos", which has been published in translation under something like a half dozen titles. Or, for an example of a film in translation: <a href=http://us.imdb.com/Title?0055630 target=new>http://us.imdb.com/Title?0055630</a> Now, what are we to accept here? I say we have to accept "Yojimbo", or "The Bodyguard", or "Yojimbo the Bodyguard", or "Yojinbo", even though everyone knows the film merely as "Yojimbo". I'm sure that any title under which a book, film, etc. has been released has to be accepted, unless that title doesn't uniquely identify it. I don't, however, see the point of allowing literal but unused translations of titles if the work in question has been translated under a different title. I'm not erribly opposed to it either, though. As for the preliminary "the", I'd also allow its use or omission, or whatever, as long as it doesn't confuse the answer with another answer, the reason being that it's often difficult to distinguish the initial "the" from any one of a variety of stutterings, throat-clearings, and such subvocal thingies. (I should know. I once got burned on a Ralph Ellison question when my answer of "eh... Invisible Man" was mistaken for a reference to Wells' book.) In any event, the guy who said "The Lifeboat" clearly knew the answer, and to deny him the points is mere pedantry. Still, the main point here is that people with knowledge can be punished for not speaking Clearly And Distinctly, and I can't support that. How about the question of subtitles, e.g. "All is True" for "Henry VIII" or "What You Will" for "Twelfth Night"? Myself, I'd tend to accept the former and prompt on the latter. (At least one recent edition of the complete works -- the Oxford? -- refers to Henry VIII by its subtitle, but I don't know of anyone adopting Twelfth Night's subtitle...)
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