On the Strategies of Advertising Translation广告翻译的基本策略.doc

On the Strategies of Advertising Translation广告翻译的基本策略 Abstract In modern society, advertising, as the embodiment of commerce, is becoming an important part of our daily life. Not only is it supposed to be appealing, it is also used as a tool for manufacturers to improve their products marketability. With globalization accelerating, more and more businesses of all types are operating internationally in various ways. With chinas accession to the WTO there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese enterprises and products flowing into the international market while at the same time the increased transparency and advantages that WTO membership confers have ushered in a new sea of foreign goods into our domestic market. To survive in the fierce global market, they have to make a lot of promotions for their products in foreign markets. In this situation, advertisement translation is increasingly showing its importance. However, in all national markets, particularly in China, unsatisfying translation is appearing in media ever and again, which not only means financial loss, but also impairs the public image of manufacturers as well. Hence, it becomes an urgent task for those devoted to translation practice to seek a suitable theory for guidance. Therefore, this thesis will talk about the advertising English and its translation. First of all, I will talk about the purpose and significance of the study, it includes the importance of the advertising, then, I will talk about the dimensions of advertising and, in this part I will take a brief introduction to advertising and the definition of advertising. In chapter 3 I will present a brief introduction to functional equivalence, it includes its background and definition. Then, I will give some examples of semantic equivalence, and analyse these examples. Chapter 4 is the most important part of this thesis, in this chapter I will talk about the basic strategies of advertising translation, but first of all I have to write about the character of advertising, then I will present several strategies to translate the adverting. These strategies are as following: literal translation, free translation, adaptive translation, associative transliteration.Key words: advertising, international translation, strategy 摘 要 在经济全球化得今天,广告作为一种特殊的行业,在当今社会发挥着日益重要的作用。被喻为商业化身的广告已渗透到社会的各个角落,逐渐成为人们日常生活中的一个重要组成部分,它不仅给人们带来感官上的冲击,而且是商家盈利的重要手段之一。随着我国社会经济的迅速发展,改革开放的进一步深化,以及加入世贸组织已成为事实,大量的外国商品涌入中国市场,中国产品也大量进入到国际市场,各种产品在市场上的竞争越演越烈,而广告在促进产品销售和繁荣市场经济等方面的作用也越来越明显,广告翻译的地位也随之显得越来越重要, 但是现在的广告翻译的不足越来越不能满足市场的要求,特别是中国市场,这将意味着竞争力的不足,和财富的损失,并且也不能在消费者心中创立产品的良好形象,所以探索广告的更好翻译已经成为亟待解决的问题,在这篇论文里我将带领着大家一起探索广告翻译的基本策略。 首先,在这篇文章中我将给大家讲述写这篇文章的必要性,和广告翻译的重要性,然后给出了广告的基本概念,然后我将介绍广告翻译中的功能对等性原则,其中包括了它的背景知识和概念,再者分析了一些例子来阐述这一原则。在第四部分也就是最重要的部分,我将陈述广告翻译的一些基本策略,其中包括了直译,意译,转译,套译,英译与联想,其中前两部分是重点阐述的。关键词:广告,国际,翻译Acknowledgements In writing this thesis, I received so much help and advice from many people that my indebtedness to them is beyond words First and foremost, I owe my tremendous debt of gratitude to my supervisor, teacher Wang Ning, for his warmth and understanding which he has graciously given me. He is always very busy, but when I call him for some problems, he always presents patience and is ready to answer my questions. Sometimes I do not dare to pardon him, because he is so busy, so I start to learn deal the problem by myself, but without his encouragement and guidance in the formation of the outline of thesis as well as the subsequent reshaping of ideas I was still on the way. Then, I would like to thank my classmates, they also give me a lot of advice, and sometimes I would discuss with them, they have pointed out my mistakes and told me what things should be added to this thesis. When I am in the stake they will encourage me and try their best to help me from these points I was deeply touched, they give me courage and confidence, inspiring me to bridge over difficulties. In addition, I also do not forget to thank my family, they support me every minute. They are the bay for my leisure.ContentsAbstracti摘 要.iiiAcknowledgementsivContentsvChapter 1 Introduction11.1 Purpose and Significance of the Study11.2 Structure of the Dissertation1Chapter 2 The Dimensions of Advertising32.1 A Brief Introduction to Advertising32.2 The Definition of Advertising3Chapter 3 A Brief Introduction to Functional Equivalence53.1 Background and Definition of the Equivalence53.2 The Advertisings Semantic Equivalence6 3.2.1 Avoid Producing Ambiguity.7 3.2.2 Avoid Interpreting Without Real Understanding7Chapter 4 On the Strategies of Advertising Translation8 4.1 The Characteristics of Advertising8 4.2 Liberal Translation9 4.3 Free Translation10 4.3.1 Addition11 4.3.2 Omission13 4.3.3 Creative Translation14 4.4 Adaptive Translation17 4.5 Associative Transliteration19 4.5.1 Nonassociative Transliteration19 4.5.2 Associative Transliteration19Chapter 5 Conclusion20Bibliography21Chapter 1 IntroductionPurpose and Significance of the StudyWith chinas accession to the WTO there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese enterprises and products flowing into the international market while at the same time the increased transparency and advantages that WTO membership confers have ushered in a new sea of foreign goods into our domestic market. In this heated war of competition, the most powerful weapon available in shaping self image and promoting ones goods is the advertisement-it is this that prompts every enterpriseHowever, as we see in our daily life, the quality of those translated advertisement is not satisfactory. For some of those translated, people are just lost at sea in terms of the product information. for some others, people could even get an adversary impression of the product just due to the diversity of cultures. To advertising, such a special style, up till now, no one has put forward a clear and practical preliminary study on the features of advertising English, and based on that, comes up with a translation principle.1.2 Structure of the DissertationThis paper is aimed at finding out a proper theory that can be employed by practitioners to the process of translation. It consists of five chapters.In the first chapter, a brief introduction to advertising is presented. Besides, the purpose of writing this paper and its structure are outlined.The second chapter of the dissertation is devoted to advertising English. Under that topic, the essay first tells what adverting is, ie, its definition. And the purposes of advertisingThe third chapter of the dissertation is the brief introduction of functional equivalence.The fourth chapter of the dissertation is devoted to the strategies of translation: literal translation, free translation, adaptive translation, translate translation, associative transliteration.The fifth chapter of the dissertation is conclusion of this dissertationChapter 2 The Dimensions of Advertising2.1 A Brief Introduction to AdvertisingWith the development of economic globalization, more and more companies will be involved in business interaction. In order to export their products and their commodities. As a promotion device and an important way to put products into international market, advertising plays an increasingly significant role in developing a larger market. But it is an important issue how to make the consumers accept and prefer your products in a foreign market. Apart from other respects, advertising demonstrates absolutely essential significance, advertising also let the world know about China, since advertising can help to create wealth, so this chapter is mainly concerned with a general study of advertising.2.2 The Definition of AdvertisingWith the development of economic, we can see advertising everywhere such as radio, TV, newspaper, billboards buildings; and even when we on the metro or on the street. It is no exaggeration to say that there are few places in the public that are not permeated with advertisementsAdvertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. American Marketing AssociationBovee, 1992, 7 Advertising is a way to promote the products. It can reach everywhere and everyone can see it, and it do not need the seller and buyer to get together. The consumer can get message from the advertisement, it contain the products message, it always comes from short and easy to remember, it also comes from our daily life whose words easy to see, for example, My goodness! My Guinness我的天!我的健力士 good to the Last dropwell, Thats my wayla saunda, “wear the world”国际时尚,戴在我手(珠宝广告)advertising makes the brand well know, we know Intel Pentium英特尔奔腾, Philips飞利浦电器, Time时代杂志, Guinness健力士, Colgate高露洁, Lipton立顿,Coca-cola可口可乐, and so on, why we know these brands? Because they have made advertisement and we know their advertisement very well, when we come to the market we may turn to these brands, so advertising help these companies create wealth and make the world know them. I think not every advertising can appeal people but a good advertisement can appeal people, so how to translate a good advertisement is very important.Chapter 3 A Brief Introduction to Functional Equivalence3.1 Background and Definition of the EquivalenceThe task of translation is actually an attempt to achieve functional equivalence, i.e., to produce the same effect or one as close as possible on the readership of the translation as is obtained on the readership of the original. This is the “equivalent effect” principle proposed by Newmark. Nida calls it “functional equivalence”, which he defines as the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language.1982;22Equivalent effect is absolutely necessary and it tends to be the only criterion in assessing the translation of advertising. Advertising language, which serves to persuade the target customers in making a purchase of the product advertised, mainly has a vocative function. Advertising translation, therefore, means the transformation of this vocative function from the source language to the receptor language. An advertising translator should make his translated work a functional equivalent of the original so that the readers of the translation will respond to the translation in the same manner as the readers of the original to the original. Human beings, unlike animals, have similar physiological structures and share a great deal in both their physical and mental activities. As an old Chinese saying goes, human beings, whatever their race or color, have at least seven human emotions in common, namely, joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate and desire. With the rapid development of science and technology, especially that of mass media, the world has become small and communication between people speaking different languages has become more and more frequently. The similarities between men are finally much greater than the differences3.2 The Advertisings Semantic EquivalenceAmong the commercial advertising, the semantic equivalence is the most important element and also is the basic factor. It must conform to this element from vocabulary to the whole text. Not only should us consider the basic meanings but also should us consider the metaphorical meaning, not only should us think about the literal meaning, but also should us think about the implied meaning. Firstly, we should compare the differences between the English and Chinese and make clear the differences, it can contribute to us know about the semantic equivalence. Now, I am taking some examples to analyse this point. In Chinese we always accord the usage and material criterion, classify the cup as different kinds: cup杯子, glass玻璃杯, mug圆筒形有把的杯子, beaker烧杯, tankard带盖大杯, and so on. We call them cup, but they have different usages, so we should contact the context when we are translating these cups, but sometimes we may use the combination words or other words: wineglass酒杯, beer mug啤酒杯, teacup茶杯, eggcup蛋杯. Secondly, because of the Chinese and English have logical thinking differences, they also appear in the numbers using, such as: a pair of gloves, a pair of socks, but in Chinese them also say: 一副手套和一双袜子. What is more, in Chinese, the trousers and the compasses have two legs but we also translate the “a pair of trousers”, “a pair of compasses” as “一条裤子”, ”一个圆规”. From these points, the semantic differences exist everywhere3.2.1 Avoid Us Producing AmbiguityThe part name, business name and the brand always contain something nice, in these situations, we should be careful when we translate them, especially the export products, if they have something wrong in translation, they may affect the sales volume. Taking the export product “芳芳” lipstick for example, in Chinese the 芳芳s pingyin is Fang-fang, but in English it means poison fang, in this situation, who dare to buy?3.2.2 Avoid Interpreting Without Real UnderstandingIn English, some phrases, idioms and custom seems to be parallel to Chinese , actually, they have other meanings beyond the outside meanings, so one should be careful while one are translating them, now I would like to take some examples to you. “五羊”牌自行车, original translated as “five rams” bicycle, “五羊” is standing for Guangzhou, there is a beautiful fairy tale, the immortal gave Guangzhou fine goats, they help the Guangzhou people carry paddies, so people do not need to worry about their grain. In Guangzhou, there are a lot of brands use “五羊”, like the “五羊” watch, “五羊” soap, “五羊”shampoo. While, ram means saucebox, the consumers may think they are easy having traffic accidents, it should be translated as “five goats bicycle.” Chapter 4 On the Strategies of Advertising Translation 4.1 The Characteristics of AdvertisingExample: where else can you reach out to so many different marine animals? To talk. To touch. To laugh. To love. To understand each other. And where else can you and your family be so entertained by your new animal friends? With a whole day of fabulous shows, shows, shows! It can only happen at sea world. Where you can talk to animals. And they can talk to you.Translation: 除了这里, 还有什么地方能让你认识那么多的海洋动物呢?彼此交谈,彼此欢笑,彼此相爱,彼此了解。还有什么地方能让你和你的家人得到如此这般与动物为友的乐趣呢?一整天妙不可言的表演,表演,表演!一切尽在海洋世界。一个你和动物们彼此倾诉的美妙世界。Comments: this is one of a sea worlds advertisement, depend on using the compound sentences, a vivid describe the people in the sea world playing, funning, and to be kind and love to each others, attracting people coming there. Advertising is different from others, you should calculate the expenses, so when you are in limited time and space you sho