Cultural Differences in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation 英语专业毕业论文.doc

英汉广告翻译中的文化差异cultural differences in english-chinese advertisement translationcontentsabstract i. introduction .1ii. the relationship between culture and advertising language.1a. language and culture 1b. advertisement and culture. 2c. advertisement language and culture.2iii. culture-specific in advertisement translation.2a. differences in related cultural background .3b. differences in cultural value. 3c. differences in numbers.3iv. the principle of english-chinese advertisement translation.4a. understand target language culture adequately.4b. balance the relationship between metaphrase and paraphrase.4c. adopt transliteration and free translation. 4v. conclusion .5bibliography.6abstract:as mark twain says that many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising, advertisement has become one of the most important product of culture in the modern age. it is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume products or service of a brand. especially, advertising language is characterized by cultural and age background.advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national and global. nowadays, since the economic globalization, the relationship between advertisement and culture become more closely. this paper gives a detailed analysis of culture-specific in advertisement translation and then probes into some effective methods of its translation i. introductionamerican marketing association defines advertising as 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. however, whatever the strategies advertiser takes, language is an essential carrier of inspiration. there are many unsuccessful cases of advertisement translation which lead no sale for product. the main reason is that the translator doesnt have adequate understanding of target culture, and is limited by superficial meaning of the text. in order to attract the target especially non-domestic consumers, it is a significant task to be aware of the differences between chinese culture and western culture, and the key to translate advertisement is to have the same strong influence on the people who read the translated version.ii. the relationship between culture and advertising languagea. language and culturethere are various cultural types such as national culture and foreign culture, while they have common feature that almost each culture exists in a form of language. although lots of factors result in the formation of culture, its spread relies on some certain forms. the practice indicates that language use is heavily tinted with its culture. we can infer that a language not only expresses facts, ideals, or events which represent similar world knowledge by its people, but also reflects the peoples attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks etc. in a word, language expresses cultural reality. b. advertisement and culture advertisement and culture have reciprocal and bidirectional relationship. from macro level, advertisement industry accelerates the development of social economy. from micro level , the advertisement is one of the agents which lead to the reform of culture. contemporary culture contains the advertisement, meanwhile, it is also the disseminator and creator of the culture. while publicizing products or services, the advertisement unconsciously outputs some cultural awareness and changes peoples thinking ways or values. lets take coca-cola advertisement for example. its original message is “i cant catch that feeling”. but japanese version means “i enjoy coca-cola” and italian version means “the unique feeling”. therefore, it implies that only the advertisement information truly reflects local culture will it live up to the cultural expectation. c. advertisement language and cultureadvertisement language is the core of an ads. social culture influences even limits this kind of language and expression, meanwhile, the advertisement language contains and reflects the social culture. the advertisement exists in a society which means philosophical concept, thinking mode, cultural psychology, moral caliber and cultural habits of a nation certainly have a great effect on the advertisement language. in the fact, people tend to accept such messages that arouse their sense of identity. for instance, the publicity of a product or service closely related to sexy life sometimes in english advertisement. in order to increase its allure, we can find such words as condoms or sex in it. although western people are accustomed to it, these kinds of advertisements have definitely surpassed the cultural psychological endurance of common people in china. so apprehension of the advertisement language should be based on local culture.iii. culture-specific in advertisement translation the target of advertisement writer is the native reader who has same values, thinking ways and living habits, while, the advertisement translator needs to face the people whose cultural background, tradition and social values are utterly different. therefore, as an intercultural activity, advertisement translation requires the translator to put acceptance degree of target people in the first place and adequately consider culture-specific in advertisement. otherwise, it is impossible to put publicity into effect. ultimately, the company fails to achieve its market value. now, this part list several aspects related to culture-specific in advertisement translation and discuss its problems and solutions.a. differences in related cultural background lets start from the headline of a famous american wines advertisementsouthern comfortthe spirit of new orleans since 1860. actually, the success of this advertisement relies on peoples understanding of american traditional culture. southern comfort wine, as well as american jazz all comes from new orleans. based on cultural identity, we can easily find out its pun meaning. that is southern comfort wine has become widely familiar in america from middle period of 19th century when people began to create jazz music, and it presents spirit of new orleansdeploitation, innovation and optimism. however, due to the lack of related cultural background, it is hard for chinese reader to perceive cultural connotation in the original text. so, the translation should be based on target audiences point of view and focus on cultural apprehension.b. differences in cultural valuesthe following sentence is excerpted from an advertisement of an american magazine.he is his own man. an individualist.individualist is always translated into 个人主义者 or 利己主义者. meanwhile, it could not be considered as equivalent because of the differences in cultural values. the word individualist in english contains positive and commendatory meaning. it is used to describe a kind of people who prize personal right and are willing to show his or her personality. however, 个人主义者 in chinese is a derogatory term which means self-concern. they seek benefits for themselves at the expense of others. consequently, the translator must readjust the original text on the basis of apprehending cultural values, otherwise, it is impossible to realize intended function of the advertisement. 一个有主见的人，一个有个性的人。 is a better version in terms of both understanding and psychological effects on the target people.c. differences in numbersthe differences in numbers reflects typical culture-specific in advertisement translation. first, lets take a beverage brand7-up as a example. the number seven implies positive meaning in americaneuropean countries. it is equal to the number eight in china which stands for a good luck. meanwhile, 7 is just an ordinary number in china. in order to convey the happy feeling of this brand, 七喜 becomes an appropriate chinese version. then, the following example is 三枪 brand underwear which is produced in shanghai. its english brand is three guns. the reason why it is well received by consumers in japan, colombia and north africa area is that three is regarded as a lucky number in these countries. whats more, 9 is often used for expressing the meaning for a long time, especially as a blessing for the elder in china. there is 999 medicine in the market. however, it will not have same effect on the english-speaking people due to the distinction of figure between english and chinese culture. iv. the principle of english-chinese advertisement translation when we translate advertisement, it is necessary for us to consider such factors as language, culture, politics,. if we just transfer the literal meaning into target language, the products are impossibly approved in international market. one of the most significant aspects of advertisement translation is to appropriately grasp the relationship between translation and cultural effect. so this chapter introduces several methods to translate international advertisement better.a. understand target language culture adequatelythe translator needs to probe into the target language culture. it includes not only the characteristic of target language but also the religion, belief, principle, social structure, social role, spatial relation, cosmology, observance and etc. however, if the translator fails to be aware of them, it will lead to the negative effect. for instance, there is a famous brand of battery named 白象, and it is translated as white elephant in english. few foreigners in western countries buy it because white elephant presents the goods which are unpractical but expensive. therefore, it has been proved that one thing which has a profound respect in this culture may not has the same resonance in the other culture.b. balance the relationship between metaphrase and paraphrasesince translation is a process that recreates the language information by the most suitable and natural equivalent, how to deal with the relationship between most suitable and natural words and equivalent becomes quite important. from aspect of information theory, the transmission process of advertisement has three stages, i.e. coding ( advertiser)advertisementdecoding(consumer). it also means that advertisement translation is the process of recreation other than simple duplication.for instance, the following is an advertisement of british airline company . together, we cover the world.the chinese version is 维系你和我，世上乐事多. although the meaning of translation seems a little far away from the literal meaning 我们共同飞跃这一世界, it reflects the core of advertisement and has good effect among the target people.another example: good to the last dropthe chinese version is 滴滴香浓，意犹未尽. it is an advertisement for a brand of coffee. the translator shakes off the restriction of original language and conveys connotation of the advertisement by paraphrasing the original text. however, the key is that we should readjust the original advertisement on the basis of analyzing and understanding connotation of the advertisement.c. adopt transliteration and free translationthe translator can adopt two different translation modestransliteration and free translation to translate advertisement trademark according to principle of target culture. actually, it is quite difficult to accurately translate a trademark and to the point. the practice proves that good advertisement translation can integrate transliteration and free translation based on ingenious combination of two cultures. there are some successful examples, such as 百事可乐(pepsi-cola), 可口可乐(coca-cola), 金利来(gold lion). absolutely, on the one hand, we may directly transliterate the trademark under the premise if not violating target culture. for example, chinese 功夫 is translated as kung fu. on the other hand, if there is contradiction between the target culture and transliteration or free translation, we should choose to adopt the later mode or other ways. someone regards the translation of these words as artistic recreation, otherwise, the concept of recreation should be precisely defined as comparison of two kind of culture. lets take american general motors corporation as example. it used to public a new automobile brand chevrolet nova. but pronunciation of nova sounds similar to a word in spanish which means it doesnt go. so the company had to change it instantly in order to not impede its business development abroad. therefore, the more the translator knows about target culture, the better the advertisement translation is. actually, the most important funct