英语专业毕业论文1.doc

contentsabstract in chineseabstract 11.introduction11.1.definition of advertising21.2.purpose and functions of advertisements31.3.characteristics and features of advertising language32.related theory and principles of translation42.1.nidas theory of functional equivalence42.1.1.semantic equivalence52.1.2.social cultural equivalence62.1.3.stylistic equivalence72.2.principles of advertisement translation72.2.1.natural82.2.2.accurate82.2.3.easy to understand83.strategies of translation83.1literal translation83.2free translation103.3transliteration113.4replacement translation133.5supplementary translation143.6creative translation164.results and discussion165.conclusion18reference19appendix20中英广告翻译策略分析：中文角度摘要 在现代社会中，被喻为商业化身的广告己渗透到社会的各个角落，逐渐成为人们日常生活中的一个不可或缺的组成部分。随着我国社会经济的迅速发展，改革开放的进一步深化，以及加入世界贸易组织后，国际贸易往来的日益频繁，中国产品进入到国际市场的机会大大增加了，与此同时，大量的外国产品涌入中国市场，各种产品在市场上的竞争愈演愈烈，而广告在促进产品销售和拓展知名度乃至扩大市场份额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。本文在了解了广告的语言特点和掌握了广告翻译的基本原则的基础上,从分析多例翻译例子出发,提出广告翻译的基本策略。关键词 语言特点;翻译原则;翻译策略;广告翻译广州大学毕业论文（设计）用纸analysis of chinese-english translation strategies in advertisements: a chinese perspective广州大学外国语学院2006级英语国际商务专业10班邹杰辉 0607010123指导老师： 彭世勇abstract in modern world, advertisements, regarded as embodiment of commerce, has become an indispensable part of our daily life. the intensification of international exchanges and the severe competition cry for a growing need for advertisements and thus the role of translation played in which has become much more important, with the purpose of sales promotion and product popularity as well as market share increase. during the process of advertisement translation, after understanding the language characteristics and the translation principles of advertisements, the author aims to put forward several effective methods and strategies of advertisements translation, by analyzing different translation examples done by english majors of guangzhou university.key words language characteristics; translation principles; translation strategies; advertisements translation1. introductionthe purpose of commercial advertising is to attract potential customers to purchase products. (魏传立, 2008) therefore, the translation of commercial advertisement is of great importance for chinese products in exploiting overseas markets. with the globalization of markets and the world turning into a small village，more and more companies in china are targeting at foreign language speaking clienteles at home or launching international advertising campaigns. to help a product reach a market other than ones own，the advertisement must first speak the local language of the new market，hence the importance of advertising translation. in order to make the products or services advertised effective in foreign markets and worth the large budget spent on developing advertising campaigns, a mere converting of the words into the target language is far from enough. with its unique style and obvious functions, commercial advertisements bear their own characteristics and features and thus need special treatment in the process of translation. advertisement translation involves an exchange of different cultures, an inter-cultural communication. therefore, knowing some basic strategies of commercial advertisement translation matters a lot. 1.1. definition of advertisingthe origin of the word “advertise” is a latin word “advertere” which means “to catch peoples attention”. during the medieval times, the word turned to “advertise”, which means “to inform somebody and catch his attention”. it was not until the end of 17th century that with the development of commerce the word “advertising” became popular and obtained the meaning of “to spread commercial information”. american marketing association (ama) gives the widely accepted definition as follow: “advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”.in the opinion of the association of national advertisers(ana)，advertising is a paid form of mass communication，aiming at offering information，altering others attitudes towards advertised products，inducing others to get attention and at last making profits for the advertisers. (gu, 2000:120)the definitions above reveal the most essential features of advertising. firstly, advertising is non-personal; its aim is toward groups of people rather than individuals. a companys advertising aims at a particular group called the target audience. secondly, most advertisements are to promote sales and make profits. however, some organizations advertise but do not pay, such as political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. these non-commercial advertisements are mainly involved in popularizing an idea, an attitude, a viewpoint and a social course. thirdly, most advertising intend to be persuasive-to win converts to a product and service as well as idea. the role of advertising is to inform, persuade, and remind groups of customers or markets about the value of the companys goods and services. in addition to promote tangible goods such as oranges and olive oil, advertising helps publicize the intangible services of bankers, bike repair shops. finally, an advertisement identifies its sponsor. it seems obvious. the sponsor wants to be identified, or why pay to advertise?in summary, advertising is paid non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.( philip w goetz，1985:113) we can say: “advertising is a persuasive communication attempting to change or reinforce ones attitude about certain product or brand.”1.2. purpose and functions of advertisementsfrom the definition of advertising we have mentioned above，we can learn the main functions and the purpose of advertising. generally speaking, advertising should have the following functions: information function, demand creating function, persuasive function, get-action function and goodwill establishment function (wang 2004:9). an effective function will realize all or most of these functions. the ultimate purpose of advertising is to persuade consumers to buy a certain product or service. to be specific, the basic functions of advertisements are to give detail information about products or services to the public and persuade consumers to make decisions and finally take some actions, especially to purchase the product or services. 1.3. characteristics and features of advertising languagewhen volkswagen beatle first entered the american market, it didnt attract any attention, because the americans preferred big cars at that time. bill bernbach created the famous advertising “think small” which told the advantages small cars possessed which changed the criterion americans selected cars. this is the magic power of successful advertising. to some degree, it represents the characteristics and features an effective and attractive advertisement should possess. advertising language is the core content of advertisement. as a language of functionality, its main purpose is to stimulate consumption. therefore, advertising language has some common characteristics and features: attention value, memory value, expressive function, directive function and aesthetic function. (赵静, 1992:159) advertisements are not pure commerciality, but a combination of literature and aesthetics as well as psychology. 2. related theory and principles of translation 2.1. nidas theory of functional equivalencewhen it comes to translation theory, there is no clear definition of “translation standard”. whether translation standard is descriptive or prescriptive still remains a problem that needs to be solved in disciplinary construction of translation. the discussion of what is translation standard often involves the application of translation theory. that is to say, translation theory should provide theoretical guidance for translation practice.modern functionalism experienced great development in the seventies of the twentieth century. the landmarks of what is now referred to as the “german school” of functionalist translation theories are katharina reiss and her functionalist translation criticism(骆乐, 2000)，hans j vermeers skopostheory(雷雨, 2009) and its extensions.(陆蓉, 2005). among all the approaches of translation theories, nidas theory of functional equivalence should be paid special attention.according to the essay on the principles of translation written by alexander fraser tytler, the description of a good translation is that “in which the merit of the original works is so completely transfused into another language, as to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speaks the language of the original work”. based on such description, he put forward the laws of translation which may be deduced from it. it will follow,1) that the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work.2) that the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original.3) that the translation should have all the ease of original composition.it is not difficult for us to figure out the implication of alexander fraser tytlers statement on the principles of good translation: translation equivalence is the key to success. this paper attempts to apply nidas theory of functional equivalence to the analysis of commercial advertising translation. the unique style and functions of advertising have its own characteristics in the translation, also known as dynamic equivalence. functional equivalence attempts to convey the essential thought expressed in a source text-if necessary, at the expense of literalness, original word order, the source texts grammatical voice, etc.because dynamic equivalence eschews strict adherence to the grammatical structure of the original text in favor of a more natural rendering in the target language, it is sometimes used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the original grammatical structure. thus a novel might be translated with greater use of dynamic equivalence so that it may read well. translation equivalences mainly include three aspects: semantic equivalence, social cultural equivalence and stylistic equivalence.2.1.1. semantic equivalencein commercial advertisement translation, semantic equivalence should be given priority, since it is the most fundamental and also the most important aspect. therefore, two points should be paid special attention.first, to avoid ambiguity. lets take one famous restaurant located in guangzhou for example. it has a significantly brilliant name called “燕子楼”, but it is horribly translated into “ swallow restaurant” which means in those westerners eyes you have to finish your dish as quickly as possible, without thinking about its taste and smell. another example is the translation of one kind of lipstick called in chinese “芳芳” into “fang fang”, which means fangtooth or the sharp teeth of beasts like wolf. other example like the brand name “太太口服液” is mistranslated sensitively into “oral liquid for your wife”, which could be easily referred to as “sperm” or “semen”. in many other cases, similar mistakes are easily seen in daily life; the english translation does not mean equally what the chinese original donates. for instance, “成人用品”店 is mostly mistranslated into “sex shop” or even “adult shop”, which indicates a store that sell, not medicine or equipment for healthy reproduction or healthy sexual activities to prevent infectious disease such as aids or hiv and the like, but pornographic products like adult videos; the color “red” in china has positive meaning, but in english, it is negative. so when david hawkes translated “the story of the stone”, he translated“怡红院”as “green delights” to avoid the negative association. the translation of“红星牌电风扇”as “bright star electric fan” is better.second, to avoid interpretation without real understanding. for example, in china, “红茶” should be translated into “black tea”, not “red tea”; “红糖” should be the translation of “ brown sugar”, not “red sugar”. moreover,“鸳鸯”symbolizes affection between lovers, but if we translate it as“mandarin ducks”, it only has the association of birds in english. if we adapt it into “lovebirds”, it will be better. so“鸳鸯牌枕套”had better be translated as“lovebirds”pillowcase.examples given above show the importance of semantic equivalence in the process of chinese-english translation of commercial advertisements. consequently, one needs to go into further investigation of different meanings of the same word.2.1.2. social cultural equivalencetranslation itself is introduction of foreign culture. language, as part of national culture, is the carrier and representation of culture. each nation has its own cultural treasure house. therefore, when embarking on the advertisement translation, never translate without taking the cultural differences into consideration. translation itself is actually the translation of culture that features transmission of culture discrepancy. examples are given as follows;“五羊牌”自行车 is translated into “ five goats” bicycle, which is often used to compare to “lovelace or dishonourable man” in english speaking countries. “一条龙服务” is translated into “ one-dragon service” while dragon is treated as a jinx in english culture.in chinese,“喜鹊” has the meaning of “reporting the coming of spring and happy” it is a kind of bird that brings good news and luck. in english, the symbolic meaning of“magpie”(喜鹊) is a chatterbox or a thief, a bird of ill omens, which gives us the association of pandoras box. almost for the same reason, in chinese,“凤凰”represents“luck and beauty”,while in english, “phoenix” means rebirth. it gives them the feeling of waking up from death. “white elephant” translated from“白象”, is regarded as rubbish in western country. it will surely cause great embarrassment or even losses.besides, the interpreter or translator should take taboo language into consideration during the process of chinese-english translation, which is also an indispensable part of social cultural equivalence. 2.1.3. stylistic equivalencethere are varieties of types of advertisements including television advertisements, radio advertisements, newspaper advertisements, etc, depending on the way of classification. so it is with the case of style of chinese-english advertisements. however, there are several styles which are commonly seen. they are narrative form, descriptive form, associative form, poetic form and catechetical form, etc. different types of advertisement represent different stylistic features and characteristics. but, the style of translation should be kept in accordance with that of the original one. common ground says, stylistic equivalence is to keep the style and verve of the origin text.for example, one local store puts out an attractive advertising for clearance sales: “商场清仓大甩卖，我损失，你得益” and translate it into english as “warehouse clearance, their lost, your gain. with the sharp contrast between “loss” and “gain”, the vast majority of consumers are greatly encouraged to take buying action. the application of rhyme-scheme in poetry is the key to successful advertising.anther typical example is the translation of “桂龙咳喘宁，咳不容缓” （桂龙咳喘宁）into “guilong cough prevention, a wonder drug for stopping coughing.” with regard to dealing with the rhetorical devices in advertisements, the translated version well applies the target language oriented principle and adopts the strategy of interpretation to certain degree, clearly conveying the information and achieving the function and style of the source text.2.2. principles of advertisement translationadvertisement is one kind of practical styles of high commercial value. some scholars(zhao, 1992:6；雷雨, 2009:4；赵静, 1993:6 ) pointed out that a successful advertisement should be in accordance with the principle of acca, which included awareness, comprehensive, conviction and action. (zhao, 1992:6). others (毛建武, 2009:9; 马彩梅, 2005:2; 张文娟, 2004:2) claimed that advertisement must meet the requirements of kiss principle, which is “keep it short and sweet”. that is because in todays information society, whether an advertisement is creatively attractive or not is the key to success in advertising. simultaneously, the advertisement should be easy to understand, to remember or it will be difficult to leave a deep impression to the audiences. tedious and obscure advertisement is hardly able to arouse the purchasing desire of audiences. thus, according to these researchers points of view, attention value and memory value are of importance to the success of ads only if an ad attracts readers attention and locks in readers mind can the ad be effective finally. as what has been represented before, advertising language has its own unique characteristics and features, not only is it one sort of commercial language, but also a special text; a combination of literature, psychology, aesthetics, advertising as well as marketing. taking all these factors into consideration, basing on the research and practice of translation of the forerunners, “natural, accurate and easy to understand” principle is applied in view of its concise, vivid and attractive characteristics of advertising language. 2.2.1. natural what is natural translation? it means translation that doe not sound abrupt and strange but simple, fluent and accustomed to people in english speaking countries for information transfer. 2.2.2. accurateaccurate translation means the tr