英文广告特点及翻译原则与策略.doc

features of english advertisement and principles and strategies of its translation英文广告特点及翻译原则与策略author: tutor: submitted to the college of foreign languagesin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of bachelor of artsshandong university of science and technologyjune, 2009山东科技大学学生毕业论文iiicontentabstract(english)iabstract(chinese)iiiintroduction1chapter 1 features of commercial advertisement31.1 features of advertising words31.2 structure of advertising sentences51.3 rhetorical features in advertisements7chapter 2 comparison of english and chinese advertisement102.1 phonological difference102.2 semantic difference112.3 difference of figure of speech12chapter 3 principles and strategies of advertisement translation143.1 general principles of advertisement translation143.2 typical translation techniques of english advertisement16conclusion20bibliography21 abstractnidas functional equivalence theory focuses on the reaction of readers to the translation. this theory can be used to guide the translation of advertising english. the main point of advertisement translation lies in the embodiment of cultural factors because culture inevitably affect peoples thought and their attitude towards everything. that how well the translation is accepted depends on how much it demesticates the cultural factors. therefore translators should observe the three principles of smoothness, preciseness and conciseness when doing advertisement translation. as to the choice of strategies, literal and free translation can be chosen according to different text, on condition that it can reach a desire effect. in chapter one the thesis analyses in the characteristics of commercial english from three points of view. then in chapter two it contrasts english and chinese commercial from the point of view of the differences of the two ideographic systems so that it advances certain basic theory for the translation of commercial advertisements. meanwhile it informs translators of the difference of english and chinese advertisements in order to avoid being confined by language barriers. in chapter three some principles and basic skills of advertisement translation are put forward against the problems existing in the current translation of advertisements. through the analysis of successful advertisements and their translation, a natural conclusion can be drawn that cultural factors play a very important part in advertisement translation. there it is necessary for a translator to have a good knowledge of the cultural defferenceskey words: advertisement translation; cultural difference; principles; strategies摘 要奈达的功能对等翻译理论重视目的语读者对译文的反应。这一理论可以用来指导广告英语的翻译。英汉广告的翻译，重点在于文化要素的体现上。因为文化因素不可避免的要影响到人们的思维习惯以及对一切事物的态度。译文被目的语读者所接受的程度，取决于其在文化因素上的归化程度。因此译者在翻译英语广告时，要遵循流畅，准确，简洁的三原则；而在翻译策略的选择上要注意根据不同的广告选用不同的策略，可直译，也可意译，只要能够达到理想的效果。本文第一章借用大量的实例来分析商业广告在词汇、句式以及修辞三方面的特点；第二章从英汉对比的角度，对比分析英汉商业广告的异同，为商业广告翻译提出一定的基础理论，也让译者能够注意到英汉广告的不同，从而在翻译时能做到不被语言障碍所牵绊。第三章结合实例提出一些翻译时应该遵循的原则以及一些基本的翻译方法。通过研究成功的广告英语及其翻译的案例，有助于学习和借鉴境外企业广告的成功经验，以便更好地为国内企业和产品走向国际市场服务。关键词：商业广告翻译；文化差异；翻译原则；策略1introductionas the opening-up process accelerates in china, especially after the success of beijing olympics, more and more domestic corporations have the opportunity to enter international market. at the same time, more and more foreign enterprises keep entering domestic market. under this situation advertisement becomes the most effective way of publicizing products. every corporation in every country annually defrays a large amount of expense to build its image and publicize its product or service. in 21st century the globalization of advertisement will become more and more overt. both domestic and foreign corporations have to face the problem of internationalizing advertisement, or translating of advertisement.the word advertisement first appeared in ancient english. it originated from the latin word “advertere”,which means “to make people pay attention to something”. but it was not widely used until 17th-century prosperity of commerce in england. although currently there are many different definitions of advertisement, they reach an agreement on the nature of advertising, which is to attract the attention of consumers so as to promote the sales of products. american marketing association (ama) defines advertising as “the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through various media.” it can be concluded from the definition that a successful advertisement should be persuasive. according to tony, president of the dm9 ddb advertising company, people are afraid to buy products that they never heard of and do not know the company(see 王晨, 2007:107). hence , industries and organizations emphasize a lot on modern english advertising, while advertisers try every means to do their best to make impressive advertisement in order to create and enhance an positive image of a brand for the company and add values to their products.in modern times advertising has influenced people pervasively in daily life with the development of technology and the diversity of mass media. advertisers have more choice in making their advertisement appeal to consumers. however, whatever the promotive strategies advertising takes, language is the main carrier of message. therefore it is necessary for a translator to know well of the features of adverting english if he wants to make a good translation.chapter 1 features of commercial advertisementadvertisement serves for the purpose of introducing commodity or service to consumers, therefore it must be made to cater to the public taste. generally speaking, a good advertisement has features of being brief, easy to remember, and so on. if a translator wants to do a good job in advertisement translation, it is necessary and very important for him to know of advertisements features. in this chapter, these features are to be analyzed from three different angles.1.1 features of advertising wordsthe english used in commercial advertisement is laconic, vivid, emotional and impressive. therefore the diction of commercial advertisement has relatively much difference from common english.1.1.1. use of adjectivesadjectives have the property of being emotional and impressive. their function is to describe and modify nouns. therefore they become the most suitable words for advertisement. advertisers tend to use large quantities of commendatory evaluating adjectives in advertisement so as to enhance the attractiveness of the product being advertised. take an advertisement as an example:example (1) famous world-wide gourmet cuisine. excellent daily specials and mouth-watering desserts.this is an advertisement for a restaurant. it is obvious that adjectives account for a half of the words used in it. it is a typical example of the use of adjectives.sometimes manufacturers want to show that their product or service is better than their competitors. in order to achieve this goal, they will use adjectives of comparative or superlative degree. although they do not directly debase competitors out of fair competition, consumers will be convinced that their product is the best one to meet their needs. for example, there is never been a better time. it is an advertisement for time magazine. it implies the readers that time is the best magazine they have ever seen. g. n. leech (1965) once made an investigation on advertising words. according to his statistics the most frequently used words are adjectives. especially those with positive meaning are favorite of advertisers, such as new, fresh, delicious, and so on. (see 方梦之, 2003:208)1.1.2. use of monosyllabic verbsbesides adjectives, momosyllabic verb is a good choice for advertisers. in order to make the advertised information easily understood and remembered, advertisers usually employ simple words, especially monosyllabic verbs in their advertisements. such words as “make, get, try, take, come, go, have, need” are often found in english advertisements. here is an example:example (2) start aheadthis is an advertisement for the shampoo rejoice. by the word start, advertisers imply to consumers that they will refresh themselves and have a new start if they use rejoice to wash their hair. in english, short words are usually the most familiar and therefore the most easily understood by a wide range of readers. moreover, most short english words are of anglo-saxon origin. these words can generate greater emotion than their latinate equivalents, hence maximize impact. the high frequency of monosyllabic verbs also helps to make the advertisements more persuasive.1.1.3. use of made-up and novel wordssince the purpose of advertisement is to persuade the audience to purchase, the novelty of advertisement is an important factor to attract them. a made-up and novel word can stimulate customers curiosity. here is an example:example (3) the orange mostest drink in the worldit is an advertisement for orange juice. obviously the “mostest” in the advertisement is a made-up word. in english most is a word of superlative degree. “-est” is an affix denoting superlative degree. it is ungrammatical to form a new word by combining “most” and “-est”. but the word is quite appropriate because the advertiser implies to customers that the quality and purity of the juice is unparalleled and only a word most is not enough to modify it.1.2 structure of advertising sentences1.2.1 replacing the whole sentence with words or phrases in order to achieve the effect of abbreviation and being refined, many kinds of phrases, including noun phrases, participial phrases and adverbial phrases and so on, are used in advertisements to express infinite thoughts and meanings, thus to achieve the desired effect.example (4)a world of comfort. japan airlines a work of art. scotch whisky both the two advertisements are neatly designed. they succeed in impressing consumers with brevity. although there are only four letters in these two advertisements, they will make customers to be confident in the quality of the product and service.1.2.2 wide use of simple sentences, sentence segments and elliptical sentencesbecause the text of advertisement is largely restricted by length and time, an advertisement designer must use the most possibly few words to most effectively convey information and attract peoples attention. so simple sentences, sentence segments, or elliptical sentences are most frequently used. example (5) no caffeine. virtually no calories. just a unique, sparkling citrus taste. fresca coke adds life. coca cola1.2.3 use of imperative sentencesimperative sentences are very important in advertising language. the purpose of advertisement is to persuade readers or listeners to take action to purchase. this is just the function of imperative sentences. therefore they are often used in advertising english. there are numerous advertisements that are in the form of imperative sentences, among which several classic ones are taken as examples.example (6) catch that pepsi spirit. drink it in. pepsi come to where the flavor is. come to marlboro country marlboro1.2.4 use of interrogative sentences the function of interrogative sentences is to attract listeners attention. this function can fulfill the purpose of advertisements. the questions used in advertisements helps a lot in impressing readers and motivating them to purchase. the following is an example: who can tell that builds the best family wagon? put them to test chrysler corporation1.3 rhetorical features in advertisementsas far as meanings concerned, advertisements should be informative, expressive, and directive. although the purpose of advertisement is to persuade consumers to buy the product, a successful advertisement does not always praise themselves directly. on the contrary, the commercial motive should be hidden cleverly. or it will make readers take a scunner against the advertisement and even the product. a good advertiser knows how to avoid this situation. they neatly use figure of speech to publicize the advertised product.advertisements often resort to various rhetorical means to achieve special effects, such as pun, metonymy, parody, personification. in advertising english, rhetorical skills occupy an extremely important place and with these skills, advertisement becomes richer than ever in its expression and much more persuasive. 1.3.1 pun a pun can be defined as “the use of words that have more than one meaning or words that have the same sound but different meanings”(liu miao, jia dejiang, 2005:146). puns are very popular with advertisers, for they may easily provoke amusement, or add spice to an unpretentious conversational exchange. example (7)： seven-up the uncola. the un and only 7-up drink in this advertisement, pun lies in “un”. on the one hand, “un” is negative prefix in english. “uncola” is coined to strike the reader as “being totally different from traditional cola”. on the other hand, “un”, a french word, is close to english word “one” in meaning. so “the un and only” here equals to english idiom “the one and only”, emphasizing the superiority of this drink.1.3.2 metonymy metonymy is defined as a figure of speech which expresses a relation between the thing spoken and the thing meant, in such a way that the mention of one suggests the other. example (8): wash the big city out of hair it is an advertisement for a kind of shampoo. in the advertisement “the big city” means “the dirt of the hair”. thus the use of a metonymy avoids the embarrassment of a plainly mentioning “the dirt of the hair” and shows its elegant style, evoking a good feeling in its readers.1.3.3 parody a parody is “an imitation of the characteristic style of a writer, or of a literary work, designed to amuse or ridicule”(liu miao, jia dejiang, 2005:146). parody is widely used in advertising headlines and slogans by imitating idioms, proverbs, sayings, songs, and so on. the following slogan about mars candy bar is a fine example typifying the employment of parody in advertising english. example (9)： a mars a day keeps you work, rest and play the structure of this sentence and its end rhyme may easily remind readers the proverb “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. while the words “work” and “play” may also elicit the association of another familiar proverb “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy”. thus this slogan does not only imitate two commonly known proverbs in form but also is invested with associative meanings. the employment of such a parody helps convey vividly to audience the message that eating a mars a day will make you clever and healthy.1.3.4 personificationpersonification is generally used to give human qualities or abilities to abstractions or non-human entities. personification in advertising turns the ice-cold products to be cordial and friendly and leaves people a vivid and real impression. example (10)：with 52 issues, they will be thinking of you week after week.this is an advertisement for newsweek, in which issues of the magazine are personified. the newsweek magazine is described vividly to “think of” the readers “week after week”. and in return the readers will think of the magazine week after week.chapter 2 comparison between english and chinese advertisement the differences of historical conditions, geographic locations, natural environment and social reality formed cultures of unique characteristics and styles. this is true of english and chinese. they belong to quite different language families. chinese is one of the several existing pictographic characters, while english is a kind of alphabetic language. most of the elements are not the same. if a translator will do the translation between the two languages, he should pay attention to these differences. many cases of advertisement translation prove that whether a translation is successful or not eventually depends on if the translator can notice these differences and avoid being fettered by them. 2.1 phonological difference as is mentioned above, chinese is one of several existing pictographic characters while english is a kind of alphabetic language. they differ from each other in many aspects. the first and most basic element differing from each other is phonology. english and chinese have different characteristics in phonology. words of alphabetic languages use grapheme as visual symbols that map onto phonemes of the spoken language and follow grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. alphabetic words thus are predominantly read out by assembling fine-grained phonemic units, for example, by assembled phonology. written chinese uses characters as basic writing units that possess a number of intricate strokes packed into a square configuration. the chinese characters often have their meaning suggested by visual shapes. they map onto phonology at the monosyllable level. there are no parts in a character corresponding to phonological segments such as phonemes. although 85 percent of present-day chinese characters are compounds containing a phonetic component that can give information about the pronunciation of the compound. the estimates of the validity of this information reveal that only 28 percent of phonetic components sound the same as their resultant whole characters. moreover, it is never the case in chinese that a p