毕业论文The Application of Skopos Theory in Adver..doc

精品文档the application of skopos theory in advertisement translationbyyang taosubmitted tothe school of foreign language and culturebeifang university of nationalitiesin partial fulfilment ofthe requirements forthe bachelor degree of arts in englishunder the supervision of professor zhouhuining abstractat present, advertisement has become an important part of peoples life. with the rapid development of international business and multinational companies, it is demanded more and more for efficient international advertisement communication and translation. as a branch of translation study field, advertisement translation has its own laws and requires a systematic study.from the perspective of skopos theory, this paper discusses advertisement translation standard and strategies with the aim of helping improve advertisement translation. functionalist approach to translation has opened up a new perspective on translation studies. functionalism emphasizes the functionality of translation of the target culture.therefore, the commercial effect of an advertisement translation of the target culture is put forward as a yardstick of ad translation in this thesis. translators choice of translation strategies is always guided by the translation standard he adheres to. in general, functionalist approach to translation is recommended in this paper. by endowing translator with much more freedom and right to choose what to translate and how to translate, functionalist approach to translation makes the discipline of ad translation more mature and finally enables it to become a profession in the full sense.key words: skopos theory; advertisement translation; culture transformation; expected purpose内容摘要当今,广告已成为人们生活中不可或缺的一部分。随着国际贸易和跨国公司的迅速发展， 广告的沟通作用逐渐加强，因此对广告翻译的要求也越来越高。作为翻译研究领域的一个分支，广告翻译有其自身的体系与规则。从翻译的目的论出发，本文拟对评价广告翻译的标准和广告翻译的策略选择展开讨论，目的在于提高广告翻译水平。功能主义强调的是翻译结果在目标文化中的功能性，但评价广告翻译的标准即广告翻译在目标文化中起到的商业效果同样值得关注。所以本论文提出了评价广告翻译的标准，即广告翻译在目标文化起到的商业效果。翻译者对翻译标准看法往往决定了翻译策略的选择。总的来讲，从功能的角度来研究翻译问题是本文所推崇的。通过赋予翻译者更多的自由和权利去选择翻译的内容和翻译的策略，功能主义对翻译的策略的影响使得广告翻译的规则更灵活，并且最终使广告翻译在整体上变得更专业。关键词：目的论；广告翻译；文化转换；预期目的acknowledgeon the completion of this paper, i would like to extend my thanks to all my teachers who helped me a lot in the process of writing.first and foremost, i an greatly indebted to my tutor, mrs. zhou for her valuable guidance, continuous encouragement and useful suggestions during my research. and i should express my thanks to her for being critical and demanding and yet caring and supportive, which therefore helps broaden and enrich my knowledge in the courage of academic paper writing.at the same time, sincere thanks also go to the other teachers who taught me during my four years of college life. they have greatly benefited my intellectual growth through their inspiring lectures.last but not the least, i owe my thanks to all my friends and classmates with whom i have been together for these years. their cares and help will encourage me forever. there would be something dissatisfactory of my study. any comments and criticisms are appreciated. and i myself will and must be responsible for any mistakes of this paper.contentsabstract.i中文摘要.iiacknowledgements.iiii. introduction.1ii. literature review.1iii. definition and features of skopos theory.23.1 definition of skopos theory.23.2 features of skopos theory.3iv. application skills from the perspective of skopos theory.44.1 requirements for translators under skopos theory.54.2 communicative purposes of translated text64.3 advertisement translation skills from the perspective of skopos theory.64.3.1 getting familiar with foreign culture.74.3.2 adjusting original language.94.3.3 satisfying the customer need.10v. conclusion.12references.15值得下载精品文档i. introductionin modern society, advertisement as the embodiment of commerce has become an important part of our daily life. the intensification of international exchanges and the severe competition involve a growing need for advertisement and therefore from advertisement translation. crosscultural advertisement translation has become a fierce issue in the world of translation, which may have a great influence on the international trade.a great many scholars of translation, both domestic and abroad, have different opinions on advertisement translation. however, the study of advertisement translation is far from being satisfactory, and the traditional translation theories seem increasingly inadequate. under the guidance of traditional theories, some advertisement seems to adhere to the source text too much and pay no attention to its commodities and services.as advertisement is a type of writing that is very practical with high commercial value, and the ultimate goal of all advertisements is to promote sales. if the translator rigidly adheres to the original form and content in advertisement translation, the translation may not produce the persuasive effect and may fail to promote sales in the target market. therefore, a more practical theory and translation strategy are called for.ii. literature reviewin 1970s, katharina reiss, the founder of functionalist translation theory, proposed the functionalism theory of translation criticism in her book translation criticism: the potentials & limitation in 1971. she considered that the purpose or function of translation that to be achieved is different from the original purpose or function. the translator should preferentially consider the functional features of target language rather than the principle of reciprocity (reiss, 2004). on that basis, hans vermeer, the student of reiss, got rid of the “equivalent theory” that was focused on the source language and set up the functional basic theory: skopos theory. vermeer considered translation as human intercultural communication with clear purpose and intention (vermeer, 1989). when translating, according to the needs of customers, the translator should combine expected purpose with readers situation to translate selectively from multisource information which is provided by the original. hence, skopos theory provides practice for advertisement translation with important theoretical basis. whats more, it broadens the new horizon of advertisement translation.iii. definition and features of skopos theory3.1 definition of skopos theoryskopos is a greek word for “purpose”. there are three basic rules in skopos theory, that is, skopos rule; coherence rule (intra-textual rule) and fidelity rule (inter-textual rule).the central and primary idea of skopos theory is that “the translation purpose justifies the means” (nord, 2001:29). therefore, the skopos rule is the intended partly to solve the long term controversy between free and faithful translation. in the process of translating, the translator has to make his own choice from alternatives, depending on the purpose for which the translator is needed and to be used. according to the skopos rule, the translator must do translation in accordance with some principles respecting the target text.another important rule of skopos theory is the coherence rule. the rule specifies that a translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with receivers situation (vermeer, 1989:113). the receivers situation refers to the communication situation and culture in which the translation is received. baker (2004:230) also points out that the stating point foe a translation is a text as part of a world continuum written in the source language. a translator should formulate a target text in a target culture and language about information formulated by someone else in the source culture and language in an acceptable and accessible way to the target readers.since a translation is an offer of information about a preceding offer of information, it is expected to bear some kind of relationship with the corresponding source text (nord, 1997:32). the relationship is later referred to as “fidelity rule”. the important point is that the translated text must be loyal to its corresponding source text in a certain level of features, including special collocations, sentences length, grammatical features, or even rhetorical devices, in style, in function, etc, or to a certain extent between a complete imitation and a complete deviation. inter-textual coherence is considered subordinate to intra-textual coherence, and both are subordinate to the skopos rule. if the skopos requires a change of function, the standard will no longer be inter-textual coherence with source text but adequacy or appropriateness with regard to the skopos (vermeer, 1984:139). and is the skopos demands intra-textual incoherence, the standard of intra-textual coherence is no longer valid (nord, 1997:33).3.2 features of skopos theoryas a break with the traditional translation ideas and an important complement to translation studies, some german scholars put forward the functionalist concept of translation, which has opened up a new perspective to the study of advertisement translation. skopos is a term caused from the ancient greek, meaning, shooting target. skopos theory applies the notion of skopos to translation and it is the prime principle determining any translation process in the purpose (skopos) of the overall transnational action. vermeer as the following explains such a theory: any form of transnational action, including therefore translation itself, may be conceived as an action, as the name implies. any action has a target, a purpose. the word skopos, then, is a technical term for the target or purpose of a translation. further, an action leads to a result, a new situation or event, and possibly to a new object (vermmer, 1989:173).the skopos theory is the core of german functionalism. it reflects “a general shift from predominantly linguistic and rather formal translation theories to a more functionally and socioculturally oriented concept of translation”(baker,2004:235). instead of the transformation between two languages, or the narrow framework of source and target texts, the skopos theory puts translation researches in the framework of cross-cultural communication, and draws enlightenment from quite lots of different theories, such as communication theory, action theory, text linguistics and text theory, and also from movements in literary studies towards reception theories.skopos theory takes translation as a kind of communication, or a kind of human action. since action is the process of acting, which means “intentionally(at will)bringing about or preventing a change in the world(in nature),and thus can be defined as an intentional change or transition from one state of affairs to another”(nord,1997:16).translation in the narrow sense always “involves the use of some kind of source text” , but transnational action, which is the range of what translators actually do, may “involve giving advice and perhaps even warning against communicating in the intended way”(nord,1997:17).thus, translation is described as an intentional, interpersonal, partly verbal cross-cultural interaction based on a source text(nord,2001:18).based on this belief, vermeer raised his translation principles, including the skopos rule , the coherence rule and the fidelity principle. skopos rule, the most important rule, governing the whole process of translation, means that its skopos determines the action of translation. the skopos rule stands as the top-ranking principles. this rule implies a translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with the norms of the target culture. (nord, 1997) as far as the relationship between source text and target text is concerned, vermeer calls it interstitial coherence which means faithfulness of the target text to source text. (nord, 1997:32)this rule is also called fidelity rule. the three rules are ordered in light of their importance. that is to say in translation, the translators first concern is the purpose of translation rather than faithfulness and faithfulness depends both on the translators interpretation of the source text and on the translation purpose. this is quite different from the traditional translation concept of“faithfulness” or “equivalence”.under the guidance of skopos theory, the status of original text drop, translator can be free to choose appropriate translation strategies. if the translation criteria for serious literature works, if remains to be discussed, so have a particular communicative purpose for the application of translation practice (texts for special purpose), no doubt that the text has guiding significance.iv. application skills from the perspective of skopos theory4.1 requirements for translators under skopos theorythe purpose of commercial advertisement is to attract consumers. therefore, it is inevitable to take them as center, deliver them with favorites and supply them with demands so as to touch their heart and finally facilitate the purchasing activities. to translate commercial advertisements means the change of the key factor advertising propaganda target. the translation of commercial advertisements is a kind of commercial activity with specific aim and strong purpose. in the ideal case, advertisers would inform translators with detailed information related to products as for as possible, such as sites, audiences, time, occasion and so on.first of all, translators should have a good knowledge of the products features. they must know not only the quality of commodities, including producing area, function and property, but also customers tastes, such as technological level ,price ,culture and creditworthiness of products so as to know the information of products from any aspects. secondly, translators should also have a good knowledge of the detailed purpose of advertisement translation and the media of translated text. according to these circumstances, translators could look for useful information. finally, translators should pay attention to the transnational culture and the consumer psychology when translating. no matter which country or nationality, there are many taboos. we should respect their folkways and customers, or it may influence the effect of advertisement translation.all in all, skopos theory require translators enhance the responsibility of the work and store a abundant knowledge of language ,profession, culture and so on, to make readers or audience enjoyable.4.2 communicative purposes of translated text“aim principle” emphasizes on the communicative purpose of the translation, which requires advertising translators have a clear understanding of the communicative function of the slogan. different cultural backgrounds produce significant differences of expressive forms and demand ways. therefore, according to the cultural differences, translators should make necessary adjustments or inventions to obey the habit of the target language culture. it finally realizes the equivalence of communication function between translated advertising language and original text. because advertisement translation is the communicative activities that realizes advertising transformation from the source language culture to the target language culture, thus, to properly deal with the relationship between source language culture and target language culture, translators must use some flexible translation methods, which not only realizes the communicative functions of advertising language but also fully reflects the characteristics of culture. 4.3 advertisement translation skills from the perspective of skopos theoryaccording to skopos theory, the purpose of social contact is the main purpose of translation. however, the most important element is the receivers who have particular background. any translation is inseparable from the culture. different cultural background, customs, etc cause a huge gap in western and chinese advertisement expression. in translation, to realize the actual source language to the target language text of textual conversion, we must regard the readers as the object.4.3.1 getting familiar with foreign cultureadvertisements have distinct national traits and regionalism. they reflect that different nation has different values and life-style (马婷, 2008). due to the barriers of culture and language, an advertisement, when translated, may not be as successful as the original one. that is because when an advertisement is designed, the advertiser has to be sure that the original audience can comprehend and accept it in the source language and background. but when the situation varies, the persuasive effect in source culture may not be produced in the target culture. to bring about the purpose of ad, advertisement translation must be target-language-culture oriented. if the translator takes no note to the target language and culture, the translation may seem odd and peculiar to the target audience and cannot attract their attention and thus fail to promote sales. the translation can be considered as a failure. a good original advertisement may become unacceptable and incomprehensible to the target audience if the translator fails to adapt to the target language and culture. only when the original advertisement is adapted to the target language style and cultural standards can the target audience easily comprehend what is advertised and be likely to accept the persuasion and buy the product