硕士学位论文-顺应论视角下的广告翻译.doc

学校代码：10254 密级 论文编号上 海 海 事 大 学SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY硕士学位论文MASTER DISSERTATION 论文题目 顺应论视角下的广告翻译 学科专业 外国语言学及应用语言学 作者姓名 胡月婵 指导教师 何绍斌 完成日期 二OO九年六月 M.A Dissertation On the application of Adaptation Theory to Advertisement TranslationA Thesis Submitted to the Foreign language school of Shanghai Maritime University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Translatology By Hu YuechanSupervisor : He Shaobin June,2009AcknowledgementsI am especially grateful to my supervisor, He Shaobin. He is a real expert in translation theories and practice. His lectures, articles and suggestions have helped me a great deal to understand the current development of translation studies and to finally figure out the field I am really interested in. It is under his encouragement and guidance that I chose advertisement as my subject of study, and adaptation theory as the theoretic foundation of my research. The thesis wouldnt have reached the present form if it hadnt been for his great help.Furthermore, my great thanks go to all the teachers who have taught me and helped me in the past two years, esp. Professor Han Zhonghua, Professor Wang Dawei, Professor Wang Juquan, Professor Quzongde and Professor Shi Dongqing who have opened me an amazingly new world of translation, Professor Zheng Lixin who has prompted my interest in linguistics, and Professor Yuan Yongfang who always encourage me to read original English novels.A most special gratitude goes to my parents, my brothers, my sisters and my friends for their love, encouragement and support they have been giving me all these years. Thank Calie in particular for your kind advice on the thesis.Eventually, any errors and inadequacies in this thesis are my sole responsibility.摘 要随着商业贸易和经济全球化的高速发展，广告翻译在国际交流中的重要作用日益凸现。然而在我国，广告翻译仍然满足不了社会的需求，有待进一步发展。本文基于广告翻译的特殊性，从一个新的视角即顺应理论出发来探讨广告翻译的过程以及方法，其目的在于帮助提高实际操作中广告的英汉互译水平。维索尔伦(Verschueren)的“语言顺应论”是新兴的理论，但它有着很强的阐释力。顺应论从认知，社会的和文化的角度审视语境。由于广告翻译涉及跨文化之间的文化差异，广告翻译过程应充分考虑不同广告受众群体的社会心理文化差异尤为重要，故顺应论对于广告翻译具有很强的指导意义。本文试图以他的语言顺应论为理论依托，对广告语的语言特点，影响广告翻译的各种不同但又相互联系的语境因素作了探讨，通过对原文和译文的各个层面的比较，把语用学顺应论研究的成果利用到广告语的对比和翻译研究中，运用动态顺应的观点考察在具体的翻译过程中，广告语所传递的语用信息和语用功能，说明了译者在翻译过程中应如何顺应这些语境因素(语言语境与交际语境)。本篇论文由五章构成：第一章，研究概述，主要阐述前人在广告领域的研究成果，本论文研究目的及研究意义。第二章主要是对本论文的理论基础，即维索尔伦提出的顺应论进行阐述。通过对顺应论三大概念与四大方面的阐述，指出顺应论对广告翻译十分具有阐释力。第三章详细介绍了本论文的研究对象广告翻译，包括广告的定义与功能，广告语的语言特点以及广告中的文化因素。第四章是本论文的主体部分。详细分析了顺应论在广告语翻译中的应用，指出广告翻译应顺应消费者的心理世界、社交世界、物理世界以及顺应目的语的语言现实。第五章是文章的总结部分，总结顺应论在广告翻译中的应用，同时指出研究的意义及不足部分。关键词: 广告,广告翻译，顺应论 AbstractThis thesis is a study on Chinese-English and English-Chinese translation of advertisements (hereafter abbreviated as ads) in the light of adaptation theory.With the development of international trade and global economy, ads and their translation become an important part of modern life. Well-translated advertisements contribute to the good reputation of the companies and their products, while poor translations of advertisement often result in costly failures, and even do harm to the image of the companies. Carrying on studies on this topic can lead to peoples serious consideration of good translation of Chinese advertisement, thus improving the competitiveness of Chinese companies in the global market.This thesis revisits advertisement translation from a pragmatic perspective of adaptation. Jef Verschuerens Adaptation Theory is a new-born but encompassing theory. The author wants to reveal how, under this theoretic framework, different, yet interdependent constraints on the translation process play their roles in translation of advertisements.The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter one is a general introduction to the research, offering the general context for advertisement translation, research motivation and its significance. Chapter two offers a theoretical framework of ads translation from adaptation theory proposed by Jef Verschueren. Based on elaboration on three key notions and four aspects, it concludes that Adaptation Theory is very explanatory for the research on ads translation. Chapter three begins with the definition and functions of advertising as well as a brief introduction to the distinctive features of Ads language .Then it expounds the cultural factors in the cross-cultural ads translation and gives some examples about the pragmatic failure in ads translation .Chapter four provides a detailed analysis of adaptation in ads translation . The process of adaptation takes place in linguistic and communicative context (physical world, social world and culture).Chapter five serves as the summary of the whole essay, in which the author reviews and clarifies the application of adaptation theory to adverts translation, pointing out the implication of the present study and some suggestions for the future research.In conclusion, Verschuerens theory casts new light on the research of advertisement translation. And it is hoped that this tentative study will be conducive to advertisement translators, advertisers as well as copywriters.Key words: Advertising, Advertisement Translation, Adaptation theory CONTENTS AcknowledgementsIV摘 要VAbstractVICONTENTSVIIIChapter 1 Introduction11.1 Literature Review of Ads Translation.11.1.1 Western Researches into Ads Translation11.1.2 Chinese Scholars Researches into Ads Translation31.2 Research Motivation51.3 Academic Value and Practical Significance61.4 Framework of the Thesis7Chapter 2 The Adaptation Theory and Its9Application to Translation92.1 Verschuerens Adaptation Theory92.2 Key Notions of Adaptation Theory92.2.1 Making Choices92.2.2 Three Features of Language112.2.3 Four Angles of Investigation122.3 Adaptation in Translation132.3.1 Choice Making and Translation132.3.2 The Three Features of Language and Translation152.3.2.1 Variability and Translation152.3.2.2 Negotiability and Translation172.3.2.3 Adaptability and Translation172.3.3 Four Angles of Investigation and Translation18Chapter 3: A General Study of Ads and Ads Translation213.1 General knowledge of Ads213.1.1 Definition of Advertising213.1.2 The Functions of Advertising223.1.3 Objectives of Advertising233.1.4 The Components of Advertising243.2 Features of Ads Language273.3 Translation of Cross - cultural Ads293.3.1 Culture293.3.2 Language and Culture303.3.3 Cultural Factors in Advertising31Chapter 4: Application of Adaptation Theory35to Ads Translation354.1 Adaptation to the Linguistic Reality354.1.1 Language Structure364.1.2 Associative Meanings394.1.3 Sound Pattern of Language414.2 Adaptation to the Physical World434.2.1 Advertisers Brief434.2.2 Attributes of the Product464.2.3 Natural Geography474.3 Adaptation to the Mental World494.3.1 Thought Pattern494.3.2 Value Standards524.3.3 Beliefs544.4 Adaptation to the Social World584.4.1 Religions594.4.2 Norms614.4.3 Sociopolitical Setting654.5 Summary66Chapter 5 Conclusion67Bibliography69 73Chapter 1 IntroductionWith Chinas entry into the WTO and the trend of globalization, Chinese businesses have been undergoing ever-frequent exchanges with the outside world. Well-translated advertisements contribute to the good reputation of the companies and their products, while poor translations of advertisement often result in costly failures, and even do harm to the image of the companies. Carrying on studies on this topic can lead to peoples serious consideration of good translation of Chinese advertisement, thus improving the competitiveness of Chinese companies in the global market.1.1 Literature Review of Ads Translation.“There has over last two decades been an enormous upsurge of interest in the linguistic and discourse characteristics of advertising”.(paul,2001:589) However ,the attention paid to translation of advertisements is far from enough as it involves the more complex transfer of a text.1.1.1 Western Researches into Ads TranslationIn the western world, investigation on Ads translation has been conducted by foreign scholars from many angles. Genevieve (1998) studies the recreation techniques by comparing English version (ST) and French version (TT) in order to prove that humorous ads can be translated. With special attention paid to “the exploitation of national or cultural identity in the advertising of exports”, Adrian (2000) makes a more detailed investigation on the topic and arrives at the conclusion that translators should be intercultural experts.Likewise, Masa(2000) adopts the comparative-analytical approach to study similarity and dissimilarity of advertising between German and Brazilian Portuguese, thus concluding the necessity of “adaptation (in the broad sense) with due appreciation of culture-specific conditioning factors, stereotypes, and the peculiarities of the advertising industry” and of “creativity involved in the process of rewriting texts ”(ibid.:269).From Masa, we can infer that the role of translators clearly goes beyond the traditionally accepted role of bilingual scribe. In printed ads, it is essential to orient toward the receptor to achieve rhetorical objective, which also holds true for ads translation. Cristina(2000)advances the proposition on translation strategies by analyzing reception factors in translating ads, such as target audience, new products, target culture habits, phonetic factors and print styles, arriving at the conclusion that “certain modifications in the visual and oral components are required in order to convey the intended effect of advertisements on the target audience”(ibid.:280).Similarly, functionalist who considered ads as one typical text gives high regard to text function. Reiss put ads in the categories of operative texts of a persuasive nature and assigned to them an “adaptive” mode of translation to tailor to the needs and conventions of the receptors of TT (Adab, 2004:164). Hatim and Mason (2001:156) propose a classification of text types according to “dominant contextual focus”. According to them, ads, with dominant focus consists of triggering a particular response of behavior in the recipient, are included in the group of instructional texts. Different from the aforementioned authors, Nord proposes a model of the translation process which consists of all the elements pertinent in the real practice of translation and is demonstrated by applying it to the translation of an ad instead of focusing on translation skills, role of translator and reception factor. She puts forward that ads translation entails production of a communicative event in a new culture, having a corresponding functional role to that of the source culture text (Nord, 1997:50). By doing survey on specific examples and connecting them to the communicative aim of advertising messages, Adab (2000) tries to offer principles for a more systematic approach to ads translation.Apart from above researches, contributors of The Translator (an international journal), which launched a special issue about the translation of advertising materials in 2004, aired their observations from different perspectives. De Mooij (2004) alleges that consumer behavior and the way consumers communicate are heavily reliant on their cultural values, and consumers needs, motives and emotions are also due to cultural influence. Also within the cultural context, Torresi (2004) explores the stereotype of cleanliness coming out of British, Italian and Russian ads for cleaning products, stressing culture-specific traits.Ho (2004) makes the propositions on the conception of “genetic engineering” process and maintains that translation, especially ads translation, is not only a linguistic and cultural activity, but also a key commercial activity. He further claims that ads translation involves transfer between different mindsets aside from text transfer and cultural adaptation. Sumberg (2004) studies how the approach to target text production adds to or detracts from the effectiveness of tourist brochures translated from French into English and whether their promotional function is being achieved. Some bold explorations are even made on some issues the former researchers havent stepped in before. The one is about comparison between different media. Considering ads as semiotic entities and thus translation as an inter-semiotic process, Freitas(2004) studies how the same advertising concept of a given product or services is conveyed in different media (magazine vs. TV).In the context of marketing, Chiaro(2004) examines advertising translation through comparison between print and web advertising of Italian Agro-food products. The other tricky issue is about relationship between the verbal and non-verbal. By revisiting linguistic characteristics of advertising as well as audience, purpose and cross-cultural transfer, Munday (2004) demonstrates that “the visual and multimodal in general, must be incorporated into the fuller study of the translation of advertising”1.1.2 Chinese Scholars Researches into Ads Translation Compared with the western researchers, Chinese scholars and researchers have made more efforts in the field of ads translation which are proved by numerous publications in journals or thesis. The author attempts to sum them up along the following 5 categories with some publications as exemplification.（1）Stylistic Approach Advertising texts are explored in terms of phonetic, lexical, syntactic, semantic and rhetorical levels and then translation strategies are located. With analysis on rhetorical devices in English and Chinese advertising, Gai (盖静, 2003) investigates advertising language features .She finally proposes several specific techniques on how to handle rhetorical devices in ads translation and confirms that “translation without consideration of the readership will be all in vain in practice” (ibid.:1).Similarly, Zhu (朱海燕, 2003) concludes that ads translators should break themselves from the practice of seeking equivalence in terms of form and content since ads translation is a recreation based on the originality of the source text.（2）Pragmatic Approach Some scholars carried out studies from the pragmatic approach. With the help of Thomas distinction between pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure, Shi(石永清, 2002)explores the causes for cross-cultural pragmatic failure. He reveals that the reason of failure lies in the interference of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic rules of mother tongue. Zhang (张玲玲, 2003) makes a similar research and concludes that differences in language and culture make the proper translation of pragmatic force challenging. In the framework of relevance theory, Pan(潘莉, 2003) who explores how to understand the translation of ads and the realization of the AIDA (Attention, interest, desire and action )function in the target language, puts forward that the notions of cognitive context and optimal relevance should be employed to analyze the translation principles and strategies needed in translating commercial ads.(3) Inter-cultural Approach Some studies on ads and ads translation are embedded under the inter-cultural background. Wang(汪滔，2001),who explores the cultural difference of Chinese and English advertising and holds that the objectives of ads translation are readability, attention value, memory value and selling power, advances an effective method imitating western poetry and proverbs. Also in the context of inter-cultural communication, Li(李保军, 2001)searches for means to achieve “cultural equivalence” in the process of ads translation, either from English-Chinese or Chinese-English, through the aid of discourse analysis and socio-linguistics.(4) Aesthetic Approach Theory of reception aesthetics is used to guide ads translation in many articles. Exploring the aesthetic complex of adverts and its impacts upon the strategy of ads translation, Tang (唐艳芳, 2003) proposes two principles: “the dialectical unity of faithfulness” and the “Creation”, and the organic integration of “Equivalence” and “Aestheticism”. Finally she devises three techniques for advert translation: Rhetorical equivalence, Emotional Imitation and Aesthetic Creation.(5)Translation-theory-based Approach As a kind of specialized translation, Ads Translation emphasizes the functionality of translation in the target culture. Therefore many functionalist theories will readily fit into the study of the ads translation: Skopos Theory, Nidas explication on Equivalence, Peter Newarks dichotomy off translation, and so on. Under the guidance of functionalism, Zhang(张昆群,2003) puts forward three kinds of commercial effect as a benchmark for translated ads (positive effect ,zero effect and negative effect ), concluding that ads translation is creative interpretation, and that adaptation of the original text to the target culture are usually deliberately made by translators to overcome the cultural barrier in international advertising. Feng(冯纪元,2002) concurs and summarizes that translating ads is not just a SL-TL linguistic operation ,but often a specialized adaptation process according to factors of the target culture.These five approaches are just put into the category on a relative basis, for the research on ads translation is constantly connected with the investigation of linguistics, cross-cultural communication and translation. The