广告英语的翻译技巧.doc

毕 业 论 文On Translation Techniques of Advertisement English 广告英语的翻译技巧教务处 制Abstract: In the global economic prosperity of today, advertisement has already penetrated into every aspect of social life and become an indispensable part to peoples life. In the process of introducing foreign products to the domestic consumers or introducing Chinese products to foreign consumers, advertisement plays a critically important role. Advertisement English emerges and forms a kind of special applying language. It is not only a kind of economic activity, but also a kind of East-West cultural exchange. A successful translation of an advertisement will not only best convey the original information, but also reflect the characteristic of the product advertised, attract consumers and lead them to produce desire of purchase as well. This paper mainly introduces the language characteristics of advertisement English, translation principles of advertisement English, difficulties translators may meet when translating advertisements and finally states various kinds of common translating techniques through examples.Key words: advertising translation, advertisement English, translation principle, translation techniqueContentsIntroduction.11. The Study of Advertisement21.1 The Advertising.21.2 The Function of Advertising.21.2.1 The Marketing Function.21.2.2 The Communication Function .21.2.3 The Economic Function.31.3 Advertisement Text31.4 The Feature of the Advertisement Text.31.4.1 Concise in Style.31.4.2 Creative in Language.31.4.3 Figurative in Speech.32. The Translation Principles of Advertisement English.42.1 Smoothness42.2 Conciseness42.3 Attractiveness.53. Difficulties in Translating Advertisements53.1. Difference in the Form of Character.53.2 Difference in Figure of Speech.63.3 Differences in Culture and Consumption Psychology.64. The Translation Techniques of Advertisement English.74.1 Knowing the Characteristics of Translating Advertisements and Commodities.74.2 Understanding the Tradition of Civilization and Consumer Psychology about the Country.84.3 Paying Attention to the Standardization of Language.84.4 Making Good Use of Rhetorical Devices.84.4.1 Simile.94.4.2 Pun.94.4.3 Personification94.5 Diversifing the Method of Translation.94.5.1 Literal Translation.104.5.2 Free Translation114.5.3 Transliteration.124.5.4 Combining Literal and Free Translation.124.5.5 Addition .124.5.6 Deletion.134.5.7 Four-word Construction13Conclusion.14Bibliography.15Acknowledgement.16IntroductionWith the development of economic globalization and foreign trade, especially the increasing of our foreign trade since China entered WTO, the circulation of commodities is more often between other countries and our country. More and more foreign commodities are entering China, and at the same time, more and more Chinese enterprises are promoting their products on the international markets. All companies in every country do what they can do to advertise their products to have a leading position in the global market. Therefore, the advertisement of products plays an important role in foreign trade. In the meantime, advertising translation has been more and more paid attention. As a complex cross-cultural communication, advertising translation is not simple language exchange, but can impact consumers inherent traditional psychology , influence their purchase decision and affect the commodity market share and sales amount.Nowadays in the society, people are inevitably surrounded by all kinds of advertisements every day. That is to say, advertisements are just like cells in the real world, which have been inserted into our lives, word, study, entertainment and other aspects. Just as an American writer writes :“We find advertisements of all kinds everywhereFor example, glittering neon signs on top of high buildings and along main streets，colorful pictures painted on buses，pamphlets sent to every house，advertisements jammed between TV programs various advertisements glutting newspapers and radio broadcast，etc.” What is the meaning of an advertisement for a company? There is no doubt that advertisement is to advertise certain products or services via newspapers, televisions, videos, posters and so on. Translators should definitely take stylistic features into serious consideration and try to find Chinese expressions what correspond to the original text in meaning, form and style. Thus, companies will be able to attain the expected effect of advertisements.Lets enjoy a verse about the function of an ad first.Advertisement广告The codfish lays a million eggs，鳕鱼每天下一百万只蛋，The helpful hen lays one能干的母鸡每天下一只。The codfish makes no fuss of its achievement，鳕鱼对自己的成就毫不声张，The hen boasts what shes done母鸡下蛋后却展尽吹嘘之能事。We forget the gentle codfish，人民记不住温和的鳕鱼，The hen we eulogize；却为母鸡唱赞歌；Which teaches us this lesson that于是我们得到一个教训It pays to advertise打广告总是让我们有所得。(张昭苑,段海生2005: 605)An old Chinese saying, GOOD WINES WILL BECOME KNOWN AFTER ALL EVEN IN DESERT LANES, arouses many disputes in the field of translation. From here we see that even best wines may fear exclusion. Why does the hen being regarded as a diligent and capable one? Why is the codfish that lays a million eggs each day unknown to people at all? The above poem rightly tells the great power of an ad in a humorous way.In the world of advertisements, people can information, wisdom, art and enjoyments in all aspects. How are all kinds of advertisements classified? According to the different media, advertising can be divided into television advertisements, network advertisements, newspaper advertisements, periodicals advertisements and so on. No matter what category an ad belongs to, its mission is to expresses information as well as penetrates the public mind with desire and belief. To sum up, it is a widely held belief that advertisements importance in modern society. As is well known, what the performance of an advertisement mainly depends on a number of elements, such as the advertising images, advertising sounds and so on. However, advertising language is the most significant element. It is the advertising language that will make a deep impression on consumers, not other elements. In the actual situation, it appears that fifty to seventy successful advertisements result from outstanding and successful translation. Consequently, the translation of advertisement English becomes even more essential. In order to have a better Chinese version, we should first understand the characteristics of advertisements. This article will give some brief introduction of features on vocabulary, sentence type and rhetoric in advertisement English, and illustrate a serious of common translating methods through examples.1. The Study of Advertisement 1.1 AdvertisingAdvertising may consist of many different forms. However, advertising language is a style of instant result and fairy effective persuasion. The aim of the advertisement is to show the uniqueness of the product and spread the advantages by using it to attract peoples attention and arouse their desire to buy one.1.2 The Function of AdvertisingIn recent years, advertising is been spoken highly of and even criticized for its influence on society and its role in marketing commodities. Many reviewers hold the idea that advertising effects peoples judgment on various kinds of commodities. Though it is well known that advertising can promote the sales and make much profits, people still think that it bring more negative effects than positive ones. Nevertheless, merchants and businesses will never give up to promoting their products by advertising. Merchants and businesses will naturally achieve much benefits by looking at advertising positively and making good use of it.1.2.1 The Marketing FunctionCompared with public relations, personal feeling and sales promotion, advertising is applied by companies and merchants to do promotion and communicate with consumers at the aim of marketing more products. As one of the primary means of promoting products, advertising is always regarded as the most direct and effective mean, which is also the main part of advertisement.1.2.2 The Communication Function Advertisement takes on many different language, especially that of famous products. In a certain point of view, ad plays on an important crucial role in communicating, for it may be printed on newspapers, posters and magazines, broadcasted on the air and played on TV. Through these methods, ad can transmit various types of market information to map merchants and consumers from different market place. In the meantime, it can be looked as a kind of East-West cultural exchange.1.2.3 The Economic Function Marketers always use ad as a persuasive tool, with the help of this, they can distract consumers attention from the price of product. From another point of view, as a channel of information, advertisement can increase consumers sensitivity and enhance the competition of products.1.3 Advertisement Text A good ad is a wonderful text from which people can appreciate the art of language. In todays society, people can enjoy all kinds of ads each day, from newspapers, magazines, televisions, broadcastings and even on peoples garments and buses and taxis bodies. Take an ad on a famous recorder for example, “A Mighty Mini!” There are just three simple words in this ad. However, its impact is mighty and great. And its cleverly usage of alliteration will absolutely give a deep impression on consumers mind.1.4 The Feature of the Advertisement Text1.4.1 Concise in StyleConcise in style is the basic feature of the advertisement text. The biggest advantage of it is that it can enable consumers to remember the ad and easily then associate the products advertised. Besides, one more word in the text means one or more dollars for company. Thus, ad composers are often required to keep the feature all the time. In some cases, companies will apply well-familiar words or most popular phrases to make the advertisement text more acceptable for people like you and me. Lets enjoy the following ads: Example l: Unlike me, my Rolex never needs a rest. (an ad on a watch)The advertisement only just use some simple words to arouse consumers attention instead of using “big” or “flowery” ones. It sounds like a saying spoke from one of our good friends. In other words, the ad doesnt display any art of artifice but the characteristic of true in art. Example 2: Lots to do. (an ad slogan of Microsoft)This ad slogan only uses three simple words, which not only follows the feature of ad but also conveys the aim of the company that Microsoft is ready to make progress.Advertisement text often has simple sentence structures, which is the requirement for both merchants and consumers. In a word, in order to inspire and arouse consumers desire to buy the purchases.1.4.2 Creative in LanguageThe most important and fundamental condition is that ad should be always kept creative in language. After keeping this feature of advertisement text, ads will naturally and absolutely impress consumers very much. Take an ad on Crest for example: Example: Do your teeth a favor.The creator is so clever, for he imitated the phrase “do somebody a favor”. It not only reminds people to protect their teeth, but also draws peoples attention.1.4.3 Figurative in SpeechIn ad language, we are easily to see figurative speech here and there. Almost all figurative devices are frequently applied in ad, such as simile, pun, personification, parallelism and contrast etc. This using of figurative speech virtually increases the fascination and attraction of the advertisement. For example:For example 1: The choice is yoursThe honor is oursFor example 2: Flowers by BEAUTY speak from the heart.For example 3: “Terylene” keeps its promises. (张昭苑,段海生2005: 606)All the above examples clearly speak of the successful usage of figurative in speech. Besides, contrast or parallelism is properly used in the example1. Example2 is an ad on a flower shop and example3 is on one commodity. In these two examples, personification is used to achieve vividness. All these usages will make advertisements colorful and attractive. 2. The Translation Principles of Advertisement EnglishNo matter what we do, we must follow some certain principles, and so does translation in advertisement English. Therefore, for the sake of better translation, we should keep to the following three significant principles.2.1 SmoothnessSmoothness means to use smooth and natural Chinese expressions that Chinese customers can accept to give the information about a product. Whether the translation of an English advertisement is excellent or not depends on the response of its receivers. Only when the Chinese readers response to the translation is similar to the original readers response to the original advertisement, will the translation achieve its purpose. Therefore it is very important for a translator to get a good knowledge of Chinese convention and consumers psychology.English advertisement differs from Chinese advertisement in many aspects due to the differences of culture. Take an advertisement of cigarette advertisement as an example:For example: Cigarette by John Player, EnglandIn English, the word group linking two noun phrases by the preposition “by” is usually used to describe the artistic and creative activities. Advertisers often use this structure to present the information of “unique and peculiar quality” of the product, and indicate that the person who chooses it has artistic taste. However it is no easy task to translate the advertisement into authentic Chinese. If the translator rigidly adheres to the original form and renders it into “英国普莱尔的香烟”, it is difficult to stimulate the Chinese consumers desire to buy the cigarette. As is discussed above, the Chinese four- character compounds are well accepted by the Chinese people. So it can be translated into “普莱尔香烟，精细做工，口味独特，与众不同”. This is much better than the literal translation because the four-character phrase is a favorite of the Chinese people.2.2 ConcisenessAs all advertisements must follow the rule of conciseness，their translated copy should also be of no exception. This requires that the language in translated copy be colloquial and easy to understand. To fulfill such a purpose, a translator should eliminate wordy expressions, include only relevant material and avoid unnecessary repetition.The following are such example： Even the most beautiful body can get lost with the wrong pair of jeans. Thats why its important to wear jeans that let you look your own, jeans that make most of what youve dreamed like our Relaxed Riders. When we make Relaxed Riders, we cut our material on a curve to conform to the natural contours of your body. So whenever your proportions change，the proportions of our Lees Relaxed Riders Jeans change too. If youve been thinking that something is wrong with you just because your jeans dont fit，try the Relaxed Riders. Youll see its not a better body you need. Its better jeans.你身材美妙，但不合体的牛仔裤会使美的身材黯然失色。李氏休闲牛仔裤裁剪得体，自然流畅，随身所欲，调整体型。好牛仔赛过好身材。(任芳2011: 340)At first glance, the translated copy is not faithful to the original one at al1. But with careful examination, the translated one not only transmits the main idea honestly, but also appears smooth and natural to the Chinese consumers. The use of the fourcharacter structure makes the whole copy concise, attractive and full of rhyme. Therefore, it is really a good translation.2.3 Attractiveness0n this level, creativeness is highlighted on the front stage. A translator should strive to make the translated copy appear eyecatchingOf course, this creativeness is not the same with the creativeness in the original copy. By attractiveness，a translator should follow the original attractive style. In the case of contradicting with the content faithfulness, a translator still can make some compensation in some other ways. Remember, if the original copy is as a diamond; do not make the translated appear like a common stone. To achieve such an effect, different rhetorical devices are employed here Examples： Theres never a better time. 此时不戴待何时?一一Raymond Weil Watch Many hands and few words make light work. (Imitating proverb) 我们是不做声的仆人 ，却有着一百双手! 一一Kitchen Utensils He laughs best who runs longest. (Imitating proverb) 谁跑到最后，谁笑得最好。 一一Tires (任芳2011: 340)This principle of translating advertisement English is suggested from the point of advertising form. Few advertisements actually get real. Consumers often scan the stories and advertisements in the newspaper, but with limited concentration. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges for advertisers is to get consumers to notice their messages. To have impact，advertising must br