摘 要

汽车是一种便捷的交通工具并且在现代生活中扮演着重要的角色。汽车广告很大程度上推动着汽车产业的发展。探究汽车广告翻译的可行方法，对于中国的汽车产业也有一定的积极意义。英国翻译理论家纽马克的文本功能理论为汽车广告翻译的理论研究开辟了一个新的视角。本文将从纽马克的文本功能理论视角对汽车广告翻译进行分析。

论文分为五个部分。第一部分是对文章背景的介绍以及主要内容的概括。第二部分从定义，分类和组成要素三个方面对汽车广告进行简单的介绍。随后阐述了汽车广告翻译的相关理论研究以及翻译中存在的问题。第三部分主要阐述纽马克的文本功能理论。基于他的翻译观点，语言文本被划分为三种类型：表达型文本、信息型文本以及呼吁型文本。他还认为不同类型的文本功能应该采用不同的翻译方法。因此他提出了两大翻译法：交际翻译法和语义翻译法。第四部分是通过对汽车广告文本功能的特点分析，阐述交际翻译法和语义翻译法在汽车广告翻译中的运用。在交际翻译范畴内，作者建议译者采用扩译、缩译、模仿和零翻译这几种翻译技巧，以及语义翻译范畴下的两种翻译技巧：音译法和直译法。在对大量翻译实例进行搜集和整理的基础上作者得出以下结论：交际翻译法和语义翻译法的结合运用能更加有效地指导汽车广告翻译实践活动。第五部分是对该文的研究成果进行总结并指出其研究意义。

关键词：文本功能；汽车广告；交际翻译；语义翻译

Abstract

Automobiles are a convenient means of transportation and play an important role in modern life. Auto ads promote the development of the automobile industry to a large extent. This paper studies the feasible methods to the translation of auto ads, which has a positive impact on China’s automobile industry. Peter Newmark, British translation theorist, puts forwards text function theory which provides a new perspective for the study of auto ads translation. This paper will analyze auto ads translation based on Newmark’s text function theory in detail.

This paper is divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction of the background and main chapters of this paper. The second part is the introduction of auto ads from the perspective of advertisement’s definition, classification and components. Then, it will illustrate the relevant researches on auto ads translation and analyze the existing problems of auto ads translation. In the third part, the author will introduce the text function theory proposed by Peter Newmark. According to his opinion, the text can be divided into three types: the expressive text, the informative text and the vocative text. He holds that different texts should be translated differently in terms of each function. Therefore, he suggests two translation methods, i.e. the communicative translation and the semantic translation. In the forth part, the author concentrates on the analysis of the application of communicative translation and semantic translation to auto ads translation based on the characteristics of auto ads’ text function. In addition, the author recommends some translation techniques under communicative translation including addition, abridgement, imitation and zero translation as well as transliteration and literal translation under semantic translation. Based on the collection and analysis of numerous translated examples, the author comes to a conclusion that the combination of communicative and semantic translation is a more efficient guidance for auto ads translation. In the fifth part, the author sums up the result of the research and points out its significance.

Key Words: text function; automobile advertisements; communicative translation; semantic translation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Automobile Advertisements and Their Translation 2

2.1 Automobile Advertisements (Auto Ads) 2

2.1.1 Definition of Auto Ads 2

2.1.2 Classification of Auto Ads 2

2.1.3 Components of Auto Ads 2

2.2 Translation of Auto Ads 3

2.2.1 Relevant Researches on Auto Ads Translation 3

2.2.2 Existing Problems in Auto Ads Translation 4

3 An Overview of Newmark’s Text Function 5

3.1 Text Typology 5

3.1.1 Expressive Text 5

3.1.2 Informative Text 5

3.1.3 Vocative Text 6

3.2 Newmark's Translation Methods 7

3.2.1 Communicative Translation 7

3.2.2 Semantic Translation 7

4 Application of Newmark’s Text Function in Auto Ads Translation 9

4.1 Techniques under Communicative Translation 9

4.1.1 Addition 9

4.1.2 Abridgement 10

4.1.3 Imitation 11

4.1.4 Zero Translation 11

4.2 Techniques under Semantic Translation 12

4.2.1 Transliteration 12

4.2.2 Literal Translation 12

4.3 Combination of Communicative and Semantic Translation 13

5 Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 18

Translation of Automobile Advertisements Based on Newmark’s Text Function

1 Introduction

Nowadays, with the rapid development of mass media, auto ads become an effective way to persuade the potential customers to purchase the automobiles advertised. Good auto ads are beneficial to strongly impress customers and arouse their interest to take action. Due to the fierce competition of modern commercial activities and frequent exchanges between China and other countries, the requirements on the quality of the translation of auto ads have been improved. Therefore, translators should pay more attention to different methods to auto ads translation and try to make the translation version more fluent and expressive.

In this paper, the author show a new perspective of auto ads translation based on Newmark’s text function theory. Newmark puts forward three basic text types─the expressive text, the informative text and the vocative text and different texts require different translation criteria. What’s more, two translation methods─ communicative and semantic translation are proposed because these three text types can been seen in auto ads. Examples of auto ads will be analyzed based on the specific techniques under communicative and semantic translation.

On the basis of the abundant case analysis, the author makes a conclusion that combination of communicative and semantic translation is a more efficient guidance for auto ads translation.

2 Auto Ads and Their Translation