论文总字数：39107字

摘 要

在经济贸易全球化的背景下，中外商业交往日益密切。而广告，作为为商品打响国内外市场的第一炮，无论对国外还是国内的品牌来说，都是至关重要的。但由于中外文化差异，在对广告翻译方面，极有可能造成歧义和误解。比如，中国人和外国人的价值观和风俗习惯在很多方面都是大相径庭的，这些差异都会在日常生活中显示出来，并且进一步的影响到双方的商务贸易往来。本文通过案例阐述造成广告翻译的歧义的文化差异以及广告翻译的特点，要求和翻译策略以及文化迁移对广告翻译的影响。

关键词：广告翻译；文化迁移；翻译策略

Contents

1. Introduction... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1

2. Literature Review... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1

3. Features of Advertisements... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

3.1 Styles ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3

3.2 Lexical features... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5

3.3 Syntactical features... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

4. Cultural Transfer in Advertisement Translation ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

4.1 Values... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8

4.2 Customs... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 10

5. Translation Strategies of Advertisements... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12

5.1 Literal translation... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12

5.2 Free translation... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...12

5.3 Creative translation ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...13

5.4 Amplification and omission... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...14

5.5 Explanation... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14

6. Conclusion... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...15

Works Cited... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 17

1. Introduction

Advertising, originated from Latin word “adverture”, means a method to attracts people’s concern to some issues and induces them to a certain direction. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11^th Central Committee in 1978, the advertising industry in our country began because of the reform and opening policies. Thus, some foreign business started to go into Chinese market tentatively, and did the product advertising. Advertisements can be seen everywhere in our normal life, so a proper translation ought to be highly stressed. A great translation can perfect an advertisement, and a terrible translation can also destroy an advertisement.

Accordingly, we need to pay much attention to advertisement translation’s features, requirements, translation strategies and the cultural issues that may cause misunderstandings.

2. Literature Review

Different researchers have different definitions toward advertisements. In Cihai, the definition is that advertising is a way to publicize products, labor and business information to the people through the media. The key point is to publicize. In 1932, American professional advertising magazine Advertising Age asked for the definition of advertisements to the society, and the most acceptable one is that the thing, paid by the advertisers, expresses the information about the individual, products, labor and movements by printing, writing, dictation and painting so as to achieve the purpose of influencing and facilitating sales, using and agreements. The key points are paid, media, purpose. Additionally, George Louis, an American advertising superman who claims himself as a rash and crazy man, had a unique and interesting definition: advertising is a toxic gas on account of the fact that it could let you burst into tears firstly, then mess up your nervous system, and finally addle your brain (Louis 45).

Advertisement translation requires rendering sentences into another language. And translators have to convert the ideas and thoughts behind the sentences into the target language by applying the knowledge of the target culture at the same time (Wilss 11). The translation which ignores the cultural differences may lead to wrong meanings. Professor Wang Zuoliang said, “A real translator must be a truly educated man. Only in this way can we not only achieve equivalence in linguistic level, but also reach equity in cultural level.” (Wang, 2). It’s not hard to see that in the process of translating, we have to get a solid cultural background, so as to create great works. Thus, the author will use cases to tell the differences in values and customs between China and the USA.

There’s such a sentence in The Translation of Advertising Terms written by Cao Shunfa: the advertising master Raymond Rubicam once said: “the best sign of a superior advertisement is that it can lead the audience to falling over each other in eagerness to buy its target product, and it’s able to make the audience and advertising field memorize it as an admirable and impressive masterpiece for a long time as well.” Obviously, the same applies to the translation. And Mr. Cao points out that advertising is becoming more and more international with the development of global merchandise trade, so when the translator interpret a piece of advertisements from one language to another, he needs to retain the essence of the original advertisements and make the interpreted advertisements accord with the consumer psychology at the same time (Cao, 15). Moreover, the author thinks a good advertisement translation can’t place too much reliance on the original advertisements, because it would make the creative exertion discounted in the aspect of cross-culture. Accordingly, the author decides to research the advertising strategies from the following parts: literal translation, free translation, creative translation, amplification, omission and explanation translation.

3. Features of Advertisements

Most advertisement language belongs to incentive ones, and its aim is to stimulate the readers’ curiosity, leave a deep impression and influence on their thoughts. The author will illustrate features of advertisements from the directions of styles, lexical features and syntactical features.

3.1 Styles

What is universally known is that advertisements has various types of expressing forms. Take recording style as an example, it can record the product’s many aspects of characteristics, such as appearance, uniqueness and function. Besides, the advertiser prefers to use a moving story to manifest the humanization design of the goods, and then persuade audience to buy the products emotionally. Advertisements can be seen not only on TV, but also seen on many commercial signs or boards along the road side. It’s actually a kind of advertisements. This kind of advertisements doesn’t have too much work, but it can leave a general impression on pedestrians at least.

3.1.1 Documentary

The advertisement documentary is the most ordinary and traditional form which tends to tell or express the purpose of the advertisement directly. Sometimes, it needs a long length of an article to describe the function, advantages and usage method of the products. Additionally, new changes have come to the advertisement documentaries in modern times. They are not solely product-centered or consumer-centered, but revolve around the humanity. The customers are not just customers, but the people with independent mind and spiritual connotation. The purpose of advertisement documentaries is to spread the mission, vision and values of products. What’s more, to reach the aim of the advertising with the aid of highly reappeared artistic form, documentary is the core values of advertisement documentary.

Take Across America as an example, which is an advertisement documentary supported by Cadillac all time. Cadillac’s demands are technological innovation and leading the area. It is evolving from a good product which can meet people’s demands in the 20^th century to a smart product which is able to greatly cater to them. Cadillac spreads the American dreams and sell a cooler, more beautiful and more technological car life simultaneously (Huang 67), so re-driving Cadillac on the Route 66 and crossing America become a carrier to convey the values of beauty and smartness. The reason why they choose the Route 66 is that Cadillac invited Karen Amok to walk on the road and produced it as a micro film, which made a hit at that time, and Route 66 has a different annotation to Cadillac.

3.1.2 Novel style

At whiles, an advertisement is like a touching story. It contains figures, plots or conflicts and ending. The designer of the advertisement arouses the customers’ feeling by dynamic plots and moving language and let them receive what the advertisement transmit to them imperceptibly. For example, the charity agency usually uses novel stylistic advertisement. They describe the threat from cataract by a patient to inspire people’s sympathy, so as to call on donations.

Advertisements with novel style are preferred by both advertisers and audience. It has been the mainstream in recent years. Dove chocolate’s advertising is a typical case. Dove chocolate is a brand launched in China in 1989 by American Mars, which is the biggest leisure food manufacture in the world. As the chocolate being made and sold in China, the price of Dove is several times higher than other brands of chocolate. For example, its price is ten times higher than Golden Monkey chocolate and Taiyuan chocolate, the long-established domestic brand. Dove is always the leading brand in China’s chocolate market since 1995, which can’t be separated from its advertisements. Dove has a series of advertisements since it was found, and all of them are showing the characteristics of the chocolate by telling stories in a gentle way. Among these advertisements, the advertising in 2014 added a delicate and beautiful life into customers’ opinion. In this version, the background is the Bund of Shanghai, and the cafe along the river has a lace umbrella, a purely white table, a handsome waiter and an intellectual girl. She is reading leaning on the chair first. Then maybe she is tired or moved by the plots, so she puts the book on the table, opens a box of chocolates and takes one piece and put in into her mouth. At the moment, the silk ribbon of the coffee colour is moving around the girl with the soft music. The advertisement language is: joy moment, more like silky feeling. The selling point of this version is no longer the chocolate itself, but the enjoyment view and the life taste. The change greatly caters to the demands of Chinese customers. The advertiser skillfully designs a story to stress the new theme.

3.2 Lexical features

The advertisement English has its own lexical features. It needs outstanding words to attract the audience’s attention. Some misspelled words can also be used in advertisements, and it’s not a wrong method. Coined words and personal pronoun, indefinite pronoun are all common forms.

3.2.1 Coined words

In the perspective of psychology, the attractive force from advertisements comes generally from the novelty and ideas beyond all expectations of language. Coined words can link people to the originality of the products. For example, the orangemostest drink in the word. “Orangemostest” is coined by orange most est. This word leaves the readers imaginative space and the novel impression.

Moreover, some designers would deliberately misspell words to obtain people’s attention intentionally. It can make the memory value of the advertisements appreciate drastically. For example, there is an advertisement that “have a nice trip, buy-buy.” “buy-buy” is the misspelling of “bye-bye”. The advertisement was published at the airport store, not only to bid farewell to the guests, but also to induce them to come in shop.

3.2.2 Personal pronoun and indefinite pronoun

Advertisements in English usually use personal pronoun skillfully to enhance the customers sense of participation. For instance, the first personal pronoun means the advertisers, the second personal pronoun the customers, and the third personal pronoun those whom can be known by the audience. Here is a perfume advertisement: she always complains a lot about my gifts to the anniversaries, but this year she could smile. The first person — my — in this sentence refers to the husband, and the third person “she” is the wife. And this advertising can transfer a sense that husband should choose the perfume as a gift which can greatly satisfy his wife. In this case, many husbands in our society may feel it’s right to buy this brand of perfume to make their wives excited.

We can always see “all, everyone, nobody, none” and other indefinite pronouns expressing the meaning of the category “all” for readers have a universally group psychology. Advertisers can make use of these indefinite pronouns to indicate that this target product has already been received by the majority or is suitable for most people.

3.3 Syntactical features

Advertisement language has its own characteristics which include reasonable design emphasis, simplicity, clarity and eye-catching. As a result, advertisement English has its unique syntactic features, which vary greatly from other English usage. As we all know, advertisements are designed for the public. It’s important for advertisements to be understandable by readers, so the advertiser prefers to use simple sentences and compound sentences rather than complex sentences.

3.3.1Simple sentences

In order to reduce the advertising charges, designers need to cut the length of the advertisement, which requires the advertisement to use more simple sentences. It’s tough to use the simplest sentence to express the most information. Another point of applying simple sentence is that it has a strong readability, the key point of an advertisement.

Coco-cola is a very famous drink brand in America. It has lots of advertisements in its long history and almost each one consists of a simple sentence. For example, “Drink Coca-cola” was the first advertisement in 1886 and was used for more than 10 years. In 2016, Coca-cola launched the brand-new marketing theme “Taste the Feeling”, returning to the product itself, emphasizing “the simple pleasure of drinking any Coca-Cola product, making that moment different.”

3.3.2 Compound sentences

Advertising English uses more compound structure than complex structure, and as a result it’s easier for the audience to understand. Here are some advertisement cases:

Easy to shoot. Easy to share. Share moments. Share life. (Kodak Digital Camera)

Today’s AARP --- You choice. Your voice. Your attitude. (AARP Advisory Body)

3.3.3 Elliptical sentences

Advertisement language is supposed to have the transient effect. It means advertisements can quickly persuade readers so as to achieve success when its target products compete with the same kinds of products (Yang 19). To achieve this goal, advertisers usually use brief sentences to express the point and content of the advertisement, making the audience impressive. Accordingly, elliptical sentences or the sentences existing in the form of ellipsis have become the most appealing and typical sentence pattern. Greg Myers once elaborated the function of ellipsis: “omission doesn’t just let you fill in what you want. It makes you active in interpreting the sentence.” (Myers 57) And the typical and common ellipsis is to omit the subject and predicate verb. For example, the block language.

A Grammar of contemporary English, written by R. Quirk and others, integrate reports’ headlines and advertising language as block language. Block language usually appears in advertisements in a form of outstanding ellipsis. This kind of sentences seem to leave out subjects and predicate verbs, but actually it is difficult for people to find the elliptical parts accurately.

For instance, Daihatsu is a brand of cars and its advertising says: “More than just a car”. This advertisement lacks the subject — the brand name, but it can urge readers to relate the content that the advertisement wants to express and the uniqueness of the car to the brand name perfectly, leaving a great impression on people. We can’t supplement advertisement so as to turn them into complete ones, for people usually understand these highly elliptical advertisements from different perspectives, and use various phrases or expressions to complete them.

4. Cultural Transfer in Advertisement Translation

The word “transfer” originates from psychology and physics, and then developed to the mutual influence of previous learning and follow-up learning. Translatology uses this conception to refer to the mutual choosing, absorbing, handling between originated language culture and target language culture and their profound cultural influence. In other words, it’s due to the influence of one culture on another (Shao 218-235). Cultural transfer causes great problems in translation. Mistakes are easy to be made if translators don’t have a clear understanding about cultural diversity, esp. the transfer in values and customs.

4.1 Values

The cultural values in Chinese are different from those in America owing to different geographical environment and history. Translators need to pay more attention to them.

4.1.1 Group orientations vs. individual orientations

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