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1、【标题】论中文广告妙语英译的方法 【作者】赵 静 宜 【关键词】广告妙语，翻译，限制，变通，方法 【指导老师】何远秀 邱彦文 【专业】英语 【正文】. IntroductionAdvertising is an integral part of the global economic system and has a direct relationship with the manufacturing, distribution, sales of goods and services worldwide. With the booming of Chinas economy and the
2、deepening of Chinas ongoing reform and opening-up, especially after Chinas entry into the WTO in 2001, more and more Chinese products are exported to the rest of the world and an increasing number of foreigners choose Chinese products. Meanwhile, foreign visitors and investors come directly to China
3、 in the hope of making profits as well as enjoying the beautiful scenery and understanding this millennia-old country. Advertising serves as a bridge in this process.The history of advertisement translation in China, to some extent, is as young as that of the history of Chinas reform and opening-up
4、policy. With the deepening of Chinas reform and opening up, it becomes increasingly essential and urgent for the appropriate translation of Chinese adverting into foreign languages, English in particular, aiming to meet the demand of more and more Chinese products exporting and selling in foreign co
5、untries, advertising translation is focused on the study of translation of Chinese advertisement body copies, slogans, headlines, etc., into English. Generally, E-C and C-E study of advertising translation are coexisting; those authors are managing to expounding their translations into English by co
6、mparison and appreciation of authentic English advertising versions and their translation into Chinese. The definition of advertising and the Basic Features of Chinese Advertising WitticismsIt was said that, adverting is as old as civilization and commerce. The urge to advertise seems to be a part o
7、f human nature, evidenced since ancient times. And advertisement is everywhere in our lives, from those on milk cartons to skywriting.A. AdvertisingAdvertising means different things to different people. It is a business, an art, an institution, and a cultural phenomenon. As far as this paper is con
8、cerned, Thomas C.O Guinns definition of advertising as“a paid, mass media attempt to persuade” suits best. And there are two kinds of advertising, namely commercial and non-commercial advertisements. For example, Nippon Paint“立邦漆，处处放光彩”（Nippon Paint, works beautifully everywhere!） is a commercial ad
9、vertisement for the purpose of selling paint. And“中国如有一份幸运，世界将添一份异彩(Grant us an honor and China will reward the world with more splendors!)”. This is an advertisement applying for holding the 2010 World Exposition, which makes popular appearances to the members of review committee of World Expositio
10、n to cast a vote in favor of Shanghai. Whatever their forms are, advertisings are aimed to inform, guide, direct and persuade.B. Basic features of Chinese advertising witticismsLund1 summarizes the task of the advertisement as being to:1) attract attention; 2) arouse interest; 3)stimulate desire; 4)
11、 create conviction; 5) get action. The first task of the advertisement is to make sure it is noticed. Once the readers attention has been caught, the advertisement should also hold his attention and it should convince him that the subject of his particular ad is of interest to him. So the advertisem
12、ent should by no means be simple business language, but vocative language consists of various language skills, and it is supposed to be of artistic attraction. The advertising witticism, being the core and essence of an advertisement, boasts several distinctive features as follows.1. Simple and Conc
13、iseIn the limited space and time, advertisements compete for our attention. Only those advertisements that can strike a viewer as simple to read and easy to comprehend can come to the fore in the fierce competition. In other words, the advertisers always try to use the fewest words be possible to ac
14、complish the best persuasive and communicative purpose. The simplicity and conciseness of a Chinese advertising witticism is typical of the four-character phraseology as applied in the advertisement. For example:非常可乐，非常选择（非常可乐饮料）：Future Cola. Your special choiceIn this example, the phrase“非常” is a c
15、olloquial ordinary term in daily life meaning“special or unusual”. In the witticism, the first“非常”is the brand name of a Chinese cola, while the second“非常”emphasizes the special feeling gained from drinking the cola.Simplicity is also too numerous to cite in the non-four-character phraseology. For e
16、xample,“上海大众，杰出源于合作（Wonderful attainment out of wonderful cooperation）”and“扬子，我为你自豪（Yangtze, I am proud of you）”. Tough there are only several words in each witticism, it is memorable. They are similar to the world-renowned slogans of Nikes“just do it” in terms of results and simplicity.2. Vivid and
17、 AttractingIn advertising witticisms, colloquial expressions or vulgar words are making the advertisements vivid and attracting. For instance, in“古有千里马，今有日产车”(Nissan Maxima In ancient times, this has Nissan cars), by borrowing the word“千里马”，a familiar cultural term referring to a speedy horse that i
18、s able to cover one thousand li per day in ancient China, this witticism associates the high speed with the brand Nissan.“悠悠寸草心，报得三春晖”（Weitai 999 Granules）. This witticism is borrowed from a famous line of A Travelers Song by the Tang poet Meng Jiao“谁言寸草心，报得三春晖”（Who says that the grasss green reel r
19、ewards the sunshine of spring）. With the replacement of“谁言”by“悠悠”, the line is changed from an interrogative sentence into an affirmative sentence implicating“by giving this medicine to your parent you can partly repay their kindness”, thus the value of Weitai 999 Granules is emphasized. In this way
20、, those filial young people will be greatly moved and persuaded into action.2. Creative and Novel“Creativity and novelty is the hallmark of a witticism that attracts and holds attention”. Any idea can seem creative to us if we have never thought of it before, but the essence of a creative idea is th
21、at no one else has ever thought of it before. And advertising witticism is novel, fresh, unexpected, and unusual. To this end, almost all the fine rhetorical devices are applied in the creation of advertising witticisms. For example,今年二十，明年十八（Baili Soap）This is a hyperbole. In this witticism, the Ch
22、inese number“十八”and“二十”are not specific ages, with the former referring to“youth”, while the latter plays the role of comparison to the former, hinting that the regular use of the soap will make the customer look younger.4. Clear and DefiniteAdvertising witticisms offer a benefit and address the eff
23、ects of the product on the target audiences life directly. Consumers are not really buying a product. Instead, they are buying the expectation and satisfaction they can get from the products. An awareness of the reasons people buy things is always included within a witticism. Will the product make t
24、hem look better? Make them healthier and wealthier? Make their children smarter? For instance:为您提供美，为您提供乐，为您提供爱，为您提供趣（Slogan of Story Magazine: beauty for you, joy for you, love for you and fun for you）.Here, by using the device of repetition(repetition of the four characters of each phrase“为你提供”),
25、the advertisement offers directly four benefits the magazine provides to the readers, i.e.“beauty, joy, love and fun”.Hence, the benefits of the magazine are as clear as the nose on ones face, readers cant help purchasing the magazine immediately.To sum up, it is these basic features that make the C
26、hinese advertising witticisms come to the fore in the competition and ultimately arrive at the set of aims of the advertisements. Restrictions in the C-E translation of Advertising WitticismsDifferences in natural environment, development stage as well as dissimilarities of national customs, spirit
27、and tradition lead to a variety of national cultures, which give birth to various forms of national language. Only in the form of language can all cultures be expressed, recorded and inherited. The cultural needs in return promote the development of language. Communication among different cultures c
28、an only be realized through the form of language. This communicative form is translation. Translation, being both a cross-cultural as well as cross-lingual communication, inevitably faces the double carriers of linguistic and cultural untranslatability. Advertisement translation, without exception,
29、faces these two restrains. Moreover, advertising regulations and laws vary in different countries, which add to the constraints in the C-E translation of advertising witticisms.A. Restrains from Linguistic UntranslatabilityEach language possesses certain distinctive features that give it a special c
30、haracter, e.g., wording capacities, unique patterns of phrase order, techniques for linking clauses into sentences, markers of discourse and special discourse types of proverbs and song. This poses a threat to the smooth ongoing of translation and leads to linguistic untranslatability. This is true
31、of plays on words, which can usually be adequately translated semantically but not stylistically. For instance,不打不相识（Typewriter）This pun is borrowed from a Chinese proverb meaning“out of blows, friendship grows”. The verb“打”is a homograph, which is among the most difficult ones encountered in the tr
32、anslation of puns. The proverb, after having been borrowed by the advertiser, has lost its original connotation. The word“打”in Chinese originally means“to beat or blow” while in this witticisms it means“to type”. However,“blow”and“type” differ not only in meaning but also in pronunciation in English
33、. It is barely possible to achieve a perfect English equivalent to the original version.B. Restrains from Cultural UntranslatabilitySocial scientists tell us that cultures differ from one another, that each culture is unique. As cultures are diverse, so are languages. It is only natural that with di
34、fference in cultures and languages, difficulties often arise in inter-cultural and cross-cultural communications. Understanding is not always easy. This gives rise to cultural untranslatability, which occurs when social cultural factors cover a different range of experience. Despite the fact that En
35、glish advertisement and Chinese advertisement are essentially similar on account of their purpose and text type, cultural untranslatability caused by discrepancies in culture and social values poses a big obstacle to the smooth translating of witticisms from Chinese into English.Objectively, it is o
36、bvious that there exist more that the above two restrictive factors in advertising witticisms translation from Chinese into English. Translators are required to take them into consideration so as to work out translating strategies for favorable communicative effect in the target language. In other w
37、ords, adaptation and flexibility or even semantically legitimate recreation is necessary in order to make a witticism more advertisement-like in the target language. Approaches to C-E Translation of Advertising WitticismsA. Conventional ApproachesIn the translation of advertising witticisms from Chi
38、nese into English, the commonly employed tactics are literal translation, fee translation and couplet, etc.1. Literal translationIt is believed that literal translation to be the basic translation procedure, both in communicative and semantic translation, in that translation starts from that. Litera
39、l translation is the most common approaches applied in ad translation. Many advertisement translations in Beijing Review, China Today are found to be dealt with literal translation. For example:一册在手，众览全球（Global magazine）With a copy of The Global in hand, the world unfolds before you so grand外面冰冻三尺，屋
40、里春意盎然（Electric Heater）Outdoors the earth frozen to a 3-feet depth, indoors warm and cozy likes spring.为中国西部腾飞加油（CFCTV West Channel）We cheer for the economic take-off in Chinas West.Obviously, literal translation is a good way of being faithful to the source language text, because it can keep as much
41、 as possible the form and content of the source text intact, thus arriving at a most accurate reflection of the original.2. Free TranslationProfessor Feng Qinghua defines free translation as the approach that maintains only the communicative message of the original while neglecting its form. This is
42、 another frequently applied conventional approach in C-E translation of advertising witticisms. For example:乐百氏矿泉水，“净”在不言中（Robust Mineral Water）Robust Mineral Water: as pure as crystal.In this ad,“乐百氏矿泉水”is rendered word for word as“Robust mineral water”. As for the second part, the rendering of the
43、 example does not translate“净”inflexibly into“everything is in sheer silence” but the meaning behind the meaning“as pure as crystal”-the water from Robust is clean without mixing with anything else. Thus, the aesthetic function together with the communicative impact of the source text is duplicated.
44、Nevertheless, conventional approaches can solve only part of the Chinese advertising witticisms that can easily find their equivalents in English.B. AdaptationsC-E translation of advertising witticisms is in essence a mostly commercial and partly political activity with practical purpose whose succe
45、ss is so much restricted by the factors as the text type, features of Chinese advertising witticisms concerned as stated in chapter two and three. In reality, advertising translation in all respects cannot impart the“same” message to the audience in the target language as it did in the source langua
46、ge. This would require identity in form, sounds, individual words, syntax, and sentence structure, and the number of factors that would have been identical in the two cultures, languages as well as in the two readerships, which is barely possible. So the author perceives that translators should, mor
47、e often than not, need to adjust his translating strategies in C-E translation of advertising witticisms so as to achieve the commercial and political purposes of witticisms in the target readership. To put it specifically, the translator would resort to some adaptations or even some compensatory me
48、asures like explanation on the unique structures of the advertising witticisms if some conventional approaches or formal translation, so as to make his translation culturally, linguistically and legally conform to the English communicative pattern.1. Parody or structure-borrowingParody or structure-
49、borrowing originally means to copy somebodys style of attitude. When applied in C-E translation, it means giving the target recipients some established expressions or structures directly from the target language, which comprises proverbs, poems, idioms, etc. On the one hand, these established expressions are popular with the target language readership and thus can easily arouse their echoing. On the other hand, the application of parody can partly help overcome the diffic