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1、Translation of Pun in English Advertisement摘要：随着经济的不断发展，广告的影响力已经逐渐渗透入各个领域。商家们经常运用不同语言技巧来增强广告的感染力。而双关语是最常被应用于广告中的修辞方式，但是如何正确翻译出双关语一直都是一个难点，争对这个问题本文会先介绍双关语的几种常见类型，然后结合一定的例子，用以说明双关语在英语广告中的应用,并运用适当的翻译策略来翻译英语广告中双关语，旨在尽可能使源语和目标语对等，减少源语信息流失。关键词：广告，双关语翻译，策略With the rapid development of market-oriented econo
2、my, advertisement has played more and more important role in our daily life. As we all know that the purpose of making advertisements is to attract consumers and arouse their desires for purchasing commodities. If advertisers want to achieve the goal, they should attach importance on the usage of ad
3、vertising language(高江玲:2010). English advertisement is a kind of commercial language. In order to make the contents of advertisement vivid and distinctive so as to arouse consumers desire of purchasing commodities, advertisers often take use of rhetorical skills. Pun is a rhetorical skill which has
4、been frequently used in English advertisement.Pun means in the certain context of language, one kind of words form expresses a double meaning and in this way, it does not only draw peoples attention but also prompt their imagination. In English advertisement, the advertisement makers will think hard
5、 to take advantages of pun so as to make their advertisement more outstanding and unique. In general, the forms of pun can be classified into three aspects which are as follows:1、Homophonic PunHomophonic pun is made up of words which have same pronunciation or similar spelling but have different mea
6、nings. It has its own language style of humor and wit, which promotes advertising makers delightedly use to increase persuasion and promotion of advertisement.Example1. Not fairly whit -fairy white(白洁:2003)Fairy white is one kind of washing powder. From its advertisement, we can see that “fairly whi
7、t” and “fairy white” are very similar in pronunciation and form. Although they have very distinct differences in meanings, they stand out this washing powers function of whitening cloths. In addition, the similar pronunciation and form also make it easy for people to read and remember.2、Semantic Pun
8、Semantic pun basically takes use of languages feature of polysemy and expresses its double meaning in the certain context (Leigh, J.H:1994). In English advertisement, many advertising makers deliberately adopt semantic puns feature to fuzz up words meaning, in which way, they can make the advertisem
9、ent full of humor and imagination. Example2. Coke refreshes you like no other can(高江玲:2010). As we all know that the word “can” is not only translated into “be able to” but also into “a kind of container for beverage”. If “can” is translated as “be able to”, the meaning of the whole sentence is that
10、 no other things have the ability to refresh your body than coke. If “can” is translated as “a kind of container for beverage”, the whole sentence has another meaning. That is other drinks can not make people feel relaxed and refreshed as coke does. Although the two different thinking modes fuzz up
11、meanings, in another sense, they come into a perfect effect. It does not add humor and wit into the words, but also makes a deep impression on consumers, which successfully carves the commodity into peoples minds.3、Grammatical PunGrammatical pun often uses ellipsis, words double grammatical function
12、 to make pun. Compared with other two kinds of pun, this kind of rhetorical skill is much difficult for advertising makers to master if they want to use it in advertisement perfectly. Because it dose not only focus on words double meaning, but also needs to pay attention to the grammatical function.
13、 Here is a quite successful case.Example3. Less bread. No jam (冷浩波,皮继伟:2007).Maybe you will regard the slogan as a kind of food advertisement at first sight, since it mentions bread and jam. However, in fact, it is an advertisement related to Londons underground. Here, bread and jam are two smart pu
14、ns. In daily life, bread also can refer to money. As for jam, it has double meanings, one of which means food and the other means traffic. If we make the elliptical slogan completely, it will be “Less money. No traffic jam”. It is no wonder that the advertising maker subtly uses a grammatical pun in
15、 the slogan and successfully stand out undergrounds characteristic. We have to admit that the advertising maker has a special eye on advertising innovation. Learning from the classifications above, I know clearly that in order to design a very attractive and outstanding slogan for commodities, many
16、makers often choose to use pun in advertisement. However, pun translation is a difficult point in advertisement in that it has double or multiple meanings in pronunciation, form and syntactic structures. Sometimes, we have difficulty in translating a slogan in an appropriate way. Thus, in order to k
17、eep source language style and catch consumers eyes, we should choose some suitable approaches to translate pun.1、 Fit translation As I stated above that many translators have difficulty in translating pun for this special rhetorical skill will confuse them to appropriately understand words meanings.
18、 However, if we investigate it with a sensitive insight, we also can catch the regulation in it. By observing English advertisement, I find that not all the puns are difficult to translate, especially when English and Chinese have equivalent words. We can use fit translation which does not coordinat
19、e the form of advertisement but also keep the original content.Example4. From sharp minds, sharp products. 绝顶智慧造就尖端夏普。The word “sharp” does not only represent the brand name of Japanese mobile phone, but also expresses its original meaning “精明，智慧”, which promotes people easily to think of this commo
20、ditys high-end quality. Adopting fit translation does not only express sharps double meanings but also ingeniously and vividly propagandize the excellent functions of this commodity, and at the same time, it maintains the advertising original style of concision as well.2、Table-law respectively This
21、translation method means translating the double meanings of pun in separate way. Although this method will break the advertisements humorous style in the certain sense, it at lease can express the meaning of slogan completely and clearly. This kind of translation skill is similar to fit translation.
22、 Both of them are regularly used in pun translation.Example5. The Unique Spirit of Canada(赵永冠:2004). 别具风味的加拿大酒，独特的加拿大精神In this piece of advertisement, “spirit” is a key word. If we can not figure out its meaning, we will not make out what commodity it refers to. In general, spirit means a kind of mi
23、nd but from dictionary it also has another explanation which means a strong wine. Translating its double meanings in separate way can keep the language complete and perfectly praise the wines unique quality.3、Focus on translation In addition, to those advertising puns which are impossible for us to
24、coordinate its form and style, we have to sacrifice its form and one meaning for its basic concept. Although this kind of translation may break source languages unique style, it at least remains advertising marrow.Example6. Foyled again? Try Dillions (刘明信,马勇:2004).又碰壁了？那就来Dillions 书店看看吧。The word “Fo
25、yled” is a name of one bookshop. But in this slogan, the maker is to stand out “Dillions”, another name of bookshop. Thus the original meaning of foyled has to be hidden. Since its pronunciation is similar to “foiled”, we can translate it into “受挫，碰壁”. In this slogan, only when we sacrifice foyleds
26、original meaning, can we maintain this piece of advertisements marrow. To sum up, as a rhetorical skill which has been frequently applied in English advertisement, pun will not only add humor and wit to it, but also easily catch peoples attention to purchase commodities. Therefore, how to properly t
27、ranslate pun has been an important subject. We have to use appropriate translation method to solve respective problem so as to keep the source language equivalent to target language and reduce the losses of information as possible as we can. References1Leigh,J.H. The use of figures of Speech in Print Advertisement Headlines J.Journal of Advertising, 1994.2白洁. 双关修辞格在英语广告中的运用及其翻译J 哲学社会科学版.2003(2)3高江玲. 双关语在英语广告中的应用及其翻译策略J 时代教育. 2010(1)4刘明信,马勇. 广告英语中的双关修辞及其翻译对策J安阳工学院学报.2006(8). 5冷浩波,皮继伟. 双关语在广告中的语用分析与翻译J 湖南工业职业技术学院学报.2007(1)6赵永冠. 英语广告中的双关语J 钦州师范高等专科学校学报.2003(4)