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1、 Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in Advertisement Translationby薛莹A thesis presented to the School of English Studies ofXian International Studies Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree ofBachelor of ArtsMay 18, 2012Class: 2008-16 Advisor: 张 倩 西安外国语大学毕 业 论 文 开
2、 题 报 告姓名安果英性别女单位河北省张北县西关街小学论文题目：浅谈功能对等理论在广告翻译中的应用Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in Advertisement Translation论文主要内容及参考文献：在现代商业社会，广告随处可见。随着经济全球化的进行，各国产品开始在世界范围内流通，广告的翻译对产品的宣传与推广都起到了至关重要的作用。广告本身作为产品的一种主要促销手段，其目的就是引起消费者的注意，促使他们去购买广告中宣传的产品和服务。尽管已有许多人对广告翻译进行了大量的研究、实践，然而该领域却仍有改进的空间。本论文，从语言学角度
3、，联系翻译学的相关知识，根据奈达的功能对等理论研究广告的翻译，以期能给广告翻译带来一定专业、学术的指导。Chen, Ping. Modern Chinese. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Katan, D. Translating Cultures: An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2004.Newmark, P. A Textbook of Translation.
4、 Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001.Nida, Eugene A. Language, Culture, and Translating. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1993. Shuttleworth, Mark, and Moira Cowie. Dictionary of Translation Study. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004.连淑能.英汉对比研究.
5、北京: 高等教育出版社，2002.指导教师 (签名)年 月 日浅谈功能对等理论在广告翻译中的应用摘要：在现代商业社会，广告随处可见，它已渗透到社会生活的各个角落。随着经济全球化的进行，各国产品开始在世界范围内流通。广告的翻译对产品的宣传与推广都起到了至关重要的作用。广告本身作为产品的一种主要促销手段，其目的就是引起消费者的注意，促使他们去购买广告中宣传的产品和服务。尽管已有许多人对广告翻译进行了大量的研究、实践，然而该领域却仍有改进的空间。就广告翻译应当采用的理论依据，不同的学派持有不同的观点。广告功能的特殊性决定了广告翻译的原则，本文认为功能对等理论是广告翻译的指导原则，而且在广告翻译中，对
6、等可以达到三个层面，即词汇对等，句法对等和修辞对等。本论文，从语言学角度，联系翻译学的相关知识，根据奈达的功能对等理论研究广告的翻译，以期能给广告翻译带来一定专业、学术的指导。关键词：语言学；功能对等；广告翻译Application of Functional Equivalence Theory inAdvertisement TranslationAbstract：Advertisements can be seen everywhere in the commercial society. With the economic globalization, products from di
7、fferent countries are competing in the international markets; therefore, advertisement translation plays an important role in the publicity and spread of the products. As a main method of promoting sales, the main purpose of advertisements is to draw consumers attention and stimulate them to purchas
8、e the product or service. Although many people have done many researches in the field of advertisement translation, it also needs several theoretical improvements. Different schools hold different views on the guiding principle of advertisement translation. This thesis holds the view that Functional
9、 Equivalence Theory should be viewed as the main principle of translating advertisements, which depends on the unique features of advertisements. The application of Functional Equivalence Theory in advertisement translation should be achieved at three levels, namely, lexical, syntactic and rhetorica
10、l level. This paper, from the perspective of Linguistics, connecting Translation, attempts to study advertisement translation on the basis of Functional Equivalence Theory, put forward by Nida, and deduce some practical methods of advertisement translation under the guidance of it, hoping to give so
11、me theoretical and methodological reference for advertisement translation.Key Words:Linguistic; functional equivalence; advertisement translationTable of contents1. Introduction11.1 General Introduction11.2Literature review11.3Thesis Statement32. Advertisement Development and Features of52.1 The dev
12、elopment of advertisement52.2 Features of Advertisement Language63. Three Requirements for Functional Equivalence Theory Applied in Advertisement Translation93.1 Naturalness93.2 Accuracy103. 3 Conciseness104. Strategies for Advertisement Translation124.1 Equivalence at Lexical Level124.2 Equivalence
13、 at Syntactic Level134.3 Equivalence at Rhetoric Level145. Conclusion16Works Cited181. Introduction1.1 General Introduction It is well known that advertisements have become a very important and indispensable part of our life. Nowadays, we live in a world full of advertisements. We can see them every
14、where. It is a main method of promoting products or services. The main function of advertising is informing and persuading. Advertisement translation, as a type of communication, is receiving more and more attention than ever before. Advertisement is a practical text style, quite different from comm
15、on literary works, with a very unique purpose of attracting consumers interest and persuading them to take action. As we all know, no matter in what way to translate the advertisements, this only purpose has never changed. However, many advertisements are still translated under the guidance of tradi
16、tional theories; little attention has been paid to the purpose of the advertisement. Many obvious problems exist in the translation. Firstly, a lot of advertisement translation adapts a word-to-word translation approach. The order and meaning of the source language is faithfully preserved without co
17、nsidering the features in advertisement language. Moreover, the principle of translation is source-text-oriented, without considering the purpose of the advertisement language. Therefore, the translation is inadequate. The translated versions of advertisements are very hard to be understood or accep
18、ted by consumers, needless to say informing and persuading.Under these circumstances, the function and purpose of advertisement language should be paid more attention. It is necessary to search for a theory to guide the advertisement translation under which the strategies should be researched to sho
19、w their applicability. The “Functional Equivalence Theory” is just the right one.1.2 Literature review After centuries of heated debates about literal and free translation, scholars in the 1950s and 1960s began to attempt more systematic analysis of translation. The most prominent issue was about me
20、aning and equivalence. P. Newmark holds that translation theory derives from comparative linguistics and sociolinguistics, which investigates the social registers of language and the problems of languages in contact in the same or neighboring countries. After his careful observation of translation p
21、rocess, he proposes “semantic translation” and “communicative translation” (Newmark 38). Although there are quite a lot of differences between semantic translation and communicative translation, they have something in common at a more general level: both of them require that “the translator has to r
22、espect and work on the form of the source language text as the only material basis for his work” (Newmark 39). In comparison with Newmarks translation theory in which linguistic analysis is taken only as an approach to achieving translation purposes, Catford lays his translation theory entirely on t
23、he base of linguistics. He defines translation as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) and puts forward “formal correspondence” and “textual equivalence”. He holds that “since translation has to do with language, the analysi
24、s and description of translation must make considerable use of categories set up for the description language. It must, in other words, draw upon a theory of language-a general linguistic theory” (Catford 1). While Eugene A. Nida and Taber think “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor l
25、anguage the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message” (Nida & Taber 37) Nida defines translating, the process of translation as “decoding the meaning of a text in one language and encoding it into a different language, often reflecting a quite different culture.” He classifies Catfo
26、rds linguistics-based translation theory as a “strictly linguistic approach to translating”, which focuses much upon the structures of source and target language (Nida 7). In order to overcome the narrowness of this approach, he proposes a communication theory of translating, in which focus is given
27、 upon the source, the form, the content of the message, the receptors, the setting of the communication, the media, and so on, instead of mere verbal message, in order to achieve the purpose of verbal communication. Therefore, the closest natural equivalent must be found to match the message in SL t
28、ext. Such kind of equivalence is named by Nida as Functional Equivalence, which means that the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it substantially in the same manner as the receptors in the source language. Functional theories in 1970s and 1980s mark a move toward a functio
29、nalist and communicative approach to the analysis of translation. The functional equivalence theory of Nida is tremendously influential since his work is the move towards a functional definition of meaning where a word is meaningful only in its cultural context. The functional equivalence theory has
30、 widely been applied to the study of translation works, and these studies are mainly focused on literature translation. Functional Equivalence Theory must be based on analysis of the message embedded in source and target languages. In other words, no functional equivalence can be achieved without ad
31、equate analysis of the languages involved in translation process. To sum up, the traditional studies of advertisement translation are mainly included in literature translation, which investigate the style of advertisements through analysis of the lexical and syntactic features and probe into the tra
32、nslation approaches with contrast between the English and Chinese styles of advertisements. Unfortunately, it is largely neglected to study the translation of product advertisements in relation to the theory of functional equivalence. This thesis tries to link the wording of advertisements with its
33、actual context and meaning, and attempts to examine how functional equivalence is reflected in the translation of advertisements in the hope of deepening the understanding of advertisement translation and the theory of functional equivalence.1.3 Thesis StatementSince the author pointed the importanc
34、e of the advertisement translation above, there are some problems we are faced with in the process of translating. Different schools hold different views on the principle of advertisement translation. This paper will focus on Eugene Nidas Functional Equivalence Theory and introduce this theory in de
35、tail and give some examples at the same time. And the author will analyze the current strategies of advertisement translation. Moreover, this paper will list two reasons and cite many examples to illustrate that functional equivalence should be viewed as the principle of advertisement translation. T
36、his paper will further argue that functional equivalence could be achieved at three levels in advertising translation, namely, lexical, syntactic and rhetoric level. At last, the author will conclude that Functional Equivalence Theory is the main principle in advertisement translation.2. Advertiseme
37、nt Development and Features of Advertisement Language Advertisement is around us all the time. Whenever we read a newspaper or a magazine, on the TV, or on the computer and so on, we are confronted with advertisements. However, how is advertisement developed? What are the functions and language feat
38、ures of advertisement? And what are the methods applied in advertisement translation? These are the questions which we must have a good understanding.2.1 The development of advertisement The embryonic form of advertising in the world is street cries, which exist even today. The origin of advertiseme
39、nt dates back to thousands of years ago when the first known methods of advertising was an outdoor display, usually a sign or an announcement on the wall of a building. Such primitive advertisements offered various commodities for sale and rent. Advertising was not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome
40、, but advertising as were cognize did not start until the seventeenth century in the West. It was at about this time that newspaper began to circulate. Before that, it is printing which was first invented in China and then introduced to the West that played a vital role in the production of print ad
41、vertising. Small types of advertising were dominant before the nineteenth century and the style and language used in ads at that time tended to be direct and informative. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the mid-1700s and reached the United States by the early 1800s, facilitated
42、mass-production of goods. Meanwhile, advertising became more and more important in the industrial market. The great breakthrough for advertising came only in the late nineteenth century. Technology and mass-production techniques were then sufficiently developed for more firms to be able to turn out
43、products of roughly the same quality and at roughly the same price. This brought on a crisis of over-production and under-consumption which meant that the market needed to be stimulated by advertising. In the 1 950s, television came to our life which developed so fast that it became the main media t
44、o spread the advertisements. Today advertising is playing a more and more important role in our daily lives. As China is deepening its opening up to the outside world, especially after joining WTO, the international economic activities develop rapidly and the international advertisements also need t
45、o keep the pace of development. As a result, advertisement has grown vigorously, so there is a strong need for efficient international advertising communication. Our daily life has been greatly changed by it. Advertisements have seeped into nearly every aspect of our life, and there is no doubt that
46、 our attitudes, values and knowledge all have been affected by them to some degree. As time goes by, more and more advertisements appear to us and a good translation of them to open the door to commercial communication is a must. 2.2 Features of Advertisement LanguageAdvertisement language features
47、are very special, because of its unique purpose, so it is necessary for us to make it clear before we begin to translate them.2.2.1 Lexical FeaturesSince the key role of advertisement is to persuade the potential consumers to know the utmost quality of the product and have a need for them, thus the
48、lexical features of advertisement are greatly different from that of other types of writing. First, creating new words to attract attention is the main feature in advertisement language by misspelling and free-compounding. In advertisements, advertisers sometimes misspell some words deliberately so as to reach the aim of attracting readers attention and enhancing them to take action. For example, 百“衣”百顺（百依百顺）- a creative slogan about iron, which vividly describes the characteristic of the production direc