1、 论文编号: 华南师范大学增城学院本科毕业论文 题 目:谈品牌广告文体特点及其翻译姓 名: 陈妙霞 学 号: 060124319 系 别: 外语系 专业班级: 涉外翻译C班 指导教师: 翁涛 2010年 4 月 18 日On Language Features and Translation skills of Brand Advertising A Thesis Submittedto the Department of Foreign Languages Zengcheng College of South China Normal Universityin Partial Fulfill
2、ment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsBy Chen MiaoxiaTutor:Weng TaoApril 18, 2010. ContentsAbstract中文摘要Chapter One Introduction11.1 Introduction11.2 Aim and objectives11.3 Research method and data collection21.4 Organization of the thesis2Chapter Two Literature Review32.1 Introdu
3、ction32.2 Definition of advertising32.3Functions of advertising42.4Previous theoretic of translation42.4.1 Instrumental translation theoretic of Nord42.4.2 Functional equivalence principle of Nida42.4.3 Translation theoretic applied in advertising52.5 Related studies on translation in advertising52.
4、6 Summary6Chapter Three Commonness and Characteristic between English and Chinese World-famous Advertising73.1 Introduction73.2 Lexical feature and its function73.2.1 Use simple word and colloquial and common word73.2.2 Properly use abbreviation and compound word83.2.3 Use You-form personal pronoun9
5、3.2.4 Create and innovate word103.3 Syntactic feature and its function113.3.1 Use short sentence, simple sentence and elliptical sentence123.3.2 Use imperative sentence and interrogative sentence123.3.3 Use exclamatory sentence133.4 Rhetorical device and its function133.4.1 Pun143.4.2 Rhyme143.4.3 P
6、arody153.5 Summary16Chapter Four Translation Methods of Advertising174.1 Introduction174.2 Literal translation174.3 Free translation174.4 Other translation methods184.4.1 Sets translation184.4.2 Division translation194.4.3 Creative translation204.5 Summary22Chapter Five Conclusion235.1 Introduction2
7、35.2 A summarizing overview235.3 Limitations and suggestions24References25Acknowledgements26AbstractAlong with the fast development of global economy, advertising as a marketing strategy is becoming increasingly important. Study of brand advertising language features has both aesthetic and commercia
8、l value, which not only can appreciate that special text from literary aspect, but also helps to master its common characteristic, grasping the secret of success. This thesis which collected a number of examples aims to conduct a language comparison between English and Chinese advertising. The prese
9、nt study is carried out based on AIDA principle,Instrumental Translation Theoretic of Nord as well as Functional Equivalence Principle of Nida. After detailed analysis, translation methods of advertising have been laid out and the flexible approach is revealed. It is hoped that the findings of this
10、thesis will provide insights into the comprehension of English and Chinese advertising and give some inspiration for advertising translation.Key words: brand; features of language in advertising; translation methods中文摘要随着全球化的经济发展,广告作为一种营销策略,其重要性日益彰显。研究世界知名广告语的文体特点是兼具美学价值和商业价值的,它不仅能从文学角度赏析广告语这一特殊文体,而
11、且能助于把握知名广告的共有特征,掌握其成功秘诀。本文收集了若干世界知名的英汉广告,解析广告AIDA原则,并运用诺德工具翻译理论和奈达(2001)功能对等原则对知名广告的翻译进行了描述性和解析性研究。本文比较了英汉世界知名品牌广告语言的共性和特性,总结了广告翻译的主要方法和灵活选用技巧。希望本文的研究结果能为英汉广告的理解和翻译提供启发和帮助。关键词:品牌广告;文体特点;翻译方法Chapter One Introduction1.1 IntroductionWith the fast development of global economy, advertising is becoming i
12、ncreasingly important. Chinese businesses nowadays are seeking abroad for potential clients. Meanwhile, foreign corporations are expanding their markets in China. Advertising has already become a competitive global marketing strategy.Advertising not only helps stimulate consumer to purchase the prod
13、ucts, increasing the sales volume, but also efficiently pass its information to audience which as a promoting strategy to built the companys image. It successfully bridges the gap between producers and consumers, brings convenience to both sides, and saves their costs.Language of advertising greatly
14、 enhances its appeals, however, it as a barrier brings difficulties to translators. Studying the features of brand advertising helps to explore efficient methods of translating as well as finding out their secrets of success.1.2 Aim and objectivesThe present study attempts to present that one of the
15、 reasons for finding it difficult in translating advertising is the differences of language features between source language and target language. Besides, it intends to find out efficient methods in advertising translation.The thesis aims to compare the features of brand English advertising and Chin
16、ese advertising in order to explore their translation methods.It is primarily concerned with the following two research question: (1) What is the commonness and difference between English and Chinese in world-famous- brand advertising?(2) What are the efficient methods to translate advertising?It is
17、 hoped that this study will benefit English advertising readers and writers. A good knowledge of the features of advertising will provide insights for advertising reading and interpretation in certain cultural contexts, and give some inspiration for the writing of advertising. 1.3 Research method an
18、d data collectionTypical examples will be cited from English and Chinese brand advertising to compare their features in lexical, syntactic and rhetorical aspects, finding out their commonness and characteristic.Relevant translating theoretic will be explain and translation methods will be listed and
19、 compared with corresponding features for exploring efficient translation approaches.1.4 Organization of the thesisThe thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces aim and objectives, research paradigms, and data collection of the research. Chapter Two relates the review of l
20、iterature to the theoretical framework of present study. Chapter Three is one of the main bodies of the thesis in which is applied to analyze the collected data to compare English and Chinese in brand advertising. Chapter Four is another main body to describe the methods of translating advertising.
21、Chapter Five draws conclusions, discusses limitations of the thesis and suggests further research. Chapter Two Literature Review2.1 Introduction This chapter first begins with definition of relevant concepts: advertising, including brand advertising, and functions of advertising. Then, it continues
22、with the brief introduction of some previous theoretic of translation, namely, Instrumental Translation theoretic of Nord and Functional Equivalence Principle of Nida. The final section of this chapter deals with the theoretic applied in advertising as well as their guiding functions ,and discusses
23、related studies on advertising.2.2 Definition of advertising With the development of the industry, a more concise definition is modified by the American Marketing Association(AMA): Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about pr
24、oducts, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. (Wang Yanxi,2004:7)Besides, Association of National Advertisers(ANA)has its opinion: “Advertising is a paid form of mass communication, aiming at offering information, altering others attitudes to advertised products, induci
25、ng others to get action and at last making profits for the advertisers.” (Gu Jiazu,2000:120)However, brand advertising is the one that is well-known, widespread and available to escape ones lips. It not only receives more recognition from consumers, but also catches a high market share. It has a rem
26、arkable feature, that is, has concise language, fast-paced and easy to pronounce.From the above definitions, we can point out the basic purpose of advertising: advertisers try to impart information to consumers and change their attitudes towards the products in order to call the public attention and
27、 persuade them to buy the advertised products or services in preference to another.2.3 Functions of advertisingAdvertising may appear in any styles, such as dialogue, prose or even poem, whichever style it may take, advertising serves several basic functions. Generally speaking, advertising has the
28、functions as follows: “Information Function, Demand Creation Function, Persuasive Function, Get Action Function and Goodwill Establishment Function.” (Wang Yanxi,2004:9)Peter Newmark, who is a British linguist and translator, divided texts into three types: expressive, informative and vocative. Adve
29、rtising belongs to the type of vocative, and its aim lies in using AIDA principle, that is, attention, interest, desire and action. (Shi Yanping,2008)According to its functions and features of type, it can be found out that advertiser tries to infuse new desire into the consumers after they received
30、 the information in order to arouse their curiosity and interest. Inducing consumers to feel really need to buy and encouraging them to action is the final purpose of advertising. 2.4 Previous theoretic of translation2.4.1 Instrumental translation theoretic of NordNord is a representative of Teleolo
31、gy, which regards that translation should achieve its expective purpose. Instrumental translation, which created by Nord, is producing in the target languages an instrument for a new communicative interaction between the source-culture sender and a target-culture audience, using (certain aspects of
32、) the source text as a model. (Nord,2001:47)2.4.2 Functional equivalence principle of Nida “Dynamic equivalence” which was later modified into “functional equivalence” is defined “in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the
33、 same manner as the receptors in the source language.”( Nida,1969:24)But essentially there is not much difference between the two concepts. The substitution of “functional equivalence” is just to stress the concept of function and to avoid misunderstandings of the term “dynamic”, which is mistaken b
34、y some person for something in the sense of impact.(Nida,1993:124)2.4.3 Translation theoretic applied in advertisingInstrumental translation theoretic of Nord describes that “source text is just as a model”, a reference without restriction. It pointed out a guideline that during advertising translat
35、ion process, its more practical to accord translation with target-culture and the rules of target language, appropriately changing the original form.Functional equivalence principle of Nida, which emphasizes “the closest natural equivalence”, requires the translation not only be equivalent on inform
36、ation content, but also on the response of the receptor. The information content here contains idea as well as language form., and the importance of receptors role in translating is emphasized. (Zhang Xiaomin,2009)In Nidas view, when determing whether a translation is faithful to the original text o
37、r not, the critic should not compare the formal structures between the source text and its translation, but compare “receptors response”. If he finds that the reader in the receptor language understands and appreciates the translated text in essentially the same manner and to the same degree as the
38、reader in the source language did, such a translation can be evaluated as a dynamic(functional) equivalent translation.(Ma Huijuan,2005:19)Therefore, in order to achieve the same reactions and effects as the original, advertising translation needs to apply flexible methods on the basis of source tex
39、t. 2.5 Related studies on translation in advertisingOver the years, the traditional equivalence, which is the based theories, have been very popular. For example, the influential criterion of “ faithfulness ”, “expressiveness” and “elegance” put forward by Yan Fu and the principle of functional equi
40、valence (or dynamic equivalence) proposed by Nida.Then later, functionalist theories (or skopos theorie), which were born in Germany, making up to the translation studies, infused a clear stream into the translation studies. It dominated the inflexible mode of the structuralism, and re-explained eac
41、h participants role in the process of translation from the angle of view of deconstructionism.Recently, advertising translation was popular studied in the aspect of language feature, which developed a new angle of view. “Advertising should be appreciated in lexical, syntactic and rhetorical aspects”
42、, which wrote by Wang Zhuying in 2009. She thought that the translation of advertising should accord with the language feature which reflected its culture and background. Besides, Zhang Xiaomin also wrote her research in 2009 that functional equivalence principle of Nida should be used as a guidance
43、 to measure the achievement of translation. It began a diversified criteria for translational critic, and it is more scientific and more feasible.2.6 SummaryThis chapter has pointed out the basic purpose of advertising. It has indicated that persuading and inducing is the primary reflection of appel
44、lative function in advertising. It also reviewed and stated the guiding meaning of the theoretic about Nord and Nida to locate possible issues to be investigated in the present research. Lastly, it described the related studies on translation in advertising to prepare for comparing the difference be
45、tween English and Chinese on advertising on the research subjects. Chapter Three Commonness and Characteristic between English and Chinese Brand Advertising3.1 Introduction A considerable proportion of this chapter is spent analyzing and discussing the commonness and characteristic between English a
46、nd Chinese in brand advertising. It will describe the lexical feature, syntactic feature and rhetorical device of advertising both in English and Chinese to prepare for investigation of their translation methods. Successful advertising language will form direct communication between the addresser (p
47、roducer) and the target text reader (consumers). The content of brand advertising it conveys is informative and persuasive. Brand advertising succeeds in impressing audiences and getting them into buying action. Knowing the features of brand advertising helps to identify their secrets of success and explore ways to translate them.3.2 Lexical feature and its functionThe saying “A single word is worth a thousand pieces of gold” can best describe the gener