浅谈英汉语言文化差异对广告翻译的影响.docx

浅谈英汉语言文化差异对广告翻译的影响

　　[Abstract] As the product of culture, advertisement directly reflects the close relationship between language and culture. And advertising language is a special art form, which has profound cultural background and can be influenced by the tendency of the times. This paper investigates the Chinese and English advertising languages, and uncovers the culture differences in advertisements. Then it discusses the problems in the advertising translation, and puts forward the artistic and effective methods of advertising translation.
The world is getting increasingly globalized. Advertisement is closely related to the culture. The purpose of an advertisement is to persuade target consumesers to buy the advertised products or services. Thus, it is a most important task to be aware of the differences between Chinese culture and western culture. This paper analyzes the differences from six aspects: monism versus pluralism, collectivism versus individualism, the implicit way versus the direct way, the imagery pattern versus the abstract pattern, respect of authority versus respect of self-performance, and the differences of social background and aesthetics.
Some defects and even unsuccessful advertisements are made because of the poor quality of translation. This paper proceeds from problems in advertising translation that the translators do not have a good command of the nation-specific culture and is too adhesive to the advertisement’s superficial meaning while there are a lot of cultural factors hidden in the present advertising translation. In fact, advertisement translation requires more than just rendering sentences into another language. Translators have to convert the ideas and thoughts behind the sentences into the target language by applying the knowledge of the target culture. This paper suggests some methods to make advertising translation in view of the language and culture differences.
[Key words] advertising language; culture difference; advertising translation
【摘 要】 广告作为文化的产物，可以更直接地展示语言和文化的关系，所以广告语言是一门具有浓郁文化色彩与时代特点的艺术形式。本文对中、英广告语言进行了探讨，揭示了中英广告的语言在语音、语义、文字形式及修辞等方面的差异以及文化差异。然后，文章分析了广告语言翻译中存在的问题，从文化的角度提出了有关广告翻译的艺术的有效方法。
因为全球的经济一体化，所以广告语言涉及了大量的文化知识。既然广告语言的目的是劝导目标消费者购买其产品或服务，那么充分理解中西文化差异就成了一项举足轻重的任务。本文从六个方面进行分析，它们依次是一元论和多元论、集体主义和个人主义、含蓄和率直、形象和抽象、权威意识从众心理和自身功效自身价值、社会历史背景、审美方式等差异。
中英广告的互译中，有许多不理想的实例，有的甚至导致了销售挫折.本文分析了问题的原因，主要是在于当今广告翻译同样蕴藏着大量的文化，而译者却没有足够的文化的驾驭能力，太拘泥于原文表层。事实上，广告的翻译不是简单地把句子翻译出来。翻译人员要充分运用目标文化知识，把句子后而所承载的思想、概念尤其是文化传递给译入语的目标消费者。所以本文旨从广告语言文化差异的角度出发介绍几种英汉广告互译的方法。
【关键词】 广告语言；文化差异；广告翻译
Differences Reflected in Advertisements
Shen xiaolong[1] once summarizes that western languages are rule-governed while the Chinese language is people-governed. In other word, Chinese is a language governed by meaning. Chinese is regarded as a flexible language which can be long or short in its lexical units, and is based on the language of logic phrase chunks while Western language are made up of verb central elements which are inflexible.
The following part of this paper will discuss seven aspects of linguistic differences reflected in advertisement.
Flowing chunks vs. SV structure
Jin Huikang compares the Chinese and English languages in details. In view of syntax, Chinese sentences connect minor-clauses according to chronological or logical order. The structure seems short and loose. It seldom focuses on one rigid point but moves according with the logical order and the changing rhythm. Unlike the Chinese structure, English sentence displays a spatial arrangement with the verb as a center. They are clear in meaning and tight in structure. Therefore, Chinese syntactic structures usually employ parataxis, while English adopts hypostasis. In translation, we must get rid of our own way of thinking, and arrange sentences conforming to the target rules and conventions. The following examples show these intrinsic differences working in Chinese and English, and help us explore some plausible translation methods.
(1) 境内西湖如明镜，千峰凝翠，洞壑幽深，风光绮丽。
The West Lake is like a mirror, embellished all around with green hills and deep caves of enchanting beauty.　
Obviously, the original structure is changed in the target text. The structure of the Chinese advertisement is loose with some short clauses, whereas the English one breaks it into one sentence, which is centered on a verb, with modifiers of participle phrase, proposition phrase, and noun phrase around it. By doing so, the translation emphasizes the central meaning in the SV structure "The West Lake is like a mirror" and specifies the implied logical relationship in the surface form. Reflecting linguistic features of English language, the translation is a successful one in both content and function.
Flowery language vs. concise wording
“When concerning about the rhetoric, Chinese tends to use gorgeous words while English has a vivid character of conciseness.
“Chinese is good writer to express their feelings by writing and try their best to apply grand vocabulary to describe beautiful and moving images to be sounded elegantly. Many high-sounding words can be found in Chinese. For instance, in Chinese advertisements we frequently see words like“一流”(first class)，“完美”(perfect)，“独特”(specific) regardless of the quality of goods being advertised. With regard to language forms, the Chinese language strives for symmetry in structure and rhyme in sound, hence reading neat, implicit and musical. For example, four-character phrases, parallelism, antithesis appears frequently in Chinese. In order to achieve rhyming, emphasis or neat structure Chinese language often resorts to tautology.
“On the contrary, western literature and art have been developing under the theory of imitating the reality. The English language reflects this theory and proves to be objective, factual and rational. It has tight sentence structure, meticulous stream of thought, and logical relationship between linguistic units, concise wording and straightforward description. All in all, brevity is the soul of wit, or in other words, a proper word in a proper place is good English. Abusing of florid language is forbidden in good English, for it is considered illogical and may harm the original meaning or communication.
“Thus Chinese and English advertisements are quite different, especially when describing scenery in tourist advertisements. It is a language for poets to give expression to special feelings instead of defining or judging. Even when describing sceneries, English displays a beauty of form, straightforward, explicit, objective, unlike the casual, subjective Chinese. For example, the following advertisement written by a native speaker of English is concise and plain, and through simile and combination of concrete scenes, it provides enough space for imagination. However, from the point of view of Chinese, it may be too plain. For example:
(2)Tiny islands are strung around the edge of the peninsula like a pearl necklace. Hunks of coral reef, coconut palms and fine white sand.
“If we translate it word by word, it will not meet Chinese readers’ expectation. So abundant modifiers such as“礁红”，“成片”，and“如银”，and four-character phrases like “玲珑小巧”，and“如诗如画”are employed to make the translated version read beautiful.
“ 座座岛屿玲珑小巧，紧密相连，像一串珍珠缀成的项链，环绕着半岛边缘。
岛上珊瑚礁红，椰树成片，沙滩如银，景色如诗如画。
“The bold characters add charm to the scenic spot and contribute to the whole rhyming structure but mean nothing to English readers because they are repetitive and wordy. The same is true that in C-E translation, those superfluous modifiers should be omitted, adapted or implicit between lines so as to make the target version conform to the westerners’ aesthetic standards.”
Speech contrast
The pronunciation of the language can cause the mentally different sense of hearing result, and stir up the different reaction mentally, however it is soft or clear and crisp or strong, or dignified. In advertising language, we usually make use of onomatopoeic motivation, sound symbolism and echoism which could easily cause the target audience’s aesthetic feeling. But there exist a great difference between Chinese and western speech, onomatopoeia and rhythm. As a result, it makes translator puzzled .In English advertising words, in order to make the ad full of aesthetic feeling, they often make use of alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and consonance. For example, the advertisement phrase” Never late on Father’s Day. " There are two assonance [ei] which sound musically harmonious. However, it is quite difficult to attain this aesthetic feeling in its Chinese translation. Moreover while translating we should still notice some advertisements phrase sound may cause to lead to bad meaning in another language. For example the Japanese company of Toshiba once uses an advertisement :
(3)" 东芝(Toshiba) , 东芝(Toshiba) , 大家的东芝”.This is a advertising lyric .The first “东芝”is translated into the sound "To shi ba". Hence young people jokingly read it as“偷去吧，偷去吧，大家的东西”In this way ,there’s no solemnity at all.
Semantic contrast
Language is an essential part as well as the carrier of a culture, which not only reflects its racial history and cultural background, but also includes the views, life style, and thinking method. Meanwhile, advertising language, one branch of the language, is also reflected by the culture. It is not enough for advertising translators only to know the literal meaning of an ad, for it may be endowed with extended meaning and cultural implication. Fully competent advertising translators are supposed to have a good command of religions, traditions, ethnic attitudes, the spirit of community, and purchasing habits of the target countries. Otherwise, the translated ads might go against the original intention of the producers in the following four aspects.
1) Translation conveys a derogatory sense in the target culture. For example, the Shanghai-produced pen branded as“白翎” could receive welcome in English-speaking countries, for the brand is translated as White Feather". Unfortunately, "white feather" is a symbol or mark of cowardice in English. It derives the connotation from the belief that white feather in a gamecock’s tail is a sign of a poor fighter. The English idiom, "show the white feather", means "sneak away at a critical juncture". Therefore, "white feather" is used to represent caitiffs. The translation nullifies the strengths of the company on the international market and becomes a disadvantage that fails to serve the interests of the producers or those of the distributors.
2) Translation happens to be politically inappropriate. When introduced to foreign countries, the Chinese brand of canvas shoes“大鹏”is rendered as "ROC", which is a sort of giant bird in Arabic fables. However, "ROC" happens to be the abbreviation of "Republic of China". Obviously, the translation stirs up inappropriate political associations.
3) Translation is not elegant enough. In English, "cock" usually has the implied meaning of a certain part of human body. If the brand name“金鸡” is literally translated into "Golden Cock", the translated term will annihilate the good image of the products and leave the target audience the impression of vulgarity. In fact, there is a better version for“金鸡，’-Golden Rooster.
4) Translation by using Chinese phonetic letters coincides with English words with derogatory sense. The typical example is“马戏扑克”.The version "Maxi Puke” reminds the English consumers of something revolting and unpleasant, for "maxi" means big in English and "puke" indicates vomited food or drink.
Differences between character form
It is self-evident that various countries, nationalities and regions use a variety of characters. Furthermore, likes and dislikes for certain characters are widely divergent. It is reported that Japanese are in favor of such Chinese characters as“诚”、“梦”、“爱”、“愁”and “美” while most Chinese are accustomed to福”、“寿”、“喜”and“乐”.In accordance with the American author Irving Wallace, the most beautiful English words are chime, golden, lullaby，melody and murmuring, etc. Since Chinese is a visual symbolic system with the most precise structure for recording human speech, the pictographic and associative Chinese characters are not only potential in transmitting message, but also offer great additional aesthetic function so as to arouse consumers’ positive reaction. Unlike Chinese, English is an alphabetical system of writing and can hardly produce artistic image only through its words. In consequence, it is by no means an easy job to give accurate and elegant English versions for the Chinese ads.
In case of untranslatability arising from character differences, advertising translators have to exert all strengths to seek other methods, for instance, to create a completely new ad for the same product intended for the target market. When introducing its products to China, Japanese Toyota Automobile Company ingeniously employs“车到山前必有路，有路必有丰田车”to stimulate Chinese consumers into purchases.
Rhetoric contrast
English is rapidly becoming the universal language for international business. It is inevitable for Chinese producers to translate their ads into English to gain a place on the world market. Rhetoric devices are the most commonly used tools in English advertising copywriting. There do exist differences in rhetorical figures between Chinese and English, and these differences may put translators in a difficult position. For instance:
(4) 黄河冰箱，领“鲜”一步。
This ad adopts the rhetorical device of pun, which is difficult to translate. The translator can hardly render the meaning without sacrificing the form, or maintain the original flavor without distorting the meaning. The translation of rhetorical devices in Chinese ads is a knotty problem, which has blocked the way of many translators of Chinese ads. As stated in the previous part of the thesis, what should be borne in mind is that communication becomes effective abroad only after the message has been appropriately translated. Without this adequate and expressive translation, it is very unlikely to produce an impact on the foreign consumer. Therefore, the author tries to make a study of the rhetorical devices used in advertising English to pave the way for the application of English rhetoric to the translation of Chinese ads.
The influence on the advertising translation
Translation is a bilingual and bicultural activity. The translator always seeks to strike a balance between the two languages and two cultures involved in the activity. Any shift of emphasis from the source language and culture to the target counterparts or vice versa may result in the difference between literal translation and free translation, faithful translation and idiomatic translation, semantic translation and communicative translation, word-for-word translation and adaptation. As the major function of advertising is t