--广告语研究.doc

On Translation of Chinese and English Advertisements

姓 名： 任 荣 坤
院 系： 外国语学院英语系
班 级： 0801
指 导 教 师： 张 应 林

2011 年 6 月 23 日

Contents
1. Introduction …………………………………………………… (3)
2. Theoretical framework………………………………………… (3)
2.1. Definition of advertisement……………………………………… (3)
2.1 Origination of advertisement …………………………………… (3)
3. Advertisement Language……………………………………… (4)
3.1 Cultural differences between China and West …………………. (4)
3.2 Language differences between China and West………………… (4)
3.3 Influences of the differences on ads………………………………. (4)
4. Translation of Chinese and English ads……………………… (5)
4.1 Present research…………………………………………………. (5)
4.2 Examples and analysis…………………………………………… (5)
5. Conclusion…………………………………………………… (8)
6. Reference……………………………………………………. (9)
On Translation of Chinese and English Advertisements
1. Introduction

Nowadays, as we know, there are more and more acute marketing competition, under this condition, a good quality will be necessary if you want to make your commodity blooming and attractive to the consumer among millions of other competitors, besides, a successful advertisement is also a very important part. In this international marketing environment, a proper advertise, especially when facing various consumers with different nationalities, different languages and different custom background, how to advertise your merchandise in a proper and efficient way is the most important thing from other importance.
With the influence of global economy combination, there has been more and more business communications among different nations, everyone aim at developing the market abroad by promoting the sale of their productions, one of the extremely importance is to make their own production and manufacturers famous all over the world by advertising.
We cannot deny that many of the civil enterprises haven’t realized how to create an English advertisement, and search for help from an inexpert translator instead of professional agency, that leads to a poor quality of the advertisement translation. Some of the translation consignor knows little about English, inexpert helps inexpert, the quality of the translated advertisement will not be assured, and so that, many of the translator did a poor work with various intolerable mistakes.
This thesis start with the differences and the specialty of the advertise language, concerning about the diversities between Chinese and English advertise language use, the reason of the diversities and the way of solve the problem.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1 Definition of advertisement
Advertising is a kind of commercial action. It has a specific commercial aim and its most important function is promotion. Meanwhile, advertisement is a kind of culture communication. According to Wikipedia, advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services.

2.2 Origination of advertisement
The word “advertisement” is said to be from foreign languages. It originated from the Latin word “AdAverture”, which means drawing one’s attention. During the middle English era, （about 1300—1475），it changed into “Advertise”，its meaning has broadened into “bring sth to one’s attention”，or “notice sb to catch his/her attention”. Advertisement is the product of people’s aimed information communication and transmission activities. "Product advertising" comes out during the late period of the Primitive Society and early Slavery Society, while "social advertising" appeared in the early stages of the matriarchal clan commune. Advertising is divided into public service advertising and commercial advertising. We are most familiar with commercial advertising. Social advertising includes political advertisement, public welfare advertisement, etc. Until the end of 17th century, Britain started on massive commercial activities. At this time, the word “advertising” was widely used. Advertising, then, represented not an advertisement, but a series of advertising campaign.

3. Advertisement Language

3.1 Cultural differences between China and West
China is an agricultural country from the ancient times. As people’s life is firmly attached to land, agriculture, the thought that man is an integral part of nature comes into being. That’s to say, man and nature is a unity. This kind of culture leads Chinese people to admire nature, to try to accustom to nature, and to obey natural rules, which is “Let things remain as they are”. However, there exist all kinds of changes in the world. American say it’s “moving in endless circles and repeating it over and over again”. Confucianism and Taoism deeply show this kind of idea. For example, there is a saying “as virtue rises one foot, vice rises ten”. So when we Chinese express something, we always obey the time order and show the reason first. This kind of thought style can be called Particular -General Pattern. Problem-solution Pattern is not only used in language, but also shown in culture art and economy, that’s to say, Chinese are good at embodiment thought.
However, the westerners are just the opposite. They usually segregate human beings and nature, and they think that mind is independent from nature. And they hold that man can overcome nature and change it. We can get this kind of idea from the saying of American president Ronald Reagan: “I do not believe in fate that falls on us no matter what we do，but，1 do believe in fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.” That is, he wants us to believe in the struggle，not in the fate. Another example, American dream is being a self-made man from rags to riches. As for doing something, Chinese do things because they have been done before．And Americans do things because they haven’t been done before. Americans love to try something new mostly because of a belief that newer maybe better.
The advertising quote of “Nike”, a famous American brand, is “Just do it”. When translated into Chinese, it’s “do what you want to do”, which doesn’t match Chinese value system. At last, it’s changed into “do what you should do”. So, we can see that only when the ads match the local culture, can the products own a broad market.

3.2 Language differences between China and West
With the different thinking pattern of China and West, the order of language is different. As a result, much Chinese English comes out. For example, we Chinese say “I had intended to pay a visit to Hong Kong on July 1st, and had to cancel it later, and it made me disappointed.” The order in fact doesn’t match English normal order, which should be “It was keen disappointment that I had to cancel the visit l had intended to pay to Hong Kong on July 1st”. Thus it can be seen that Chinese obeys the order of time, reason and effect, and logic, while English is the opposite.

3.3 Influences of the differences on ads
Cao Zhiyun, a professor from Beijing Language and Culture University, said in the book Art of Advertisement Language that each nation has its own psychological characteristics, which are deeply rooted in its traditional culture. These psychological characteristics have a great effect on people’s daily life and customs, and also restrict people’s language activities. For good luck and escaping from bad luck is a common cultural psychological characteristic of all the nations, but each nation has its own meaning and forms. So when translating this kind of ads, we should pay more attention. For example, dragon symbolizes good luck in China, however it’s a symbol of evil in the west. Another example, black cat means something evil in the west, but to our Chinese, it’s just a cat. The drink seven-up is well-known in America. Here “up” means courage, but if we translate “seven-up” into “qi shang（七上）” in Chinese, it’s just senseless. However, if we translate it into “qi xi(七喜)”, which means good luck, it would be terrific. Here we can see a little difference makes a great difference.

4. Translation of Chinese and English ads

4.1 Present research
The international tendency of advertisement is unchangeable. The development of modern industry makes social production reach an unprecedented level of prosperity and many commercial activities and products go beyond area restriction. These multinational cooperation not only expert products and technique, but also mass originally-made advertises to other countries.
Since the 1980s, many famous international advertisement companies have been showing great interest in Chinese market. These famous companies include Walter, Ogilvy & Mather and so on.
In 1993, there were 280 foreign advertisement companies registering in China and their advertising expense reached 330 million. At the same time, our enterprises’ advertisement made a great difference to the international market with a new look. China National Associated Advertising Corporation, which owns 75 companies, built Tianlian Advertisement Operation with BBDO, one of the world’s top four broadcasting companies. After that, Walter, Ogilvy & Mather each built some advertisement joint venture with our advertisement operations.
An enterprise in townships in Beijing broadcasted an advertisement about the down jackets of brand “tango” in a Russian TV station, which brought “tango” a very popular reputation and earned foreign exchange of 40 million dollars. It is more and more obvious that interaction among international advertisements push more cooperation, international tendency and more money.
There is another sign for international tendency in advertising industry -- the rise of “global advertisement”. This is an excellent strategy for shaping the image of international unity through advertisements.

4.2 Examples and analysis
Advertisement, as vocative text, which aims at readers, doesn’t highlight the authors. It requires the effect of delivering information and readers’ emotion. This is reader reaction theory, which arouses readers to act, to think and then to feel. So, when we do advertisement translation, we should make sure that the vocative function in the oriented language fully expressed in target language. There is a criterion whether the advertisement translation has the similar effect on readers to estimate the translation. Here is an example:

In the heart of Manila， there is Ermita.
One district in Manila pulsates with the life of the city-Ermita.
Where rare antiques speak of Manila’s glorious past.
Where great bargains tempt from every corner,
Where spectacular sunsets and walks in the park soothe the senses,
And where bright lights and endless nights enliven them,
And in the heart of Ermita，
there is the Manila Pavilion Hotel.
One hotel opens its doors right into the attraction of Ermita.
The Manila Pavilion
Ready to welcome you with de luxe accommodation， delectable cuisine and complete business and convention facilities.
Keep in touch with the beat of Ermita at the Manila.
译文:
俄米塔——位于马尼拉市中心。
这里的生活，随着整个马尼拉的节拍律动。
这里，罕见的古迹讲述着马尼拉辉煌的历史；
这里，商品物美价廉，服务周到实惠；
这里，壮丽的落日，公园的幽径，让您心旷神怡；
这里，火树银花，彻夜欢愉，给您无穷的享受。
而在俄米塔中心耸立着马尼拉亭榭大饭店。
饭店中可一览俄米塔美景。
马尼拉亭榭大饭店。
豪华的设备，可口的饭菜，完美的业务及会议设施——这一切都在恭候您的光临。
住亭榭大饭店，感受俄米塔的生活节奏。
This is a typical dissemination advertisement of Manila hotel instead of tour advertisement of this city. In the oriented advertisement, many words and phrases are used to show the beautiful scenery, good environment and establishment, as well as its well-considered service.
Such kind of descriptive advertisement hopes to stimulate people’s consumption desire by vivid language. And it’s more like a poem, full of compact arrangement, and leaves a good impression on people of its products and service.
This is a successful advertisement with many parallel sentences which are ear catching and concise imperatives easy to read. Apart from that, there are metaphors, personifications both in oriented and target languages to obtain more attraction. And we can see in the Chinese version that it is suitable to Chinese expression and taste in linguistic style and information and it clearly shows guide and direction.
In the above example, translator has to use their familiar language style and follow readers’ habit of appreciation and psychology, for achieving its …effect and affecting the audience and readers. In translation, translator has right to make some change in logic of the text. For instance, “Ermita”, which was put in the end of the sentence, has been placed in front of the sentence. Doubtlessly, this change wants to tell readers the most important information is not the city or the convenient location, but the hotel.
Translator can also replace more concise and suitable structure with long and excrescent ones. Taking “where…where…” in the oriented advertisement for example, this attribute clause doesn’t need translating as the same structure. The translator deals with this difficult question very skillfully. “这里……这里……” is well-structured and easy to read and remember.
Besides that, translators have the freedom to remove any ambiguous and repetitive words or phrases, to change any strange diction into normal ones. Translators don’t have to strictly adhere to the linguistic style of the oriented text His or her task is to make the advertisement translation easy to read, normal and attractive.
Here is another excellent advertisement translation.
The way of thinking affects people’s speech’s diction, structure and content. As we know, Chinese have … way of thinking and they tend to foreshadow everything in their speech and writing, and then they make a conclusion, while westerners are likely to speak directly. This way of thinking is always shown as directness and clear in advertisement content arrangement.
Such as “the choice of a new generation” is translated to “新一代的选择”; “Intel Inside”(Intel Pentium) to “give the company a heart ”; “Connecting People”(Nokia) to “科技以人为本”. All of these advertisements are direct, simple and have close connection with the features of its products.
Now, let’s appreciate some good examples in advertisement translation in difficult styles.
When the new Rolls-Royce was on market, American freelance advertiser David Ogilvy wrote an ad as “at 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.( Rolls-Royce)
The translator translated it to“时速60英里的这种新式“劳斯莱斯”轿车最响的噪音是来自车内的电钟”。From the translation we can see that it doesn’t have many beautiful or useless words. What he wants to express is clear and obeys the style of oriented one.
It is obvious that Chinese and English language are different in acceptation, structure, culture and many other aspects. That means we can’t do it not mention to do it well eve