1. Current research status of advertising translation at home and abroad
Since the mid-1980s, research on advertising language has been scattered in some major foreign language journals, but domestic advertising translation research The formal start began in the early 1990s.
As far as the research content is concerned, the early papers mainly focused on the discussion of the translation of specific advertising terms and the problems existing in the English translation of Chinese advertising, which is the initial stage. Since then, the research content has deepened and started to involve the principles and standards of advertising translation.
In this discussion, taking into account the many aspects that need to be paid attention to in advertising translation, such as text information, language aesthetics, consumer psychology and other issues, the researchers explained their respective views from different angles. Holding one's own opinions and disagreeing with each other can be called the stage of contention. Since the late 1990s, although discussions on translation principles and standards continue, researchers have increasingly focused their attention on difficult issues in advertising translation, such as the processing of rhetoric and the transmission of emotional factors in advertising. , the reproduction of brand image, the preservation of trademark characteristics, etc., can be described as an in-depth stage.
As far as research methods are concerned, the methods used in domestic advertising translation research mainly use the inductive method and the example analysis method. However, in recent years, researchers have begun to use theoretical achievements in pragmatics and other related disciplines to analyze various problems in advertising translation, and then put forward some translation strategies.
This can be said to be a gratifying progress in methodology. Directions for future research: There are still many areas worth exploring in the field of advertising translation in the future.
First, on-site research. Current comments on advertising translation are still limited to literal scrutiny. The promotional effect of an advertising translation must be confirmed by market research.
Second, research on advertising translation should be conducted based on the latest achievements in various related disciplines. In recent years, some people have done this type of exploration, such as combining advertising with aesthetic theory [15], combining advertising with pragmatic theory [19-20], etc. However, the field of exploration is still very broad. For example, with the help of advertising research results , when deciding on translation strategies and evaluating translations, other factors such as consumer psychology, brand management strategies and other marketing management issues, as well as other factors such as overall advertising creativity, should also be taken into consideration.
Third, discover newer and better examples of advertising translation, in the hope that the research on advertising translation can make greater contributions to national economic construction. 6 References Li.
Discuss the limits of translatability of advertising. Journal of Northwest University, 1999,29(3):126-129 Guo Ke.
English Journalism and Advertising Writing. Foreign Languages, 1992, (2): 57-64 Ding Shude.
English translations of product advertisements should be concise. Chinese Translation, 1995,16(5):42-43 Cao Shunfa.
Translation of advertising terms. China Science and Technology Translation, 2002,15(1):43-45 Jiang Lei.
Let’s talk about the translation of commercial advertisements. Chinese Translation, 1994,15(5):38-41.
2. The background of advertising translation and the significance of research
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morning rush to work (7:00~9:00), (17:30~19:30) during the evening peak, all the way in Shenzhen, Luohu District, Futian District, Yantian District, Nanshan District 4 administrativeregion, ** * all, mini passenger cars in Shenzhen issued a motor vehicle license plate shall be run according to the provisions of the route and area. 2015 Shenzhen restrictions on Shenzhen foreign cars limit line sections and the time limit prescribed above, large and medium-sized passenger car is not restricted, the truck into the Shenzhen city roads should apply for permits in accordance with the provisions of. The notice of violation of the provisions of the vehicle driversfined 300 yuan, a penalty of 3 points. 2015 Shenzhen limit line since February 1st, system monitoring to deep plate of passenger cars in Shenzhen limit line road, time limit line driving record, the first second times, not punishment, since third time the punishment according to law. Shenzhen imported vehicle limit line for the latest news, please pay attention to the Shenzhen traffic police bureau. The vehicle is the most important security, suggested by Zhongmin insurance work forquality insurance and accident insurance products.. 3. Current research status of advertising translation at home and abroad
Since the mid-1980s, research on advertising language has been scattered in some major foreign language journals, but domestic
>Advertising translation research officially started in the early 1990s
As far as the research content is concerned, the early papers mainly focused on the discussion of the translation of specific advertising terms and the existing problems in the English translation of Chinese advertising. This is the initial stage. Since then, the research content has deepened, and
began to involve the principles and standards of advertising translation.
In this discussion
, taking into account many aspects that need to be paid attention to in advertising translation, such as
text information, language aesthetics, consumer psychology and other issues, the study
The authors explained their own views from different angles, each holding their own opinions and disagreeing. This can be called the stage of contention. Since the late 1990s
, although the discussion on translation principles and standards continues
, researchers have increasingly focused their attention on advertising
Difficulties in translation, such as the processing of rhetoric in advertising, the transmission of emotional
factors, the reproduction of brand image, the preservation of trademark characteristics
etc., can be described as in-depth stage. As far as research methods are concerned, domestic advertising
translation research mainly uses inductive methods and example analysis
methods. However, in recent years, researchers have begun to use theoretical achievements in
related disciplines such as pragmatics to analyze
various problems in advertising translation, and then put forward some translation strategies. This can be said to be a welcome progress in methodology. Directions for future research
There is still much room for exploration in advertising translation
. First, on-site research. Current comments on advertising translation
are still limited to literal scrutiny. The effectiveness of advertising translation
needs to be investigated in the market before it can be confirmed.
Second, research on advertising translation
should be conducted based on the latest achievements in relevant disciplines. In recent years, some people have done this kind of exploration, such as combining advertising with aesthetic theory [15], combining advertising with pragmatic theory [19-20], etc. , but the field of exploration is still very broad. For example, with the help of advertising research results, when deciding translation strategies and evaluating translations, we can integrate marketing management issues such as consumer psychology and brand management strategies.
Other factors such as the overall creativeness of the ad are also taken into consideration. Third, explore newer and better examples of advertising translation, in the hope that research on the topic of advertising translation can make greater contributions to national economic construction
contribute.
6 References
Li. On the limits of translatability of advertising. Journal of Northwest University, 1999, 29(3):
126—129
p>
Guo Ke. English News and Advertising Writing. Foreign Languages, 1992, (2): 57-64
Ding Shude. English translation of product advertisements should be concise. Chinese Translation, 1995, 16 (5 ):
42—43
Cao Shunfa. Translation of advertising terms. China Science and Technology Translation, 2002, 15(1):
43—45
Jiang Lei. Talking about the translation of commercial advertisements. Chinese Translation, 1994, 15(5): 38-41 4. The current situation of advertising translation
Analysis of errors in Chinese-English advertising translation due to many domestic enterprises They do not fully understand how English advertisements should be created, and they randomly find people who understand foreign languages ??to translate the advertisements instead of leaving them to professional advertising companies for planning. Therefore, the quality of the translations is inevitably not high.
Some advertisers know only a little about foreign languages, and laymen guide experts, making it even more difficult to guarantee the quality of translations. Therefore, when dealing with advertising translation, some translators mechanically translate, stick to the words, and cut the corners to fit the shoes, causing various errors.
This article divides common errors in advertising translation into the following types: 1. Vocabulary-level errors are due to the limited foreign language proficiency of some translators, their high vision and low ability, and their failure to carefully refer to various reference books and resources. Therefore, low-level errors are inevitable. The picture below shows the signboard of a foot-cutting shop in Shanghai. The English is full of mistakes, including poor grammar. The most serious mistake is the wrong choice of words.
Pare means "to cut off", and pare off means to cut off excess parts, such as longer toenails. If feet is added after it, then the person's feet are cut off. .
With such a creepy sign, which foreigner would be willing to patronize this store? In fact, the corresponding word for "pedicure" in English is "pedicure", so considering the combination of sound and meaning, we might as well translate the sign to "Yeats' Pedicure Service".
The word "skewer" can be found equivalent in English, so the translation can still "have laws to follow", but a more common problem in translation practice is that it is often difficult to translate it in the target language Find the corresponding words to translate the original text. Many words in Chinese and English do not correspond, which brings great challenges to translation.
Some Chinese and English words seem to correspond, but in fact they are quite different. The following example is the advertising slogan of "Jiuhua Mountain Buddha Tea": Jiuhua Buddha Tea nourishes the world and purifies the heart! Jiuhua Buddhist Tea, moistens the world and clears the heart! The word "moisten" in the advertising slogan means "moistening quilt" and cannot be simply understood as "moistening". Therefore, it is incorrect to translate it as "moisten". You can consider changing it to "benefit".
In addition, although "heart" in English can also mean "mind", depending on the context, when paired with clear, it causes ambiguity in "cleaning the cardiovascular system and ensuring the health of the heart and brain". Therefore, it is recommended to change the translation of this sentence to: Jiuhua Buddhist Tea benefits the world and refreshes the mind. 2. Errors at the sentence level Vocabulary is the most basic unit of language. Solving the problem of vocabulary correspondence does not mean that everything will be fine in translation.
Translation skills are mainly reflected in the conversion of sentence patterns. If you cannot grasp the rules of English and use authentic language to translate, then even if the meaning is accurate, you will not be able to create an excellent advertising translation.
The following is an example of the packaging description of a certain pickled fish seasoning: "XX" brand pickled fish seasoning is a product developed by our company through continuous exploration, improvement and repeated development. “XX” Brand assistant condiment for “Pickle Fish” is a product researched, improved and developed by my pany. This is also a typical Chinese product advertising translation. It seems that every word corresponds to each other and is impeccable, but upon closer inspection you will see Found several low-level errors.
First of all, the English equivalent of the word "condiment" is "condiment". Adding "assistant" in front of it is superfluous. Using "Pickle Fish" to translate "pickled fish" seems to be completely equivalent. In fact, foreigners will not understand what kind of dish it is from the phrase "Pickle Fish", so it must be translated as "Fish slices with pickle". ".
In addition, the translation of "my company" into "my pany" is also very clumsy and does not conform to English expression habits. It is recommended to change it to "our pany" or "us". Therefore, it is recommended that the above translation be changed to: Our product, “XX” Brand condiment for “fish slices with pickle”, was developed after painstaking research and refinement. 3. Errors at the cultural communication level Accurate and fluent language does not guarantee the success of advertising communication.
Due to the great differences between different regions and cultures, the communication of advertisements must ensure its cultural applicability. Therefore, truly excellent advertisements should be rooted in local culture and be based on the strategy of "local consumer culture positioning" Translate and reconstruct advertising text. If we ignore the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and blindly believe that "what belongs to the nation is what belongs to the world," it may cause "cultural shock" to foreign audiences and make advertising lose its due persuasive effect.
For domestic enterprises, since English advertisements often adopt a literal translation strategy based on Chinese advertising copy, cultural errors are often caused, mainly manifested as cultural overload, that is, the translated text is filled with a large number of Chinese cultural references. The distinctive vocabulary confuses Western audiences. In fact, the focus of advertising translation is to persuade the audience and move their hearts, rather than to sit down and instill China's profound national culture into the audience.
The following is a typical advertisement translation of cultural overload: According to "Jiuhua Mountain Chronicles": In 718 AD (the 6th year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty), Jin Qiaojue, a relative of the king of Silla Kingdom, crossed to the Tang Dynasty and visited famous mountains. In the south of the Yangtze River, Zhuoxi Jiuhua Mountain brought tea seeds and planted them at the foot of Shenguang Ridge, taking their fragrance to relieve the pain of sitting in meditation... (Excerpt from the product packaging of "Jiuhua Buddha Tea") According to the records of "Annals of Jiuhuashan", A. D. 718 (Kiayuan6th in the Tang Dynasty) Xinluo Jin Qiaojue Crossed over to Tang, Visited famous mountains to Jiuhuashan, brought teaseds to plantat at the foot of the Shenguang Mountain, took its delicate fragrance for sitting in meditation. There are several spelling errors and capitalization errors in English. To respect the facts, they are excerpted as they are in this article.) Ordinary consumers have a clear purpose of reading advertisements and have no patience to study Chinese culture, so the first sentence of the advertisement copy is not mentioned. Buddha Tea instead lists a bunch of terms from ancient Chinese culture, which are extremely obscure even to most Chinese people, let alone to foreigners. The effect of its dissemination can be imagined.
Therefore, the "domestication" translation strategy should be adopted in the translation of Chinese-English advertising, replacing the cultural factors in the source language with the cultural factors in the target language, or simply abandoning the cultural factors in the source language. To facilitate target language readers to understand the translation. Taking the above example as an example, it is recommended to retranslate it. 5. How to write a paper on English translation of advertising
Skills and translation of puns in English advertising Li Xiang Abstract: Puns are a common rhetorical device in English advertising.
The translation of puns is a difficulty in itself, but the translation of puns in advertising is even more complicated. This article elaborates on the application skills of puns from the aspects of phonetic puns, semantic puns, grammatical puns, idioms, and colloquial puns.
And on the basis of considering the double meaning of puns and the style of advertising language, we analyze English advertising from the aspects of consistent translation, separate meanings, set translation, emphasis translation and compensation translation. A preliminary discussion was made on the translation of puns. Keywords: advertising language; pun; translation Punning and the Translation of Puns in English Advertisements MENG Lin & ZHAN Jing-hui (Foreign Languages ??Dept.
, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China) Abstract : Punning is one of the most mon rhetorical devices used in advertisement. This paper is about the techniques of punning and the translation of puns in English advertisements.
There are various ways to form puns in advertisements.
The translation of puns is difficult because of the double meanings, and the translation of puns in advertisements is even more difficult because one must keep both the double meanings of a pun and the style of the advertisement in mind.
Key: advertising language; pun; translation Introduction Whether it is product advertising or public service advertising, the creation of advertising is a comprehensive art. It integrates sociology, aesthetics, psychology, marketing, acoustics and electronics, literature, and linguistics.
Copywriting is an art that requires more skill than any other form of writing. It must use the principle of salesmanship to write elegant, lively and interesting text. It must have special appeal and can attract readers' attention in an instant, stimulate their desire to buy, and ultimately promote purchasing behavior.
Therefore, the proper use of literary language in advertising copy will make the connotation and influence of advertising language far beyond the advertising itself. The rhetorical device of pun is a commonly used technique in advertising creation.
Pun, as the name suggests, is to use a language and text form to express a double meaning of one light and one dark in a specific language environment, which is both eye-catching and arousing association. Puns have concise, concise, humorous, novel and unique rhetorical effects, and can highlight the characteristics of advertising, so they are widely used in advertising.
1. The use of puns in advertising As a rhetorical device, puns are commonly used in advertising. They exist at various levels of language such as pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax.
In advertisements, in order to increase the attractiveness of advertisements, advertisement producers are diligently pursuing new ideas, making the use of puns in advertisements more complicated. Clever puns can make language implicit, humorous, vivid, and leave room for aftertaste and imagination.
The more common ones include the following aspects. 1.
1. Homophone puns "Homophony puns are made up of words that are spelled similarly and have the same or similar pronunciation" 1 .
Advertising producers are very happy to use homophonic puns, because such puns have interesting, humorous, playful and comical language styles, which can enhance the persuasiveness and appeal of advertisements, thus leaving a deep impression on consumers. impression. (1) More sun and air for your son and heir.
2 Translation: There is plenty of sunshine and fresh air, all for your descendants. In this advertisement for a bathing beach, the producer skillfully used the two homophonic words sun-son and air-heir, making the advertising language not only harmonious and catchy, but also interesting, humorous and inspiring. force.
(2)Trust us. Over 5000 ears of experience.
3 Translation: Trust us. It has been tested on more than 5,000 ears and has more than 5,000 years of experience.
This is an advertisement for hearing aids. Literally, it shows that the product has been tested by many consumers, but a pair of homophonic words "ears-years" is cleverly embedded between the lines, fully implying the product's long history and time-tested superior quality.
Many advertisements make a fuss about the name of the product brand. The pun in the brand name can not only increase the interest and humor of the advertisement, but more importantly, make the brand name more attractive to people, easier to remember, and increase the intensity of the publicity attack, so as to achieve the purpose of promoting the product.
Most of the puns in brand names use homophony.
(3) WEAR-EVER introduces a new concept in glass oven ware: CLEANABILITY.
4 Translation: "Eternal" glass stove brings you a new concept: cleanliness. The manufacturer here takes advantage of the ambiguous nature of its trademark WEAR-EVER to vigorously promote its products: on the one hand, WEAR-EVER is its brand name, but on the other hand, the word has another meaning: it means wear forever (reflecting the product's durability). ), also known as wherever (indicating that it is popular everywhere).
This advertisement promotes its products from multiple angles, can arouse customers' desire to buy, and has a certain persuasive effect. 1.
2. Semantic puns “Semantic puns are puns formed under specific circumstances by using the polysemy of words or sentences” 5 .
This kind of pun is also widely used in advertising. It has the same purpose as the homophonic pun. (4) The label of achievements.
Black Label mands more respects. 6 Translation: Wine is a sign of success.
The black logo makes you more distinguished. Semantic puns are also common in brand names.
This is a whiskey advertisement. Label has two meanings, one is the "logo" and the other is the brand of the wine - Black Label. Through the use of puns, this advertisement reminds people that they drink the wine when they become successful. At the same time, the use of the brand name to form puns makes it easier for consumers to remember the brand and become interested in the product.
(5) Spoil yourself and not your figure. 7 Translation: Eat as much as you want without gaining weight.
This is the title of an advertisement for Weight-Watcher ice cream, which is produced specifically for dieters. Puns not only exist in product brand names, but the word spoil in the title is also a pun.
Spoil oneself means "to have fun"; and spoil one's figure.