The Strategies Of Advertisement Translation From The Skopos Approach

Nowadays, advertising has become an important part of human life. With the rapid development of international business and multinational companies, there is a growing need for efficient international advertising communication and translation. As a branch of translation study, advertising translation has its own laws and demands a systematic study. The ultimate aim of all commercial advertising is to sell the commodity. Advertisers would bear this matter in mind at all times when they are trying to compose an advertisement. The goal of causing consumers to buy products has been achieved through the language. The language of advertising is regarded as the vehicle of messages loaded with persuasive intention. Skopostheorie, raised by German scholars, views translation from a different perspective. It is just the right theory guiding advertising translation. Skopostheorie takes translation as an action and claims the success of a translation depends on whether it has achieved its purpose. It emphasizes the functionality of the target text in the target culture. According to Skopostheorie, any form of translation may be conceived as an action, and any action has its purpose. The prime principle determining any translation process is the purpose (Skopos) of the overall translation action, and translation strategies and methods are determined by the purpose and intended function of the target text. In this model, the source text serves as only"an offer of information"from which a translator selects the items he finds interesting and important to reach the intended goal. Under the functionalist theory, translators are encouraged to make full use of various sources of information and they are entitled to choose whatever translation strategies they think appropriate to achieve the expected functions of the translation. Therefore, the German Skopostheorie apprach provides a theoretical basis for some unconventional translation strategies such as abridgement, addition, adaptation and so on.Employing Skopos theory as my theoretical framework, this paper has chosen commercial consumer advertisements as samples to discuss the power of words and how they are used in advertising. From the perspective of Skopostheorie, this paper discusses advertising translation standard and strategies with the aim to practically help improve advertising translation. Functionalist approach to translation has opened up a new perspective to translation studies. Functionalism emphasizes the functionality of translation in the target culture; therefore, the commercial effect of an advertising translation in the target culture is put forward as a yardstick of ad translation in this thesis. Translator's choice of translation strategies is always guided by the translation standard he adheres to.In general, functionalist approach to translation is recommended in this paper. By endowing translator with much more freedom and right to choose what to translate and how to translate, functionalist approach to translation makes the discipline of ad translation more mature and finally enables it to become a profession in the full sense.