On Translation Of Advertising Slogan From The Perspective Of Memetics

In the fast-developing world, marketing exchange is taking a more and more important role at present. Thus efficient international advertising communication is indispensable to the companies intending to expand their markets. As a specialized research area of translation, advertising translation has not been adequately studied, let alone advertising slogan translation. Memetics, although quite young and new, sheds light on many fields. This thesis attempts to discuss the advertising slogan translation with a memetic view because the infectious feature of memes has a natural close connection with advertising.On the principle of memetic theory and in the light of Jef Verschueren's adaption theory, the present thesis makes an analysis of advertising slogan translation. The main argument of the research is that satisfying advertising slogan translation can be viewed as "meme product" in the target language and that the "meme product" is the result of translators'adaptive behavior.Through the discussion of numerous examples in Chapter Three, the author summarizes the primary correlates of adaptability, namely, cognitive factors and cultural factors. In order to make successful advertising slogans, the translators have to make intentional choices according to the correlates. As far as the cognitive factors are concerned, we make a discussion of adapting to the constraints of working memory and the linguistic features of the target languages. And then four groups of cultural factors are discussed, i.e., core values, ways of expression, consumption tendencies and modes of thinking. In addition, two effective memetic strategies to make strong advertising slogan memes in the process of translation are introduced, i.e., either attaching the slogan memes to "a strong meme of form" or to "a strong meme of content".Memetics provides a new prospective for the study of advertising slogan translation. We hope that our research can help translators improve the effectiveness of their advertising slogan translation.