Cultural Elements In English-Chinese Advertisement Translation

The world science revolution and the economic globalization have brought about the continual communication and fusion of cultures of different countries. Advertising culture is one aspect of it and at the same time pushes forward the profound intercourse of different cultures. To understand and translate both advertising, one must have an extensive and careful study of them. This thesis is to compare and study the similarities and differences and the translatability and un-translatability of both advertisings and their languages, then, under the guidance of Skopostheorie of Functionalism, point out that both English and Chinese language are translatable due to the continuous communication and fusion of both cultures and the great efforts of the translating workers. And on the basis of careful study and practice, the author of this thesis, according to different situations, tries to put forward some solutions to the un-translatability in advertising translation, thus making the seemingly untranslatable language translatable. The author hopes that this thesis can offer the advertising translators some edification and reference on the one hand, and solicit some valuable opinions on the other hand.The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one is an overview of advertising. Chapter two expounds simply on culture and cross-cultural advertisements. Chapter three has a brief introduction of the translation theories in both Chinese and western countries, especially the functionalists' Skopostheorie. Chapter four puts more emphasis on the cultural differences in English and Chinese advertising translation. Chapter five shows that both languages are translatable and translatability is the general characteristics of both languages. Chapter six exemplifies the phenomena of un-translatability in advertising translation, but points out that translators are not incapable in face of the phenomena of un-translatability. Meanwhile, the author of this thesis puts forward some solutions to the un-translatability.