Advertisement Translation: A Receiver-oriented Approach

With the economic globalization, products from different countries are competing in international markets. Advertising, as a means for promoting the sales of product or service, is becoming more and more important. And with the economic boom brought about by China's reform and opening up, China's advertising industry has seen an unprecedented rapid development. Accordingly, advertisement translation has played an increasingly important role in the economic life. Nevertheless, the substantial discrepancies between Chinese and English cultures make advertisement translation a difficult job. The translator often finds himself trapped in a dilemma to produce in the receptor culture the closet equivalent of the message in function intended by the original speaker. Advertisement translation is supposed to achieve functional equivalence, i.e. to attract the receivers'attention and persuade them to buy the advertised product or service.There are many theories in China and abroad which are related with advertisement translation. The traditional equivalence-based linguistic theory cannot fulfill the function of advertising English. As a special text type, the purpose of advertising is to persuade the audience to buy the product or service advertised. Therefore, a new translation theory is called for to guide advertising translation.By Skopostheorie, Nord holds that translation is a kind of human action, which is an intentional, purposeful behavior that takes place in a given situation. Therefore, translation can not be considered as a one-to-one transfer between languages, but a form of purposeful translational action concerning culture difference. It says that translating is determined by its Skopos. In addition, Skopostheorie holds that the viability of requirements depends on the circumstances of the target culture, not on the source culture, and translating means comparing cultures. Skopostheorie strongly claims that the criteria judging whether the translation is excellent or slavish is whether the purpose possessed in the translation commission can be achieved.The thesis adopts a comparative study between Chinese culture and western culture, which emphasizes how these cultural differences exert their impact on the language of Chinese and western advertisement, as well as how to translate Chinese advertisements into English appropriately. A descriptive method is adopted in this endeavor.Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis consists of four parts. The introduction is the first chapter that is concerned with the background, purpose, language data and methodology, as well as structure of this thesis.Chapter Two is a literature review. It starts with a review of the contemporary translation theories in China and abroad and the limitations of using them as theoretical guides. Then it gives a brief introduction to Skopostheorie as well as the merits of this theory. The author then explains the feasibility of using Skopostheorie as an effective theory in guiding advertisement translation.Chapter Three presents a brief introduction to advertisements in general, including the definition of advertising, the purpose and functions of advertising, and what impact it has on the consumer's activity.Chapter Four introduces the relationship between language, culture and their influences on advertisement. The author then gives a detailed introduction to major cultural differences in China and west and their influence on advertisement respectively. Finally, the author stresses the necessity of making certain cultural adjustments in advertisement translation.In Chapter Five, discussions are firstly focused on the analysis of advertisement translation purpose. Then the principles of advertisement translation are analyzed. The relationship between the three rules of Skopostheorie and advertisement translation is expounded. Moreover, the author suggests several useful translation strategies.In the last chapter, the conclusive part of this thesis, the author reemphasizes that Skopostheorie is an effective theory for advertisement translation practice. It also summarizes the results of this research that may be deemed as contributions to the field of translation studies in general.