A Pragmatic Study Of Treason In Advertisement Translation From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Advertising is pervasive in our life, especially the cross-border part targeting foreign markets. This gives birth to advertisement translation, and naturally the research on advertisement translation also becomes the province of bilingual scholars and experts. Although, recent years there are great achievements of the advertisement translation studies both in the West and in China, most of the studies are just limited to some superficial aspects like linguistic or rhetorical features. The traditional translation theories can not satisfy the need of advertisement translation and achieve the final purpose of the advertisement. More theories are expected to guide the advertisement translation.This thesis reveals treason in advertisement translation in a pragmatic way of adaptation theory. Adaptation theory of Jef Verschueren is a new-born but broader theory. It claims that the process of using language is a process of the continuous making of choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal and/or language-external reasons. According to Verschueren, language has three features: variability, negotiability and adaptability. Language phenomena can be explained from four interrelated angles: contextual correlates, structural objects, dynamics and salience of the adaptation process.The paper begins with a brief introduction of background, method and significance of the research. Then in Chapter Two, the author mainly reviews the advertisement translation studies at home and abroad, pointing out the problems existing in the current research in China. The third chapter expatiates upon the theory from two aspects: one is the three language features and their respective relationship of treason; the other is four angles of researching treason in advertisement translation. Chapter Four and Five are the bulk parts of the thesis; it exploits treason in advertisement translation from four aspects of adaptation theory: contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability, and salience of the adaptation processes. Chapter Four adopts case analyses of treason in advertisement translation from the perspective of locus of adaptation, i.e. contextual correlates and structural objects. Chapter Five reveals treason in advertisement translation from the angle of the feature of adaptability.This thesis, using adaptation theory as a theoretical guidance, makes a research of treason in advertisement, which gives birth to the conclusion at the last chapter: in advertisement translation, treason has a certain positive significance; therefore, the translator has no need to regard treason as a taboo. What is more, the translator can adopt flexible strategies to fulfill the commercial purpose of advertisement when doing translation.