Relevance Analysis Of Chinese-English Translation In Food Advertisement

This thesis, a study of optimal relevance in food advertisement translation in terms of Sperber and Wilson'Relevance Theory (RT) proposed in 1986, analyzes the mechanism and the pragmatic effects of RT with food advertisements as examples to explore effective approaches in translation of consumer advertising.As a means of promotion and publicity in economic activities and commodity sales, food advertising, has been a medium with the persuasive function which impels the consumers to purchase the food commodities or service. Due to the practical function of advertising, researchers focus on advertising language and advertisement translation in their linguistic study after China's entry into the WTO. Advertisement translation should make the same interpretation in the target text as that of in the original text since the persuasive function of advertising may be realized in foreign trade when the translation of advertisements effectively transmits the information of the source text to the target receiver. According to the former study in advertisement translation, we may found profuse representative examples of translation from English to Chinese while few classical examples in Chinese-English translation on advertisements. Moreover, food advertisement translation from Chinese to English may not meet the needs of the marketing so that it may fail in foreign trade with mistranslations with the limitations of traditional approaches. Traditional translation strategies employed by the translators may not suit to convey the message of food advertisements to the target readers. Therefore, a new approach to obtain optimal relevance in advertisement translation is of much significance in food advertisement translation.Relevance Theory (RT) views the intra-lingual communication as one single ostensive-inferential process. Moreover, translation is an act of inter-lingual and cross-cultural communication. In RT, translation has been defined as a dynamic process and an act of ostensive-inferential inter-lingual interpretation of the source text. In RT, the ostensive-inferential communication obtains the comprehension and interpretation of utterance to achieve optimal relevance between the source text and the target text to meet the intention of the author with the expectation of the target language reader. The optimal relevance in RT may be employed in translation practice, as in food advertisement translation.The thesis analyzes the translation of food advertisements in Sperber and Wilson's RT to obtain optimal relevance between the source text and the English version. RT offers the customers in English-speaking countries the appropriate strategies with the least cognitive effort to achieve optimal relevance associated with health, environment and naturalness in food advertisement translation in order to realize the ultimate objective of food sales.