| As an important feature of modern society, advertisement has become an indispensible part in human lives. It can not only make our lives more convenient; it is also the essential tool in fierce marketing competition and international economic communication. As a powerful means for sales promotion, a well-translated advertisement piece will guide the consumption, open the international market and propagate the brand. An awful one would hinder the sales of products or services and even brings negative effects to the image of products or company.Considering the essential role of advertisement translation, many scholars and researchers have touched upon this issue. However these researches mainly focus on the traditional theories such as equivalence theory, skopos theory, relative theory, aesthetic reception theory and so on and relative achievements have been made. The present thesis will study the advertisement translation from a newly emerging perspective—the memetics.Memetics is the study of memes. It explains the cultural evolution based on Darwin's theory of evolution. Memetics demonstrates its strong vitality since its birth. According to memetists, memes are the units of culture and information which are passed on by imitation. They are transmitted from one host to another. In their lifecycles memes have to experience four stages of assimilation, retention, expression and transmission and during each stage there are memes selection and elimination. The successful memes are those excellent in longevity, fecundity and copy-fidelity.The contagious nature of memes makes it naturally connected with the advertisements. Under the guidance of memetics, advertisement translation is in fact the transmission of advertisement memes between different cultures with the language as their vectors. To create a successfully translated piece one must create strong memes. The transmission of advertisement memes is influenced by external and internal factors. A successful advertisement meme should conform to language specification, provoke consumer's emotional appeal and possess cultural acceptance. Under the guidance of memetics there are three types of strategies in advertisement translation:attachment (attaching to the strong language forms), adaption (adapting to the target culture) and motivation (motivating the audience's emotional resonance). Detailed translation methods, for instance replication, imitation and displacement could be used in advertisement translation.The application of memetics in advertisement translation enables the translated piece to better attract customers'attention and keep for a longer time in their memories, and thus to influence their purchasing behavior. The thesis hopes to bring some enlightenment and assistance to the advertisement translators. |
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