A Study Of The Translation Of English Cosmetic Instructions From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

In the context of globalization,a large number of world famous cosmetic brands such as Nivea,Clinique,Clarins,and Benefit have swarmed into the domestic market,providing people with more choices.Under such circumstance,the translation of cosmetic advertisements and instructions plays an important role in its marketing and promotion.This thesis studies the E-C translation of cosmetic instructions under the perspective of Skopostheorie with an aim of putting forward some specific and effective methods which may be helpful to improve the quality of translation of English cosmetic instructions.An adequate translation of cosmetic instructions calls for an in-depth understanding of the structural information about the products,including ingredients,characteristics or features,benefits,usage of the beauty products.The information can be classified into factual information,culture information,inferential information,evaluative information,descriptive information and vocative information form the perspective of information function.With proper representation,they aim to present information,deliver an aesthetic effect in consumers and persuade consumers to buy products.As translation involves at least two different cultures,the differences between different cultures make it impossible to achieve total equivalence between the source text and the target one.Cosmetic instructions possess the features of both advertisements and instructions.They are supposed to arouse the customers’ interests and desire in buying and using the cosmetic products,so are their translations.In order to make the translation achieve the purpose in the target culture,the translator should take account of the stylistic features of target language,thinking mode,perception of aesthetics and culture values of target consumers.After integrating the Skopostheorie and Reiss’ s text typology and analyzing the features of cosmetic instructions and expectation of consumers in the target culture,the author proposes six translation principles.They are accuracy,readability,aesthetics,persuasiveness,image-prominence and embodiment-prominence.And under the guidance of the six principles mentioned above,six manipulative methods should be employed in the translation practice.They are conceptual shift,amplification,omission,division,replacement and rewriting.