delicate广告英语翻译中的错误研究

(

论文

)

在解密后遵守此规定。

本人签名：

朱慧

日期：

导师签名：

徐青根

日期：

2010-5-18

2010-5-18

iii

常熟理工学院毕业论文

摘

要

广告翻译行业尽管有些翻译的佳作，

但随着广告的发展，广告翻译中的各类错误充斥

于在广告翻译作品中。

< br>许多关于广告翻译的文章都是赏析其成功案例的，

而本文主要对一

些失败案例进行解析。

首先介绍了中国广告翻译行业的发展状况与背景。

其次把搜集来的

失败案例系统的分为三个层次：

语法错误，

文化层次方面的错误以及翻译后美感的缺失这

三个 层次。

第三部分提出了提高广告翻译的方法：

译者要了解中外文 化的差异，

提高中英

文水平等等。

最后 一部分在此基础上总结了全文。

这篇文章并非为嘲笑广告翻译中的各种

< br>不同层次的错误而作，而是分析改正错误，以便提高广告翻译的质量。

关键词：广告翻译，错误，较好版本，改进方法

iv

常熟理工学院毕业论文

ABSTRACT

A Study of Mistakes in Advertisement Translations

Zhu Hui

With

the

development

of

advertisement

translation,

many

successful

works

of

advertisement translations are created. Most articles have complimented those first-class works.

However, this thesis argues from an opposite aspect. It focuses on the mistakes and failure of

many

translations

collected

from

books,

magazines

and

pubic

signs.

The

first

chapter

of

this

thesis has to do with the social background of the fast development of advertisement translation

in China. The second chapter deals with all sorts of mistakes and failures and categorizes them

into

three

levels:

grammatical

mistakes,

cultural

mistakes

and

lacking

in

sense

of

beauty

in

advertisement translation. The third chapter is related to the methods for translators to improve

the

quality

of

translation.

This

thesis

is

not

to

criticize

nor

laugh

at

those

mistakes

but

to

research and correct these mistakes for fear that other advertisement translators make the same

mistakes. This will help improve reputation of companies among consumers.

Keywords: Advertisement translation, Mistakes, Better version, Method of improvement

v

常熟理工学院毕业论文

TABLE OF CONTENTS

摘

要

............... .................................................. ..........................................

i

v

ABSTRACT

................................ .................................................. ..............

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................... .................................................. .......

v

i

Chapter One Introduction

.

......................................... ..................................

1

1.1 The social background and development of

advertisement translation in China ................................................

1

1.2 Literature review: research done in this field ..................................

1

1.3 Purpose of this paper ....................................... ..............................

2

Chapter Two: Three Levels Of Mistakes ......................... ............................

3

2.1 Grammatical levels of mistakes

.................... ..................................

3

2.1.1 Spelling mistakes ......................................... .........................

3

2.1.2 Vocabulary mistakes ............. ................................................

3

2.1.3 Sentence mistakes

.

.................. .............................................

4

2.2 Cultural level mistakes

.

............ .................................................. .....

5

2.2.1 Mistakes caused by differences in aesthetic ideas

.

...............

5

2.2.2 Mistakes caused by value differences

.

..................................

5

2.2.3 Mistakes caused by differences in customs ..........................

6

2.2.4 Mistakes caused by political system differences

...................

6

2.3 The lack of a sense of beauty in advertisement

translations

............... .................................................. ...................

7

2.3.1 Lacking appealing force in translations

.................................

7

2.3.2 Lack of Commercial sense in translations

.

8

Chapter Three Three Ways to Deal with the Problems ...............................

1

0

3

.1. Strengthening translator’s understanding of cultural

differences

.

.... .................................................. ..............................

1

0

3.1.1 Cross- cultural studies ................................. ..........................

1

0

3.1.2 Studying the basic features of commercial English

.

........ .................................................. .....................................

1

0

3.2 Improving a translator’s English and Chinese

................................

1

0

3.2.1 Reading more English originals ............................................

1

0

3.2.2 Reading more classical Chinese

.

.... ......................................

1

1

Chapter Four Conclusion ....................................... .....................................

1

2

ACKNWLEGEMENTS

.

........................... .................................................. ...

1

3

REFERENCES .................................................. .........................................

1

4

vi

常熟理工学院毕业论文

Chapter One Introduction

1.1

The

social

background

and

development

of

advertisement

translation in China

With the wave of economic globalization and China's constant communication with other

countries, lots of international companies flood into Chinese market. At the same time, Chinese

enterprises are also pursuing an edge into the international market. It is reported that the number

of international companies in Shanghai will increase to more than six hundred and ten by the

end

of

the

International

Expo.

Additionally,

the

number

of

Chinese

companies

expanding

overseas is increasing every year.

Against

this

background,

international

companies

are

exerting

both

themselves

and

their

products in a slew of advertisements in order to get their lion’s share of the market. Because of

this,

a

great

importance

has

been

attached

to

the

correct

translations

of

advertisements.

The

accuracy of advertisement translations is indispensable to the effectiveness of advertisements.

However, in sharp contrast to the prosperity of commerce development, the advertisement

translation industry does not enjoy a good reputation for correct and effective translations. This

is mainly owing to the low quality of translators working in the industry.

1.2 Literature review: research done in this field

Many

papers

and

books

are

written

to

analyze

the

successful

examples

of

advertisement

translations,

such

as

English

Level

through

Ad- Reading

,

written

by

YanPing

Zhou

and

Ma

Yongtang discusses the classic examples of advertisement translations and so on.

However, lots of mistakes keep occurring in advertisement translations. Therefore, several

works cover from certain angles the pragmatic failure of advertisement translations, including

Advertisement

translations

in

a

Cross- Cultural

Background

by

Hou

Tong

from

Huanghuai

College in 2005,

On Self- Image of the English Version of the Advertisement

, by Wang Zhijun

from Kun Ming Institute of University in 2001 and so on. In addition, the paper, like

Research

on Common Problems of Advertisement translation and its Translation Strategies

by Xu Juan

1

常熟理工学院毕业论文

just concludes several problems in advertisement translations but fails to classify the mistakes

from grammatical level to higher level.

Whereas this thesis continues to research the mistakes and systematically categorize these

mistakes

from

three

main

levels:

grammatical

level,

cultural

level

and

the

lack

of

a

sense

of

beauty

in

advertisement

translation

and

puts

forward

the

methods

to

improve

the

quality

of

advertisement translations.

1.3 Purpose of this paper

Many

works

have

been

written

for

the

study

of

successful

examples

of

English

translations.

However,

not

much

attention

is

paid

to

the

mistakes

of

advertisement

translations .Mistakes

in

this

field

have

brought

about

the

ruin

of

the

credits

on

the

part

of

companies and inconvenience on the part of consumers.

The

loss

of

the

company’s

reputation

is

the

first

victim

of

poor

English

translations.

In

order

to

establish

themselves

in

the

translation

industry,

English

translation

companies

must

first obtain consumers’ acknowledgement, understanding and credit. Foreign consumers, who

are not experts in commodities, are inclined to check the produce date and read the introduction

of those commodities. Consequently, the wrong introduction to the company will leave them a

bad impression. This means that they will form the opinion that the English linguistic capability

of many Chinese people is low.

The

second

victim

is

the

impossibility

of

recuperation

of

the

lost

value

of

poor

English

translations.

Besides

advertisement’s

practicability,

the

key

to

its

success

is

its

accuracy.

Without this, the result would cause serious consequences. For example, if a consumer buys a

kind of medicine meant for exterior use and he takes it orally due to a mistaken translation, he

will suffer irreparable damage.

Therefore,

the

point

of

this

research

paper

is

to

encompass

the

common

mistakes

in

advertisement translations from different levels and put forward a way to avoid these mistakes.

2

常熟理工学院毕业论文

Chapter Two: Three Levels Of Mistakes

2.1 Grammatical levels of mistakes

2.1.1 Spelling mistakes

Despite

their

poor

vocabulary

and

grammar,

some

so-called

translators

are

so

certain

of

their infal

libility that they don’t think

it is necessary to use dictionaries or other sources , and no

wonder there appear all sorts of simple mistakes in their translation “works”.

In a famous four-star restaurant of Chengdu ,

“行政套房 ”

and

“行政标间”

have been

translated

as

“

Excutive

Suite

”

and

“Excutive

Standard

Room”

,

where

executive

is

spelled

as

excutive

.

There

is

also

part

of

a

Passenger

Information

bulletin

from

an

airport

ticket

office

at

Tuodong road in Kun Ming City, where spelling mistakes included.

Tickets: The ticket is valid only for the passenger whose name appears on the ticket and is

not invalid ticket will not be refundable if it has been mutilated.

The word

transferale

should be changed into

transferable

. Besides, the sentence should be:

“

The tickets will be void does not make sense, thus void should be changed into

invalid”

.

2.1.2 Vocabulary mistakes

Vocabulary is the basic unit of any language. If vocabulary is misused, there is apt to be

cultural confusions.

There is a large department in Wangfujing Street in Beijing with an English advertisement

which reads “a time sex”. This is a particularly inappropriate translation, since in English, this

means prostitution! Just imagine what kind of foreigner would dare go to this department store

to buy their goods! Actually

“

一次性用品

”

, has an English equivalent meaning. Because of this,

it would be better to change it to “disposable goods selling”.

With

regard

to

“

一次性用品

”

,

it

is

relatively

lucky

that

there

happens

to

be

an

English

equivalent,

so

we

can

manage

it

by

following

certain

English

rules.

But

what

if

there

is

no

English equivalent? In fact, there are many cases, in which no equivalent ready for translation.

Great challenges therefore emerge since a number of words don’t have equivalents in the target

language. For some “similar” words, they can actually differ a lot in sense and meaning.

3

常熟理工学院毕业论文

In

fact,

“

equivalenc e

”

never

means

absolute

sameness,

which

view

is

also

supported

by

Nida. In his view, translating was not to get something completely identical, but to reproduce

“

the closet natural equivalent to the source-language message

”

in the receptor language (Nida

1969: 12). His theory is applicable to advertisement translation.

An example of this is an ad about tea which says,“

九华佛 茶，

润世清心

”with its translation

“Jiuhua Buddhist Tea, moisten the world and clears the heart”. In Chinese, “

润

” here means“

泽

被

”,

so

it

could

not

be

simply

rendered

as

“moisten”.

Probably

“benefit”

would

constitute

a

good substitute. Besides, “clear the heart” may have an ambiguous meaning as “clear the heart

artillery and keep the brain healthy.” As a result, I strongly recommend this ad be replaced by

“Jiuhua Buddhist Tea benefits the world and refreshes the mind”.

2.1.3 Sentence mistakes

Vocabulary may be a basic lingual

unit, but

it is

not

all there is

to

proper translation. A

good translation lies on proper translation on the sentence level. If we fail to master the rules of

English, no matter how accurate our copy is, we cannot get the expected correct translation. The

following is a translation for th

e imported medicine “

思密达

”

：

“

Should

be

mixed

in

50ml

warm

water .To

be

administered

in

3

divided

doses

should

be

perfectly administered after meals in oesophagitis, between meals in other indication.”

This

is

a

traditional

“Chinglish”

advertisement

for

products.

It

seems

to

be

perfect

and

faultless since it is so well matched to Chinese words and phrases. However, if we deal with it

more carefully and closely, we find a few errors.

First, in accordance with the practice of sentence, once the predicate

has been put into a

sentence, the whole sentence s

hould be completed .Therefore, “

the product

”

should be added

before

should

as its subject. “The product” should also be added before “

To be administered in

3

divided

doses”

.

As

a

whole,

the

correct

version

is

“

The

product

should

be

mixed

in

50ml

warm

water

.The

medicine,

to

be

administered

in

3

divided

doses,

should

be

perfectly

administered after meals in oesophagitis,

between meals”

.

“

与中国名酒五粮液同工艺同原料，系五粮液系列姊妹酒

”

“

Wu Liang mellow , is made with the same technology and the raw material of Wu Liang ye , is

a series Liquor of Wu Liang ye. It makes a specialty of strong flavor, pure and mild, taste of

sweet, clear and clean taste. It has its own characteristic styles among the Da-

qu liquor”

Firstly, “

made with the same techno

logy and the raw material of Wu”

should be considered

as

an

appositive

clause,

for

“

is

a

series

Liquor

of

Wu

Liang

ye”

is

the

main

sentence.

Also,

specialty

should

be

rendered

as

specialty

.

To

sum

up,

the

re-written

advertisement

should

4

常熟理工学院毕业论文

theref

ore be, “

Wu Liang mellow , made with the same technology and the raw material of Wu

Liang ye , is a series Liquor of Wu Liang ye. Its specialty is a strong flavor, pure and mild, with

a slight taste of sweet, clear and clean taste. It has its own characteristic styles among the Da-qu

liquor”

2.2 Cultural level mistakes

2.2.1 Mistakes caused by differences in aesthetic ideas

Aesthetic ideas are associated with Advertisement translations .Advertisement translations,

as

a

means

of

advertising,

are

an

important

culture

itself.

As

a

result,

the

culture

and

appreciation of beauty of the masses should be well respected.

The food product,

西湖藕粉

, named West Lake Starch in the west before, did not sell very

w

ell . Because the Chinese word “

藕粉

”

was translated into

“starch”

, which means “fat” and

once over-eaten people would grow fat from it . In my opinion,

starch

should be changed into

pudding

or

powder

, which describes the shape of the product.

Jin Huikang published the book

Translation in Intercultural Communication

(Jin Huikang,

1993), which cites the example of t

he famous Chinese lipstick “

芳芳

”

, a trademark that makes

Chinese

people

think

of

a

woman

as

pretty

as

a

picture.

However,

once

translated

into

“ fang

-

fang”

in foreign countries, foreign consumers are more likely to feel a sense of terror, for

fang

is

an

English

word

that

has

two

meanings:

a

long,

sharp

tooth

of

a

dog

or

a

snake's

poison-

tooth. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the West “fang

-

fang” is not considered a thing

of

beauty,

but

a

fierce

dog

or

poisonous

snake

baring

its

teeth

and

showing

its

claws.

Jin

contends it is better to translate it into

“

Fragrance

”< /p>

or

“

Fun- Fun

”

in a creative way.

2.2.2 Mistakes caused by value differences

Commercial English usually meets the needs of consumers by virtue of its ability to attract

people

and

promote

products.

People's

values

have

recently

undergone

several

changes,

but

traditional values still play an important role. Guan Shijie has showed that

“

in China,

pursuing

collective

interests,

group

consciousness

and

chasing

the

ideas

of

harmony

are

still

the

mainstream values

” (

Guan Shijie, 1995). The following two Chinese commercials give a vivid

presentation of these Chinese values: < /p>

“

我们将以优质、

高效的服务使您满意，

共同为人类医疗事业做出更大的贡献

”

, the English

translation

is

“we

will

provide

quality

and

efficient

service

to

satisfy

you

and

make

greater

contribution to hum

an medical profession together ”. “

宾客至上

,

服务第一

”

, refers to guests

being supreme and service to them coming first.

5

常熟理工学院毕业论文

However, commercials in western countries are seldom created the same as those in China,

due to their focus on individual identity, individual roles and self choice.

In addition, China is a country that emphasizes the importance of government and accepting

the authority of governmental functions.

Xu Shenghuan points out that

“words such as ‘

省优

’

（

provincial

Fine-quality

）

and

‘

国优

’

(n ational

Fine-quality)

are

used

by

30

percent

of

advertisements in China for marketing according to statistics

”

(Xu Shenghuan, 1990). However,

there

is

a

great

difference

in

recognizing

power

in

the

West.

The

attitude

of

the

American

people

towards

the

government

is

totally

different

from

that

of

Chinese

people.

Americans

believe in their own judgment, rather than governmental authority. Based on that, you can not

ignore the differences in English-to-Chinese commercial translations.

The following translations are evidence of that:

“

KC-30D

窗式空调器

1985

年获得轻工部颁发的优质产奖

”

“KCS

-12

窗 式空调器

1987

年获得天津市消费者协会颁发的

‘

月季花环杯

’”

“

KC-30

D

room

air

conditioner

got

the

‘quality

product’

prize

from

the

Ministry

of

Light

Industry of P.R.C in 1985”

“

KCS-12

room

air

conditioner

got

the

‘Rose

Cup

Award

’

from

the

Tianjin

Consumer

Association

in 1986”

In my opinion, the best thing to do is omit these types of remarks from the introduction of

products in foreign markets; for fear that doing so would cause the antipathy of the consumers.

2.2.3 Mistakes caused by differences in customs

The typical mistakes caused by differences in customs mostly lie in the different attitude to

animals and other cultural meanings expressed at a deep level. For example, the night owl is

also believed to be an unpropitious bird in China; in contrast, it stands for wisdom in the West.

Therefore, in English/Chinese translations, translators should be very prudent in translating

the names of animals for fear of pragmatic failure. For example , the famous Chinese batteries

“

白象

”, was translated into “White Elephant”, which is an unknown produc

t in England . This

is because “White Elephant”

is considered as a large and useless creature in the western culture.

What's more, when the name of an animal is to be translated, cultural factors should be put

into

consideration.

For

example

,

a

Chinese

underwear

brand

“

紫罗兰

”

,

was

translated

into

“Pansy”

in English . However, Professor Jin Huikang believes that

“

in English,

pansy

refers to

men who lack masculinity or are gay. So most male consumers are not willing to buy a product

bearing that name. Therefore,

violet

is a good substitution.

” (

Jin Huikang, 2003: 186).

2.2.4 Mistakes caused by political system differences

6