中英广告翻译中的文化差异

Cultural Differences in English-Chinese

Advertisement Translation

中英广告翻译中的文化差异

学生姓名：

魏杨杨

所在系 别：

____

外国语言文学系

所学专业：

英

语

完成时间：

2014

年

5

月

Contents

Abstract

………………………………………………

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

i

摘要

…………………………… ……………………………………

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

…

ii

I. In troduction

……………………………………………………

...............................1

Relationship Between Culture and Advertising Language

………………

..

1

2.1 Language and Culture

…………………………………………………………

1

< br>

2.2 Advertisement and Culture

……………………………………………………

.2

2.3 Advertisement Language and Culture

…………… …………...

.........................2

III. Culture-Specific in Advertisement Translation

.............. ....................................2

3.1 Differences in related cultural bac kground

……………………………

...

…

..3

3.2 Differences in cultural value.................................... .......................................3

3.3 Differences in numbers............. .................................................. ....................3

IV. The Principle of English-Chinese Advertisement Translation

…………

..........4

4.1 Understand target language culture adequately........................................ ......4

4.2 Balance the relationship between metaphrase and paraphrase.......................4

4.3 Adopt transliteration and free translation........ ...............................................4

V. Conclusion

.............. .................................................. ...............................................5 < /p>

Bibliography

................. .................................................. ..............................................6

Abstract

As

Mark

Twain

says

that

many

a

small

thing

has

been

made

large

by

the

right

kind

of advertising, advertisement

has become one of the most important

product

of

culture

in

the

modern

age.

It

is

a

form

of

communication

that

typically

attempts

to

persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume products or service of a brand.

Especially, advertising language is characterized by cultural and age background.

Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export,

international, multi-national and global. Nowadays, since the economic globalization,

the relationship

between advertisement

and

culture become more

closely. This

paper

gives

a

detailed

analysis

of

culture-specific

in

advertisement

translation

and

then

probes into some effective methods of its translation

Key words:

advertisement translation; culture difference; language

摘

要

马克吐温曾经说过，很多微小的事 物通过广告而使其功能扩大化。在当今世界，

广告已成为最重要的文化产品之一。

它是一种试图去引导消费者消费产品或服务

的一种典型的交流形式。广 告语言有典型的文化特征。

广告经历了五个重要的发展阶段： 国内化，向外发展，国际化，多国文化交融，

全球化。如今，自从经济全球化以来，广告 与文化的关系变得日益密切。本篇文

章主要针对广告翻译中的文化进行详细的分析以及探 讨一下翻译的一些重要策

略。

关键词：广告翻译；文化差异；语言

I.

American

Marketing

Association

defines

advertising

as

the

nonpersonal

communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about

products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. However,

whatever the strategies advertiser takes, language is an essential carrier of inspiration.

There are many unsuccessful cases of advertisement translation which lead no sale for

product. The main reason is that the translator doesn't have adequate understanding of

target culture, and is limited by superficial meaning of the text. In order to attract the

target

especially

non-domestic

consumers,

it

is

a

significant

task

to

be

aware

of

the

differences

between

Chinese

culture

and

western

culture,

and

the

key

to

translate

advertisement

is

to

have

the

same

strong

influence

on

the

people

who

read

the

translated version.

Introduction

II. The Relationship Between Culture and Advertising Language

2.1 Language and Culture

There

are

various

cultural

types

such

as

national

culture

and

foreign

culture,

while they have common feature that almost each culture exists in a form of language.

Although lots of factors result in the formation of culture, its spread relies on some

certain

forms.

The

practice

indicates

that

language

use

is

heavily

tinted

with

its

culture. We can infer that a language not only expresses facts, ideals, or events which

represent

similar

world

knowledge

by

its

people,

but

also

reflects

the

people

’

s

attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks etc. In a word, language expresses cultural reality.

2.2 Advertisement and Culture

Advertisement

and culture have reciprocal

and bidirectional

relationship. From

macro level, advertisement industry accelerates the development of social economy.

From micro level , the advertisement is one of the agents which lead to the reform of

culture.

Contemporary

culture

contains

the

advertisement,

meanwhile,

it

is

also

the

disseminator

and

creator

of

the

culture.

While

publicizing

products

or

services,

the

advertisement

unconsciously

outputs

some

cultural

awareness

and

changes

people

’

s

thinking ways or values. Let

’

s take Coca-Cola advertisement for example. Its original

message

is

“

I

can

’

t

catch

that

feeling

”

.

But

Japanese

version

means

“

I

enjoy

Coca-Cola

”

and Italian version means

“

The unique feeling

”

. Therefore, it implies that

only

the

advertisement

information

truly

reflects

local

culture

will

it

live

up

to

the

cultural expectation.

2.3 Advertisement Language and Culture

Advertisement

language

is

the

core

of

an

ads.

Social

culture

influences

even

limits this kind of language and expression, meanwhile, the advertisement language

contains and reflects the social culture. The advertisement exists in a society which

means philosophical concept, thinking mode, cultural psychology, moral caliber and

cultural habits of a nation certainly have a great effect on the advertisement language.

In the fact, people tend to accept such messages that arouse their sense of identity.

For

instance,

the

publicity

of

a

product

or

service

closely

related

to

sexy

life

sometimes in English advertisement. In order to increase its allure, we can find such

words

as

condoms or sex in

it. Although western people

are accustomed to

it, these

kinds of advertisements have definitely surpassed the cultural psychological endurance

of common people in China. So apprehension of the advertisement language should be

based on local culture.

III. Culture-Specific in Advertisement Translation