-
兰州交通大学
硕士研究生学位论文开题报告
学号：
0210652
姓名：黄蓉
专业：外国语言学及应用语言学
导师姓名及职称：郭磊
副教授
论文题目：
A Study on Advertising
Translation from the Perspective of Memetic_______
1. Introduction
1.1
Background and Significance of the Present Study
As more and more companies do their
business abroad and with the entry into WTO
and
the
huge
influence
of
the
2008-Olimpic-Games,
we
are
exporting
and
importing
different
kinds
of
products
all
over
the
world
more
and
more
frequently.
Therefore,
the
translation
of
Chinese
and
English
advertisement
will
play
an
increasingly
crucial
role
in
introduction
and
promotion
kinds
of
commodities.
The
choice
of
combing
advertising
translation with memetics is out of the
consideration that the contagious nature of memes
has
the
potential
to
harness
the
propagation
of
the
transferred
message
in
advertising
translation.
Under such a background,
many researchers and translators domestic and
abroad are
beginning
to
study
how
to
translate
advertisement
effectively.
And
many
advertising
translation theories have been put
forward and practiced by them. Those theories are
mainly
equivalence theory, Skopos
theory and adaption theory, etc.
A meme
is a unit of cultural imitation, a self-
propagating idea much like a computer
virus. It is invented to suggest a
strong analogy with genes. The effective nature of
memes
provides
memes
with
such
a
natural
relationship
with
advertisement
that
it
drives
many
marketers
to
conduct
their
advertising
research
or
design
advertisement
from
a
memetic
perspective.
Memetics is a
newly developed theory aiming to replicate the
development of language
and culture
from the perspective of Darwinism, which lays much
emphasis on the universal
connections
between
different
things
and
the
inheritance
of
cultural
elements
in
the
development
of
languages.
Memetics
reveals
the
law
of
language
development.
Advertisement
and
its
translation
have
close
connection
with
memes.
A
successful
advertisement
can
attract
customers
’
attention,
so
that
a
product
can
firmly
stay
in
consumers
’
memory. Effective memes should be those which can
cause a high degree of real
and
long-term
preservation
of
memory.
Thus,
it
is
feasible
to
apply
memetics
to
instruct
advertising
translation.
Memetics
has
practical
significance
to
the
practice
of
advertising
translation.
Unfortunately,
the research that has done on the combination of
advertising translation
and
the
emerging
memetics
is
not
enough.
And
the
research
on
advertising
translation
strategies
in
the
enlightenment
of
memetics
is
far
from
adequate.
The
significance
of
the
study
lies
in
the
establishment
of
a
systematic
theoretical
framework
of
advertising
translation which in turn increase the
like hood
for an
advertisement
to
be accepted
on a
large scale.
1.2
Objective of the Study
Memetics has
certain guiding significance to advertising
translation. Taking memetics
as its
framework, the thesis will provide translators
with theoretical guide helpful to evolve
feasible translation principle and
strategies, with which the translation of the
advertisement
can
better,
duplicate
the
original
information
and
improve
its
effectiveness.
Taking
the
limitations
of
previous
studies
on
advertising
translation
in
light
of
memetics
into
consideration,
this
thesis
attempts
to
improve
the
application
of
memetics
to
advertising
translation.
With
an
introduction
to
ways
of
replication
and
transmission
of
memes,
the
author
will put forward four types of translation
strategies in the guidance of memetics and
also make further case studies on these
strategies. Specific strategies of how to create
strong
meme
in
the
target
language
and
how
to
encode
memes
into
target
language
will
be
proposed. It is sincerely hoped that
this thesis will enlighten translators and
researchers of
advertisement and make a
little contribution to the prosperity of
translation studies and to
the
progression of advertising translation.
1.3 Structure of the Thesis
Chapter
One
is
a
brief
introduction
to
the
thesis
and
states
the
background,
the
significance and the objective of the
study.
Chapter Two is the
literature review.
Chapter
Three is the theoretical framework of the thesis.
Chapter
Four
would
do
a
more
comprehensive
analysis
of
the
translation
of
advertisements
from
the
memetic
approach
based
on
the
selected
data,
which
is
the
emphasis of this paper.
The
last
Chapter
is
the
conclusion.
In
this
part,
the
author
intends
to
summarize
the
major findings and limitations of this
thesis.
2. Literature Review
As
consumers,
people
are
exposed
to
hundreds
or
even
thousands
of
commercial
messages,
both
domestic
and
abroad,
every
day.
However,
advertising
translation
was
almost
completely
overlooked
by
translation
studies
for
many
years.
Fortunately,
the
emergence of
multinational companies makes advertising more and
more persuasive in our
daily life and
contributes to the study of advertising
translation. Some scholars and experts
have dwelled on this topic from various
perspectives, although they are not systematic.
This
chapter will examine how far the
evolution of advertising translation theory has
managed to
cope with the special
circumstances of advertising translation.
2.1 Studies on Advertising Translation
Pieer
Hurbin
is
accepted
as
the
pioneer
of
advertisement
translation.
In
his
article,
Hurbin(1972)
demonstrates
the
translatability
of
advertisement
and
suggests
ways
of
translating.
Hurbin
’
s
time
was
characterized
by
the
notion
of
equivalence
that
much
research
on
advertising
translation
emphasizes
the
equivalence
of
source
language
and
target language. With
the flourishing of functional theory, researchers
turn to text material.
Resis (1989)
takes advertisement as a persuasive tool,
translation of which should be in line
with
consumers
’
psychology
and
conventions.
Nord
(1991)
considers
the
advertising
translation in terms of intercultural
communication and insists that translation should
have
the same cultural function in the
target language. The year of 2004 ushers in a hot
debate on
the nature of advertisement
translation.
The Translator
publishes several articles of different
viewpoints. The debate draws researches
from pure methodology to ontology of advertising
translation.
Domestic
studies on this subject began in the late
20
th
century. In the early
period, most
researchers
focus
on
the
principle
and
strategies
of
advertisement
translation.
Jiang
Lei
(1994)
holds
the
view
that
translators
should
follow
the
principles
of
semantic,
socio-cultural,
and stylistic equivalence, and he also proposes
four strategies of advertising
translation,
i.e.
agreement,
replacement,
emphasis
and
compensation.
Ding
Shude
(1995)
puts
more emphasis
on conciseness
in
translation.
Li
Xiangde (1989)
argues the usage of
literal
translation, free translation, and rhetoric of
Chinese idioms. Later, many researchers
study advertisement under the guidance
of some theories, either domestic or borrowed. Lin
Kenan
(2003)
publishes
an
article,
for
example,
to
illustrate
the
urge
for
theoretical
interference.
During
that
time,
various
theories,
such
as
functional
equivalence
theory,
reader-centered
theory, was introduced into advertising
translation.
2.2 Memetic Research on
Advertising
The essential purpose of advertising is
to infect, or say to inform potential consumers
of
the
product
information.
Once
the
product
is
favorably
accepted,
the
advertisement
is
considered
successful.
In
this
regard,
advertisement
is
to
customers
what
meme
is
to
its
potential vectors. Only
those which are able to infect new hosts can be
passed from person
to person and
finally win the competition.
Geoff Ayling (1998) firstly
notices this inner connection of the two
conceptions, and
discusses advertising
from the perspective of memetics. Ailing defines
meme in the context
of advertising.
“I
n the context of
advertising, a meme is an idea or a concept that
has been
refined,
distilled,
stripped
down
to
its
bare
essentials
and
then
super-simplified
in
such
a
way that anybody can grasp its meaning
instantly and effortlessly
”
(Ayling, 1998:4). Two
natures are
derived from the definition, i.e. contagious
nature and subliminal nature.
As a
meme in
advertising spreads
infectiously, three
prerequisites must
be achieved, which are
respectively
extremely
simple,
emotional
impact,
and
critical
mass
((Ayling,
1998:2).
Jay
Conrad Levinson (1998)
talks about making use of memetics to propagandize
producrs. To
him,
a
meme
is
“
a
self-
explanatory
symbol,
using
words,
action,
sounds,
or
pictures
that
communicate an entire
idea
”
(Levinson, 1998:4).
Levinson, based on his understanding of
meme in advertising, emphasizes
meme
’
s significant function,
that is, to affect people most
efficiently
by
using
least
words
conveying
most
information.
Paul
Marsden
(1998)
does
practical research and
tries to develop the technique of memetic
engineering and build up
models
of
“
memetic
”
customers
mind
map,
in
order
to
propose
measures
for
enterprise’s
marketing.
Domestic
researchers
have
done
memetic
researches
on
advertising
language
and
advertising
translation
since
the
20
th
century.
Wu
Xinxin
(2007)
thoroughly
analyze
the
relation
between
language
and
meme,
proposes
the
selection
criteria
for
advertising
language creation. Cai Zhaohui (2008)
in her paper demonstrates devices for advertisers
to
enrich
the
advertising
language
from
the
perspective
of
memetics.
Ren
Rongrong
(2007)
discusses the selection process of meme
and suggests some methods of how to create strong
brand name memes. Huang Hui (2008) and
Shi Xiaoying (2009) both pay attention to the
memetic research on advertising
translation. They make helpful exploration on
advertising
meme
replication
in
the
process
of
advertising
translation.
However,
they
fail
to
propose
specific strategies
of how to create strong meme in the target
language and how to encode
memes into
target language.
3. Theoretical
Framework
What
is
meme?
There are many
definitions.
For example, a meme is
an information
pattern,
held
in
an
individual
’
s
memory,
which
is
capable
of
being
copied
to
another
individual
’
s
memory.
Memetics
is
the
theoretical
and
empirical
science
that
studies
the
replication, spread and evolution of
memes (Heylighten, 1998). This includes anything
that
can be learned or remembered:
ideas, knowledge, habits, beliefs, skills, images,
etc.
3.1 Definition and
Characteristics Memes and Memetics
Memes as the unit of cultural element
play a very important role in the transmission of
languages and cultures. Memes were
originally described by Richard Dawkins in his
book
The Selfish Gene
(1976)
a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of
imitation.
Memetics,
as
an
evolutionary
theory
about
human
culture,
studies
the
evolutionary
models of information transfer based on
the concept of the meme. Memetics reveals the law
of language development; provides a new
perspective on language research, communication
and culture.
The replication
and transmission of
language
memes provide a quick
and
an
effective way to enrich human languages
and a new perspective on translation.
The
internal
nature
of
human
memory
determines
some
memes
can
easily
and
successfully be remembered. These
natures of human beings favor the transmission of
some
memes and others do not. In
The Selfish Gene
, Dawkins
writes,
“Imitation
is how
meme can
replicate
…
Some
memes
are
more
successful
in
the
meme-pool
than
others
…
But
in
general,
they must be the same as those discussed:
longevity, fecundity, copy-fidelity.
That is to say, in order to be
successfully replicated and transmitted,
successful memes
should have copying-
fidelity, fecundity and longevity.
3.3 Ways for Memes to Be Replicated and
Transmitted
The
transmission
of
memes
is
not
the
process
during
which
content
and
form
are
exactly
identical
from
the
original
one
to
the
replicated
one.
According
to
Blackmore
’
s,
professor
He
Ziran
gives
the
following
classification:
memetic
genetype
and
memetic
phenotype.
And
according
to
He
Ziran,
there
are:
(1)
memetic
genotype
—
the
same
core
content
inherited in various language forms. For example,
with different times and different
regions, waitresses were once named:
“
comrade
”
(
同志
)
，
“
master worker
”
(
师傅
)
，
“
lady
”
（小姐）
< br>，
“
sister
”
(
小妹
) and
“<
/p>
cuihua
”
（翠花）
. (2) memetic
phenotype
—
the identical set
pattern of language followed by
different contents. For example: once can
find
“托”
in
“婚
托，
房托，商托，
医托”
，
etc.
3.4 Enlightenment of Memetics to
Advertising Translation
Memetics has
some advantages which are summarized as follows:
Firstly,
in
terms
of
development
of
language,
memetics
puts
its
concern
on
the
replication
and
transmission
of
language,
which
embodies,
explains
and
improves
the
development of language. Secondly,
speaking
in
theoretical
sense,
memetics
provides
an
entirely new theory for
studies in many fields, such as advertising and
translation, etc. Last
but not least,
speaking in sense of modern aesthetics, it
conforms to the times and follows
the
law of development, in a word, it is fashionable.
As a matter of fact, memetics has a
natural and close relationship with translation
deals
with language, since memes have
such inseparable connections with language.
Susan
Blackmore
gives
a
meemtic
solution
to
the
mystery
of
human
language
origins,
in
her
famous
book
The
Meme
Machine
(1999).
She
suggests
that
memetics
provides
a
new
approach
to
the
origin
and
evolution
of
language.
When
human
beings
began to imitate each other, as a
second replicator, memes were born about two and
half or
three million years ago. In
this process of replication, the highest-quality
memes succeeded.
The early speakers not
only
copied the best
speakers in
their society
but
also
mated with
them. With imitating becoming
widespread, it gradually created natural selection
pressures
on genes whose selective
environment changed and forced them to evolve
better and better
meme-spreading
apparatus (1999).
In
summary,
language
is
the
carrier
of
memes
and
its
function
is
to
spread
memes.
Mimetically,
language
memes
reveals,
from
a
new
perspective,
the
law
of
language
replication and language transmission.
3.5 Data Collection and Methodology
The
present
data
will
be
composed
of
consumer
advertising
and
service
advertising,
including the original advertisement
and its translated version mainly from network,
related
books, newspapers, magazines,
some previous papers, etc.
So far as methodology is concerned, the
thesis is qualitative-based and integrates the
theoretical explanation and practice.
Detailed comparative analysis on different
versions of
advertisements
will
highlight
the
importance
of
selecting
strong
memes
in
advertising
translation to
maintain their longevity in foreign countries.
Induction and deduction are also
applied to the thesis because
strategies of advertising translation can be
generated from the
exploration of meme
translation process and can better direct
practice.
4. Translation Strategies of
Advertisement
It is clear that the
characteristics of advertisements enable the
application of memes in
the
translation
of
advertisement,
since
they
are
so
naturally
linked
together.
And
the
characteristics
of
memes
are
just
what
a
successful
advertisement
needs,
in
order
to
be
memorized, accepted and
spread in the target language countries.
According to
Blackmore
’
s
“
The Meme
Machine
”
, professor He Ziran
(2005) gives this
classification:
memetic genotype and memetic phenotype. These are
two ways for memes to
be
replicated
and
transmitted.
According
to
the
ways
for
memes
to
be
replicated
and
transmitted,
there
are
mainly
four
strategies
in
advertisement
translation
in
light
of
memetics, namely, replication,
imitation, reorganization and displacement. In the
following
text, the author will talk
about the application of these strategies in the
practice of business
advertising
translation.
4.1 Replication
Replication
means
complete
copies
of
the
present
idiom,
mottos,
poems,
proverbs,
songs,
etc.
without
changing
a
word.
In
order
to
be
spread
successfully
among
target
language, replication
should also accommodate to contexts---the memetic
copies should fit
in the contexts. For
example, a Chinese fruit company has its English
slogan for apples like
this: An apple a
day keeps the doctor away.
(
每天一个苹果，
疾病远离我。
)
It is a traditional
saying
known
by
almost
everyone
from
western
countries.
Therefore,
the
advertisement
achieves
psychological
adaptation
and
it
may
be
easily
accepted
and
receive
good
effect.
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