英语专业毕业论文 中英语言与文化差异对广告翻译的影响

英语专业毕业论文

中英语言与文化差异对广告翻译的影响Influences of Language and Cultural Differences on the

Advertising Translation

Abstract: Advertisement has become one of the most important products 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. Western languages are rule-dominated, while the Chinese is dominated by people. There are many differences in the structure of language,and when describe somethings in advertisement, Chinese tends to imagine, but English tends to preciseness. A good trademark translation embodies the perfect combination of translation technology and aesthetics. Different culture has different impact on advertising translation including history, value, custom and so on. This paper gives a detailed analysis of advertisement translation, and some valuable examples.

Keywords: Advertisement ; advertising translation ; culture; language

摘要：广告已成为一种非常重要的文化产品之一，在当今时代，广告已经成为不同地域之间的一种沟通的方式，它的方式通常是说服潜在客户购买或消费自己的产品和服务。更重要的是广告语言的特点是具有文化和时代背景。西方语言以规则为主导，而中国却以人为主导；由于语言结构的不同，当他们描述事物时，中文注重幻想，但英语注重准确。一个好的商标翻译体现了翻译技术完美结合，不同的文化在广告翻译中具有非常重要的影响，它包括历史，价值，习俗等。本文对广告翻译进行了详细分析，还有一些有价值的例子。

关键词：广告; 广告翻译; 文化; 语言

Contents

1. Introduction (3)

2. language impact of advertising Translation (3)

2.1 The differences of the structure of language in the Sino-British advertising (3)

2.2 the defferences of choosing the words (4)

2.3 the differences of pronunciation of the words in Sino-British advertising. (5)

3. The impact of culture on advertising Translation (6)

3.1 The impact of Historical and cultural on advertising translation (6)

3.2 Value reflected in the advertisement translation. (7)

3.3 Cultural custom impact on advertising translation (8)

4. Definition of domestication (9)

5.Conclusion (10)

References (12)

Acknowledgments (13)

Influences of Language and Cultural Differences on the

Advertising Translation

1. Introduction

As to cultural products, advertising reflects the close relationship between language and culture directly. Advertising language is a special kind of art form which has profound cultural background. The trend of times also affects the language and culture n advertising and decides whether the translation and advertising effectiveness is good or bad. Therefore, the translator needs not only a solid foundation of language but also an in-depth understanding of the two different cultures. This paper analyzes the influence o f language and cultural differences on the advertising translation from the aspect of language, emphasis can be put on three areas: the structure of language, vocabulary choice and pronunciation to illustrate the importance of language translation for advertising, at the same time, the corresponding examples are cited, so that the reader has an intuitive feeling of the importance of language; as to the cultural field, it explains the importance of culture from the three areas of history, values, and cultural in the advertising translation.at the end of my paper.At the end of my paper, I gave the definition of domestication in the advertising translation as complement .

2. language impact of advertising Translation

2.1 The differences of the structure of language in the Sino-British advertising

Mr. Shen Xiaolong has said that the Western languages are rule-dominated, while

the Chinese is dominated by people. In other words, Chinese is a meaning-centered language, the grammar rules are relatively free, and sentences are flexible, the vocabulary may be longer or shorter, part of speech are diverse and variable. For the Western languages, the dominant position of grammar, sentence mainly composed of verb and verb phrase can not change lightly.

For example: The slogan of the Nokia “Connecting People”. I t’s not a complicatated sentence, consist o f a predicate and a noun, also the grammatical structure is very standardized and simple. However, the two words are very powerful, and they’re easy to acknowledge people the three-dimensional feel of the product. However, the structure of language can not be arbitrarily changed. When translating it into Chinese, the subject “technology” should be proposed, and the importance of the human language of the art is better to be stressed.

There are many modifier in the Chinese advertising which focus on emotional expression, on the contrary, the expression of English advertising is very simple as it focus on information transfer. For example:

满树金花，芳香四溢的金桂；花白如雪，香气扑鼻的桂银；红里透黄，花多味浓的紫砂桂；花色似银，季季有花的四季桂，竞相开放，竞相开放，争研媲美。进入桂花公园，阵阵的桂花花香扑鼻而来.

When the sentence above is to be translated into English advertising, considering the differences of langnage structures, those descriptive words in the source language should be deleted. The literal translation can be like this:

“The park of osmanthus is noted for its profusion of osmanthus. Flowers from these in different colors are in full bloom which pervade the whole garden with the fragrance of their blossoms.”

Changes of structure in Chinese language are very rich and diverse . As the way to reflect the artistic expression, part of speech often changes; but the English language structure is relatively fixed and standardized, what’s more, it can express things with simple sentences.

2.2 the defferences of choosing the words

In describing things, Chinese is fancy, but English is accurate. Chinese people is good at expressing their feelings by writing, and beautiful words to express their

admiration and appreciation for beautiful things, and giving a number of subjective imagination and feelings. In Chinese advertising, we will often find a lot of descriptive words, like “high class”; “perfect”; “special”; “incredible”. This descriptive language can attract the attention of consumers, consumers will be more and more interested in the product , to a better propaganda effect, and achieve the purpose of persuading consumers to buy, but many of them also have exaggerated elements. In the English ads,the word “good”is often used. The words of the English advertising focus on the accurate description of product information, and point out the pros and cons of specific products, pay more attention to the authenticity of things, the selected words are generally more objective and rational and try to maintain a concise style.

“Good to the last drop.” Maxwell House Coffee and “The taste is great.” Nescafe. Translators often face an uphill battle with misinformed clients who have misconceptions about translators and the translation profession. Many times translators have to talk to the clients about the industry in order to debunk the myths that seem to keep on circulating year after year.

2.3 the differences of pronunciation of the words in Sino-British advertising.

The differences of pronunciation on advertising in general is the trademark of translation. A trademark is the name of goods, while the name can give limitless source of fascination and expectations.

For example , “puma” is a trademark of a sportswear brand, its Chinese translation is “彪马”, the literal meaning is totally difference,but the pronunciation of “彪马” is much similar to “puma”, and the meaning of “彪马”can express “puma” better, and it is easier for Chinese people to accept and understand the brand. However, literal translation can not achieve the effect of its own.

Trademark translation has vital practical significance, and make the translation of the original language appropriate and accurate without losing artistic and characteristics of the name, for achieve wide publicity and promotional merchandise purpose; simultaneously it is also full of theoretical significance, not only broaden the space of linguistic research and a rich linguistic meaning, but also promote research and practical application of linguistic theory to be a organic integration. Only being good at figuring out the consumer's psychology, respecting for national customs, applying various

methods and techniques in the trademarks of translation appropriately, it can be able to win in the warfare of trademark translation, guide consumption and promote consumption.

A good product should be coupled with a nice catchy name which is just like t he icing on the cake. A good trademark translation embodies the perfect combination of translation technology and aesthetics.

3. The impact of culture on advertising Translation

3.1 The impact of Historical and cultural on advertising translation

In the international market, for the company, how to introduce their products to consumers in other countries through advertising translation, thereby enhancing product credibility and sales is crucial. As the differences in language, customs and ways of thinking, cultural differences are important factor in the process of advertising translation, which can not be ignored. The neglect of cultural background will lead to some pragmatic failure, impact on the competitiveness of products in the international trade. The cultural differences among different countries is a big problem which can not be ignored in international advertising .

Advertisement and culture have reciprocal and bidirectional relationship. From macro level, advertisement industry accelerates the development of social economy. Due to the reasons of geographical and historical, every nationality has formed a unique cultural and psychological characteristics, if you want the advertising translation circulating in other nations, the first thing should be done is to allow translation in line with the audience's culture and psychology.

Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation used the following advertising to promote their products to the U.S. market:“Not all cars created equal”. It is a clever imitation of the “All men are created equal”in the “Declaration of Independence”. Changing the affirmative sentences into negative sentence, expressing the car is better than other car’s performance. This translation is much more closer to the consumer’s culture psychology, psychology of customers have a strong impact on it. When Mitsubishi promoted their product to the Chinese , its advertising is "古有千里马，今有三菱车". It used the minds of "千里马" in the Chinese people's cultural image, so that products in the minds of the Chinese people has a three-dimensional impression. Mitsubishi Motors

achieved in the two countries, the two advertisings which are rich in imagination played very important roles in its success.

A perfume of France would like to enter the Chinese market, its chinese name called “鸦片”, the company want to highlight the charm of its products, but the market fierce criticism from Chinese consumers. Since the company did not understand the chinese hatred to opium because of the psychological and historical factors, it unconsciously hurt Chinese people's national self-esteem. Therefore, it’s a unsuccessful advertisement.

3.2 Value reflected in the advertisement translation.

Value is often prescriptive, warning people what is good and bad, what is right and wrong, what is true and false and what is positive and negative. People in the different area have different value. Thus, a good advertising translation must take the different values into account.

The emphasis of Chinese cultural is on collective ideas and collective interests, the pursuit of our common ideas. So many lyrics like “大家好才是真的好” ;“用了都说好”;“男女老少皆宜”in the chinese advertisements are fully embody Chinese people's cultural identity , as chinese people consider that the product will be really good if everyone thinks it’s good. By seizing C hinese consumers’mind when they are purchasing, those merchants persuade consumers to buy their products. So collective behavior is an significant factor in Chinese advertisement. Professor Yang, a Chinese American, holds the idea that Chinese people pay attention to the texts of products in the advertisement, its cultural background is the ethic and religion which come from Taoist, Buddhists and Confucians.

Westerners pay more attention to individuality and independence. Westerners is more willing to use “you” to convince consumers that they are being respected, and let the consumers desire what to buy. “Gold Blend,the only coffee to serve” is the Nescafe Gold Blend advertising. “Drink Baker, follow the trace of your own”is a Baker Beer advertising. In practice, the translator should fully take all differences of culture and values into account.

The following sentence is excerpted from an advertisement of an American magazine. "He is his own man. An individualist". "individuaist" is always translated into "个人主义者" or "利己主义者". Meanwhile, it could not be considered as equivalent

because of the differences in cultural values. The word "individualist" in English contains positive and commendatory meaning. It is used to describe a kind of people who prizes personal right and is willing to show his or her personality. However, "个人主义者" in Chinese is a derogatory term which means self-concern. They seek benefits for themselves at the expense of others. Consequently, the translator must readjust the original text on the basis of apprehending cultural values, otherwise, it is impossible to realize intended function of the advertisement. "一个有主见的人，一个有个性的人。" is a better version in terms of both understanding and psychological effects on the target people.

3.3 Cultural custom impact on advertising translation

The translation of advertisements has evolved during the last decade towards what is now called “Advertising Locali zation”. It is not a mere change of designation stemming from computer science vocabulary but a radical change of perspective concerning the real nature and modes of linguistic and cultural transfer from one language into another. The present article explains, in detail, the evolution that took place, its expressions and its stakes in the profession and training of translators in the field of localization.

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 value s. 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.

The cultural differences reflect on the language, especially on the advertising language. Therefore, there are certain concepts which can be activates by an English word but not by its Chinese equivalent. It is quite possible that a Chinese version of an American advertisement may not trigger the intended response in the Chinese consumers, and what’s worse, it may not be understood by them.

Hence, the more a translator knows about how a cultural group view such things as

humor, interpersonal relationship, life and work style, the more successfully he or she will be able to produce an effective advertisement translation.

The audience of advertisement is consumer. When translating an advertisement into another language, the translator must study the consumer behavior in that country. Many factors influence consumer s’behavior, including cultural background, political views, religious belief, individual preference, age, sex, income, consumption habit and so on. Cultural factors include culture, politics, religion, habit, etc. Social culture influences even limits this kind of language and expression, meanwhile, the advertisement language contains and reflects the social culture. Cultural barriers refer to the cultural factors which have negative impact on the effect of advertisement publicity. For example, the English word “dragon” is often associated with fire and portrayed as breathing fire, or else as a creature of that primeval chaos which was to be destroyed only through disciplined marshaling of mental and physical prowess; but its corresponding word “龙” in Chinese is usually understood as a symbol of happiness, capable of producing the potion of immortality (Biedermann, 1989). If “金龙牌” was translated as “Golden Dragon”, it would have negative effect among western community.

4. Definition of domestication

One of the two tendencies of translation studies during the past two decades in the marked shift of attention from language transformation to cultural transformation; the other one is application of communication theory in translation studies. The integration of the two tendencies is to regard translation as an activity of intercultural communication. The term “translation” is even replace by “intercultural communication” (Christiane Nord，1991), “intercultural cooperation” (Holz-Manttari，1984), “acculturation” (Andre Lefevere，1992) and “transculturation” (R. Daniel Shaw ，1988) .

The initial sender of the message (the original author) is in a culture different from what the final receiver of the message (the target reader) is in, hence how to handle the cultural gap is a hot topic in translation studies. Inevitably, domestication and foreignization become the focus of the controversy in this field.

Domestication and foreignization are the two advanced by American deconstructionist translation theorist Lawrence Venuti to describe the two different

translation strategies. They directly stem from German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher’s telling argument that “there are only two. Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towar ds him”. (Venuti，1995) in his famous lecture “On the Different Methods of Translating” (1813). According to Venuti’s opinions, Dictionary of Translation Studies defines domestication as follows: “a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for TL readers.” Foreignization has the definition as follows: “a TT is produced which deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original.” (Shulttleworth and Cowie, 1997，p.43,44,59). Domestication and foreignization take place at many levels. They not only involve linguistic elements, but also concern cultural constituents. What’s more, they relate to politics. In the present thesis, the discussion pays little attention to politics.

5.Conclusion

Cultural differences have become a non-ignorable factor in advertisement. In order to attract and even stimulate potential customers, the advertisers must make their efforts to produce creative and memorable works.Advertisement is not only an economic activity, but also a cultural communication. The advertisement is a propaganda form which is the sales of commodity of cross-nation and cross-culture. The translator is in a important position to apply advertisement languages. At the same time, they confront any kinds of difficulties because of the different culture and language of different counties. Advertising Translation reflected the cultural differences. Advertising translator should thoroughly understand the differences between the two different culture. It not only make the advertising translation promote the sale of goods, but also reflects the advertisement’s important contribution of culture in people's lives.

As advertising is playing an increasingly greater part in economic activities, more and more scholars devote their effort to advertising translation. However, with the help of the various translation methods such as transliteration, free translation, and literal translation, advertisement translaters sometimes still fail to function satisfactorily. For this problem, we may get some insight from what Nida has said: “the target audience for

which a translation is made almost always constitutes a major factor in determining the translation procedures and the level of language t o be employed.” (1993,p.139) So the point of advertising translation is to enable the advertising function well among target culture receivers. Now that advertising is a global form of communication and it is a primary tool for companies to gain brand awareness and promote their products or services,

The goal of advertising translation is to persuade target language consumers to buy a product or service. To attract and communicate to them in a way that produces this desired result, translators must acquaint themselves with target language consumer’s way of thinking, with those factors that motivate them to buy, and with the environment where they live. In this sense advertising translating is more of a marketing practice. A good advertisement translator must be a first artistic writer. He or she must first be able to know clear about the cultural difference; and then to identify the cultural constraints in a given advertisement; the last is to facilitate across-culture communication by overcoming the obstacle set by the constraints. In all, a good advertiser can do the contribution to the products’ sale.

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胡敏王喜九. 浅谈中西方文化差异与广告翻译. 湖南长沙, 2006.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank miss du for her invaluable guidance, enthusiasm and support throughout the course of this work. I am also very grateful to Jennie for her helpful comments and insightful suggestions during the research and writing of this thesis. And taking her time to be my external examiner.

Many other people have helped and contributed their time to the research of this thesis. My thanks to miss min, and mark for their invaluable comments and suggestions. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude toward everyone in the English Department of Yinxing Hospitality Management College of CUIT, especially jet, snow wolf, for their valuable suggestions and help in these years of study as well as their friendship. Thanks to all the other friends I have made at Yinxing Hospitality Management College of CUIT for making my stay at this college an enjoyable period of time.

I will always be indebted to my family, especially my parents. I would like to thank them for their support and confidence in me. My gratitude goes to everyone at home. This thesis would not have been possible without all their kindness and encouragement.