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1、English-Chinese Advertisement Culture and TranslationAbstractAdvertisement is not only an economic activity, but also a cultural communication. In China, the authoritative definition of advertisement is the Advertisement Law of the Peoples Republic of China. “Advertisement” refers to “Any commercial
2、 advertisement, which passes certain media or forms, directly or indirectly introducing their commodities being sold or services being provided”. Advertisement culture includes the culture of goods and the culture of market. The advertisement is a propaganda form which is the sales of commodity of c
3、ross-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. In evidence, the translation of the advertisement is different fr
4、om the other stylistics. The translator should have universal knowledge including language, culture of society, folkway, aesthetics, psychics, economics and advertisements principle. At the same time, the translators also adopt new strategies when they translate.KeyWords:Advertisement; cross-cultura
5、l; communication; differences; strategy; 摘要广告活动不仅是一种的经济活动，还是一种文化交流。在中国，广告的权威性定义是指中华人民共和国的广告法。广告指的是通过特定的媒体或者其他形式来推销产品或提供服务的商业广告，直接或间接的介绍他们的出售产品和提供的服务。广告文化是从属于商业文化的亚文化，自身又包含了商品文化以及营销文化。广告则是跨国界、跨文化的商品营销的宣传形式。中国的国际广告实施过程中，在广告语言的运用方面，翻译工作者起着举足轻重的作用，同时也面临着由于各国文化与语言差异所带来的各种困难。国际广告的翻译显然不同于其它文体的翻译，译者需具备语言、社会
6、文化、民俗、美学、心理学、经济学、广告原理等多方面的知识，翻译时也须采用新的策略。关键词: 国际广告;跨文化; 交流;差异;策略 IntroductionChinese economy has already entered the world market. Advertisement which is a fundamental marketing tool plays an important role in Chinese economy. And it contributes much to the entrance of products sale and services to
7、the world market. As a phenomenon of the market economy, the study of advertisement in the West has a history of more than thirty years. In contrast, the study of it in China is still in its infancy. Though a lot of articles and works have been done on the research of advertisement these years, they
8、 are superficial. And the research of advertisement translation still remains blank except for several articles sparkling in journals. So it is necessary to do a study in this perspective. I will start with analyzing the differences of advertisement culture and the differences of language. Then cont
9、inue to explore new strategies in the advertisement translation. I. The Overview of AdvertisementA. The Definition of Advertisement There are various definitions of advertisement according to different perspectives or purposes. Albert Lasker, the father of modern advertisement, said advertisement wa
10、s “salesmanship in print.” This saying indicates that the ultimate objective of advertisement is to sell. However, with the development of media and the expansion of the nature and scope of advertisement, this saying is quite limited.Encyclopedia Britannica defines advertisement as follows:“Advertis
11、ement is a form of communication intended to promote the sale of a product or service, to influence public opinion, to gain political support, to advance a particular cause, or to elicit some other response desired by the advertiser. Advertisement is distinguished from other forms of communication i
12、n that the advertiser pays the media to deliver the message.”(Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume I, 1994)This definition extends the objective of advertisement to persuading people to do response. It indicates that advertisement is a form of communication, and it further points out that advertisement i
13、s different from other forms of communication in that the advertiser pays the media to deliver the message.In this study, I shall use the definition put forward by William F. Arenas and Courtland L.Bovee, which is a quite comprehensive one: “Advertisement is the no personal communication of informat
14、ion, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods and services) of ideas by identified sponsors through various media.We should comprehend this definition as below:(1)Advertisement is directed to groups of people rather than individuals (no personal). The groups of people
15、 are the intended or the target audience of the advertisement communication.(2)Most advertisement is paid for by sponsors, except some public service ads.(3)Most advertisement is intended to be persuasive to convince people to buy products or services, but some ads promote the images of enterprises.
16、(4)The sponsor must be identified. It appears as trademark, brand name of products or services, or the name of an enterprise in the advertisement.(5)Advertisement reaches us through media.In China, the authoritative definition of advertisement is in the Advertisement Law of the Peoples Republic of C
17、hina. “Advertisement” refers to “Any commercial advertisement, which a commodity operator or service provider pays for, through certain media or forms, directly or indirectly introducing their commodities being sold or services being provided”B. The Functions of AdvertisementGenerally speaking, the
18、functions of advertisement fall into two categories: the economic functions and the ideological functions.The economic role of advertisement may be its primary role. It bridges markets, products and consumer goods to the public and thus to support the free economy. It can help the consumers to ident
19、ify and differentiate products and build brand preference and loyalty. To make an in-depth study, we find that advertisement involves social values and attitudes. Nowadays, more and more advertisement adopts the style of emotion appeal. They suggest our concerns about relationship, our sense of soci
20、al status, happiness and contentment and many others. It may be said that advertisement is a mirror of ideology and culture. By imposing images on the products and services, advertisement can influence our attitudes and feelings and meet our ideological needs so as to persuade us to act. For instanc
21、e, some advertisers claim that the consumption of their products will give youth, love, social acceptance etc.C. The Classifications of AdvertisementAdvertisement can be classified by media (newspaper, magazine, radio, television, internet), by target audience (consumer, business), by geography (loc
22、al, international), or by purpose (product advertising, non commercial advertisement, action advertisement).In this study, because of the limitations of materials, I will deal exclusively with print advertisement from the media of English and Chinese magazines and newspapers. And because consumer ad
23、s play an important role in all kinds of ads, and are most visible in our society, I mainly aim at the study of consumer advertisement.II. The Effects of Culture and LanguageWith the development and deepen of specialization, and globe incorporate tendency, the product circulation is frequent. In ord
24、er to contest the world market, many companies want to sale their products. But the most important means is using advertisements makes goods and into world market. At the same time, because of the integration of Chinas economy into the world market, the development and consummation of Chinas economy
25、 system, advertisement which is a fundamental marketing tool plays an important role in Chinas economy, and it contributes much to Chinas sales of products and services in the international market, and it is also the carrier of transmitting culture. Advertisement activity is not only an economic act
26、ivity, but also a cultural activity. It likes an invisible hand to affect peoples mode and consumers habit. It includes the culture of goods and the culture of market. Goods, it is a cultural carrier. In China, in The Silk Rode Times, people transmit their culture by goods. The Silk Rode brings west
27、ward not only silk, but also the ancient culture. The substance of product culture contains design, produce, and packing and decorates of the products, and also the adding cultural value in the development course. It is a unity of times-spirit, national spirit and science spirit, and also a unity of
28、 using function and aesthetic function. It is the central content of advertisement culture. The market culture on the premise of culture concept refers to the market art and philosophy on the principles of being close to the needs of psychics of men, the spirit temperament and the aesthetic interest
29、, which is the concentrated expressive form of advertisement culture. Commodity culture comes true ultimately through the achievement of market culture. Advertisement culture is obviously characterized by popularity and nationality. A certain cultural tradition, belief, orientation of values affects
30、 the mind and action of business operator and consumer. The international advertisement is a propaganda form of stride-border and cross-culture of products sell. Compared with domestic advertisement, the international advertisement faces many different problems which comes form language, traditional
31、 habit, regulation, education, environment, religion and economic condition, and so on. The translator is in a position to apply advertisement languages. The translator is a messenger who is good at communication in the sociality activity. The translation of business advertisement is different from
32、literature, technology, news.A. The Effects of Culture.1. Different Cultural ValuesThe Chinese of cultural values possesses profound the spirits of humanism. Peoples value is acted in” introspection” and “restraining oneself” The Confucians had advocated “cultivate character, regulate the family and
33、 run the state, manage nation”. And they emphasis the ability of moral standard. Thus, it comes into being the introverted mind step by step. The professor Yang who is a Chinese American thinks: “the Chinese people pay attention to the texts of products in the advertisement. Its cultural background
34、is the ethic and religion which come from Taoist school, Buddhists and Confucians”. It has the fatalism tint. The relation is established on the positivism.” Compared with Chinese, the western peoples temperament is extroverted. They pay attention to the Out-form of advertisement. They request senso
35、ry effect.2. Different Psychology ConstructionThe Chinese people have steady psychology construction, so it comes into being characteristic cultural psychology, with “humanity” “pragmatic” “patience”. They think much of authority, but ignore fact. It is the group psychology; they think much of colon
36、y, but neglect individual; they think much of material benefit, but neglect impression; they think much of moral, but ignore effect. It is the egalitarianism. In opposite, the psychology construction of the western people is complex and loose, with “humanism” “cognize” “action”.3. Different Region E
37、nvironment and Human EnvironmentChina is one of the four countries with an ancient civilization. It lies in the rich land. So family is very important in their mind. Compared with the west, China has a long history. The western people have an area of narrow, and they often flight. The concept of the
38、 family has become less important in their minds now. Advertisement culture clings to the body culture. With the communication of the world economy is more and more. The tendency of the worlds development is the “global village”. It is certain that advertisement culture is fused. The seeking of Chin
39、ese people trends “new, famous, penetrating, beauty”. The using functionality is instead of aesthetics step by step in china. If we know differences between the Chinese and the west, we can do with a definite purpose.BThe Effects of Language1. Sound DifferenceThe pronunciation of language can cause
40、different aural effect, and inspire different reaction in psychics: softness or ringing. The onomatopoeic motivation, sound symbolism and echoism usually are used in advertisement language. Thus, it sounds beautiful. But it also brings many difficulties because of the differences of sound, onomatopo
41、eic motivation, and rhyme between Chinese and west. For example, in order to increase the beauty of phonology, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and consonance are usually adopting in the English advertisement words. For example, the advertisement word “never late on Fathers Day”, two ei make it harmon
42、ious. But it is very different to reserve these kinds of musics beauty in Chinese. Otherwise, the translator should notice some pronunciations which maybe because bad effect in others language. For example, the Toshiba company in Japan once used a advertisement word “东芝(Toshiba), 东芝(Toshiba),大家的东芝(o
43、ur Toshiba)” . This is advertisement lyric. But some young people use partial tone to translate “ 偷去吧，偷去吧，大家的东西”. It makes this advertisement in strict. And “Toshiba” becomes “goods”; the impression of “Toshiba” becomes weaker. Example: (1) “Foiled again? Try Dill ions.” erotizes for the Dill ion bo
44、okstore. “Foyle” is the title of another bookstore. By adding a letter “d”, the advertiser makes it sound the same as “foiled”. The whole sentence can be interpreted into “If you can not find your books in Foyle, please come to Dillions.”(2) “天罗地网一把罩 油烟一网打” is a Chinese ad for the Sakura grease pump
45、. It uses two Chinese idioms: “天罗地网” and “一网打尽”. Here the word “网” implies the meaning “滤油网”.(3) “梦想的力量让广州 ACCORD3.0V6脱影而出.” is a car ad. The advertiser uses the Chinese idiom “脱颖而出”, but changes “颖” to “影” so as to attract the readers attention.2. Semantic DifferenceLanguage is a part of culture, a
46、nd also is the cultural carrier. It reflects national characters. It not only contains the background of history and culture, but also holds some opinions about life, life-way, and thinking-way. And advertisement word is reflected by culture. The translator cant only know surface meaning, but should
47、 understand the extended meaning and rich cultural containing. People usually like to extend idiom, saying and famous pomes in the advertisement. It makes semantic. vacant and conflictive. It is difficult for the translator. Especially, if we dont consider other elements about language, culture, pol
48、itics and custom. It isnt fit for western culture. (1) The translation isnt fit for western culture. For example, the “Bailing” pen made in Shanghai is “White Feather” in English. But it isnt known by people who speak English. Because in the idiom “to show the white feather”, (means flee on the eve
49、of a battle). “White Feather” symbols craven. (2) The translation has political metaphor. For example, the sacking shoes of “DaPeng”(大鹏) is translated “ROC”. “DaPeng” is a spirit in Chinese myth; “roc” is also a big bird in English apotheosis. It is blameless. But it is similar to English abbreviation of “中华名族” by chance. It isnt of course done. (3) The translation isnt elegance. For example, the word “cock” usually is figured body apparatus. If the wor
