1、Language and Culture Differences between Chinese and English and Their Impact on Advertisement Translation by Lin YibingSupervised by Yan Liin partial fulfillment of the requirementFor the B.A degreeSchool of Foreign LanguagesAnhui Science and Technology UniversityJune, 2010IAbstractAdvertisements c
2、an be seen everywhere in the modern society. With the economic globalization, products and services from different countries are competing in the international markets. As a main method of promoting sales, the advertisement plays a more and more important role. Therefore, advertising translation is
3、more significant and indispensable. In the paper, the first part will introduce the definition of advertisement, the classification of advertisement, functions of advertisement and the features of advertisement language. The second part will discuss impacts of the differences of Chinese and English
4、language on the advertisement translation in terms of speech sound, words, syntax, semantics and rhetoric. The third part will discuss impacts of the differences between Chinese and English culture on the advertisement translation in terms of historical and social background, different regional envi
5、ronment and sense of worth and aesthetic difference. The fourth part analyzes the principles and methods of advertisement translation. The last part is the conclusion of this paper.Key Words: Advertisement, Language, CultureII中文摘要在现代社会,广告随处可见，已经渗透到社会生活的各个角落。随着经济全球化的进行，各国商品和服务已经开始在世界范围内流通。广告本身作为产品和服务
6、的一种主要促销手段，扮演着越来越重要的角色。因此，广告翻译问题就显得越来越有意义和突出。本论文从语言文化差异的角度探讨英汉广告互译。第一部分介绍广告的定义，广告的分类，广告的各种功能以及广告语言的特色。第二部分，将从词的发音、词汇、句法、语义、和修辞差异来探讨中英语言的差异对广告翻译的影响。第三部分将从不同的社会历史背景，不同的地域环境和价值观和不同的审美观来讨论中英文化差异对广告翻译的影响。第四部分分析广告翻译中应遵循的原则和使用的方法。最后一部分总结全文。关 键 词 ： 广 告 翻 译 、 语 言 、 文 化 IIIContentsAbstract . . .I中文摘要 . . . .II
7、1. Introduction. . .12. Language Differences between Chinese and English in Advertisements.32.1 The Difference in Speech Sound . . . . . . .32.2 The Difference of the Choice of Words between Chinese and English Advertisement32.3 The Syntactic Difference between Chinese and English Advertisements. .
8、42.4 The Rhetoric Difference between Chinese and English Advertisements. .52.5 The Semantic Difference in Chinese and English Advertisements. . 63. Culture Difference in Chinese and English Advertisements 83.1 The Difference in Historical and Social Background. . .83.2 Different Regional Environment
9、 and Sense of Worth. 93.3 The Aesthetic Difference. . 104. Principles and Methods of Translation in Chinese and English Advertisements. .13 4.1 The principles of Chinese and English advertisements . 134.1.1Function-Oriented Principle.134.1.2TL ReaderOriented Principle . 134.1.3 TL CultureOriented Pr
10、inciple. 144.2 The Methods of Translation in Chinese and English Advertisements154.2.1 Literal Translation. .154.2.2 Free Translation. .164.2.3 Parody Translation. .174.3.4 Transliteration. .184.4.5 Addition. 18IV4.4.6 Deletion .185. Conclusions. . . . . . 20Acknowledgements . . . . . 21Bibliography
11、. . . . . 2211. IntroductionThe word “advertise” stems from the Latin“advertere”, meaning “to make known to the public”. Different people have different views about advertisement. That is to say,people define it from different perspectives. A businessman would define advertisement as follows: Advert
12、isement is a marketing tool that helps to sell branches of products and helps to build confidence in companies and in situation by conveying accurate and compelling information to consumers about the brand or company and institution. (Weilbacher,1984:8). But from the consumers viewpoint, the definit
13、ion is like this:Advertisement is communication that provides generally useful,relevant,and pertinent information upon which the consumer either acts immediately or stores for later reference,application and use. (Ibid.13) In this paper, I shall use the definition put forward by William F. Arenas an
14、d Courtland L.Bovey, which is a quite comprehensive one: “Advertisement is the no personal communication of information, 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
15、 as below: First, advertisement is directed to groups of people rather than individuals (no personal). The groups of people are the intended or the target audience of the advertisement communication. Second, most advertisement is paid for by sponsors, except some public service advertisements. Third
16、, most advertisement is intended to be persuasive -to convince people to buy products or services, but some advertisements promote the images of enterprises. Fourth, the sponsor must be identified. It appears as trademark, brand name of products or services, or the name of an enterprise in the adver
17、tisement. Fifth, advertisement reaches us through media. ( Bovey. C.L. and Arenas W.F ,1994:37)Advertisement can be classified by media (newspaper, magazine, radio, television, Internet), by target audience (consumer, business), by geography (local, international), or by purpose (product advertising
18、, non commercial advertisement, action advertisement). (胡壮麟,2001:410) The advertisement attracts the consumers through the process of attracting attention, stimulating interests and creating desires. According to Newmark, advertisement language mainly has three functions: One of important roles of a
19、dvertisement is to inform consumers of quality, characteristics, specialties or advantages of the products. The second is the aesthetic function. The advertisement language should please the readers sense through its language beauty, including the sound and semantic 2beauty. Another function is the
20、vocative function. The core of vocative function of language in English advertising is the consumers. The term “vocative” retains the sense of calling upon the consumers to act, think or feel, and in fact to “react” in the way intended by the advertisement. This can be considered the most important
21、function of advertising language. Advertising language should be distinctive, attractive, positive, readable and memorable. The purpose of an advertisement determines that its language must have selling power, memory value, attention value and readability. Both Chinese and English advertisements sha
22、re the same language features: we use colloquial and concise words, short and simple sentences and various rhetorical devices to attract consumersattention. For example, there is such an advertisement about food“once tasted, always loved”is about food. The words are very simple and easy to understan
23、d and memory. Another advertisement “time will tell” uses personification to convey the message that the commodity is durable and you can use it forever.( Newmark,2001:45)In China, with economic development and globalization of the economy, people start to study advertising translation from language
24、 and cultural differences. Zhang Na, in International Advertising Strategies of Language Difference and Translation studies advertising translation, particularly, the brand translation in terms of phonetic differences. Wei Qing, in The Cross-Cultural Communication and Cultural Transmission in Advert
25、isement and Translation writes that Chinese people like to use the “perfect” things in advertisements, particularly, the ancient poems. This reflects the differences of word choice between Chinese ans English. Besides, the above two aspects of the advertising translation, some people study the diffe
26、rences of languages and cultures and their impacts on the advertising translation from different social and historical backgrounds, different senses of worth and so on. Studying language and cultural differences is of great significance to the advertising translation.32. Language Differences in Chin
27、ese and English AdvertisementsWith the development of economy, the advertisement becomes internationalized. As a translator, he or she must master the differences between languages. English is rapidly becoming the universal language for international business, so Chinese translators should know clea
28、rly the differences between Chinese and English.2.1 The Difference in Speech SoundThe onomatopoeic motivation, sound symbolism and echoism usually are used in advertisement language. Thus, the advertisement sounds beautiful, but it also brings many difficulties because of the differences of sound, o
29、nomatopoeic motivation, and rhyme between Chinese and English. For example, in order to increase the beauty of phonology, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and consonance are usually adopted in the English advertisements. But it is very different to reserve these kinds of beauty in Chinese. The brand i
30、s the name of goods which can attract customers eyes and bring expectations to customers. So the brand translation is very important. However, the differences of pronunciation can bring the different shock of culture in the advertisement translation. Here is an example. The pronunciation of Nike is
31、the name of the victory Goddess in Greek fairy tale. If a translator translates it into “naiji” or “naji” in the pronunciation of Chinese, the consumers will not understand it. And it can not bring good impressions and take on the clear image and feature of goods to consumers. At last, the translato
32、r translates Nike into ”耐克”. It is accepted by Chinese people quickly because it fits to the pronunciation of Nike and takes on the durable sports wear. So its important for a translator to pay attention to the difference of pronunciations between Chinese and English when translating the Chinese and
33、 English advertisements. 2.2 The Difference of the Choice of Words between Chinese and English AdvertisementsWhen it comes to the choice of words, Chinese tends to use gorgeous words while English has a vivid character of conciseness. “Chinese people are good writers expressing their feelings by wri
34、ting and trying their best to apply grand vocabulary to describe beautiful and moving images to be sounded elegantly”（韦钦,2004:41-42). In Chinese advertisements, many high-sounding words can be found. For instance, in Chinese advertisements we frequently see words like “一流”(first class)， “完美”(perfect
35、) ， “独特” (special) regardless of the quality of goods being advertised. On the contrary, in the western society, literature and art have been developing under the theory of imitating the reality. 4The English language reflects this theory and proves to be objective, factual and rational. As we know,
36、 English has tight sentence structure, meticulous stream of thought, and logical relationship between linguistic units, concise wording and straightforward description. All in all, brevity is the soul of wit, or in other words, a proper word in a proper place is good English. Abusing of florid langu
37、age is forbidden in good English, for it is considered illogical and may harm the original meaning of communication. Thus, Chinese and English advertisements are quite different, especially when describing scenery in tourist advertisements. Even when describing sceneries, English displays a beauty o
38、f form. Its straightforward, explicit and objective, unlike the casual, subjective Chinese. For example, the following advertisement written by a native speaker of English is concise and plain, and through simile and combination of concrete scenes, it provides enough space for imagination. However,
39、from the point of view of Chinese, it may be too plain. Here is the advertisement: Tiny is made up of lands which are strung around the edge of the peninsula like a pearl necklace. Hunks of coral reef, coconut palms and fine white sand. When seeing the English advertisement, the translator will thin
40、k that if translated word by word, it will not meet Chinese consumers expectation. So abundant modifiers such as“礁红”, “成片” and “如银” ， and four-character phrases like “玲珑小巧”，and “如诗如” are employed to make the translated version beautiful. So the English advertisement was translated like this: “座座岛屿玲珑
41、小巧，紧密相连，像一串珍珠缀成的项链，环绕着半岛边缘.岛上珊瑚礁红，椰树成片，沙滩如银，景色如诗如画.” “The characters add charm to the scenic spot and contribute to the whole rhyming structure but mean nothing to English readers because they are repetitive and wordy. So in Chinese-English translation, superfluous modifiers should be omitted, adapt
42、ed or implicit between lines so as to make the target version conform to the westerners aesthetic standards. 2.3 The Syntactic Difference between Chinese and English AdvertisementsShen Xiaolong once summarized that western languages are rule governed while the Chinese language is people governed. We
43、stern languages are made up of Subject and Verb which are inflexible while Chinese is considered as a flexible language. That is to say, Chinese can be long or short in its lexical units and is based on the language of logic phrases（Shen Xiaolong, 1999:15) . Jin Huikang compares the Chinese and Engl
44、ish languages in detail. In terms of syntax, the structure of Chinese language is loose. Unlike the Chinese structure, English sentence displays a spatial arrangement with the verb as a center. 5Its structure is tight to express the clear meaning. Therefore, Chinese syntactic structures usually empl
45、oy parataxis, while English adopts hypostasis. In translation of advertisement, the translator must deal with his own thinking and arrange sentences conforming to the target rules and conventions. The following examples show these intrinsic differences working in Chinese and English, and help us exp
46、lore some translation methods. 境内西湖如明镜，千峰凝翠，洞壑幽深，风光绮丽。 The West Lake is like a mirror, embellished all around with green hills and deep caves of enchanting beauty. Obviously, the original structure is changed in the target text. The structure of the Chinese advertisement is loose with some short cla
47、uses, whereas in the English advertisement there is only one sentence, which is centered on a verb, with modifiers of participle phrase, propositional phrase, and noun phrase around it. By doing so, the translation emphasizes the central meaning in the SV structure “The West Lake is like a mirror” a
48、nd specifies the implied logical relationship in the surface form. Reflecting linguistic features of English language, the translation is a successful one in both content and function. Here is another example:“产品形美色绿，气味芬芳，味道甜美.”the shape of the product is beautiful; the color is green; the smell is
49、fragrant and the taste is mellowIn the Chinese advertisement, “形”refers to the shape of the product and “美” means beautiful; “色” refers to the color and “绿” is used to describe the color of the product. In the translation, “shape, color, smell, and taste” are nouns, and “green, fragrant and mellow” are adjectives. Since the Engli
