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Translation strategies of English advertisements
1. 1 sound difference. The pronunciation of Chinese and English is very different. The same sentence can cause different auditory effects and different psychological reactions. A catchy English advertising word may not bring the same effect to consumers in China after being translated into Chinese. However, a simple Chinese advertising language will often become stale after being translated into English. The translation of "Coca-Cola" trademark is a model. From 65438 to 0920, "Cocacola" began to enter the China market and was translated as "Tadpoles eat wax". It is conceivable that a drink with such a strange name will not attract many consumers. It was not until 1979 "Cocacola" returned to the Chinese mainland market again that the Chinese translation of "Coca Cola" was changed to "Coca Cola", which opened the China market. "Coca-Cola" not only retains the syllable and loudness of the original word, but also makes people know that it is a beverage trademark at will. This makes the original meaningless trademark translation vivid and memorable, and the translated effect far exceeds the original name. Another example is Haier's English trademarks "Haier" and "Haier", which are written in Chinese Pinyin. The pronunciation of "Haier" is the same as that of the English word "higher", which means that the products expressing "Haier" will get better and better results in overseas markets such as Europe. This is also the first step of Haier's successful overseas development. Many companies tend to use this combination of sound and meaning as much as possible when they first start overseas markets, while retaining the translation method of the original pronunciation.
1.2 differences in wording. "China's advertising language has a long (high context), pays attention to the sound modeling such as explanation, and is expressive. It often creates a beautiful atmosphere, which makes the audience have some intuition or goodwill towards its products, paying attention to emotional people and paying more attention to perceptual knowledge. " [4] The characteristics of most advertising languages in China are based on traditional virtues, combined with the spirit of the times, and focus on establishing a positive image. In the form of expression, most domestic advertising words are rigorous and neat, and they like to use poetry. Words are the basic unit of language, and the use of words in Chinese advertising language is mainly manifested in the meaning of words. The common polysemy provides the basic conditions for the clever use of words. The mixed use of common meaning and unusual meaning, literal meaning and original meaning, and clever collocation make the advertising language interesting and interesting, giving people a sense of novelty and strangeness. Psychology believes that novelty will attract people's attention, thus stimulating interest and enhancing memory. The commonly used wording methods of Chinese advertisements are [5]:① Polysemy. Advertising creativity often makes a word show more than two meanings. On the premise that people are familiar with the common meanings of words, people only understand the common meanings of words at first, and at the same time, they unexpectedly show another meaning, thus making the advertising language amazing, humorous and humorous, enhancing the appeal of advertisements and making them easy to remember. For example: "Alishan melon seeds are happy when eaten." (Alishan melon seed advertisement)-"Happy" not only means that melon seeds are chewy, but also means that you are in a good mood; "For 40 years, China is in my heart." (Advertisement of China Toothpaste)-The brand of China is skillfully linked with the Chinese nation, which not only publicizes the product, but also makes people feel a strong patriotic feeling from the deep heart, which contains rich and profound cultural connotations. ② Misinterpret the meaning of words. The literal forms of some words are closely related to the characteristics of products, so some Chinese advertisements deliberately misinterpret their meanings to produce new meanings. On the one hand, this method expresses the product characteristics at a glance, on the other hand, it misinterprets the new meaning in the literal sense, brings forth the new, gives people a sense of freshness psychologically, and then deepens the impression [6]. For example, "everyone loves everyone" (jewelry advertisement)-"love" as a word means love and support, but it is deliberately divided into two parts in this advertisement, which means to like to wear it. English advertisements are usually objective and brief, emphasizing the accuracy and generality of language and the reasoning and association of modeling language, so they have many reasonable elements. The whole advertisement is mostly paved with meaningful pictures, and finally the advertising language is the finishing touch. The characteristics of English advertising language focus on directly promoting enterprises and products. In terms of words, English advertisements can be said to be eclectic, eclectic and colorful. In many cases, in order to produce a humorous effect, advertisements will deliberately use some informal language. Many advertisements use a lot of slang and informal words, which makes them popular, vivid and impressive. For example, "keep frogs away from your throat." This is the last sentence in a throat advertisement, and the advertising planner deliberately uses such an informal phrase to achieve humorous effect. In an advertisement for a coat, "sympathy for pickpockets" (pity for those three hands), the characteristics of the dress are prominent, the pocket design is extraordinary, and even anti-theft. Among them, "pickpocket" belongs to colloquial style and is equivalent to "three hands" or "pickpocket" in Chinese. If you change it to "thief", the effect will not be as vivid and interesting as "pickpocket". 1.3 poor sentence pattern. Chinese advertisements are short and pithy and easy to remember. Psychological research results show that reducing the number of memory materials can increase the depth of memory, so concise advertising content will be better than complex memory [6]. The sentence patterns commonly used in Chinese advertisements are as follows: ① Short sentences are widely used, and complex sentences are mostly repetitive sentences. For example, "it tastes great!" (Nestle coffee advertisement); "Oriental, oriental style, oriental mood." (Advertising by Shanghai Oriental Furniture Factory) ② Commonly used ellipsis sentences. For example, "work hard, as long as there is breath." (tire advertisement); "Less noise, more peace." (advertisement for double deer refrigerator) ③ Use whole sentences, that is, a group of sentences with the same or similar structure. For example, "from the depths of the mountains, through the jungle, with cool, fragrant and happy." (advertisement for mineral water in midsummer); "It is thoughtfulness for his wife, filial piety for his mother, a gift for his friends and warmth for his family." English advertisements tend to be eclectic and free in form. There are also various sentence patterns in English advertisements. The most commonly used sentence patterns are: ① imperative sentences. Imperative sentences also appear frequently in advertisements. The ultimate goal of advertising is to encourage and persuade people to buy specific goods. Proper use of imperative sentences can well realize the guiding function of advertisements. For example, "ask anyone who owns it." -Ask the person who owns this car. (car advertising); "Put down your weapon." -Put your hands down. (Advertising) ② General interrogative sentences. There is a problem in English advertisements with an average of 30 sentences. The use of questions shortens the distance between advertisements and readers, because questions usually need the response of the other party, and it seems that Party A and Party B are communicating. Some questions are not really asked and do not need to be answered. This kind of interrogative sentence increases the rendering, strengthens the language potential, inspires readers to think, highlights the theme and attracts readers' attention. These are also the original intention of advertising. For example, "Can you tell cheese from real cheese?" Can you separate ordinary cheese from real cheese? "I don't like it. Why do you smoke?" -If you don't like it, why smoke it? "Seiko women's shoes are beautiful, aren't they?" -Seiko ladies' quartz watch, smart and beautiful, isn't it? ③ comparison level. Because there are a large number of adjectives and adverbs as modifiers in English advertisements, comparative degree is widely used in advertisements. For example, "successful days in business mean becoming more competitive and making difficult decisions"; "In short, the stronger your character, the brighter your future." ④ Direct quotation. There are many direct quotations in English advertisements, because direct quotations can make advertisements vivid and novel, and can enhance persuasiveness from a psychological point of view. For example, "It's as if we are all in the same office. The office just spans 7000 miles of ocean. " -Director of tom hughes Building Management Information System. This is the prologue of an IBM advertisement, which is vivid and concrete through the words of the company manager. 1.4 rhetorical differences. Chinese advertisements are used to using a large number of modifiers, preferring flowery rhetoric and consciously repeating certain sentences in order to deepen the audience's impression and enhance the expression effect. Commonly used rhetorical devices are: ① Continuous repetition. Repetition in advertising language is mostly the repetition of brand names, which is determined by the purpose of advertising and people's memory characteristics. The purpose of advertising is to stimulate consumers to consume the kind of goods in advertising. Advertising deliberately highlights the brand names of repeated goods, which can enhance people's impression of this kind of goods and achieve the purpose of publicity. [7] For example, "Fenghua Fenghua is the essence of the pen." (Fenghua pen advertisement); "Shield, shield, reliable shield." (helmet advertisement) ② The interval is repeated. The most common is the repetition of the same language unit. There are both repetition and change, adding new information in repetition, eliminating people's boredom and resistance, and exerting memory function [7]. For example: "Zhongmin Life Insurance, Zhongmin Meiling." (Meiling refrigerator advertisement); "Leave the mountain, leave the water, leave the youth, leave the beauty." (camera advertisement); "Give special love to special people on special days." (advertisement of Qingqi Motorcycle Company) ③ Quote. China's 5,000-year-old culture has produced countless excellent idioms, proverbs and famous sentences, which are well known by China people in their daily life and study. The use of these idioms in advertising language makes people skip the memory stage directly in the memory process, arouses the existing memory of idioms and proverbs in their minds, and reproduces the imprint of this memory as a representation in their minds, which plays a great role in deepening people's memory and enhancing the appeal of advertising language [9]. For example, a famous poem in Cao's "Short Songs"-"Being generous is unforgettable. How to solve the problem is only Du Kang. " (Du Kang wine advertisement); Idiom-"penniless" (toothbrush advertisement); As the saying goes-"There are unexpected events in the sky, and people are doomed." English advertisements (advertisements of China People's Insurance Company) should avoid abusing modifiers. Due to its linguistic reasons, this article is compiled and provided by www.5 1lunwen.com, and the same phrase or sentence pattern will be counterproductive if it is excessively repeated. If too many modifiers in Chinese advertisements are translated into English, it will give people a false feeling, which will lead to obstacles in emotional transmission and fail to achieve the effect of the original advertisements. Therefore, translation should not correspond mechanically and directly, but should be modified or omitted according to English cultural habits and acceptability, so as to maintain the true, natural and unpretentious style of the translation. For example, "exquisite materials, fine workmanship, modern ERN design, reasonable price and complete varieties and specifications. Welcome order has excellent materials, fine workmanship, novel style, reasonable price and complete specifications. Welcome to buy [1]. The above translation not only retains the original meaning, but also is concise, fluent and rhythmic, which conforms to the aesthetic habits of China people. In order to impress people with the persuasive power of advertising language, stimulate their consumption desire and impress them to buy and use products, many English advertisements do not rely solely on a large number of modifiers, but use various rhetorical devices, thinking that a few words but concise and unique language leave a deep impression on people. The commonly used rhetorical devices are [10]: ① parallelism. "Milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hands." (Milk chocolate: only soluble in your mouth, not in your hands. ) 2 Repeat. "Extra flavor. Not an unnecessary taste. " It implies that the product has extra flavor, but it has no extra calories and will not make people fat. By repeating "extra", food is more attractive and consumers are no longer hesitant. 3 parody. "A piece of Mars a day makes you work, rest and play." (Mars chocolate, the driving force of life. ) cleverly imitate "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." An apple a day keeps the doctor away. ), in the hearts of consumers have a strong * * * sound and wonderful association, arouse their desire to buy. 4 simile. "It's as light as a breeze and as soft as a cloud." It's tempting to describe the softness of clothes and the sense of comfort and elegance after wearing them in simile form! ⑤ metaphor. "Soft, wrapped and smiling colors are a gift to focus on your hair." The effect of hair softening and pleasant color after using hair oil is described as a gift of hair oil, which makes the product more attractive and human. 6. Every pronunciation. "Never like me, my Rolex never needs a rest." The personification of Rolex watches by personification means that the watches are accurate and energetic, and their quality is worthy of consumers' trust. 7 exaggeration. "We hid a vegetable garden, which was full of vegetables you didn't expect." In an unexpected place, we treasured a garden full of vegetables in a small pie. (8) comparison. Othello is a game that can be learned in one minute, but it takes a lifetime to master it. Through the comparison between "one minute" and "life", the original text highlights the characteristics of video games that are easy to use and can withstand pondering. Through the analysis of the differences between Chinese and English advertising language styles, we find that advertising translation is not only a simple language translation, but also a cultural translation. Successful advertising translation requires translators to study relevant translation strategies carefully. 2. 1 Understand the taboos in western countries. There are many taboos in any country and nation. For example, the British don't like elephants, countries that believe in Islam don't advertise pigs and dogs, and westerners prefer white to red. There are all kinds of taboos, which are the expertise in folklore. We should give necessary respect to the cultural customs and traditional habits formed over thousands of years. For example, "spirit" cannot be directly translated into "white feather" because the English idiom "showing white feather" means running away and being weak; "White elephant" cannot be directly translated into "white elephant", which means "clumsy" or "clumsy" in English. Semantically, many words have different cultural connotations in the two cultures because of the differences in customs, cultural traditions and etiquette between China and the West. Misuse or abuse of these words because they don't understand their cultural meanings will lead to mistakes in communication and translation. In advertising translation, we must pay attention to avoid using words that are easy to cause ambiguity and unpleasant associative meanings, so as not to cause negative emotional reflection. For example, "black" toothpaste has been translated into "Darkie", which is a derogatory term for black people in English, just involving the sensitive issue of racial discrimination. "Lotus root powder" cannot be directly translated into "lotus root powder", and "starch" will make foreigners worry that the product will lead to obesity, so it is more acceptable to translate it into "lotus root powder". Therefore, the translator should have a certain understanding of the history and politics of the destination country, and avoid using words with special meanings and easy to cause negative associations.
2.2 Flexibility and handling of cultural factors. Because the original language fails in the new environment, translation does not blindly pursue the highest degree of conformity with the original intention. In Chinese-English advertising translation, translators are faced with two completely different expressions. As long as the translation conforms to the language, culture and customs of consumers in the receiving country, it is a suitable translation. The original text can be discarded, but the corresponding image effect should be produced as much as possible to achieve the same sales purpose. In fact, advertising translation is very flexible, leaving a lot of room for translators to play. As long as the translator is familiar with the cultural customs of the destination country, fully tap the characteristics of the product and try to find the expression closest to the local culture. For example, China people think that red represents happiness and often use it in trademarks or advertisements, while most westerners don't like red because it is a sign of danger, violence and bloodshed. Therefore, the "Red Star" brand electric fan can be skillfully translated into "bright star electric fan" or "shining star electric fan", and the effect is naturally better than the literal translation of "Red Star electric fan". As another example, China people are familiar with "Mosquitoes kill! Kill! Kill! " The word "kill" in advertising language is not elegant if it is directly translated into English "kill", but it is translated as "goodbye to mosquitoes!" More authentic, more in line with English expression habits. For another example, if Fangfang brand lipstick is literally translated into Fangfang, English readers will think of the teeth of poisonous snakes and have no interest in them, but using "aroma" or "fragrance" to make changes can avoid embarrassment.
2.3 Pay attention to the innovation of translation. Advertising itself is rich in imagination and creativity. Translation is not just a one-to-one text conversion, but a second conversion on the basis of maintaining the original intention. Star Computer and Rising Antivirus Software are translated into "star" and "rising" respectively through the combination of sound and meaning, which not only retains the pronunciation of the original text, but also is novel and vivid, indicating that this product will become a new star in the same industry. If we adopt literal translation of the original sound or homophonic meaning, we can't vividly reflect the characteristics and uniqueness of goods. In this case, the translator should resolutely give up the original advertising words, find another way, integrate into the culture of the receiving country, boldly innovate, give the goods a beautiful associative meaning, let the goods enter another market quickly and attract more consumers. For another example, when translated into English, "Only one" abandoned its original pronunciation and became the trademark "Only One" after re-creation. As soon as it entered the international market, it achieved good sales performance and brand awareness was greatly improved. Innovation is the magic weapon to make new products deeply rooted in people's hearts. Internationalization of commodities and localization of advertisements. Due to the differences between English and Chinese, the rhetorical devices used in the original text to achieve novel and unique purposes may not be retained in the translation process, and the translator can only make reasonable adaptation or even use other rhetorical devices to translate, especially puns, and can only translate in a unique way through other means. For example, the advertisement of a seaside hotel "Two Together" attracts young couples who come on holiday. It is more contemporary and unique to take the homonym of "Together" and translate it into "Two Accommodations" to highlight "Two", and translate it into "Romantic Room" by applying the title of Korean drama. Another example is "We have coats suitable for any occasion." In a Clothing Store uses the homonyms of "every dress" and "everywhere" to repeat and emphasize the reader's impression. When translated into Chinese, it is catchy, popular and easy to remember. Other rhetorical devices can be easily reproduced in translation. For example, a beer advertisement "too good to forget" seems dull and extremely exaggerated, giving people an unforgettable impression. It can be literally translated into "love at first sight", "get drunk for a thousand years" and "can't stop", and it can also be literally translated into the advertising word "the taste of true feelings" of Jin Xue Beer. The pinyin pronunciation of a women's clothing brand "XS" is close to that of "Xi stone", and its advertising slogan is "Put it on, Xi stone is you!" You are the beauty of XS! The rhyming slogan of a restaurant in Student Street, "If you have wine and food, the beauty should bring it", can also be translated into "Come and have dinner with your lover" in a polyphonic way. 3 Conclusion
Advertising, as the preferred marketing strategy of enterprises, often faces the problem of cultural conflict under the background of huge cultural differences between China and the West. There are many unsatisfactory examples in Chinese-English advertising translation, and some even cause sales frustration. Tracing back to the source, advertising translation errors are mainly due to the translator's lack of ability to control language and culture and blindly sticking to the superficial meaning of the original text. The differences between cultures are reflected in the language that carries them. If it is not handled properly, it will cause obstacles to cross-cultural communication. This article is compiled and provided by www.51lunwen.com. China's economy is booming, and many enterprises are famous internationally. These China brands can have international fame and be recognized by overseas consumers, which is related to a series of local marketing strategies of enterprises, among which advertising translation will play a key role. Advertising is the unity of national culture and language, and advertising translation is the combination of language translation and cultural translation. Besides following the principles and laws of language translation, accurate advertising translation must also pay attention to learning the cultures related to two languages. Only by crossing the language and cultural barriers, properly handling the language and cultural factors in cross-cultural communication and using appropriate translation strategies and skills can we translate the advertising language that meets the aesthetic taste and psychological needs of consumers, make the corporate brand close to foreign consumers in many ways, and subtly deepen the local people's recognition of the brand, thus achieving success. References:
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[4] Wang Zijuan. Advertising language and public psychology [J]. Journal of Shanghai International Studies University: Social Science Edition, 1995(4):74.
[5] Teng. Advertising language [M]. Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 1992:42.
[6] Zhu Qingyang. Advertising golden sentence [M]. Changchun: Jilin Science and Technology Press, 1993:49.
[8] Liu. Repeated innovation of advertising language [J]. Chinese learning, 1998(4):26.
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Wu Xiping. English advertising rhetoric [J]. Chinese translation, 1997(5):27.
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