How to effectively translate advertisements into English?

Advertising translation is different from other texts, and its main translation principle is to achieve functional equivalence, thus realizing its commercial value. This paper briefly analyzes the characteristics, translation principles and methods of advertising English, aiming at providing some references for advertising translation.

As a special way of information dissemination, advertising, besides its commercial value, has gradually evolved into a culture due to its high artistic characteristics, which is inseparable from people's daily life. With the development of globalization, the communication between countries is increasing day by day, and the circulation of goods is also the inevitable result, so advertising translation comes into being. As a special applied style, advertising translation has its own principles and characteristics. When translating English advertising texts, translators should maximize translation equivalence and commercial value.

First, the characteristics of advertising English

The vocabulary and structure of advertising words are generally simple, but their forms are flexible and diverse, with rich connotations, distinctive and unique styles and strong persuasiveness, which can cater to the psychology of advertising audiences and stimulate their purchasing desires and behaviors.

1. Lexical Features of Advertising English

Advertising words are very particular, pay more attention to aesthetic feeling, and often choose vivid and innovative words. For example, the advertisement of LG mobile phone "Ichocolateyou" skillfully uses the word "chocolate" and transforms the noun into part of speech, comparing this mobile phone to chocolate. Because chocolate is very attractive to most people, especially young people, and it is also a symbol of romance and fashion, many people affectionately call this mobile phone "chocolate", which shows the charm of advertising words.

2. The characteristics of advertising English sentence patterns

Syntactically speaking, advertising language also has its own characteristics. Advertisements generally use simple sentences, imperative sentences and ellipsis sentences. For example, the sentence of Anta's advertisement "Wearethechampion". It is very simple, but it reflects the quality and brand influence of Anta products, and it is somewhat aggressive in sports. An advertisement of Sprite: "obey your drught." . When people feel thirsty, they will crave. In addition, advertisements are also good at using exclamatory sentences, interrogative sentences, conditional sentences and repetitive sentences.

3. Rhetorical features of advertising English

Rhetoric can greatly increase the appeal of language, deepen readers' impression of products, and has certain persuasion function. Therefore, advertising language also pays great attention to rhetoric, using pun, personification, metaphor, rhyme, contrast and repetition to make advertising words more novel and vivid. For example, the word "spirit" was skillfully used in a wine advertisement "TheUniqueSpiritofCanada". .

Second, the translation principles of advertising English

As a special style, advertising English can hardly achieve its initial advertising effect if it still takes "faithfulness" as the primary principle. In addition, due to cultural differences, it may be counterproductive and cause certain economic losses. We should be familiar with the aesthetic psychology of foreigners and avoid equation translation. The brand name of a dry battery exported from China is "whiteelephant", which was once translated into "White Elephant". It should be said that there is nothing wrong with this translation. As we all know, awhiteelephant is often compared to "useless and cumbersome" or "heavy burden" in English. No matter which translation technique is adopted, the translation that can achieve functional equivalence is what advertising translation needs.

Third, the translation methods of advertising English

1. Literal translation

The so-called literal translation means that both the content and the form of the original text are preserved in the translation, especially the metaphors, images and national and local colors of the original text, without violating the norms of the target language and causing false associations. Literal translation is not the same as faithful translation of semantics. Good teeth and good health. This is an advertisement for Colgate toothpaste, which is translated into Chinese as "Good teeth, good health". Whether in content or form, the original text is concise, rhyming and neat. Another example: "Focusonlife" translates as "Pay attention to life". “Justdoit！” Do it. Feel the new space. These translations are straightforward, catchy and easy to remember. These advertising words are deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the products naturally sell well.

2. transliteration

Transliteration is more suitable for translating some new words with no corresponding words in Chinese. More than half of them are used for proper nouns such as names of people, enterprises and products. In addition, it also includes brand names created by advertising designers, such as Parker, Sony, Kodak, Hilton, Haier, Philips, Nike, Adidas and Santana, all of which are transliteration. These translated names have a lively rhythm and a certain exotic cultural characteristics and emotional appeal, so they are accepted by consumers in China. When translating, we should pay attention to the unity of transliteration words, so that consumers can clearly define the specific product names and avoid vague concepts when consuming. For example, Polaroid, an American-made primary imaging camera, was translated into Polaroid, Polaroid, Polaroid, Polaroid and other names in China, and the polaroid was finally decided and widely circulated. This translation is short and pithy, which fully embodies the characteristics of one-time imaging of this product.

3. Free translation method

Free translation is not limited to the form of the source language, and its rhetorical method and sentence structure have been modified as necessary. English and Chinese have their own vocabularies, syntactic structures and expressions, coupled with the differences in cultural backgrounds, so when there is a contradiction between the original content and the translation expression, free translation can be adopted. For example, you can't resist the temptation-the advertisement of Coca-Cola Company in America. Another example is Goodtothelastdrop. Drips are fragrant, but the meaning is still unfinished-Maxwell Coffee. Intelligence is everywhere. Intelligent deduction is everywhere. -Motorola's mobile phone advertising words have the same effect, and the translation is more in line with the language and cultural habits of the target language consumers and more acceptable.

rebuild

As the name implies, this method basically does not belong to the category of translation, but belongs to re-creation. Because of the particularity of advertising style and purpose, it is often necessary to create advertisements in the source language to achieve their commercial purposes. For example, Nokia's advertisement "ConnectingPeople" does not have "loyalty" to the original text, nor does it adopt the vocabulary or structure of the original text. Instead, it was re-processed for the audience in China, reflecting the scientific and technological nature of Nokia products and the humanistic spirit of people-oriented. For another example, the Chinese translation of the advertisement "TheWayAhead" is basically out of the translation framework and belongs to the category of re-creation. However, this sets a higher standard for translators, because the translation has reached a high level in terms of diction and rhetoric, so as to ensure the artistic conception and commercial value of the translation.

There is no fixed model for the translation of advertising English. Therefore, this is a complicated task. To translate advertisements well, we should not only have methods and skills, but also have solid language skills, rich cultural background and long-term accumulation of translation practice.