Exploration of Chinese Advertisement Language Translation

Abstract: Strategies and methods in Chinese-English advertisement language translation are explored, and the necessity of correct understanding of advertisement words in Chinese-English advertisement language translation is pointed out. At the same time, the cultural phenomenon in advertisement words, the market function of advertisement words and so on are studied, so as to conclude that advertisement words translation is not only the translation of language, but also the translation of culture, and more importantly, it is different from other translation styles, which is a kind of translation with a strong advertising effect.

Keywords: advertising slogan; advertising statement; translation; culture; market efficacy

The translation of Chinese advertising slogan is actually a cultural translation. Because, Chinese advertising culture is very rich in connotation. In contemporary China, which takes "harmonious society" as its concept, the Confucian cultural concept of Chinese advertisements is very common. Chinese advertisement is a special practical style, Chinese to English translation to the original advertisement of the meaning, shape, God and the function of the performance, generally have to use some rhetorical means or unique techniques to realize, so that customers or potential customers can produce the desire to buy. Common rhetorical devices, such as puns, couplets, rhymes, word games, the use of allusions, temporary words, analogies, etc., so that people feel the humor in the wisdom, bland in the novelty, and some also give people a poetic feeling. From the voice point of view, advertising language rhythm, catchy, often produce a shocking, refreshing, intriguing, long-lasting effect. The characteristics of advertising language can be summarized as "attraction, creativity, persuasion and influence". Advertising through the pattern and language aspects of the establishment of their own unique image, with new and unique techniques to reflect the individual characteristics of a commodity or service, the expression of both beyond the imagination of ordinary people, but also in the rationale.

In the translation of Chinese or English advertising text, only the translation of the text surface information is not enough. In addition to the language translation to follow the "letter, da, ya", or "smooth, da" or "realm", we must put the original "outside the meaning of the words It is necessary to convey the "meaning beyond words" in the original text. In addition, in order to highlight the personality of advertising words, but also to use some skills and means. This can make the translation limit to achieve the meaning, God and table shape and taste, and receive the meaning of similar, God-like and similar and taste like the effect of the unity of the four.

This article analyzes the English translation of Chinese advertisements in terms of Confucian cultural thought, as well as puns, rhymes, word games, the use of allusions, temporary words and analogies.

1 Fully understand the deep cultural connotations of advertisements and use remedial strategies

Example 1 A benevolent person is close to the mountain and a wise person is close to the water.

This is an advertising slogan of a housing development company that quotes Confucius. In fact, in the Analects of Confucius published by the Foreign Studies Association, it is "The wise man delights in water, the wise man delights in mountains" [1] .

The advertisement makes a beautiful depiction of the landscape: the endless, clear blue lake is mesmerizing, and the rolling, verdant mountains behind it are a natural, healthy place for people to look forward to.

Translation: (1) The Good are close to the mountain, the wise are close to the water. The translation of the translation, although "up to", the structure is also more rigorous, but the direct translation is more obvious, not very catchy to read. (2) Gentlemen prefer the mountain, wise men the fountain. Although the translation is "up to", the structure is also more rigorous, but gentlemen especially refers to gentlemen, as opposed to small people, and prefer is slightly insufficient; in addition, the fountain gives people a sense of artificial water. fountain gives the impression of an artificial water source, which is out of line with the original meaning, even though it is very catchy. (3) Good men prefer the mount'n, wise men the fount'n. Compared with (2), mount'n, wise men the fount'n is a subtle omission, very catchy, but still artificial. The reference to Arthur Waley's translation is: Wise men prefer to live near water, Good men near mountains.

According to the meaning of yao (乐), and according to the principle of balanced or tending to balanced rhetorical structures, there is no such thing as "乐" (乐), but the word "乐" (乐).

According to the meaning of "music" (yao) (like), and according to the principle of rhetorical structure balance or tendency to balance, not according to the original Chinese order of translation, the second half of the sentence to the beginning of the sentence, the use of the form of the pair of omission (although the phonological step is different), the characteristics of the Old English does not have a conjunction and, along with the purpose of the marketing of the house to give the translation.

Example 2: The developer of a housing estate carries an advertisement: "The beauty of the neighborhood is the choice of neighbors".

This is a variation of Confucius' "Li Ren is beautiful, choose not to live in Ren, how to know?" This is a variation of Confucius' "Li Ren is beautiful, choose not to live in benevolence, how to know?"[1] . What is a harmonious neighborhood? When buying a house, how to measure whether it can be "Li Ren"? In the view of Confucius, the only thing that is needed to make a harmonious neighborhood is to "choose your neighbor". Therefore, Meng's mother did not have to move again, and with good neighbors, Yan Hui could be satisfied with "a bowl of rice and a dipper of water".

Arthur Waley translates Confucius's words as follows: The Master said, It is Goodness that gives to neighborhood its beauty. One who is f ree to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell One who is f ree to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the Good - how can he be accorded the name of wise ?

For the words of Confucius, in today's words, it is Goodness that gives to neighborhood its beauty. One who is f ree to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the Good - how can he be accorded the name of wise ? Although, the number of words and the structure has changed, Arthur Waley's translation is slightly longer, and does not meet the requirement of short and easy to catchy advertisement text.

The translation: (1) Inside kindness is beauty, and you choose your neighbors to live with. The translation basically meets the requirements of the original, but does not correspond to or remedy the form of the original. (2) Inside Goodness is beauty, and choose neighbors to live with your family. The first half of the sentence replaces kindness with Goodness, and [i] in family rhymes with [i] in beauty, making up for the shortcoming of not being able to translate Chinese with four characters. However, the second half of the sentence is too long, and the logic is also very forced. According to the above situation, this translation is made: Your neighbors' beauty is from their Goodness, Dwelling among them sure is your Good2 choice. This translation remedies the original text in several ways: firstly, from the point of view of phonological steps, there are 10 steps in both sentences, and the rhyming feet are basically in [s], [s], and [s]. The rhymes basically end in [s], and the rhetorical phenomenon of proximity and dyadicity is created by temporary synthesis resulting in the word Goodchoice, which is similar to the item Goodness, and thus the number of words is equal (7).

2 full understanding of the product, the use of analogical techniques and conversion

Example 1 Dabao skin cream advertising slogan: "to have good skin, morning and evening with Dabao".

The original translation: (1) Good skin comes from Dabao. This translation is concise, the meaning is not too much difference, but it is not like advertising language. The original rhyming and catchy character of the original text is not shown at all. (2) Applying "Dabao" morning and night makes your skin a real delight. The translation is excellent, but the double meaning of "morning and night" is not reflected. At the same time, there are "day cream" and "night cream" in the Dabao series, and the original translation only uses lowercase "morning and night", so to some extent it lacks the recommended function in the advertisement. The original translation only used lowercase "morning and night" so it somehow missed the advertised function.

Try to translate as follows: (1) Applying "Dabao" MORNING and NIGHT makes your skin soft and bright . -Dabao-you will prefer, sooner or later. There are puns and rhymes. The pun is reflected in MORNING and NIGHT, which, according to the characteristics of the product and the survey of users, is usually used in the morning and at night. Therefore, it is similar to the English idiom of day and night to realize the pun. At the same time, the use of soft and bright realizes the rhyme, and Dabao-you will prefer, sooner or later adds meaning to it. (2) To make your skin soft and bright apply "Dabao" MORNING and NIGHT. Dabao -you will prefer, sooner or later. (3) To (1), make a structural change. The infinitive is advanced to be used as a purpose clause, and apply leads to an imperative sentence, which introduces the product to potential consumers who do not know about it or who want to have good skin, realizing the function of persuasion as well as the counterpoint.

Example 2 "Bao beats the world, fins overwhelm the masses."

This advertisement makes full use of the idioms "Bao beats the world, fin beats the crowd", which are often used to praise someone or something, and has the meaning of outperforming other people or things. The "Bao" in "Bao" is a homophonic character, and the "Fin" in "Fin" is a temporary substitute for "Fin" in "Fin". The advertisement is a temporary replacement for "翅" in "翅 "压群芳, but it rhymes with [chi] and [ji], both of which rhyme with [i]. In fact, the advertisement mainly tells customers or potential customers that the restaurant specializes in abalone and shark's fin, which is highly competitive with its delicious taste. It is not difficult to translate this advertisement. Try to translate it as follows: (1) Abalones are our found dation; shark's fins are the best of best . The translation basically reflects the meaning of the original, but it is not very effective and not catchy to read. (2) Abalones conquer all; shark's fins are the best of all. Although this translation is a good choice in terms of semantics, structure, rhyme, and phonology, the ending - al[? Although this translation is a good choice in terms of semantics and structure, as well as rhyme and meter, the ending - al[? In addition, from the point of view of advertising jurisprudence there is the suspicion of unfair competition. Thus, the analogy is transformed from another angle: Abalones -fresh. Absolutely. Shark's fins -fantastic. Out spokenly. "Out spokenly. Because in the original language, it is analogous to "技压群芳", which is a kind of semantic repetition. Out spokenly. Out spokenly. Out spokenly is a semantic repetition. From a rhetorical point of view, to take the first rhyme, rhyme to make up for the loss of the Chinese pun, the use of dashes, adverbs separate sentences, increase the pause and momentum.

3 Set up a sense of service for the target language readers, the use of alternative methods

The translation of the advertising slogan should have a strong "translation consciousness", that is, in the mind for the sake of foreign readers. Therefore, the words containing hanyu pinyin should be handled carefully. In the following example, LongCard cannot be written as long card.

Example 1 Construction Bank's LongCard advertising slogan: "Clothing, food, housing and transportation, there is a dragon is spiritual."

When translating LongCard, it is common to mimic the MasterCard style of writing, and at the same time italicize the word "Long" to differentiate it from the English word "long". Based on the same reasoning, foreign readers may feel ambiguous or misunderstanding of certain things to try to explain clearly.

Translation: (1) Your everyday life is very busy , our LongCard can make it easy. This is a pretty good translation, summarizing "clothing, food, housing, and transportation" in everyday life and rhyming with [zi:]. It rhymes with [zi:]. It would be better if it were phonetically reinforced.

Your everyday life is very busy, our longcard you will make it easy. The use of will instead of can makes the translation more humane, i.e. it includes function and active will. Nevertheless, this article believes that "clothing, food, housing and transportation" in the original text refers to the means of consumption or payment in these areas, and does not focus on busy or not busy, but on their convenience. Therefore, another attempt is made to translate the first sentence as follows: Inconvenient is it for you to carry much cash. Then, we will study the second sentence: "If there is a dragon, then there is a way to travel" is a pun, and we will refer to Liu Yuxi's "Inscription on a Sketchy Room": "A mountain is not as high as a mountain, but if there is an immortal, then there is a name for that mountain. The water is not deep, there is a dragon, then the spirit.

The dragon is a symbol of the Chinese nation, but in Western mythology it is synonymous with monsters. Thus, the direct translation as dragon seems inappropriate. Although italics are used to differentiate long (长), it will still cause misunderstanding when reading. Therefore, we are exploring the possibility of using the Hong Kong-Taiwan spelling loong, with the double-case oo to indicate the long sound. Many comments on the translation of the Chinese dragon have been obtained from websites related to "dragon". Wang Yuxuan and others believe that the dragon should be translated as Loong, which on the one hand avoids the embarrassment of conflicting with Western culture, and on the other hand, oo is characterized by its hieroglyphic nature, i.e., it seems to be looking at the world with two eyes[2] . As early as 2004, some scholars in Taipei suggested that the English translation of dragon should be Loong. Correctly translating dragon is an important step to protect traditional Chinese culture. According to Huang Ji, the name of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was translated as "Lee HsienLoong", which is an example[3] . In addition, the word "Zeling" indicates that the success of your daily life is closely related to the Loong Card, and it also indicates that the Loong Card is very useful, convenient and quick to use. Therefore, the translation is as follows: Loongcard settles your everyday payment in a flash. Where paymem means payment, in a flash means in a very short time, eliminating the inconvenience and risk of carrying a large amount of cash. Loongcard settles your everyday payment in a flash. Inconvenient is it for you to carry much cash, Loongcard settles your everyday payment in a flash. This translation is phonetically equal, with - ash as the rhyme, and the rhetorical device of inversion is used in the first sentence to emphasize the importance of carrying cash when going out. The first sentence emphasizes the inconvenience of carrying cash on the go, which leads to the necessity of using a loongcard.

Example 2: "Don't be fooled".

This is an advertisement for a pawnshop. If you only read the pronunciation without paying attention to the text form, people will have a different understanding, the translation will also be in the surface understanding, such as the following translation: (1) Even if you are taken in, you will not suffer losses. Through the study of the sentence structure of the advertisement, it is considered that the use of the concessive conditional clause is reasonable, and it is translated as "(2) Even if you are taken in, you will not suffer losses. Some people object to the fact that the word "pawn" is not reflected in the advertisement, and if it is put into the English version of the advertisement, the English readers will be at a loss as to what to make of it, and may even misunderstand it. (2) If you go to the pawn shop, you will not lose money. In this article, it is worthwhile to go to a pawn shop to exchange goods for money or to buy cheap goods without losing money. However, the pun is missing. There are also translations: (3) Go to the pawnshop, you will not be taken in. Such a translation should be said to reflect the paradoxical approach, but the target language readers may have questions: Could the pawnshop be a place to cheat people?

The study of the above three translations, that can be partially accepted in this translation, the reasoning again and again, from the point of view of the advertising effect seems to be more persuasive advertisement translation 3 effect. However, from the point of view of the compactness of the sentence, the degree of catchiness, puns, and service to the reader, it seems inappropriate. In addition, several translation examples are limited to the surface text, and it is possible to get a better translation if one goes beyond this limitation. By using the translation method anyway, we try to give the following translation: Going to the pawnshop will be the worthwhile job. This translation refers to the translation form of Dabao's advertisement translation (2), which positively points out that going to the pawnshop is a very worthwhile job, with the implication that it is not a loss. In order to make it catchy to read, the following translation was tried: Go to pawn anything, you'll find it worth doing. The sentence structure of the translation is the same: "end rhyme --- sound", "end rhyme --- sound", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme", "end rhyme". ---The sentence structure of the translation is the same: "end rhyme", [i] is the same. In order to avoid misunderstanding by the target language readers, the phrase "it pays to pawn anything" is translated positively after jumping out of the original meaning of the sentence. Although the word "no loss" was not chosen, and the pun was not reflected, the persuasive function of the advertisement was better expressed by the use of the imperative, the addition of end rhymes, and the same phonological steps.

The Chinese-English translation of advertising language is a very difficult task, especially for Chinese-English translation. Some advertisements that play with words or have strong cultural connotations cannot even be translated into each other. In order to translate well, we must repeatedly practice, after a long period of hard work, do not look at the meaning of the word, "into the seat" type of literal superficial translation. It should also be noted that, in order to achieve the desired commercial effect, the translation of advertising text, must be proficient in the English language and culture and familiar with the Chinese and English translation skills of the translation of the results of the translation is to find the English-speaking countries to verify. It is very difficult to create good Chinese advertising words, and it is even more difficult to translate good Chinese advertising words into good English. Some people in the business world should give up the concept of "translation is not creation" and really recognize the importance and difficulty of advertising language translation, as well as the value and benefits that a good translation can bring.

References:

[1]Confucius. The Analects[M]. Arthur Waley. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1998 : 38 , 39 , 74 , 75.

[2]Wang Yuxuan. The English word for "dragon" should be translated as Loong [ DB/ OL ]. /blog/log/showlog.jspe ?site2id =2547

[3]Shen Houwen, Xu Mingjun. Advertising English with Examples [M] . Beijing: China Radio and Television Press, 1995 ：73 - 77 , 226 - 233.

[4]Cui Gang. Advertising English 3000 Sentences [M] . Beijing: Beijing Institute of Technology Press, 1993 ：12 , 37.

[5]Ding Hengqi. Three-dimensional Thinking in Translating Advertising Texts [J ] . China Translation, 2004 (1) : 75 , 76.

[6]Chinese-English Idioms Dictionary [M] . Beijing: Commercial Press, 1982 ：242.

[7]Koo Jung-kun. English Poetry Appreciation Treasury [M] . Tianjin: Tianjin People's Publishing House, 1998 : 12 - 37.

Exploration of translation of Chinese advertising slogans and phrases

WANG Yanfei1, YU Ting2

(1. Dept . of Foreign Language, University of Science and Technology). Dept. of Foreign Language, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China; 2. School of Applied English, Dalian University Foreign Languages, Dalian 116002, China)

Abstract: The strategies and techniques applied in the translation of some Chinese advertising slogans and phrases were explored, and the translation of these slogans and phrases into Chinese was not a simple matter. phrases were explored, and the necessity involved in correctly understanding them was thus pointed out. At the same time, an effort was made in the study of At the same time, an effort was made in the study of cultures and marketing functions conveyed in these advertising slogans and phrases, from which the conclusion is drawn that advertising translation is not merely the translation of one language into another. not merely the translation of one language into another, but also of the cultures. Besides, what is more important is that it is different from the translation of other styles of text: translation of other styles of text is not only the translation of one language into another, but also the translation of other cultures. Besides, what is more important is that it is different from the translation of other styles of text: it is a kind of translation producing strong marketing effectiveness.

Key words: advertising slogans; advertising phrases; translation; culture; culture; advertising translation; culture; culture; culture; culture advertising phrases; translation; culture; marketing effectiveness

(Received July 12, 2006)