发布时间 : 星期日 文章目的论视角下的广告翻译更新完毕开始阅读
10英语三班 董越 20090401156
Advertisement Translation from the Perspective of the Skopos
Theory
Abstract: As one of the major means of sales promotion, advertising has penetrated into every corner of society. Therefore, advertising translation has become more and more important. However, the traditional principles of translation can not completely adapt to the purpose of advertising translation. The paper explores the principles and strategies of advertising translation from the perspective of the skopos theory in the function theory, making advertising translation achieve the desired commercial purpose.
Key words: The Skopos Theory; Advertising Translation; Translation Strategies
目的论视角下的菜谱翻译
摘要：菜谱作为商家促销的重要手段之一已遍布社会各个角落。因此，菜谱翻译的重要性也显现出来了。然而传统的翻译原则已不能完全适应广告翻译的目的。本文以功能理论的翻译目的论为指导，探讨菜谱翻译的原则及策略，使广告翻译达到预期的商业目的。
关键词：目的论； 菜谱翻译； 翻译策略
1. Introduction
With the development of international economy integration, international trades are becoming frequent. More and more foreign products appear in Chinese market, and vice versa. Therefore, what enterprises should do to promote their products and occupy their own positions in foreign countries? Advertising is a best way to solve this problem. However, concepts and ideas in advertising are often embedded in the culture in which they originate. The traditional translation requires that the translated
text must be equal and faithful to the source text, which is unable to adapt to the advertising translation right now. Therefore advertising translation should be guided by a new proper translation theory which could fulfill the purpose of advertising. Skopos theory, which emphasizes the function of target text, maintains that translation is a purposeful intercultural activity and that translation follows the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. Based on this theory, advertising translation can be more effective in sales promotion.
2. The Skopos Theory and Advertising
The Greek word “skopos”, which was introduced into translation theory by Vermeer in the 1970s, is a technique term for the goal or purpose of a translation. The skopos theory holds that “the way the target text eventually shapes up is determined to a great extent by the function, or ?skopos?, intended for it in the target context” (Hatim2005:74). The skopos theory consists of skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule. The skopos rule refers to the communicative purpose of translated text. That means the translation initiator decides the communicative purpose in the process of translational action. The coherence rule means that translators must make the translated text comprehensible to readers and meaningful in target language. The fidelity rule means that the translated text must be faithful to the source text. Among these rules, the skopos rule is the top-ranking rule for any translation, and the fidelity rule is subordinate to the coherence rule. Thus it can be seen that the skopos theory is a translation theory that emphasizes more on function and social and cultural factors. It revises the understanding of “faithfulness” in traditional translation theory and makes translation more diversified.
Advertisement as a means of sales promotion has its specific purpose. That is to make the public know about goods or services, and influence and convince the potential consumers to buy the advertised products or pay for the advertised services. Because of cultural differences, target text may not produce as good effects as source text of advertisement. It is unable for target audience to spend much time to think of the words and meanings of the advertisements. Therefore, a good advertisement must be easily understood by the target audience. The translation of advertisements must adapt to target language style and target culture. Translators should make their efforts to make translated text comprehensible to target audiences. Only in this way, potential consumers may be interested in its information and have a tendency to purchase it. Successfully making translated text attracted by audience to achieve the purpose
of sales promotion is the principal rule of advertisement translation as well as the only purpose of advertisement. Therefore, under the guidance of the skopos theory, it is better to understand the nature of advertisement translation and to ask translators to adopt various translation strategies to translate a good advertisement for reaching the purpose of sales promotion.
3. Strategies in Advertising Translation
Advertising translation is different from other kinds of translation. Because of the special purpose of advertisement, the advertising translation is required to attract potential consumers and stimulate their desire and encourage them to purchase products. Besides, advertising translation is a recreated process. Translators should try to dig the connection between the product and the target-language culture, make the advertisement adapt to the target-language habits and make it more acceptable by target-language consumers. Therefore, there are four major strategies of advertising translation under the guidance of the skopos theory.
3.1 Literal Translation
Literal translation, or direct translation, is the translation of text from one language to another \focus on factual information about the product or service. And literal translation is a good way to reproduce the original style. For example:
1. At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.
译文：时速60英里的这种新式“劳斯莱斯”轿车最响的噪音是来自车内的电车. 2. We know you are both gourmet and weight watcher. Our cake keeps you on both. 译文：我们深知你既是美食家又是节食者，我们制作的蛋糕可使你两全其美。 The advertisements above are full of factual information about the products. They abide by the fidelity rule of the skopos theory. The advertisements are translated in narrative order but create a good effect. In advertisement 1, consumers can get the knowledge of the quality of the car. In advertisement 2, “gourmet” and “weight watcher” can catch consumers? attentions. Therefore, the literal translation can fully express the original style here and deliver main ideas of advertisements. The translated text is like a girl endowed with good looks and it looks good even without making-up.
3.2 Adding Translation
Adding translation is to replace or complement the constituent which is necessary in target text but not fully expressed in target text. Generally, a good translated text should not only be faithful to source text, but also express the implicit information of source text especially when the content and cultural backgrounds have a close relation. Therefore, adding translation is good for reaching the desired purpose of advertisements, which reduces the unnecessary misunderstandings. For example:
1. You?re at 35000 feet. Your head is in New York your heart is in Paris. Your Roles can be in both places at once.
译文：身在35000尺的纽约上空，巴黎的浪漫仍系在心中。唯有你的劳力士可两地兼容。（Rolex-劳力士手表） 2. Taking the lead in the Digital world 译文：领先数码，超越永恒（三星电子）
The coherence rule requires that the translated text must be sufficiently coherent to allow the intended addressees to comprehend it. The advertisements above both add extra but necessary information in their translation versions. In advertisement 1, “Your heart is in Paris” is translated into “巴黎的浪漫仍系心中”. If literally translate into “心在巴黎” ，the translation would be difficult for consumers to understand the hidden meaning of this advertisement even though the content is brief and is faithful to the source text. Translator put “浪漫” into the translated text, which gives consumers a romantic feeling and also shows noble temperament of the product. In advertisement 2, translator used four-word-structure sentences and antithetical parallelism to satisfy Chinese receivers? linguistic custom. These translated versions express the implicit meanings as well as promote infectious power of advertisement.
3.3 Delete Translation
Delete translation is to delete the information that can not be understood by target-language consumers in the source text. On considering culture difference between source language and target language, delete translation can make translation version deliver key information as well as adapt to readers? aesthetic psychology, thus reaching the purpose of publicizing outward. For example:
“长城号”游船设施豪华舒适，除观景塔，露天观景塔，游泳池，酒吧间，日光浴室外，佳肴美点，中西皆备，并有宽敞的游步甲板，游客饱览沿途风光，华丽而舒适的客房均有空调设备，令您有宾客如归的感受。