摘要

在世界经济全球化的背景下，英语广告的翻译变得越来越重要。如今它几乎存在于我们日常生活中的每个角落。尽管国内对广告进行了大量的翻译实践，然而对此领域的理论研究还相对滞后。本文首先从词法、句法和修辞三个层面讨论了英语广告的语言特点；接着论述了英语广告的汉译现状，指出了汉译中存在的问题；最后根据英语广告语言的特点，提出并例证了翻译英语广告的三条原则：忠实性、吸引性和可接受性及三种译法：音译法、直译法和意译法。

关键词：英语广告；语言特点；汉译

Abstract

With the globalization of world economy, English advertisements translation is becoming more and more important and it exists in every corner in our daily life. In spite of lots of practices in English advertisements, the theoretical research in this field is still relatively backward in China. First, the thesis discusses the major language characteristics from three perspectives: lexical, syntactic and rhetorical aspects. Second, it probes into the current situation in Chinese translation of English advertising and points out the problems. Finally, according to the unique features of advertising, this thesis proposes and exemplifies three principles: faithfulness, attractiveness and acceptability, and three methods: transliteration, literal translation and free translation.

Key words: English advertising; Language characteristics; Chinese translation of advertising

1 Introduction

The word “advertise” stems from the Latin “advertere”, meaning “to make known to the public”. Lots of scholars have reflected on the meaning of the word in different versions. Abert Lasker, father of modern advertising, says that advertising is “salesmanship in print”. This definition is given a long time before the advent of radio and television. In deed, as Qian Yuan summarizes, advertising has become a highly powerful institution in modern society. It helps manufactures and corporations increase profits, manipulates social values and attitudes, and shapes people’s life style. The definition given by the American Marketing Association (AMA) seems to be more comprehensive and acceptable.