Translation Strategies Of Chinese-English Publicity Materials From Functionalist Perspective

The ascension of China's international status and deepening of intercultural communication exchanges promote a growing need for publicity materials and their translation. The author analyses the translation of 2010 Shanghai Expo publicity materials from functionalist perspective.Taking German functionalist translation theory as the framework,the thesis seeks to study the Chinese to English translation of publicity materials based on the data collected in the 2010 Shanghai Expo. The functionalist translation theory is featured by its target-orientedness since it emphasizes the Skopos of the target text in the target culture and the choice of translation strategies in different context. The thesis introduces the application of functionalist translation theory to the C-E translation of publicity materials with special reference to the text typology theory, the Skopos theory, the theory of translational action and the functional plus loyalty theory. The thesis then analyses abundant examples from the three aspects: translation brief, source text-type analysis and translation problems, and concludes that clear and concrete language is adequate in publicity materials to meet the needs of readers from all over the world, then proposed some translation strategies and techniques which best represent the essence of the functionalist approach---"the end justifies the means"and achieve the maximum positive publicity effect.In functionalist perspective, Skopos determines translation strategies. The translators work out the translation brief by analyzing the skopos and text function of the text, then decide what translation strategies and techniques to use. In publicity materials translation process, the translator must bear in mind the intended function of the target text and produce a text that is comprehensible and acceptable to the target readers.