On The C-E Translation Of Publicity Materials In A Communication Approach

Publicity literature is a practical genre which has its own peculiarities. Informative function and vocative function are the main functions of publicity materials. Through providing the information about all aspects of China, the publicity materials can broaden mutual understanding and increase friendship. The informative function is the premise, while the vocative function serves as the ultimate goal. Publicity materials feature a communicative nature. Publicity, to have the desired effect, should be a dialogue between the communicator and receiver.In view of the peculiar characteristics of publicity literature, the translation of it should be different from the translation of other genres. However, the rigid way of translation has resulted in unintelligible translated works. Besides, the study of the translation of publicity materials is a comparatively less explored area where there is a serious lack of guiding theory.In order to compensate for the limitation, the present paper sets out to examine the Chinese-English translation of publicity materials from the perspective of the science of communication. Since publicity is also a kind of communication, the communicative nature of publicity materials asserts itself into the framework of the science of communication. The science of communication as a newly developed discipline has great significance to the publicity literature translation: it serves to provide translators a somewhat broader approach to their problems. And it helps the translators to view translation as an intercultural communication in which all the elements that may influence the form of the message are taken into account. The communicative nature of publicity materials is thus highlighted, a strictly purely linguistic approach to translation being avoided. This thesis purports to apply the science of communication to the translation of publicity materials to improve the quality, to be specific, readability of translated works of such genre.The present author makes a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the essential elements involved in the process of the translation of publicity literature-author, translator, reader, message, noise, channel, feedback, effect. It is put forward in this thesis that publicity literature differs from other genre in that it emphasizes the communicative effect on the intended audiences. The publicizing effect cannot be realized without the reader's reception. Thus, the translator of the publicity materials should take the target reader's acceptability into serious consideration, and a reader-centered translation orientation should be adopted. The status of author in the translation of publicity materials is anonymous. While the role of the translator should be emphasized. If literal translation may result hi unintelligible or unacceptable translated works, the translator of publicity materials is endowed with the rights to make proper modification to the original version on the condition the spirit of the original should be fully conveyed. Message梩he translated version must be intelligible, and they should be transmitted to the foreign audience in a way that they can decode. The channel by which the translation travels to the intended receivers is also an element that may influence the translator's choice. The reader's response could even be quantified as a percentage rate of the success of the translation of publicity materials. The translator of the publicity materials, therefore, must be sensitive to anticipatory feedback, that is to say, being able to adjust the communication load of a translation primarily by means of anticipating in advance the likely reaction of the intended audience. There may be psychological noise if the form of the translation is awkward or unclear, hi order to get the translation better understood, any form of noise that may hinder the reader's reading should be reduced to the minimum.The present thesis also takes the C-E translation of China Today to have a case study. With the science of communication as the macro-...