On Pragmatic Failure And Pragmatic Equivalence In English Translation Of Chinese Advertisements

With the rapid development of China's market economy and the deepening of China's reform and opening to the outside world, China has been exporting more and more products and services to foreign countries. In this process, English translation of Chinese advertisements has been playing an important role in opening up the international market for Chinese commodities and promoting their sales abroad.The thesis tries to study the English translation of Chinese advertisements from the pragmatic point of view, the notions of "pragmatic failure" and "pragmatic equivalence" are introduced. From the analysis of pragmatic failures in English translation of Chinese advertisements, it is pointed out that the linguistic and cultural differences between the source and target audiences cause this main problem in English translation of Chinese advertisements.Pragmatic equivalence, including pragmalinguistic equivalence and sociopragmatic equivalence, aims at translating the pragmatic force of the message (the copywriter's intention in advertisement translation) in full, taking enough account of the differences between the target and source language in pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics. Therefore, it is of great importance in guiding the translation of advertisements. Under the guidance of pragmatic equivalence theory, specific strategies to avoid or eliminate pragmatic failure are proposed along with case studies. And a conclusion is drawn in this thesis as follows: to avoid the pragmatic failure in advertisement translation and consequently achieve the pragmatic equivalent effect, due attention should be paid to both the linguistic and cultural differences between two nations. To be specific, a successful and equivalent rendering is produced in advertisement translation only when a translator conveys the pragmatic meaning (the pragmatic force or the author's intention) of the original Chinese advertisement correctly with language forms that conform to the English pragmatic rules and social and cultural conventions.