A Study On The Translation Of Public Service Advertising

We have entered the 21st century. The economic globalization and information science and technology have become the changing trend of the world. The international communication becomes more and more frequent with the deepening of the international division of labor and the strengthening of economic integrations in the world. China, as a member of the WTO, has established a closer relationship with other countries. PSA (Public Service Advertising) has become a very important means and a necessary tool for sending information, promoting social responsibility, uplifting international image and winning national honor. Therefore, PSA translation has become more and more important.PSA is a practical text type with high publicity value. Performing a unique function, PSA language has some distinctive features. How to translate PSAs to make them easy to understand and more appealing and effective? How to translate PSAs to set up a good image in cross-cultural communication? These are very important problems for us to solve. The PSA industry in China started late but develops fast. The translation of Chinese PSAs into English is not quite mature and needs to be improved. This thesis is intended to discuss the translation of Chinese PSAs in light of Peter Newmark's translation theory including language functions and text types as well as his communicative and semantic translation methods.Firstly, since translation is the rendering of one language into another, the linguistic features of Chinese PSAs should be studied. In this thesis, similarities and differences between English and Chinese PSAs are analyzed, for a mastery of linguistic characteristics of both languages will help contribute to the effective translation of PSAs. Secondly, the translation of PSA is also a kind of cross-culture communication. The differences of English and Chinese culture will inevitably influence PSA translation. In order to attain the function of PSA translation we should pay due attention to various aspects of cultures.English translation of Chinese PSAs is of vital importance in China today, yet there remains much for us to do in this field. Therefore, it is practical and significant to deal with aspects of the translation of Chinese PSAs. It is sincerely hoped that this research and study will be of some help to PSA translators as well as those who are interested in translation. It is expected that the recommended techniques can be of some value to the translators of Chinese PSAs.