Cultural Barriers In C-E Translation Of Publicity Materials

In the world of globalization, publicity materials have become an increasingly important channel for different countries to get access to China. Although there are already some researches on translations of publicity materials, cultural differences and cultural barriers have not been sufficiently touched upon as they are supposed to. This thesis is an attempt to explore the practical significance of Peter Newmark's ST and CT in dealing with cultural barriers in translation of publicity materials. Obviously, as carriers of language and, more importantly, culture, publicity materials bear marked traces of different cultures which constitute cultural barriers in translation. Therefore, how to break down cultural barriers and realize effective and successful translation of publicity materials is a big concern of this thesis.This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction to Peter Newmark's semantic translation and communicative translation. In particular, the theory of semantic translation and communicative translation is expounded in terms of its content and significance, which serves as the theoretical foundation for the following studies. Chapter Two gives an overview of publicity materials, including the definition, characteristics and the text type analysis. In addition, C-E translation of publicity materials is expounded in terms of its significance and its present situation. Chapter Three gives a discussion about the relationship between culture and translation and explores the various cultural differences in C-E translation of publicity materials. The author probes into the significance of culture in C-E translation of publicity materials and give an in-depth analysis of the cultural differences such as ways of thinking, belief and religion, to name just a few. Chapter Four is a tentative study of cultural barriers and specific translation strategies in C-E publicity materials in the light of ST and CT. Cultural barriers are specifically explored before specific strategies are presented.