A Study Of Translation Of Cosmetic Instructions From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Cosmetic instructions exert great influence on consumers'purchasing psychology as well as cosmetic brands and advertisements. As more and more cosmetics have come into China's market, translation of cosmetic instructions is becoming increasingly important. A well-translated cosmetic instruction will stimulate consumers'desire of purchasing the product and finally persuade them into the action of purchase through the proper introduction of the products'ingredients, functions, effects and directions of using the product to its customers. As a result, it will increase the sale of the cosmetics. The present thesis focuses on the translation of English cosmetic instructions into Chinese, exploring the cosmetic instruction translation principles and methods under the guidance of the reception theory with a view to being helpful to improve the quality of the cosmetic instruction translation.Reception theory puts emphasis on the reader and attaches great importance to the significant role of the readers who have been neglected in the previous literary theories, thus providing a new perspective for the future translation studies. The main viewpoints of reception theory include"horizons of expectation","indeterminacies of text","readers'responses theory"and"vocative structure", etc. According to reception theory, translation of cosmetic instructions aims at arousing consumers'memory of their past experiences by leading them into the particular experience, evoking their horizons of expectation as well as arousing their interest in the products.Translation of cosmetic instructions is not only a language decoding process, but also a process involving many factors, such as the target culture, aesthetic psychology and so on. As a communicative text, cosmetic instruction is expected to have a dialogue with their receptors, hence, the translated version of cosmetic instructions should conform to the target conventions. Meanwhile, as Chinese and English people have different histories, culture, values and thinking patterns, the translation of cosmetic instructions has to conform to the target language receptive standards and aesthetic psychology to arouse consumers'interest in the products and make their consumers purchase the products finally.Translation of cosmetic instructions should follow two principles in line with the reception theory: conforming to the target language readers'horizons of expectation and conforming to the target language readers'aesthetic comprehension. Under the guidance of the above two principles, this thesis has also discussed specific translation methods, such as addition of necessary information for better understanding, adaptation to the target language and omission of unimportant parts, etc.