A Tentative Study Of Chinglish In Translation Of Press And Advertisement

Since l978, when the policy of reform and opening up began, the pasttwenty years have witnessed a flourishing foreign publicity in China. WhileaPplauding the success achieved, we regret to see many problems colltinue toexist, among which Chinglish is a prominent one. It has not only hindered theintercultural communications between China and the rest of the world, bllt,even worse, spoiled China's image on the global stage. Many factors areanswerable for Chinglish. This thesis is an attempt to probe the issue by acontrastive study of Chinese and English languages and cultures in press andadvertisement, because the dissimilar languages and cultures are primarycauses of Chinglish, and the translation of press and advertisemeflt, which arefields of consequence in China's fOreign publicity, concerns the Whole China.It is devoted to discussing the causes and manifestations of Chinglish andways to reduce it, with a view to bringing translation to a higher standard, i.e.,"faithfulness, smoothness and elegance".The thesis comprises flve parts:The introduction sketches the adverse effects Chinglish has onforeigners' view of China by citing instances. Though to completely avoidChinglish is difficult, it is practical to diminish it to a minimum.Chapter One, "What is Chinglish", preseflts the writer's opinion of twocontroversial issues, which considers the theoretical fOundation fOr the thesis.First, the controversy between China Engish and Chinglish, cites andanalyzes of the viewPoints of eight scholars on the issue. The writerdistinguishes between the two terms by the "inteIligibility" and"acceptability" of educated native English speakers and presellts her ownIIldefinitions of both. A second controversy lies between literal translation andfree translation. They are necessary suPplements to each othef, but as far asthe translation of press and advertisement is concemed, the latter is moreoften preferred.Chapter TWo aPproaches the chief evidences of Chinglish in presstranslation from the aspects of "mistranslation of neologisms", "unnecessarywords" and "ill-formed selltences", and suggests strategies to reduceChinglish in this field. The writer holds that word-for-word translation is themajor cause of Chinglish, and a thorough understanding of the original isessential to good translation.Chapter Three is devoted to Chinglish style in adveftisemellt translation,which is different from other types of texts in that it requires conveyance ofboth meaning and emotion. Because the techniques and fOcuses of Englishadvertisements are unlike those of Chinese, common translation skills canhardly achieve the intended advertising effects, and even cast blight on thesponsor. Authorized by the sponsor, an adveftisement translator should breakaway from the fOrmal restrictions of the original and edit or rewrite theoriginal in order to cater to the target consumers' taste.TO conclude the thesis, the writer reaffirms that Chinglish is inevitabledue to the strikingly different social background, norms, values, cultWes andlanguages between China and English speaking countries. Yet, with a keensense of responsibility and intensive knowledge in Chinese and English,translators can reduce Chinglish to a minimum.This thesis presents the writer's superficial understanding of Chinglishafter years of experience in translation theory and practice. Finished in alimited time and short of Chinese-English (C-E) translation theory it is farIVfrom mature and perfect. Please pass any criticism on it.