Translation Variation Of Advertisement

In modern society, advertisement, the embodiment of commerce, is functioning greatly in market today. The intensification of international exchanges and severe competitions drive the need for qualified advertisement and thus of translation.However, the study of advertisement translation is far from satisfactory to its need, and the traditional translation theories seem increasingly inadequate to practical advertisement translation. Reason being, advertisement is of a very practical type of writing with high commercial value. Its ultimate purpose is to promote sales. If the translator rigidly adheres to the original form and content in translation, it may not produce persuasive effects and may lead to the failure of promoting sales in target markets. Therefore, the special purpose of advertisement should be combined with the translation theory when it is translated.In general, a good advertisement is successful when it persuades its audience. However, due to the barriers of language and culture, an advertisement, when translated, may not be successful to the target audience. This is because when an advertisement is designed, the advertiser is sure that the target audience can understand it and accept it in its native language and culture. But actually when the situation is changed, which means an advertisement is translated into a quite different language under different culture, the persuasiveness of the advertisement may not yield the same effect in the target culture. Only when the advertisement is adapted appropriately to the target language and cultural standards can the audience be easily moved toaccept the advertisement and purchase the advertised product. Living and growing in a certain cultural environment, each customer is deeply influenced by different culture. Therefore, in order to achieve advertisement goals, and develop special persuasive function, a particular translation strategy-translation variation strategy should be applied in advertisement translation.This thesis is divided into five chapters. First of all, it briefly introduces the present status of advertisement translation, and the theory of translation variation. Furthermore, it narrates the definition, methods and principles of translation variation. The relationship between complete translation and translation variation is also involved in this part. Then the status of research on translation variation is presented in chapter two. In chapter three, three kinds of translation variation strategies are demonstrated in details. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the examples of different kinds of advertisement translation. The conclusion is drawn in chapter four. Finally some limitations also are presented for further discussions.