The Chinese-English Translation Of Advertising Witticisms

Advertising plays an increasingly important role in international communication. To come to the fore in the fierce competition, advertisers bend every effort to create Chinese advertisement witticisms with distinctive features. Due to the great disparities between Chinese and English languages, cultures as well as advertising laws and regulations, the translation of advertising witticisms from Chinese into English turns out to be a great headache, which results in unfavorable translations accordingly.The author, on the basis of his analysis on the distinctive text type of the advertising, believes that Peter Newmark's communicative translation serves as the best guiding principle in the translation of advertising witticisms from Chinese into English. And he further proposes that conventional approach like literal translation is the basic approach. However, when it fails to transfer the original meaning as well as carrying the original advertising effect, the translator should, more often than not, make some adaptations, such approaches as structure-borrowing, highlighting, treason, personification and so on should be employed so as to present favorable and pleasant translations to the target readership.This thesis aims at arousing advertisement translators' awareness of adaptation in translating hard-cracked advertisement witticisms with distinctive features. Meanwhile the author hopes the discussion and methods herewith in this thesis can, to some extent, shed light on (would-be) advertisement translators in their prospective fieldwork.