Advertising Translation Strategy From The Functionalist Perspective

With the rapid development of international business and multinational companies there is a growing need for efficient international advertising communication and translation. The amount of advertising translation is already substantial, and keeps increasing. However, the study of advertising translation is far from satisfactory to its need, and the traditional translation theories seem increasingly inadequate. That is because advertisements are of a very practical type of writing with high commercial value, and the ultimate purpose of all advertisements is the same—to promote sales. Accordingly, advertising translation has its own laws and demands a systematic study. If the translator rigidly adheres to the original form and content in advertising translation just as the traditional translation theories require him to do, the translation may not produce the persuasive effect and may lead to the failure in promoting sales in the target market. Therefore, a more practical theory and translation strategy are called for.As a break with the traditional translation ideas and an important complement to translation studies, the functionalist concept of translation put forward by some German scholars has opened up a new perspective to the study of translational action theory. Translating may be conceived as an action, and any action has its purpose. The prime principle determining any translation process is the purpose (skopos) of the overall translational action, and translation strategies and methods are determined by the purpose and the intended function of the target text (translation skopos). Within the framework of Skopostheorie, the skopos rule is the top-ranking rule for any translation, and the other rules, e.g. the coherence rule and the fidelity rule, are subordinate to the skopos rule.In general, a good advertisement is undoubtedly successful in persuading its audience. However, due to the barriers of language and culture, this advertisement, after translated, may not be successful in the target market. That is because when the advertisement is designed, the advertiser is sure that the source audience can understand it and accept it on the source language and cultural background. But whenthe situation is changed, the persuasive effect in the source culture may not be produced in the target culture. Only when the original advertisement is adapted to the target language and cultural standards, can the target audience easily understand what is advertised and be likely to accept the persuasion and buy the advertised product. Therefore, in order to achieve the special purpose of advertisements, and develop the special persuasive function at its best, a particular translation strategy—target-language-culture oriented and re-creative strategy should be taken as the basic strategy in advertising translation, and rewriting and adaptation should also be considered as conventional translation methods. Functionalist approach to translation is characterized by its target-orientedness. This theory emphasizes the functionality of the target text in the target culture. In this sense, functionalist approach to translation can best serve as the utmost guideline on advertising translation.Since target-language-culture oriented and re-creative strategy requires that the translation of an advertisement should be adapted to target language and culture, the thesis makes further researches into the linguistic characteristics and the cultural features of advertising English and Chinese. At the same time, it makes an analysis about the adaptation of the authentic examples. In addition, the fact that different cultures are interacting with and penetrating into each other is also concluded and discussed in this thesis.In a word, based on the purpose and main functions of advertisements, target-language-culture oriented and re-creation strategy is advocated as the basic strategy of advertising translation.