An Analysis Of Creative Treason In Advertisement Translation

In modern society, the rapid progress of the economy, the intensification of international exchanges and severe competition involve a growing need for advertisement and thus of its translation. For a long time, the opponents of equivalence-based theory considered the source text as an "absolute standard" in the judgment and evaluation of a translation work. However, the traditional equivalence-based translation methods sometimes fail to fulfill the purpose of advertisement.Traditionally translation is regarded as a transformation between two languages. This notion puts focus on the source language text, requiring the target language text to be equal to it. However, in practice, the translator may purposely alter the form and content of the original out of certain considerations so that the translated text can serve a specific purpose and perform an intended function in target culture.Advertisement translation distinguishes itself from other types of translation by boasting its own notions, such as the role of the translator, the role of target text and its predetermined purpose. Due to the nature of advertising, advertisement translation is affected by many parameters, internal and external. It is not just a SL-TL linguistic operation but often an adaptation process according to the factors of the target culture and language. To accomplish their mission, translators should keep themselves aware of these parameters, predict the problems and adopt appropriate strategies in translation practice.The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is introduction to the significance of the study.The second chapter is literature review of the current research on advertisement translation in China and abroad, which helps to provide support and foundation.The third chapter concentrates on the functional approach to translation, which sheds light on advertisement translation. The background and development of this theory are briefly reviewed.In the fourth Chapter, features of advertisement language are investigated after a analysis of the definition, function and classification of advertisements.The fifth chapter is the main body of this thesis. This paper, based on functional theory and adopting the method of comparative analysis, explores the translator's creative treason in advertisement translation, which is defined in this paper as the translator's translation activity deviating from the original work consciously and deliberately in terms of form and content in order to serve a specific purpose and perform an intended function by means of addition, omission, reorganization or adaptation to the original work. In the light of functional theory, the thesis, through analyzing the major constituents of the translation process, explores the factors that cause the creative treason in advertisement translation. They include the translating purpose, target culture, target-text addressee as well as the political, legal and economic policies in target environment. Furthermore, the thesis also points out the value of creative treason and its significant meaning.Through the study of advertisement translation, the thesis concludes that advertisement translation doesn't mean word-for-word correspondence; instead, it is a recreation to a certain extent and creative treason in advertisement translation is inherent. Meanwhile, we have to see that on the one hand, we should admit the reasonability and positive function of creative treason, but on the other hand, any creative translation should be applied properly.The thesis studies research on advertisement translation from the extra linguistic perspective, which is helpful to widen the horizon of translation studies, and help us better understand the nature of translation and the role of the translator's initiative. This perspective helps one criticize translation activity objectively and evaluate the translator appropriately. It is of great significance both to theoretical research and translation practices.The last chapter summarizes the whole thesis. The author reiterates the key points of the thesis and comments on the limitations of this thesis and provides some suggestions for further study.