Figures Of Speech In Ads: Application And Translation

With the development of social economy and the increasing international cooperation in trades, advertising is of greater importance than ever. As an ideal medium of promoting product sales, advertising influences our lives in various forms. It is involved in the business competition of producers. A good advertisement will arouse consumers'attention and their interest in the product or service advertised, and persuade them to purchase it. Advertising is a comprehensive art. Its language is of crucial importance. Advertising language belongs to loaded language with strong appeal and persuasiveness. Language in a successful advertisement is succinct and original, vivid and interesting, expressive and impressive. To realize it, the employment of various rhetorical devices holds the key. Figures of speech are part of the most efficient and commonly used rhetorical devices in advertisements. This thesis introduces the definition, functions and language features of advertising, reviews the figures of speech and their categories, and analyzes their functions and the principles of their employment in advertisements.The translation of figures of speech in advertisements is not only closely related to the product reputation, sales scope and economic benefits, but reflects the cultural level of a country or a people. As a unique type of writing, advertisements are different from literary works in the field of translation. And figures of speech in advertisements are difficult to translate because of their variability and artistry. Based on Nida's equivalence theory, the thesis discusses their translation principles and approaches in advertisements and focuses on 20 commonly used figures of speech and their translation by ample exemplification. It is proved that figures of speech are effective and indispensable to realize the advertising functions. Translators should understand the content and figures of speech of the original advertisement, choose appropriate approaches, consider cultural difference between languages and reproduce the original information and rhetorical effect to achieve the best appeal result.