Translating Chinese Advertisements Into English: From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

With the rapid development of world economy and China's entry into WTO, the circulation of commodities is becoming faster and wider round the whole globe. More and more foreign commodities are entering China, and at the same time more and more Chinese enterprises are promoting their products on the international markets. To make their products more competitive on the international market, Chinese enterprisers must use proper advertisements to make their products or services better known and more acceptable to foreign customers. Translating Chinese advertisements into English has therefore become an important part in the promotion program of Chinese enterprises aiming to enter the international market. The study of Chinese-English (C-E) advertisement translation is of great realistic significance and practical value.There are some differences between advertisement translation and general literary translation, each having different purposes because of differences in styles and motivations. Needless to say, the most important purpose of advertisement translation is to advertise, i.e. to promote sales of specific products or services. The primary purpose of literary translation, on the other hand, is for aesthetic and artistic appreciation. Advertisement translation is not the same as general scientific and technical translation either, whose chief purpose is to introduce specific scientific and technical knowledge to the reader.Skopostheorie argues that the primary task of translation, essentially as a practice of intentional cross-cultural communication, is to facilitate the materialization of the functions which the target text is meant to achieve in the target culture. This is called the Skopos rule by Vermeer. Based on this theory, this present thesis argues that the fulfillment of the intended functions of the target text should be the guiding principle in translating Chinese advertisements into English. This thesis is an attempt to apply Vermeer's Skopostheorie to the practice of translating Chinese advertisements intoEnglish. Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis consists of four chapters. The introduction is the first chapter that is concerned with the background, purpose, and structure of this thesis. Chapter Two is a literature review. It starts with a review of the previous translation theories and limitations of utilizing them as theoretical guides. Then it moves on a brief introduction to Vermeer's Skopostheorie. The author then explains the feasibility of using Skopostheorie as an effective theory in guiding translating Chinese advertisements into English. Chapter Three presents a survey of advertisements in general and a comparison of the characteristics between Chinese and English advertisements. The lexical features, grammar traits and writing styles of Chinese and English advertisements are analyzed. In Chapter Four, discussions are firstly focused on the analysis of C-E advertisement translation purpose. Then the principles of C-E advertisement translation are analyzed. The relationship between the three rules of Skopostheorie and C-E advertisement translation is expounded. Moreover, the author suggests several useful translation strategies. In Chapter Five, the author first discusses the relationship between language, culture and Chinese advertisement translation. Then, analyses are presented of cultural factors and their effects in C-E advertisement translation. Finally, the author stresses the necessity of making certain cultural adjustments in C-E advertisement translation. In the last chapter, the conclusive part of this thesis, the author reemphasizes that Skopostheorie is an effective theory for C-E advertisement translation practitioners. It also summarizes the results of this research that may be deemed as contributions to the field of translation studies in general.