English Translation Of Chinese Advertisements In The Light Of Newmark's Communicative Translation Theory

As a means of international economic competition and a bridge of cultural transmission, advertisements play a very important role in almost every corner of our society. With the implementation of the policy of reform and opening-up to the outside world and China's entry into WTO in particular, more and more foreign products have poured into China with the help of wonderful advertisements. However, comparatively speaking, few Chinese products enjoy high international reputation even if they have reached the international standard. The reason is that the English translation of Chinese advertisements is not desirable. The advertisement industry in China started late and it develops slowly. The English translation of Chinese advertisements is not quite mature and it needs to be improved. The thesis is intended to probe into the English translation of Chinese advertisements in the light of New Mark's related theories.The ultimate objective of advertisements is to persuade the potential consumers to purchase the products or the services advertised. Therefore, advertisement language has become a professional language, which attracts the attention of many scbolars at home and abroad. The domestic scholars such as Zhao Jing, Zhou Xiao, Zhou Yi, Cui Gang, and Wang Tao and the foreign scholars such as Leech, Michael and Myers have explored the linguistic characteristics of English advertisements in terms of lexis, rhetoric and syntax. However, a few Chinese scholars have ever probed into the linguistic characteristics of Chinese advertisements. Since translation is the rendering of one language into another, the linguistic characteristics of Chinese advertisements should be studied. In this thesis, similarities and differences between English and Chinese advertisements are revealed by means of comparison and analysis, for I am quite convinced that a mastery of linguistic characteristics of both languages will naturally contribute to the effective translation of advertisements. It is generally recognized that every purposeful activity should be directed by one theory or another. It is quite obvious that translation is a purposeful activity and it should be directed by at least one theory. In this thesis, Newmark's communicative translation theory will function as the theoretical base.The thesis falls into six chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction of the thesis. The basic concepts of advertisements are presented in Chapter Two. The Linguistic characteristics of English and Chinese advertisements are compared and analyzed in Chapter Three. Some related theories by Newmark are displayed and analyzed in Chapter Four. In the light of the theories, some common translation techniques are proposed in Chapter five. The difficulties in the transference of cultural concepts are probed into and some special translation techniques are suggested in Chapter Six.English translation of Chinese advertisements is of vital importance in China today, yet there remains much for us to do in this field. Therefore, it is practical and significant to study the English translation of Chinese advertisements. It is sincerely hoped that my research and study in the thesis will be of some help to advertisement translators as well as those who are interested in translation. It is expected that the recommended techniques can be of some value to the translators of Chinese advertisements.