The Study On Translation Of Rhetorical Devices In Chinese Advertisements-A German Functionalist Perspective

With the rapid development of international business and multinational companies, there is a growing need for efficient international advertisement communication and translation. As a branch of translation study, advertisement translation has its own laws and demands a systematic study.Traditional equivalence-based linguistic approaches to advertisement translation fail to achieve satisfactory effect mainly for two reasons. Firstly, through the analysis of the intrinsic mechanism of the Chinese and English languages and cultures, considerable discrepancies in language use are found especially in the field of advertising. Thus there hardly exists an absolute correspondence between the two languages. Secondly, equivalence-based approaches always seek to achieve formal equivalence between the source and target texts and neglect communicative functions of advertisement translation.Functionalist approach put forward in 1970s by some German scholars including Katharina Reiss, Hans J. Vermeer, Justa Holz M?ntt?ri, and Christiane Nord, sheds light on advertisement translation. This theory emphasizes the functionality of the target text in the target culture. In order to fulfill the communicative functions of the target text, forms of the source text could be changed to adapt to the target settings. In this model, the source text serves as only"an offer of information", but certain relationship should be maintained between the source text and the target text at the same time.Functionalist approach to translation has opened up a new perspective to translation studies. It provides a theoretical basis for some unconventional translation strategies such as addition and adaptation, so it is particularly suitable for translating advertisements which have specific functions. Under the guidance of functionalist theory, translators are encouraged to make full use of various sources of information and they are entitled to choose whatever appropriate translation strategies to achieve the expected functions of the translation. Advertisements have definite purpose, which is to urge consumers to buy the advertised products. In order to realize this purpose, advertisers always make full use of language's rhetorical devices which make advertisements more attractive and more persuasive. The thesis introduces the rhetorical devices used in advertisements at three levels: phonetic level, semantic level and syntactic level; specific rhetorical devices are included in these three levels, for example, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, pun, parallelism, etc. Furthermore, advertisement translation is also closely related with products'sale conditions and economic benefits, and translators must try their best to make the target texts receive the same results in the target environment.By authentic examples, the writer attempts to explore some successful translation strategies (particularly addition and adaptation) applicable to translate rhetorical devices in Chinese advertisements in the light of this revolutionary theory. Under lots of conditions, they are necessary devices to achieve functions of the target text, so they should be recognized and applied in translation practice.