Understanding And Transferring Presuppositions In Advertising Translation

Presupposition is a complex phenomenon. The notion of presupposition was first presented in philosophy. Later, it triggers the interest of linguists who try to sketch the theory in both semantics and pragmatics. More and more scholars tend to believe that presupposition is a pragmatic concept. It refers to the assumptions made by a speaker before he speaks which include linguistic presupposition and non-linguistic presupposition. It bears the properties of implicitness and defeasibility. Presupposition exists widely in advertising language, hence it would be problematic for a translator to understand and transfer presuppositions. Therefore, the thesis tends to study how to understand and transfer presuppositions based on functional equivalence.Under the guidance of presupposition, the author adopts a qualitative method to analyze the process of understanding presupposition in advertising language. Furthermore, she explores the ways of transferring presuppositions.In the process of understanding presuppositions, the author of the thesis holds that a translator must be aware of the fact that there is a certain amount of presuppositions because the properties can contribute the characteristics of advertising language. If he cannot get a full understanding of presuppositions, it will be difficult for him to acquire the utterance meaning in advertising language. In this part, the author tries to elaborate the process of a translator's understanding presuppositions with typical examples, and she explains that it is actually a process of make inferences backwards: first of all, a translator must consider linguistic presuppositions, namely those triggered by literal meaning of linguistic items. It is the starting point and the most fundamental part for understanding. But he may not grasp the utterance meaning or the intended information made by advertisers. In that case, non-linguistic presuppositions must be considered. The presuppositions arising from context of advertisement and background assumptions are more implicit and explicit. Consequently, a translator must be conscious of it in order to obtain a clear and complete understanding of those presuppositions that affect the delivery of utterance meaning in advertising language.In the process of transferring presuppositions, a translator must be aware that Nida's functional equivalence is the criterion for advertising translation: to be exact, the informative and persuasive functions are to be conveyed to the target language; the characteristics of novelty, brevity, readability, aesthetic value, etc. are to be presented; the attention value cannot be lost. There is always a pool of presuppositions in advertising language, thus a translator should transfer them according to different situations. Firstly, if all the presuppositions can be retained, and the translation can achieve the functional equivalence, literal translation is the first choice. Secondly, if all the presupposed information can be preserved with literal translation while the functional equivalence cannot be achieved in advertising translation, free translation is a good alternative. The key presuppositions should be transferred, which generate most informative, attractive and creative information in source advertising language. But if the presuppositions do not exist in the target language, creative translation should be considered. He must create some relevance between key presuppositions and a certain linguistic expression in target language. Meanwhile, a translation should employ the properties of presupposition to serve advertising translation. Consequently, the criterion of functional equivalence in advertising translation tolerates a considerable loss and gain.A translator's awareness of the process in understanding presuppositions can benefit his comprehension in advertising language. It will further make contributions to the better output in translation. The author of the thesis expects the study can benefit the practice of advertising translation.