Functional Equivalence In Translating Product Advertisements

After centuries of heated debates around literal and free translation, scholars in the 1950s and 1960s began to attempt more systematic analysis of translation. The most prominent issue was about meaning and equivalence. The functional equivalence theory of Nida is tremendously influential since his work is the move towards a functional definition of meaning where a word is meaningful only in its cultural context. The functional equivalence theory has widely been applied to the study of translation works, and these studies are mainly focused on literature translation. Functional theories from Germany in 1970s and 1980s mark a move toward a functionalist and communicative approach to the analysis of translation. Skopos theory of translation strategy depending on purpose of target text is expanded in Reiss and Vermeer. Besides, Reiss stresses equivalence at text level, linking language functions to text types and translation strategy. The traditional studies of advertisement translation are mainly included in literature translation, which investigate the style of advertisements through analysis of the lexical and syntactic features and probe into the translation approaches with contrast between the English and Chinese styles of advertisements. Unfortunately, it is largely neglected to study the translation of product advertisements in relation to the theory of functional equivalence. Based on researches, this thesis tries to link the wording of advertisements with its actual context and meaning, and attempts to examine how functional equivalence is reflected in the translation of commercial advertisements in the hope of deepening the understanding of commercial advertisement translation and the theory of functional equivalence.This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One introduces the significance of the translation of product advertisements, overviews the current research status of advertisement translation, and sets out the objective of this thesis. Chapter Two involves early concepts of equivalence, skopos theory, Reiss's functional equivalence and her theory of text type, with the focus on her concept of equivalence. Chapter Three analyzes how functional equivalence is achieved in the translation of product advertisements at the level of discourse and the level of receiver. Chapter Four is the conclusion of the whole thesis, and points out the limitations of this thesis as well as suggestions for further study. Nowadays with the rapid increase of China's involvement in international business activities, the demand for translation of commercial advertisements between English and Chinese is increasingly expanding, and the quality of translation of the advertisements is essential. Therefore, it is hoped that with the endeavor of this thesis our understanding of commercial advertisement translation can be further deepened, and that this analysis can be of some value in the future research.