Pun Translation In Advertisements From The Perspective Of Adaptation Approach

With the development of economic integration,modern advertising,as the impetus of internal business activities,whose status is enhanced little by little.Advertisements employ various communication media to disseminate information with the aim of propagating,that is to say,to trigger consuming desires and purchasing behaviors.Puns,as a rhetorical device possessing cultural and linguistic characteristics,have become a kind of rhetoric skill often used in advertisements.As a language for specific purpose,puns in advertisements have their special functions and linguistic features.Thus advertising pun translation has its own rules, criteria and approaches.The objectives of the present research lie in the following aspects.First,the present study intends to explore possibilities of establishing a pragmatic perspective for advertising pun translation.Second,by presenting a detailed and systematic analysis of advertising pun translation process,the present study aims at revealing the dynamics of advertising pun translation process as well as the complexity and peculiarity of this linguistic phenomenon. Furthermore,the author hopes that this approach can be helpful for translators to reproduce more attractive advertising puns under the guidance of Adaptation Theory.The data in this thesis is selected from abundant well-known brands domestic and abroad,such as Apple, Pepsi Cola,Haier,Media,etc.The rationale of the study is the Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren.According to this theoretical foundation,pun translation in advertisements must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choices,consciously or unconsciously,for language-internal and/or language-external reasons.The fact that translators can make linguistic choices in translation process is because language is characterized by three hierarchically related and fundamentally inseparable notions,i.e.,variability,negotiability and adaptability.The choice of language can be investigated from four angles:contextual correlates of adaptability,structural objects of adaptability,dynamics of adaptability and salience of adaptation process.These four angles are integrated in pragmatic methodology.The thesis is composed of six chapters:Chapter One is a general introduction of the research including significance of the study,objectives of the study,rationale of the study and organization of the study.Chapter Two first defines and introduces characteristics and functions of puns,and then it provides a review of the research work conducted in China and abroad so far.Chapter Three is the theoretical foundation of the whole thesis.This chapter explains the major contents of Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren and establishes a tentative model to interpret the process of adaptation in advertising pun translation.Chapter Four provides a linguistic analysis of adaptation in advertising pun translation.It analyzes how the translators adapt their translations to linguistic realities at codes and styles,sound structure and diction.Chapter Five analyzes how the translators adapt their translations to extra-linguistic elements at psychological world,sociological world and physical world. Chapter Six draws a conclusion for the present study,lists the limitations of the study and offers some suggestions for further studies.