Advertising Translation: A German Functionalist Perspective

In today's highly developed commodity economy and also in the process of economic globalization with economic and cultural integration, the economic function and cultural function of advertisements are getting more and more closely with the circulation of commodities and becoming more international as well. Advertisements have become an integral part of people's daily life, influencing economy, culture, values and even the quality of people's lives. As for enterprises, advertisements have become an indispensable means of promotion. Therefore, whether to use advertisements effectively or not will connect directly with the success or failure. The ultimate purpose of advertisements is to promote sales and achieve the effect of attracting target readers and persuading them to take action, so advertising translation focuses on the expected function of TT in target environment. In order to achieve this desired effect, translators should make necessary adjustments to ST to adapt to new receivers. The traditional translation strategies based on functional equivalence are limited to reproduction of ST's form or content, which are unable to adapt to the purpose-driven advertisements. In many cases, it can't reach the effect of attracting and persuading target readers and can't be considered as a success. However, the appearance of German functionalist approaches breaks from the traditional model and breaks through linguistics translation theories based on equivalence. They think translation shouldn't only depend on analysis of the ST's characteristics, but should judge whether TT possesses specific function or not in accordance with its environment instead. German functionalist approaches have widened the scope of study and provided a new perspective for translation studies.German functionalist approaches think that any translation must have a purpose or achieve a certain function. Whether TT is faithful to ST or not is determined by the purpose of translation. In addition, the differences between TT and ST in language and culture should be taken into consideration as well. In the process of translation, translators transform the symbols that have specific meanings in ST culture into language symbols in TL culture to achieve the ultimate purpose. The core concept of German functionalist approaches is Skopos theory in which skopos rule is essential. According to skopos rule, the whole translation process, including the choice of translation methods and strategies, is determined by the purpose that translational action aims to achieve. Functionalism is a multi-standard theoretical system dominated by skopos rule. It enlightens us that translators can adopt various translation strategies flexibly in translation. On the basis of analyzing ST and aiming at achieving expected function of TT, they can choose the most appropriate methods. As for the purpose-driven advertisements, it has high operation and instructive meanings.This thesis uses German functionalist approaches as theoretical framework throughout. By analyzing their main theories, their essence can be applied in advertising translation. Through specific analysis and lots of examples, the author tries to explore the effective methods for advertising translation and expects to improve its present situation. Furthermore, it would prove the significance of functionalist approaches in guiding advertising translation. The thesis falls into six parts. The first part is introduction that has introduced the research's background, theoretical framework, significance and fundamental structure. Chapter One is literature review. It focuses on the previous and present studies on advertising translation both abroad and in China, and also points out its limitations. In Chapter Two German functionalist approaches are introduced. It includes its origin, development, representatives and their main theories respectively such as Reiss's Text typology, Vermeer's Skopos theory, M(a|¨)ntt(a|¨)ri's Theory of Translation Action and Nord's Function plus Loyalty in detail. Furthermore, the core concept of Functionalist approaches and their enlightenment in advertising translation will be mentioned in this chapter. Chapter Three is devoted to the general description of English and Chinese advertisements: the definition, classification, functions, elements and their linguistic and cultural characteristics. Based on German functionalist approaches, Chapter Four puts forward the two principles which are skopos rule as essential and coherence and fidelity rule as subordinate and suggested strategies for advertising translation by analyzing lots of examples. The suggested strategies are literal translation, free translation, addition, recreation, condensation, adaptation and imitation. The last part is conclusion, the view of this thesis is restated and its limitations are also pointed out.