On The Strategies Of Business Advertisement Translation In Light Of Functionalist Translation Theory

The rapid progress of international exchanges calls for a great amount needs of advertisement translation. However, the study of advertisement translation is far from satisfactory in terms of specific strategies and the traditional literature translation theories seem increasingly inadequate. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide a solid theoretical framework for advertisement translation, so as to bridge the gap between the abundant practice and a discipline which is not adequately researched. The writer makes an attempt to analyze a corpus of authentic materials to find out the specific effective strategies of advertisement translation in the context of international communication, and expects to provide with the concrete translation brief involved in the translation practice.In the first chapter, the definition of advertisement and the need of advertisement translation are given out to explain the significance of this thesis. The first chapter also explains why the literature translation theory cannot satisfy the needs of advertisement translation. The second chapter makes the literature review on the study of advertisement translation. This chapter summarizes the main ideas and principles that are proposed by Chinese scholars. The development of academic researches on advertisement translation in the west countries are also reviewed so as to find out the support of topic of this thesis.The chapter three introduces the German functionalist translation theory which is the supporting theory of this thesis. The development of functionalism theory and its main principles are introduced in details. A sound understanding of the principles of functionalist translation theory makes the study of advertisement translation strategies possible.The fourth chapter is the main part of this thesis. It analyzes the strategies that have been applied in the advertisement translation. From the writer's point view, in order to meet the purpose of advertisement texts, the linguistic features such as phonetics, lexis and syntax should be considered. Furthermore, the factors of the target context of a certain cultural background, such as the ideological acceptance custom and classic literature lines could also contribute an acceptable target text. This thesis also analyzes the possible translation brief in advertisement translation that would affect the choice of strategies in translation action.The conclusion is made in the last chapter that as a language for special use, the advertisement language has its unique stylistic characteristics, which determine that advertisement translation should have its own principles, criteria and approaches. And it should be studied not only in terms of surface structure and literal meaning, but also the intrinsic mechanism. In the translation practice, there are two types of strategies could be applied in order to fully reach the function and purpose of an advertisement translation: strategies from linguistic features of from target cultural perspective. Furthermore, the translator should consider target circumstance, such as reader's psychology, target social environment and convention, target language features, and cultural background. Only a talent translator who keeps these translation brief could create a well-accepted target text in the target context.