A Study On Advertisement Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As an effective device to promote economic communication andinternational trade, advertisement has become a rising industry and it has gainedmuch more attention than ever. Consequently, the significance of advertisementtranslation is growing.This paper attempts to study English advertisement and its translation fromthe perspective of Relevance Theory. Relevance Theory aims to study humancommunication from cognitive perspective and it takes communication as anostensive-inferential process. Contextual effects and processing effort areessential elements in achieving successful communication. The ultimate goal incommunication is to achieve the optimal relevance. In an advertisement, theadvertiser gives informative intention, while inference helps the receiver to obtainthe communicative intention and relevant contextual effects. The optimal relevance then can be achieved. Only when the communicative intention isachieved, can the purchasing behavior be realized.In advertisement translation, the translator should find the optimal relevancebetween the original advertisement text and the target text, and transfer the wholeinformation and intention to the receiver in the mutual contextual environment ofthe translator and the receiver. Therefore, translators should take both the originaland target language features and cultural elements into consideration. As the goalof advertisement is to realize the effective communication and attract consumers,advertisers will use different rhetorical techniques to achieve the purpose and thetranslator should make effort to realize optimal relevance.In the thesis genuine advertisements are analyzed from the perspective ofRelevance Theory to show that contextual effects and mutual-manifestness helpto realize the advertising effect. Advertisement translation examples are alsoexplained in the light of Relevance Theory to show that ostensive-inferentialcommunication and cultural relevance make the receiver understand thetranslator’s intention better, and achieve optimal relevance. Then, the use of sometranslation methods in translating advertisements, such as literal translation, freetranslation, creative translation and imitative translation, are explained. Based onthe above analyses, we draw the conclusion that advertisement translation can beguided by Relevance Theory, and the translator should adopt flexible methods in advertisement translation so as to achieve the ultimate goal------optimalrelevance.