On Chinese-English Translation Of Commercial Advertisement From The Perspective Of Functionalist Theory

With the globalization and economic boom in China, the pivotal role advertisement plays becomes significant in commercial activities. Advertisement translation, particularly the English translation of Chinese advertisements, becomes increasingly important. In the process of Chinese products’entering into foreign market, the translation of their advertisements has become a critical issue as the translated advertisements serve as the first step of product promotion into foreign markets.However, traditional theories fail to meet the demands in contemporary advertisement translation. The translation theory of "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance" and theory of "equivalence" are no longer compatible with the ever-changing needs of advertisements. Due to the lack of theoretical instructions and related techniques, advertisement translation has long been in disorder. Inappropriate or even wrong translations severely hinder our international communication and promotion of our domestic products. As advertisement is a purpose driven literary form, advertisement should realize the relative functions in the target language.This thesis, based on the German functionalist theory, conducted linguistic analysis of advertisements. Besides, techniques for Chinese-English advertisement translation are provided with in-depth analysis of a number of up-to-date advertisements and their translations.Through critical evaluation of English translation of selected Chinese advertisements, the author points out that English translation of Chinese advertisements is never a simple step from the source language to target language. Rather, it is the result of transformation with cultural factors considered.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One is an introduction of advertisement translation, raising research questions and explaining significance of this research. Chapter Two focuses on literature review, categorizing related domestic and foreign theories. Chapter Three is the linguistic analysis of advertisements. In Chapter Four translation techniques based on the functionalist theory are provided with subtle analysis of the selected advertisements with their translations. Besides, cultural factors that influence advertisement translations are also discussed. Chapter Five is a conclusion of the whole thesis, including limitations of this thesis and suggestions for future research.