Zero Translation Of Advertising：a Skaopostheorie’s Perspective

Nowadays a large number of English words used in ad have been witnessed to bedirectly “introduced” or “borrowed” into Chinese, especially in brand names and brandslogans translation. For example, CD, a famous cosmetic brand name, was kept intactwhen introduced into China. Professor Qiu Maoru coined a term "zero translation" to coversuch phenomenon of direct employment of foreign words into Chinese language.Having consulted a large number of materials concerning zero translation, the authorof this paper develops her personal view about the functions and categories of zerotranslation in ad translation. In this paper, the author tries to apply Skopostheorie into theexplanation of zero translation as a kind of new translation strategy, which involves threespecific translation methods.Skopostheorie, the core theory of German functionalist translation approach whichprovides translators with useful guidelines in determining translation strategies intranslation practice, is taken as the theoretical foundation in this thesis to account for zerotranslation of brand names and brand slogans. By using the three basic rules and conceptsof the Skopostheorie, examples are given to illustrate each method and causes for theapplication of zero translation are studied.The introduction of zero translation of brand names and brand slogans from theperspective of Skopostheorie is of great significance since it brings a brand new researchtopic in translation study and can further promote the development of translation study.Besides, this thesis will serve as a platform for a further communication and exchange ofideas about relevant studies.