The Study On Translation Of Chinese Internet Catchphrases

Since the1990s, the Internet has spread all over the world. The networking, informationization anddigitization have gone deep into all the fields of the society. From the “30th China Internet DevelopmentReport” released by China Internet Network Information Center we can see that the InterpersonalCommunication based on the Internet has5out of the top10applications. Internet communications becomea major component of the Internet applications. The language and the culture appearing in the Internetcommunication also make us feel fresh and exciting. Study of Chinese Internet catchphrases plays a veryimportant role in propagandizing Chinese cultures to foreign countries, helping foreigners to understandChinese Internet literature and improving translation skills.The present study is based on the context of functional translation theory and the framework of Reiss’stext typology, dividing Chinese Internet catchphrases into three types: informative catchphrases, expressivecatchphrases and mixed catchphrases. Because the catchphrases in this study mainly show informativefunction and expressive function, there are no operative catchphrases in the classification above. Then thethesis makes a further classification for informative catchphrases and expressive catchphrases according tothe characteristics of the catchphrases, dividing Chinese Internet catchphrases into six types: typicalChinese phenomena/people/verbs, non-typical Chinese phenomena/people/verbs, pictograms andhomonyms, sentences and styles, neologisms (expressive catchphrases) and mixed catchphrases. The study,mainly using induction and deduction methods, summarizes the approaches various types of catchphrasestend to adopt through the analysis on existing translations and proposes reference translations for thosecatchphrases without existing translations based on the analysis conclusion.The study discovers that different types of catchphrases employ different approaches. For typicalChinese phenomena/people/verbs, people tend to use Adapt and Create approach; non-typical Chinesephenomena/people/verbs tend to use Borrow approach; pictograms and homonyms usually use Borrowapproach; sentences and styles often use Adapt and Create approach; neologisms tend to use Borrow andCreate approach and mixed catchphrases often use Borrow and Create approach.The feature of this study is to refine the classification of Reiss’s text typology based on thecharacteristics of Chinese Internet catchphrases and divide the Chinese Internet catchphrases into six types.It discovers that the more detailed the classification is, the higher applicability of the translation approachshould be. Therefore, refinement the classification of the catchphrases types is helpful for translating applied catchphrases.