Slogan Translation From The Perspective Of Multilingual Communication

Since1970s, advertisement translation has attracted scholars’attention. Slogans, as one kind of advertising text, are special:on the one hand, they are concise and easy for communication; on the other hand, they show the image of products and brands. Therefore, slogan translation is worth studying.French scholar Mathieu Guidere, based on communicative translation and adaptation, developed a translation strategy-multilingual communication. This strategy highlights advertisements’characteristics as means of communication, and also related exogenous and endogenous factors. Besides, Guidere argues that slogan translation should be beautiful and efficient (les belles efficaces).From the perspective of multilingual communication, three translation methods are suitable for slogan translation: word-for-word translation, adaptation and rewriting. This paper classifies slogan translation cases into these three categories for in-depth analysis, and later concludes the situations where these methods are appropriate. When the original slogan proves to be effective, the enterprise will choose word-for-word translation. When the literal translation in the target language cannot show the same brand image, adaptation should be considered, i.e. adapting the forms and content to optimize communicative result. To gain the best effect for the slogan, rewriting would be the first option.