Literature Review(sample)

Literature Review
英语021 单琴琴
With the process of commercialization speeding up, the commercial advertisements now have spilled their influence into every cornor in the world and become practically inescapable. As China has entered into the WTO, more and more commercial advertisements need translating into English urgently. However, there exist a great many errors in the Chinese-English translation of commercial advertisements. Those errors in the commercial advertisements translation have become the obvious obstacles to the booming of China’s foreign trade. Therefore, the task of improving the current Chinese-English translation in commercial advertisements has been put up to agenda. Through two months’ efforts in searching, collecting and reading an abundance of scholars and professors’literature concerning the translation in commercial advertisements, I made a detail analysis of the literature and create the following essay which summons up the essence of the literature.
I The Meaning and Purpose of the Research on Chinese-English Translation in Commercial Advertisements:
International Business, Environments and Operation by JohnD.&L.Radebaugh. enriches my knowledge about the international business, environments and operation. The authors describe many factors which may have effects on the international business, the complicated environments where the business is operated and different ways of operating the business. Those ideas help me a lot to know about the relationship between the business and the ways of operating the business.
On the Functions and Meaning of the Commercial Advertisements in the Modern Social Life by Chen Subin demonstrates the importance of commercial advertisements in the modern social life from many aspects. The
paper points out that the commercial advertisements have both economic meaning and social meaning. The former contains the macro-economic meaning, that is, the development of the advertisement industry promotes the development of the national economy and realizes the increase of the state’s financial and tax revenues as well as the micro-economic meaning. The latter means the commercial advertisements are full of certain humane factors whether in form or in content, reflects social values and aesthetic values as well as indicates the enterprises’moral values and the products’cultural position. Since the commercial advertisements can develop the people’s nationalism, good values and the mass’s noble aesthetic values, it is quite important to create dood commercial advertisements for the people and the nation. In this sense, good translation in the commercial advertisements is part of the tough task. This paper offers much practical ideas for me to think about the meaning of the research on the Chinese-English translation in commercial advertisements.
Chinese-English Translation in Business: A Critical Analysis by Liu Fagong is a book that points out a large number of views on Chinese-English translation in business by making a detail critical analysis of various information and examples. Professor Liu emphasizes that the poor translation need improving as soon as possible and that with China’s expansion of international exchange and cooperation, the task of commercial translation is becoming increasingly heavier and heavier. In the section of advertising translation, the author mentions that the quality of current Chinese-English translation in foreign commercial advertisements and the introductions to the exports has not met the requirements of the international market cycle.
II Introduction to the Commercial Advertisement(definition, classification, function and feature):
The Advertising Business: Operations, Creativity, Media Planning, Integrated Communications by Jones, John discusses the such aspects of
advertising business as the operations, creativity, media planning and the integrated communications. The author’s ideas let me better understand the advertising industry and the advertising English.
Advertising English by Zhao Jing makes a analysis of many typical advertising examples based on the knowledge of advertising and linguistics in order to make the readers can better understand the advertising languages and the practices of advertising. The author also give a detail about the definition, classification, features, functions and the styles of the advertisements.
Guide to Advertising English by Chen Yurong gives a comprehensive explanation of advertising English. The fundamentals of advertising consists of the definition and the functions of advertising as well as the advertising industry. The advertising research exlpains the developmental research, pretesting research, posttesting research and questionnaire construction. The advertising planning discusses the advertising strategy, the advertising budget and the advertising plan. The advertisement creation mentions the copywriting, the art design and the production. The advertising media concludes the media planning, the print media, the electronic media and the support media. The international advertising demonstrates the creation, the media and the laws of the international advertsing.
English Advertising by Wang Yanxi collects the latest original information about advertising English and contains a great number of cases and texts which can reflect the richness and newism of the English language so that it offers a vivid and convenient tool for learning English and help me to improve my English competence and performance effeciently in the process of appreciating and understanding the language. In the first chapter, the author talks about the origin, the history, the functions and the media of
the advertising English. This part help me a lot to collect the data to complement my paper about the basic knowledge of advertising English. Then, the author mainly discusses the styles, the rhetoric devices, the structure and the classification of the advertising English as well as the internet advertising. What does most help to my paper is the chapter about the analysis of examples of good and poor advertisements because this section supplies a lot of good and practical examples for my supporting ideas in my paper.
III The Errors in the Chinese-English Translation of Commercial Advertisements:
The Translation Practices for Enterprise by Xu Jianzhong probes into the principles for Enterprise Translation and into criteria such as mastering the ideas of the source texts and making them acceptable to the recipient. It tackles problems specific to translation from the angle of its basic features: publicity, science and technology, instantaneity and social cooperation. The author describes and comments on the practice adopted by translators in various parts of the world, especially with regard to the language combination Chinese/English, and summarizes his own experience. In the concluding chapter, the author presents an embryonic stage in a theoretical system for Enterprise Translation and gives the initial impulse to the establishment of Chinese enterprise translatology. In a word, this book is of great help for my paper because its ideas and analysis guide me to figure out the problems in the commercial advertisng translation.
On Pragmatic Failures in Advertising Translation from Chinese to English by Fu Hongqiao analyzes some pragmatic failures in advertising translation and provides some new approaches of advertising translation on a basis of previous studies by listing some cases. The author also points out that advertising translation is the outcome of the development of global economy and becomes an important subject on which linguists and translators pay much attention.
On Incorrect Spellings in English Commercial Advertisements by Su Xiaoyu makes a detail analysis of numerous incorrect spellings in English commercial
advertisements. The author mentions that although some people denounce it as a cultural perversity, if we look into the nature of language and how language is influenced by legal, economic and social factors, we could find that the breaking of spelling rules in English commercial advertisements has good reasons.
On Some Problems in the Chinese-English Translation of Commercial Advertisements by Li Yanrong analyzes the typical existing problems and causes by making a comparison of the language, culture and advertising features between China and western countries. In the concluding part, the author points out views on Chinese-English translating in the commercial advertisements, that is, as CAAC (awareness ,comprehension ,conviction and action) its objective and as the western readers’ position its guide, translating the Chinese advertisements flexibly on the basis of maintaining the fundamental information of the advertisements.
IV Causes of Poor Translation in Commercial Advertisements:
On Translation With Special Reference to Chinese and English by JinDi and E.A.Nida focuses on translation with special reference to Chinese and English by making an analysis of various examples and cases. All of that information enriches my knowledge about the translation with special reference to Chinese and English which can help me think of the problems in the current translation of commercial advertisements more profoundly.
Error Analysis in Translated Advertisements and Improvement by Liu Fagong aims to analyze errors in advertising translation by drawing people’s attention to improper translated advertisements first and pointing out causes of those errors as follows: Translators’ carelessness results in most of the mistakes in advertising translation. These mistakes keep advertisements from expressing the original meanings properly. Therefore, care is what the translators should always keep in mind first in their translation. Sometimes, translators take it for granted that a word of a language in different countries can find its equivalent easily. They choose words for translation without a detailed study. Actually, word meanings are subject to change in different cultures. Using idiomatic expressions well is the most difficult job for translators in translating advertisements. Unique idioms are commonly used in advertisements for vividness. We can not understand idioms well only by consulting dictionaries. Idioms that translators have
translated are often found widely divergent from what the idioms really imply. Lack of professional knowledge is another reason for translator’s improper translation. These mistakes are often found in the translated versions of technical manuals or brochures, resulting in misunderstanding of certain technical specifications. This essay demonstrates clearly the errors in the translayiong of advertisements and figures out the causes of the errors from many angles all of which is quite beneficial to my graduation paper.
What Causes the Multifarious Errors in Publicity-Oriented Chinese-English Translation by Liu Jichun discusses the problems in the publicity-oriented Chinese-English translation and tries to find the effctive means of solving this problem. From the perspective of a translation teacher, the author argues that the root cause lies in the failure of our translation education. Such failure could stem from people’s general misunderstanding of translation and from the translator’s undue faith in the source text. The essay suggests that a long-term solution would be, on the basis of rethinking the existing translation education, establishing a new system for translation textbooks in China.
V How to Improve the Chinese-English Translation in the Current Commercial Advertisements:
Approach to Translation by Newmark,Peter talks about an abundance of approaches to translation which is a broad subject of various branches almost all the scholars and professors may pay attention to and do researches. Those approaches to translation are a little theoretical, but the ideas can become a guide to understanding the real objectives of good translation and help to master the methods of good translation.
Translating as a Purposeful Activity:Functionalist Approaches Expplained by Nord,Christiane mainly discusses translating as a purposeful activity from different angles. The author’s ideas is more practical with regard to the application of languages and offers many useful approaches to translation. I adopt several views of the author to support my point of view in the paper.
Pragmatic Translation from Chinese into English edited by Fang Mengzhi consists of a broad range of content such as the contrast between English and Chinese, the translation in words and phrases, the translation in paragraghs, the translation in science and technology, the translation in economy and trade, the translation in laws, the
translation in the newspapers and publicity-oriented, the translation in culture and the improvement of translation. All the essays in this book are selected because they place an emphasis on the translating experience and discussing the practical problems but they don’t lack the funny and critical tones. Many of exampls can be absorbed into my paper and help me demonstrate the problem more vividly.
On the Cultural Factors in Chinese-English Translation of Commercial Advertisements by Liu Liqin says that owing to the cultural differences, the same concept or information in one culture can be interpreted quite differently, or even opposite to the meaning in another language. Consequently, literal translation of advertisements might lead to failure in fulfilling the purpose of advertising to promote sale. The essay suggests that cultural information should be noted and handled with care in advertisement translation. The author stresses the importance of the culture in the advertising translation.
Commercial Advertisement Translation: Nature, Feature and Technique by Jin Hanshen points out that advertising translation is a commercial activity with preset purposes and the work is restricted so much by the product’s marketing strategies, the market conditions, laws and regulations concerned and cultural barriers in the target market countries that in practice it is more creating a new advertising text than conventional translating. The article concludes that advertisement translation has no set patterns and the“translating skills”are just something trying to make the translation closer to bear the features of a commercial advertisement under the prerequisite of conforming to the product’s marketing strategies and having all the restrictive barriers avoided or removed. Linguistically,the most challenging sector of advertisement translation is that of advertisements with poetic features.
Having read the above literature concerning the advertising translation, we have no difficulty in finding that more and more scholars and professors both at home and abroad begin to pay attention to the field of advertisng translation. However, a lot of errors exist in many commercial advertisement translation from Chinese to English. Because of the importance of good
English commercial advertisements for Chinese products in the international market, we should improve the quality of commercial advertisement translation as soon as possible. I’m very interested in exploring the solutions to the problem in the current commercial advertisement translation and I hope that I can make some contribution to this field by reading extensively and analysing the literature.
References (略)。