中西方文化因素对广告翻译的影响

中西方文化因素对广告翻译的影响［Abstract］Advertising and its translation，as international marketing tools，are more and more important in the background of economic globalization. Advertising，as a product of culture，is also a significant part of culture. Thus，advertising translation is inevitably influenced by cultural factors concerned. This paper will analyze the influences of Chinese and western cultural factors on advertising translation with concrete examples from three aspects，i.e. associative meaning，thinking patterns and historical background.［Key words］advertising translation，cultural factors，influenceI. The Influence of Cultural Factors on AdvertisingTranslationWith the development of global economy，international trades are increasingly growing and the countries of the world compete to introduce their native commodities to the international market. Then how to realize it? A significant method is advertising. Advertising，providing commodities’information and highlighting their effect，is a main way to promote commodities and persuade consumers to buy them. And the advertising translation plays an important role. However，in some advertising translations，translators，without taking cultural differencesinto account，adopt word-for-word translation method and are only confined to strive for the equivalence on the text level，which often makes the translated versions difficult to be understood or even unacceptable by target consumers，let alone achieve the ultimate purpose of advertising—make potential consumers purchase the advertised commodities.Advertising，as a product of culture，is also a significant part of culture，and has an inseparable relationship with culture. The modern advertising in particular has more cultural tendencies. Persuasion is the main means of realizing the purposes of advertising. In the process of pursuing persuasion for maximum effect，the culture，like a persuasive talker，also brings its persuasive function into play. The most effective advertisements are those that reflect the core culture of its society. Moreover，with the improvement of living standards，when people’s material demand is greatly satisfied，they put more attention to their mind demand，which means that besides pursuing commercial consumption，people get more and more attracted to cultural consumption. It is reflected in advertising in this way，i.e. the commercial elements in advertising are gradually weakening while the cultural elements in advertising are gradually strengthening.From selling commodities to selling culture，advertising attempts towin people’s favor in competitive markets. For this purpose，two cultural restrictions on advertising should be paid attention to. Firstly，culture restricts the expression of advertising and meanwhile restricts the audience’s reception to the advertising. The audiences，in certain cultural backgrounds，have their own particular value orientation and aesthetic perception and have clear-cut judgment and choice of what is the valuable information to them. Hence，the advertising should agree with the values of the target audiences and focus on information which can intrigue the audiences，and it should not impose the transmitters’values on the audiences. Secondly，cultural universals and cultural peculiarities determine the change of advertising strategies in different cultural backgrounds. This view is especially important for the advertising activities conducted in relatively broader areas，such as the cross-nation，cross-race and cross-religion advertising activities. In such a case，the universals and peculiarities of cultures should be first clarified，and then the information itself as well as the ways of information transmission，which have universals，that is to say，which could be understood and accepted by all the audiences in different cultural backgrounds，should be retained；otherwise，the information and spreading ways，which have peculiarities，should be appropriately adapted according to cultural differences. Thus，we can see that cultural factors play such an important role in advertising translation that theyhave to be taken into consideration in advertising translation.Ⅱ. Analysis the Influences with Chinese and EnglishAdvertising Examples from Three AspectsAll the outstanding advertising is rooted in the fertile cultural lands and embodies its core cultural values. Chinese advertising is rooted in the soil of the Confucian culture and all the successful Chinese advertising examples，without exception，embody the Chinese cultural values，such as inspiring patriotic enthusiasm，carrying forward the sense of national pride，treating the elders with filial respect，advocating dedication and so on. Such kind of advertising wins people’s favorable impression in competitive markets and eliminates the negative aspect of the advertising commercial feature.While the advertising，which is successful in one culture，probably becomes the butt of jokes in another. As a result of differences in geographical position，religious belief，race origin，economic development and life style，people would instinctively exclude alien cultures and favor the cultures with the same nature of their own. Therefore，in advertising translation，cultural factors cannot be neglected and cultural divergences should be taken into account as well. Cultural factors are so important in translating that the translator shouldpay more attention to cultural differences rather than merely to the purely linguistic differences of the two languages concerned. In Nida’s point of view，“the most se rious mistakes in translating are usually made not because of verbal inadequacy，but of wrong cultural assumptions”. Hence，“For truly successful translating，biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism，since words only have meanings in terms o f the cultures in which they function”. Then，the author will analyze the influences of Chinese and western cultural factors on advertising translation with authentic advertising examples from three aspects，that is，associative meaning，thinking patterns and historical background.2.1 Associative meaningLanguage is a carrier of culture，and correspondingly reflects the culture. With the progress of human society，culture exerts a growing influence on language. One of the results is that many words，phrases and idioms，especially those within languages which have a relatively long literary tradition，are endowed with various associative meanings. As we all know，different nations have different cultures. These cultures are both distinguished from and related to each other，that is to say，they have peculiarities as well as universals，which implies that associative meanings of words，phrases or idioms in different cultures have peculiarities and universals as well. It is the universals that providemain basis for communication and translation among different cultures and languages. For example：You’re better off under the umbrella. (ad for Travelers)在“伞”的保护下，你会更加富足。