奈达功能对等视角下的商业广告翻译

广西师范大学
硕士学位论文
奈达功能对等视角下的商业广告翻译
姓名：汤玉洁
申请学位级别：硕士
专业：英语语言文学
指导教师：袁斌业
20080401
奈达功能对等视角下的商业广告翻译
研究生：汤玉洁年级：2005级学科专业：英语语言文学
指导老师：袁斌业教授研究方向：翻译理论与实践
中文摘要
广告是一种具有很高商业价值和实用性的文体，一则广告必须具有说服力和记忆价值。

随着商品经济的发展和各国经贸交往的增加，广告翻译日益重要。

美国翻译理论家奈达的功能对等理论自问世以来，在国内外翻译界都产生了深远的影响。

奈达是美国著名的翻译理论家、语言学家,在世界翻译领域占有重要的地位,被人称为“现代翻译理论之父”。

他的理论核心内容就是“动态对等”(Dynamic equivalence),后来为了强调“功能”的概念并避免有些人对“动态”的误解后将其改称“功能对等”( Functional equivalence)。

这一理论曾给中国翻译界带来了新鲜空气,也给译论注入新的血液。

许多翻译理论家如金堤，谭载喜曾大力赞赏功能对等理论。

这一理论是奈达在《圣经》的翻译中总结和提炼出来的，《圣经》从根本上讲，是以说服别人相信基督教义并希望别人采取某种行为为目的的一部作品，同样地，广告作为一种实用文体，其最大的特点也是其说服功能——说服消费者采取行动实施购买行为。

因此从这个意义上说，功能对等理论对于广告英汉互译都有极其重要的指导意义。

本文主要从广告文体的功能入手，分别讨论在功能对等理论指导下怎样实现广告翻译中出现的文化和美学效果对等。

同时考察功能对等理论在广告翻译中的实际操作效果。

通过分析，作者注意到国内广告翻译的实践中，英语广告汉译有许多优秀的成功典范，而汉语广告英译的错误百出，因此本文侧重于汉语广告英译研究，并通过引入奈达功能对等理论给出了具体的汉语广告英译的方法。

论文结构如下：
导言部分包括引言，阐述了选题的缘由、研究目的、论文的结构和所运用的研究材料和方法。

第二章是文献综述，简单介绍了本领域的研究现状。

第三章简单介绍了奈达和他的动态/功能对等理论。

第四章是整篇论文的重点。

首先介绍了广告和广告翻译。

广告的主要功能是促使消费者购买某种产品或建立对某个品牌的好感和信赖。

广告及其翻译都要受到多种因素的制约，广告语言的制约，广告中文化因素的制约等，但广告仍然是可翻译的。

接着详细地论述了功能对等理论在广告翻译中的应用。

主要是从文化和美学效果方面来论述怎样实现广告翻译的对等。

作者分析了功能对等理论在广告翻译中的可行性，并探讨了在功能对等视角下适当的翻译方法，以求得最贴切自然的对等。

最后一章是结论，综述了本文所进行的研究，客观评价了研究成果，同时指出了论文的不足和改进的方向。

关键词：商业广告；翻译；功能对等。

A Study of the Translation of Commercial Advertisements from the
Perspective of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Postgraduate: Tang Yujie Grade:2005 Major Field of Study: English Language & Literature Supervisor: Professor Yuan Binye Orientation: Translation Studies & Practice
Abstract in English
As a kind of practical text type with high business value, an advertisement must contain persuasive power and “memory value”. With the increase of international exchanges, advertising translation has become very important. Since the 1960s when Eugene Nida, the American translation theorist, advocated the functional equivalent theory, it has cast a profound impact on the translation circles in the world. Eugene A. Nida is a distinguished American translation theorist as well as linguist. Regarded as the most influential one among all contemporary translation theorists, Nida was named as the “father of modern translation theory”. His core theory is “dynamic equivalence”. Later, Nida decided to use the term “functional equivalence” to replace the often misunderstood “dynamic”. Many Chinese translation theorists such as Jin Di and Tan Zaixi have long been appraising the functional equivalent theory. This theory is mainly based on the translation practice of the Bible. Comparatively speaking, the overall function of Bible and advertising is to persuade its target readers into certain behavior, one to persuade its readers to follow the guidance of God while the other to persuade its readers to buy the advertised products. In this sense, the theory of equivalence should have its significant effect on advertising translation.
This thesis mainly discusses how to realize cultural equivalence and aesthetics equivalence in advertising translation through applying the functional equivalence. From relatively through analysis, the author notices two completely different phenomena in the field of advertisement translation. On one hand, professional and effective translation of English advertisements into Chinese; while on the other hand, relatively poor and ineffective translation of Chinese advertisements into English. Therefore, the author concentrates the study on the translation of Chinese advertisements into English. Also the author introduces practicable translation strategies though applying Nida’s functional equivalence theory.
The structure of this paper goes as following:
Chapter 1 begins with a brief introduction, which presents the purpose, significance, the structure of the thesis and the study materials and research methods it uses.
Chapter 2 focuses on the literature review, which introduces the previous studies and relevant translation theories in this field. The author elaborates on Nida’s functional equivalence
theory, which guides advertising translation effectively.
Chapter 3 concentrates on the dynamic/functional equivalence theory.
Chapter 4 is the core part of this thesis. Firstly it gives a brief introduction to advertising and advertising translation. Advertisement has its own characteristics and is restrained by a lot of aspects. And the advertising translation is limited by many aspects. And then it mainly talks about the functional equivalence approach to advertising translation. The author analyzes the feasibilities of functional equivalence theory in advertising translation and explores suitable strategies in light of functional equivalence theory in order to seek the closest natural equivalence.
The last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis. It summarizes the whole thesis, objectively states the possible contributions of the thesis to the field of advertisement translation, and points out the limitations of the thesis with suggestions on future research efforts.
Key words: commercial advertisement; translation; functional equivalence.
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Acknowledgements
First of all, my heartfelt thanks go to Professor Yuan Binye, my supervisor, who has helped so much at every stage of this thesis. I have frequently consulted him on theoretical as well as technical matters during my work. Because of his insightful views, his providing me with timely feedback, careful modification and encouragement, I just can finish the thesis. Professor Yuan Binye has provided a motivating, enthusiastic, and critical atmosphere during the many discussions we had and a subtle direction of my efforts throughout the preparation of this thesis. During my three years of postgraduate studies at Guangxi Normal University, I have benefited a lot from his illuminating ideas on translation theories and practice. It was a great pleasure to me to conduct this thesis under his supervision.
I would also like to thank all the teachers who have contributed so much valuable academic advice and equipped me with so many inspirations and encouragements. Special thanks go to Professor Bai Jingze, Professor Zhou Liangren, Professor Zhang Xianglin and Associate Professor Luo Yaoguang. In the first two years of my MA program, they taught me not only knowledge but also the tight way to do scientific research; their interesting lectures all offered contributions to any achievement I have ever made.
Finally, I would also like to extend my gratitude to my beloved family and classmates. It is their love and encouragements that have helped me overcome various difficulties and make all my academic progress.
Chapter 1 Introduction
With the rapid development of reform and opening up to the outside world as well as China’s entering WTO, the intensification of international business communication and promotion become increasingly important. The companies not only care much for domestic markets, but also endeavor to expand international market. This phenomenon, in turn, promotes the importance of advertising and advertising translation. I looked through Chinese Translation Journal ranging in date from 1990 to the present and found a lot of articles directly relating to this subject. After searching the Full Text Database of Chinese Journal Network (1997-2007), I obtained many results, among which the majority is published in college journals instead of Chinese mainstream journals. Many of the articles I found are descriptive and deal with specific aspects of advertising translation, such as translation of rhetoric, slang, brands and slogans, and aesthetic properties and so forth. However, the work that has been done on translating advertisements is still in its infancy to that of other areas in translation studies.
1.1 Purpose of the Study
The writer attempts to offer a contribution to the area of the translation of advertisements between English and Chinese. Through introducing Nida’s functional equivalence theory and analyzing its feasibility of applying this theory to advertising translation, we strive to find a suitable methodology and apply it to the analysis of a corpus of 38 English and Chinese advertisement pairs to find out how to make use of functional equivalence theory in the advertising translation practice and improve the quality of advertising translation.
Through this thesis, the writer hopes to increase translator’s understanding of the advertising genre and to discuss on a theoretical base that can help them make decisions when translating persuasive advertisement into another culture. This paper will try to provide evidence that equivalence theory is quite useful in helping translators to reproduce the informative, persuasive and effective functions of the advertising texts as closely as possible. To a certain extent, equivalence theory can be a kind of function as a guideline. Since the utmost purpose of persuasive advertisements is to gain consumers’ attention and finally stimulate their action—purchasing the product, whether or not a translated advertisement achieves this purpose is the criterion to evaluate the success of a translated advertising text. In other words, equivalent effect theory is the fundamental guideline of persuasive advertising translation and functional equivalence is the basic level of equivalence a translated advertisement has to reach.
Another reason for my choosing this subject comes from my personal interest. I enjoy advertisements. The demand of brevity, the relations of text and pictures, the effects of style and
the side-stepping of taboos are fascinating. And also I want to make a contribution to this field.
1.2 Significance of the Thesis
With the fast development of world economy and the opening policy deepening in China, we have more chance to contact with foreign countries and there have been more international exchanges in many fields, especially commerce. On one hand, the foreign companies come to China to establish factories and joint ventures, on the other hand, many Chinese companies endeavor to expand the overseas market to promote the fame and sale volume of their products. In this process, English versions of Chinese advertisements inevitably will play an important role in introducing Chinese products and promoting the sales of Chinese commodities abroad. Taking these factors into consideration, the author’s research on advertisement translation has its realistic significance.
Firstly, the writer advocates the theory should combine with practice and guide practice instead of just talking about the theory or only listing many successful examples, which means that the carried research is not purely theoretical, but closely related with current social and economical background. Therefore, the thesis embodies the avocation that theoretical knowledge should combine with practice.
Secondly, the writer introduces Nida’s functional equivalence theory and analyzes the feasibility of applying this theory to advertising translation. Also the thesis provides an applicable theory to guide the translator’s practice during translation process instead of just listing some specific translation methods.
Thirdly, on the basis of Nida’s functional equivalence theory and analysis on the current problems existing in English-Chinese or Chinese-English advertisement translation, translation strategies with concrete examples are suggested in the thesis to help the translator perform efficiently during the process of English-Chinese or Chinese-English advertisement translation. Functional equivalence theory applied to advertising translation opens up a new perspective to advertising translation studies.
1.3 Structure of This Thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter one begins with a brief introduction, which presents the purpose and significance of the thesis and the structure of my thesis.
Chapter Two focuses on the literature review, which introduces the previous studies and relevant translation theories used in the field of advertisement translation. The writer elaborates on Nida’s functional equivalence theory, which guides advertising translation effectively.
Chapter Three concentrates on the /functional equivalence theory.
Chapter Four is the core part of this thesis. First it gives a brief introduction about advertising and advertising translation. And then it mainly talks about the functional equivalence approach to advertising translation. The writer analyzes the feasibilities of functional equivalence theory in advertising translation and explores suitable strategies in light of functional equivalence theory in order to seek the closest natural equivalence.
Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis. It summarizes the whole thesis and points out the limitations of the thesis with suggestions on future research efforts.
The advertisements employed in this thesis include those from the radio, television, magazines, the press and the Internet. Both translations from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English are examined.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
The importance of advertisements is needless to mention, as it is an indispensable component of modern society. As potential consumers, people all over the world are endlessly bombarded with all kinds of product or service information from various media including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, posters, the Internet, etc. Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it defines for consumers the meaning and the role of products, services, and institutions. Undoubtedly advertisement is an important part of our economy and culture that exerts significant impact on all walks of life. Advertising translation, as a type of intercultural communication, appears as a new field of study and attracts more and more Chinese translators’ attention. Naturally, language of advertising has a powerful influence on people and their behavior. The choice of language to convey specific messages with the intention of influencing people is vitally important. Language of advertising is traditionally viewed as a special one related with the functional factors such as attention value, listenability/readability, memorability and selling power (Leech, 1969). This concept, not surprisingly, has been unquestionably applied for a long time to the analysis of advertising language. Most of the specialists in this field agree on it unanimously and probe into it mainly in the light of several levels: lexicon features, syntax features and figures of rhetoric (Leech, 1969; Kumar, 1978; Geis, 1982; Vestergaard and Schrodder, 1985; Mencher, 1990; Arokianathan, 1993; Manoharan, 1994). However, all the notions discussed above are traditionally studied and confined to a certain environment, in other words, in the authors’ native background (custom, culture), leaving cross-cultural advertising untouched. These limited concepts are far from adapting to the modern cultural communication nowadays.
With this consideration in mind, one has every reason to probe into the essence of advertising language, which is authorized to make a judgment on this controversial issue and to offer guidance for advertising translation. The study of language of advertising from a linguistic perspective has been attempted by several scholars (Leech 1969; Kumar 1978; Gopal 1980; Geis 1982; Vestergaard and Schrodder 1985; Manian 1986; Dhongde 1987; Hemamalini 1989; Mencher 1990; Satyanarayana 1990; Venkatesa Raja 1991; Suresh 1992; Arokianathan 1993; Manoharan 1994). The essence lies probably in the assumption that, language of advertising should be understood by the target audience, as the fundamental aim of advertisement is to persuade them to purchase products and service so as to promote sales and profits. As a result, this assumption adds the concept of target language, because language belongs to those who speak it. If the success of international advertising depends on the conversion of the original message into the linguistic code of the target language, then the language has an intrinsic added
value, which is intimately connected with target culture values. In advertising translation practice, cases of inaccuracy are ample, either in the form of over-translation, a version which goes beyond what translation permits in its proper sense, or in the form of under-translation, an inadequate version which fails to convey “full” messages. From a point of view of culture, those cases, to a large extent, can be attributed to ignorance of cross-cultural factors of translating advertisement from the original text to the target text. This inaccuracy, on the other hand, functions as a fair index to the difficulties on the part of the translators, in particular to the beginner, who is at a loss as to what extent should he carry out the culture element into his target text.
Furthermore most people who are interested in the area of advertisement translation will always concentrate on introducing foreign excellent advertisement examples into China, like Advertising English published by Anhui Press of Science and Technology, Contemporary English Advertisements published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press etc, or listing some good examples of translating foreign advertisements into Chinese for enjoyment, like Translation of Puns in English Advertisements produced by Meng Lin and Zhan Jinghui, or giving some concrete methods of advertisement translation, like Strategies of Translating English Advertising into Chinese in the Context of Globalization produced by Li Haiying and On Handling Linguistic and Cultural Peculiarities in Translating Advertisements produced by Jin Xin etc. Candace Seguinot’s “Translation and advertising: going global” (1995). Smith & Klein-Braley’s “Advertising: a five-stage strategy for translation” (1997). Mathieu Guidere’s Translating Ads (2000).
The translator of persuasive advertisements has to know what is expected of him/her in the process of dealing with an advertisement that has to be transferred to another language. Many theorists and translators have focused their researches of advertising languages. Jakobson, Nida, Taber, Catford and Baker, all of these theorists have endeavored to interpret the notion of equivalence. They have approached equivalence from different angles and perspectives and all contributed much to this area of research (Zhang Tianran 2007:1). Catford (1965:20) defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent material in another language (TL)”. For Wilss, the definition is “translation leads from a source-language text to a target-language text which is as close an equivalent as possible and presupposes an understanding of the content and style of the original” (1977:70). Bell (1991:20) defines the phenomenon as “the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language” (Feng Jiyuan, 2002:13).
From the previous study, it shows that a lot of people have used different translation theory to study advertising translation from different angles. There are perspective of V ocative Text, the
Perspective of Text Analysis, the perspective of Systemic-functional Contextual, the Perspective of Cross-cultural Communication, Register Theory, Skopos Theory, Newmark's Communicative Translation Theory, Relevance Theory, and Functional Equivalence Theory, and so on. “We review the main theoretical approaches that are considered most relevant and applicable to advertising translation: functional equivalence, text typology in translation, skopos theory and other functional theories” (Feng Jiyuan, 2002:14).
In this thesis, the writer focuses on functional equivalence. There are only a few articles directly related to functional equivalence applying into the advertising translation. For example: In Yang Fang’s paper Equivalence in Advertising Translation, from the angle of equivalence at various levels states that some translated advertisements are proved by the market to be very successful. In this paper, the author argues that the functional equivalence based on equivalent effect is the fundamental criterion for advertising translation.
In Yangnan’s (2005) The Practical Application of Functional Equivalent Theory, problems of equivalence in encoding culture, rhetoric, aesthetic expressions between two different languages will be discussed from the angle of the function of advertising. And at the same time, the practical effect of applying equivalent theory in advertising translation is another main aspect to be proved into. In terms of the general characteristics of modern advertisement in printed forms, a general translation principle —“similarity in function, and prominence in effect” — is to be set forth on the basis of the Nida’s theory — “similarity in function, correspondence in meaning”.
The writer believes that good examples of foreign advertisements or concrete methods of advertisement translation can help a translator to get some hint during translation process. However, they cannot provide a systematic theory to guide the translator’s mind. In addition, being a Chinese, the main aim of advertising and its translation shall be promotion of Chinese products and make Chinese products become internationally famous. And functional equivalence theory is a very useful theory for applying into the advertising translation. In the Chapter 4, the writer will give the details.
Chapter 3 Functional Equivalent Theory
3.1 Nida’s Theory in China and his Influences
Eugene A. Nida (1914-) is a distinguished American translation theorist as well as linguist. His translation theory has exerted a tremendous influence on translation studies in western countries. His works on translation set off the study of modern translation as an academic field and he is regarded as the most influential one among all contemporary translation theorists. Nida’s translation theories are mainly from his practice of Bible translation. It shows that he has made great contributions to the field of translation studies. His influences go beyond the translation of the Bible and the borders of the nations. His theory has guided translation practice of various kinds, not only the U.S., but also in many other parts of the world. He himself has also become one of the most frequently quoted authors in the field of translation.
In China, Nida’s influence is far-reaching. Nida’s works were first introduced into China in the 1980s. During this period, his translation theory received more attention in China than in other western translation theories. Nida’s and his theory have been a hot topic in China for almost two decades. Many Chinese scholars emerge to focus on the study of Nida’s translation theory. Tan Zaixi and Jin Di are their representatives. They have made their own contributions in introducing and improving Nida’s translation theory. With the rapid development of translation studies, multi-approaches to translation are the inevitable trend. Nida’s theory has attracted attention with its great theoretical and practical values.
3.2 Functional Equivalence
3.2.1 Definition of Functional Equivalence
As against the traditional conception of linguistic equivalence, Eugine Nida takes a communicative approach and distinguishes form and dynamic equivalence in translation. “Formal equivalence” refers to faithful reproduction of source text form elements and “dynamic equivalence” denotes acquisition of equivalent extra-linguistic communicative effect. He advocates dynamic equivalence as translation criteria in several books.
“Dynamic equivalence is … to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptor in the source language. This response can never be identical…, but there should be a high degree of equivalence of response, or the translation will have failed to accomplish its purpose” (Nida 1969:24).
Later, Nida decided to use the term “functional equivalence” to replace the often misunderstood “dynamic”. He explains that the new term seems to “provide a much sounder basis for talking about translation as a form of communication with a focus on what translation does or perform (Nida 1993:124).
Nida states his definition of functional equivalence in two levels. A minimal, realistic definition could be stated as “The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it”. And his maximal, ideal definition could be stated as “The readers of a translated text should be able to understood and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did.”
Functional equivalence follows the principle of equivalent effect, that is, the relationship between the receptor and the message should aim at being the same as that between the original receptor and the source language message. It attempts to render receptor words from one language to another, and caters to the receptor’s linguistic competence and cultural needs. As Doctor Nida (2001) views, “in general it is best to speak of functional equivalence in terms of a range of adequacy, since no translation is ever completely equivalent. A number of different translations can in fact represent varying degrees of equivalence”. Formal correspondence sometimes distorts the grammatical and stylistic patterns of the target language, and hence distorts the message, only to cause the translation to be ambiguous or awkward. However, functional equivalence sometimes changes the form of the source text, but preserves the message of the source language, because it transforms the message in the receptor language. Of the two, Doctor Nida undoubtedly favors the latter. “If a more or less literal correspondence is functionally equivalent in both designative and associative meaning, then obviously no adjustments in form are necessary. But if this is not the case, the translators should make some adjustments in order to achieve the closest natural equivalence”. This implicates that functional equivalence is actually supplementary to formal correspondence.
3.2.2 Nida’s Main Points of Functional Equivalence
Nida stated clearly in Towards a Science of Translating that “ In such a translation ( dynamic translation ) one is not so concerned with matching the receptor-language message with the source language message, but with the dynamic relationship, threat the relationship between receptors and message should be substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language”( Nida & Taber, 1982:24 ). Afterwards in order to avoid the misunderstanding of “ dynamic equivalence” which seemed to have no established criteria, he converted “ dynamic equivalence” into “functional equivalence” ( Waard & Nida, 1980:vii).
In The Theory and Practice of Translation, Nida defined “translating” as “translating consists in reproducing in with the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida & Taber, 1982:74). This definition has not only given us the central point of the equivalent theory, but also pointed out the way to achieve the goal of being equivalent between the source and receptor language. Generally translators try to realize the equivalent principle in two aspects; one is meaning, the other, style. In this case，though English and Chinese languages are totally different in aspects of cultural backgrounds and expressing ways. A successful translator is always handling translating with agility, and reproduces the spirit of the source language in pursuit of the closest natural equivalent.A translation of dynamic equivalence aims at complete naturalness of expression, and tries to relate the receptor to modes of behavior relevant within the context of his own culture ( Nida 1964:159).
To make it brief, functional equivalence is to have the translated version get the same responds from readers of the receptor language as the original gets from the readers of the source language. Thus these two versions are functionally equivalent to each other on the basis of speech. But the problem is always how to reach the goal. Nida once classified all the functions of language into nine categories: expressive cognitive, interpersonal, informative, imperative, performative, emotive, aesthetic, and multilingual. He thought that a translated version should keep equivalent with the original text in terms of these nine functions (Ye Zinan, 2001:161).
Generally, original text is considered the only base for judging whether the translated one is correct or not. But Nida snatched this right from the original text and handed over to the readers. The transformation has at once opened up a brand-new prospect, and broadened the horizon of the translation researchers who have long been cornered in a tight spot. The studies on translation theory in Western are hence enlightened (Ye Zinan, 2001:162).
3.2.3 Features of Functional Equivalence
In Toward a Science of Translating, Nida for the first time puts forward the principle of dynamic equivalence, which he defines as “the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message” (Nida 1964:159). Also he defines DE translation as “the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message” (Nida 1964:166). Nida further points out the essential features of DE translation are composed of the following characteristics aiming at arousing similar response between the source text readers and the target text readers.
(1) Equivalent, which points toward the source-language message.
(2) Natural, which points toward the receptor language.。