【中英翻译】浅谈英汉语言文化差异对广告翻译的影响

浅谈英汉语言文化差异对广告翻译的影响Abstract As the product of culture, advertisement directly reflects the close relationship between language and culture. And advertising language is a special art form, which has profound cultural background and can be influenced by the tendency of the times. This paper investigates the Chinese and English advertising languages, and uncovers the culture differences in advertisements. Then it discusses the problems in the advertising translation, and puts forward the artistic and effective methods of advertising translation. The world is getting increasingly globalized. Advertisement is closely related to the culture. The purpose of an advertisement is to persuade target consumesers to buy the advertised products or services. Thus, it is a most important task to be aware of the differences between Chinese culture and western culture. This paper analyzes the differences from six aspects：monism versus pluralism, collectivism versus individualism, the implicit way versus the direct way, the imagery pattern versus the abstract pattern, respect of authority versus respect of selfperformance, and the differences of social background and aesthetics. Some defects and even unsuccessful advertisements are made because of the poor quality of translation. This paper proceeds from problems in advertising translation that the translators do not have a good command of the nationspecific culture and is too adhesive to the advertisements superficial meaning while there are a lot of cultural factors hidden in the present advertising translation. In fact, advertisement translation requires more than just rendering sentences into another language. Translators have to convert the ideas and thoughts behind the sentences into the target language by applying the knowledge of the target culture. This paper suggests some methods to make advertising translation in view of the language and culture differences. Key words advertising language; culture difference; advertising translation 【摘 要】 广告作为文化的产物，可以更直接地展示语言和文化的关系，所以广告语言是一门具有浓郁文化色彩与时代特点的艺术形式。本文对中、英广告语言进行了探讨，揭示了中英广告的语言在语音、语义、文字形式及修辞等方面的差异以及文化差异。然后，文章分析了广告语言翻译中存在的问题，从文化的角度提出了有关广告翻译的艺术的有效方法。 因为全球的经济一体化，所以广告语言涉及了大量的文化知识。既然广告语言的目的是劝导目标消费者购买其产品或服务，那么充分理解中西文化差异就成了一项举足轻重的任务。本文从六个方面进行分析，它们依次是一元论和多元论、集体主义和个人主义、含蓄和率直、形象和抽象、权威意识从众心理和自身功效自身价值、社会历史背景、审美方式等差异。 中英广告的互译中，有许多不理想的实例，有的甚至导致了销售挫折.本文分析了问题的原因，主要是在于当今广告翻译同样蕴藏着大量的文化，而译者却没有足够的文化的驾驭能力，太拘泥于原文表层。事实上，广告的翻译不是简单地把句子翻译出来。翻译人员要充分运用目标文化知识，把句子后而所承载的思想、概念尤其是文化传递给译入语的目标消费者。所以本文旨从广告语言文化差异的角度出发介绍几种英汉广告互译的方法。 【关键词】 广告语言；文化差异；广告翻译 Linguistic Differences Reflected in Advertisements Shen xiaolong once summarizes that western languages are rulegoverned while the Chinese language is peoplegoverned. In other word, Chinese is a language governed by meaning. Chinese is regarded as a flexible language which can be long or short in its lexical units, and is based on the language of logic phrase chunks while Western language are made up of verb central elements which are inflexible. The following part of this paper will discuss seven aspects of linguistic differences reflected in advertisement. Flowing chunks vs. SV structure Jin Huikang compares the Chinese and English languages in details. In view of syntax, Chinese sentences connect minorclauses according to chronological or logical order. The structure seems short and loose. It seldom focuses on one rigid point but moves according with the logical order and the changing rhythm. Unlike the Chinese structure, English sentence displays a spatial arrangement with the verb as a center. They are clear in meaning and tight in structure. Therefore, Chinese syntactic structures usually employ parataxis, while English adopts hypostasis. In translation, we must get rid of our own way of thinking, and arrange sentences conforming to the target rules and conventions. The following examples show these intrinsic differences working in Chinese and English, and help us explore some plausible translation methods. （） 境内西湖如明镜，千峰凝翠，洞壑幽深，风光绮丽。 The West Lake is like a mirror, embellished all around with green hills and deep caves of enchanting beauty. Obviously, the original structure is changed in the target text. The structure of the Chinese advertisement is loose with some short clauses, whereas the English one breaks it into one sentence, which is centered on a verb, with modifiers of participle phrase, proposition phrase, and noun phrase around it. By doing so, the translation emphasizes the central meaning in the SV structure "The West Lake is like a mirror" and specifies the implied logical relationship in the surface form. Reflecting linguistic features of English language, the translation is a successful one in both content and function. Flowery language vs. concise wording “When concerning about the rhetoric, Chinese tends to use gorgeous words while English has a vivid character of conciseness.