广告的修辞特点与翻译策略--英文
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2020年07月28日 17:43
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渐染-鸿拼音
何恩
( 广西大学梧州分校外语系, 广西梧州543002)
摘要: 广告文体是一种具有极高商业价值的实用文体, 它的最终目的和主要功能就是要使消费者接受它所
宣传的商品或服务。因此, 在商业广告中, 会大量使用修辞手法, 以达到新颖别致、形象生动、引人注目的效果。本文
在分析中英文广告修辞的基础上, 假以实例研究来探讨广告修辞翻译的基本策略和方法。
关键词: 修辞手法; 广告翻译; 翻译策略
The word“advertise”stems from the Latin“advertere”, meaning“to make known to the public”. Plenty of
experts and scholars have reflected on the meaning of the word in different versions of its use. American Marketing
Association (AMA) defines advertising as “the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and
usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.”
(Zhao Jing 赵静,1992:1). In the opinion of the Association of National Advertisers(ANA), advertising is a paid form
of mass communication, aiming at offering information, altering others’attitudes to advertised products, inducing
others to get action and at last making profits for the advertisers (Gu Jiazhu 顾嘉祖,2000:120).
From the above definition, we can come to a conclusion that the purpose of advertising is to draw and hold
consumers’attention, to stimulate their interests, and to induce them to take action to buy the advertised products.
To achieve this purpose, the advertising language tends to be highly artistic and agitating. For the sake of creating
charming images and fascinating scenes to help push the sales of products, rhetorical devices are frequently and
aptly employed in English advertisements, such as similes, metaphors, puns, personification, parody, parallelism,
repetition and rhyme.
I. Rhetor ical Devices in Adver tising English
The following presents some examples containing major rhetorical devices in English advertisements.
(1) Money doesn’t grow at trees. But it blossoms at our branches. (Loyd Bank ad.)
(2) Don’t cry, we’ll repair it.
We’re handbag specialists. Wherever it hurts we’ll heal it. (Artbag ad.)
(3) Where there is a way for car there is a Toyota (Toyota ad.)
(4) It gives my hair super shine, super body, and leaves it smelling fresh as a meadow. (Shampoo ad.)
(5) Moisture
It keeps a flower fresh and beautiful all day.
Moisture Wear Powder
It keeps your skin fresh and beautiful all day. (Moisture Wear Powder ad.)
In the above advertisements, a pun is used in the first example. According to Oxford English Dictionary, pun
refers to“the use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or the use of
two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous
effect.”Here, the
word“branch”indicates two meanings: an arm like stem growing from the trunk of a tree and a
division of a bank. The advertisement means that money of course does not grow at any trees, but if you deposit your
money in any division ( “branch”) of Loyd Bank, your money will increase. That is why“pun”is also called“play on
words”. Once customers find out the implicit meaning of this pun, they will think it is interesting and humorous and
get a deep impression of it and take action.
Personification is employed in the second advertisements. According to Encyclopedia American, it is a figure
that endows objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions with human form, character, or sensibility. In the second example,
a handbag is treated as human being. Wherever it is broken, it will be well repaired. By personification, the
advertised information is made vivid and impressive.
The third example includes a parody. Parody is an imitation designed for comic effect or ridicule. A parody
humorously reveals the peculiarities or excesses of the original work by taking a serious style of writing (Xu Peng 徐
鹏, 1996: 548). In English advertisements people employ parody frequently by copying recognizably a known
sentence, paragraph, or discourse. Here, the proverb“Where there is a will there is a way”is imitated to amuse and
impress the potential consumers.
Example 4 contains a simile, which is a figure that involves an expressed comparison, almost always introduced
by“like”or“as”. For the purpose of showing elegant quality and peculiar effect of the shampoo, the advertising
designer in this advertisement tries to trigger consumers’ imagination of the delicate fragrance of spring grass in a
meadow. By comparison, this advertisement is successful in building up the image of the shampoo and luring customers
to buy this product.
In example 5, a typical parallelism is employed. In accordance with Encyclopedia Britannia, parallelism refers
to the structure in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one
element with another of equal importance and similar wording. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures
serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations. In this example with the repetition of key words and of similar
structures the advertisement tells the consumer clearly that the powder to skin is just like moisture to flowers.
Accordingly, the brand name“Moisture Wear Powder”will be quite impressive and acceptable.
II. Rhetor ical Devices in Adver tising Chinese
Similarly, a large number of rhetorical devices are also employed in Chinese advertisements. In the following,
we can find some examples.
(1) 磁旧换芯用心换心( IC Card ad.)
(2) 日意日意, 人人中意(RIYI ad.)
(3) 神龙富康, 走富康之路(DONGFENG- CITROEN ad.)
(4) 默默无“蚊”的奉献( an ad. for Hua Li Electronic Mosquito Incense)
(5) 长城电扇, 电扇长城(Gr
eat Wall Fan ad.)
In the first example, both parody and pun are employed in the advertisement. A Chinese idiom“辞旧迎新”,
which means to bid farewell to the outgoing year and celebrate the New year, is imitated as “磁旧换芯”, which
indicates the magnetic core of an IC card must be changed if it is used, since“辞”and“磁”,“新”and“芯”, are
homonyms in Chinese. In the second part of the advertisement,“心”has two meanings. It can refer to“心”(heart )
and“芯” ( the magnetic core) , since“心”and“芯”are homonyms too. So“用心换心”can be understood in two
possible ways: a) to serve the people wholeheartedly; b) to renew the used magnetic core. With the help of these two
rhetorical derives, this advertisement creates a very humorous touch and holds the customer‘s interest.
Example 2 contains a repetition. As a result of repeating the key words“日意”and stressing the tone“意”,
the brand name“日意”(RIYI) appeals to the heart of customers and the water heater sells well in south China.
A typical figure of personification is employed in the third example. In this advertisement, the automobile is
personified as a man who is walking on a road, which leads to health, happiness and prosperity.
Example 4 also employs a parody and pun, which are more frequently used than the other rhetorical devices in
Chinese advertisements.“默默无蚊”is copied from the idiom“默默无闻”that indicates“to do something without
attracting public attention”, which is a virtue in the Chinese culture. The advertisement here has double meanings:
a) to make contributions to the people without blazing it around; b) to contribute to the people a world with no
mosquitoes. By playing on words, this advertisement creates humor and imagination for the potential consumer.
Metaphor is used in the fifth example, which is defined as“an imaginative way of describing something by
referring to something else that has the qualities that you are trying to express”(Collins English Language Dictionary
1987:910). In the advertisement, the well-known image of“Great Wall”is used to metaphorize the top quality of
the fan. The application of metaphor, in addition to repetition, strengthens the audience ’s impression of this
advertisement.
III. Translation Srategies on Rhetor ical Level
From the above analysis we can see that rhetorical devices are very efficient linguistic means that can assist
both Chinese and English advertisements to achieve the special purpose. It is no exaggeration to say that the success
of a commercial advertisement has much to do with apt employment of rhetorical devices as well as original use of
words, phrases, and sentences. At the same time we can see that the application of rhetorical devices depends
greatly upon linguistic characteristics and cultural background. So how to exploit rhetorical devices at their best and
stimulate the target con
sumers’interest and desire to purchase should be the major task in advertising translation on
rhetorical level. In the following, we will discuss this point with some good examples.
(1) Intel Inside (Intel ad.)
一颗奔腾的心
Obviously, alliteration is employed in the original advertisement. Alliteration is a peculiar rhetorical means in
English, which refers to the use of the same consonant (consonantal alliteration) or of a vowel, not necessarily the
same vowel (vocalic alliteration), at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse according
to Collins Dictionary of the English Language. By application of alliteration, the original advertisement not only
illustrates the important position of CPU, but also strengthens the consumer’s impression of the brand name“Intel”.
But if it is translated literally as“内装英特尔( 中央处理器) ”, it may be difficult to attract the attention of Chinese
consumers. In order to stimulate Chinese consumers’interest and desire to buy the product, the translator adopts the
target-language-culture oriented strategy, and aptly employs a metaphor and pun in his translation.“ 一颗心”( a
heart) is used to metaphorize the important position of CPU, while“奔腾”has double meanings here, in which one
indicates the major product of Intel Co., Ltd.,“Pentium”, and the other one reveals the speedy calculating capability
of Intel’s product. Once Chinese consumers find out the implicit meanings of the advertisement, they will be
interested in Intel’s product and keep the brand name“Pentium”in mind.
(2 )出手不凡钻石表(Diamond Brand Watch ad.)
Buy a Diamond brand watch, if every second counts for you.
The original is a good advertisement for Chinese consumers by employing a pun in it, that is, by aptly using
the Chinese idiom“出手不凡”, which originally means“making masterly opening movies (in wushu, chess, etc.)”.
But here“出手不凡”is used to emphasize the point that the quality and design of the watch are out of ordinary (不
同凡响). In order to create the artistic imagination of the advertisement, the translator adapts the translation to
English linguistic characteristics and makes use of a pun instead of translating it mechanically. In this translation,
“count”indicates“to say the number one by one”and“to have value or to be of importance”. Thus the advertisement
means:
a) Buy a Diamond brand watch if every second is important to you;
b) Buy a Diamond brand watch because it can keep good time.
As a result, the translation achieves the same effect as the original.
(3) 吸取生物精华, 焕发生命潜能(Apollo ad.)
Essence of Living Beings
Energy for Life
In the original advertisement, parallelism makes it smooth to read and easy to remember. In the parallel
structure, the advertisement is balanced by noun vs. noun ( “生物”vs.“生命”,“精华”vs.“潜能”), a