汉英广告语言的异同及商业广告翻译中的语用失误研究
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摘要
广告是伴随着商品交换的产生而出现的，随之而来的是广告业在商品经济带动下的迅猛发展。相应的，越来越多的广告学及语言学界人士对广告语言研究产生了浓厚兴趣并给予了普遍关注。我国对广告汉语的研究起步于八十年代，对广告英语的研究则是在对国外广告专著的引进后开始的。目前，我国广告汉语和广告英语的研究正处于蓬勃发展、研究成果层出不穷的状态，但是对汉英广告语言进行对比研究的还并不多见。
本文回顾了广告语言研究的历史，对现状进行了简要介绍，并在总结前人研究成果的基础上归纳了汉英广告语言的异同。汉英广告在语音上通过使用简短的单音节词及运用压韵等修辞手法，给受众带来听觉上的美感。在句法方面则多使用简单句、省略句、疑问句、祈使句等，使广告简明易记并且更具吸引力。同时，汉英广告经常使用褒义形容词及副词来表达肯定的语气，并运用多种修辞手法增加广告的美感。
汉英广告语言的差异性突出表现在语言结构和社会文化两个方面。汉语的语音特征决定了汉语广告中谐音、双音节形式、叠音现象的大量存在，而英语单词词形变化的灵活性则促使英语广告中经常运用造字、错拼等手法，通过对词形的改变来增强广告的吸引力。此外，汉语广告中常见的对偶句式也是汉语、汉族文化的一大特色，在英语广告中并不多见。
汉英广告语言的不同特点给汉语广告英译带来了一定的困难，一
些汉语广告中特有的句式及修辞手法很难在英语中找到对应的形式。
因此，汉语广告翻译应该遵循“形式让位于功能”的原则，把最大限
度传递原文的功能作为广告翻译的目的。本文对国内外翻译理论的主
要流派进行了简要介绍，得出了这样一个结论:奈达的功能对等理论
和纽马克的交际翻译法适用于广告文体的翻译。
目前，我国广告翻译正处于发展阶段，翻译水平尚待提高，在商
标、广告标题及口号、广告正文翻译中存在着大量语用失误，这严重
削弱了译文的劝诱功能。产生这些失误的主要原因是东西方的文化冲
突，主要表现在中国人注重集体主义，西方人注重个人主义;中国人
重权威，西方人重事实;中国人性格含蓄，西方人性格直露等方面。
此外，社会机构、组织形式等社会因素方面的差异也不容忽视。译者
在翻译时如果忽视了价值观、思维方式、社会组织形式等诸多文化要
素在汉语广告中特有的语用功能，而错误地采用了直译的翻译方法，
就难免造成语用失误。本文以功能对等理论和交际翻译法为指导，提
出了广告翻译应遵循的三条标准，即自然、准确和简洁的标准，希望
能对广告翻译有一定的帮助。
Advertisement appeared due to the exchange of goods and developed rapidly with the development of commodity economy. As a result, more and more scholars in the field of advertisement and linguistics became interested in advertising language and paid much attention to it. In China, the study of advertising Chinese began in 1980's and the study of advertising English began after those English books on advertisement were translated in Chinese. Now the study of advertising Chinese and English are carried on to a deeper degree and more papers and books on advertising language have come out, but the comparison and contrast of advertising Chinese and advertising English need to be studied with greater efforts.
This thesis reviewed the history of advertising language study and gave an brief introduction of the current state and then concluded the similarity and difference of advertising Chinese and advertising English on the basis of summarizing other people's works on advertising language.
Both advertising Chinese and advertising English use simple words and rhyme to make the advertisements sound pleasant and usually use simple sentence, omitted sentence, interrogative sentence and imperative sentence to make the advertisements more attractive and easy to remember. Moreover, adjective with positive meaning and adverb are
usually used in advertising Chinese and advertising English to express the affirmative tone. At the same time, kinds of rhetoric means are also used in both advertising Chinese and English to make the advertisements have more artistic quality.
The difference between advertising Chinese and advertising English are reflected both in the language structure and in social culture. The characteristics in Chinese pronunciation is the reason why in advertising Chinese there are many euphony, double syllables and repeated words. While in advertising English the misspelled words and strange new words created by advertisement makers are often seen. That is because compared with Chinese character, it is much free for English words to change their forms to have different functions. Antithesis is a kind of sentence type with typical characteristics of Chinese language and culture which is seldom found in advertising English.
The differences between advertising Chinese and advertising English are an obstacle in advertising translation because some special sentence types and means of rhetoric in Chinese have no equivalence in English. So in advertising translation we should take the rule of "function prior to form" as direction and consider transmitting the functions of the original work to the maximal degree as the aim of advertising translation. This thesis gave a brief introduction of the translation theories home and abroad and concluded that both Nida's function equivalence theory and Newmark's theory of communicating
translation are fit for adverting translation.
Now the advertising translation in China is in the developing state and the standard of translation is to be improved. In the translation of the brand name, the title, slogan and body of advertisement there are many pragmatic mistakes, which weakened the persuading function of the English version of Chinese advertisement. The main reason of these pragmatic mistakes is the differences in Chinese culture and Western culture. This thesis analyzes the differences from three aspects: collectivism versus individualism, respect of authority versus respect of facts, and implicit way versus direct way. In addition, the difference in social mechanism shouldn't be neglected either. If the translator ignored the functions of Chinese people's viewpoint of value, ways of thinking and China's social organization in Chinese advertisements, and translate the Chinese advertisements directly, he will inevitably make pragmatic mistakes.
This thesis takes function equivalence theory and the theory of communicating translation as direction and put forward three rules in advertisement translation which are "natural", "accurate" and "concise", in the hope th
本文回顾了广告语言研究的历史，对现状进行了简要介绍，并在总结前人研究成果的基础上归纳了汉英广告语言的异同。汉英广告在语音上通过使用简短的单音节词及运用压韵等修辞手法，给受众带来听觉上的美感。在句法方面则多使用简单句、省略句、疑问句、祈使句等，使广告简明易记并且更具吸引力。同时，汉英广告经常使用褒义形容词及副词来表达肯定的语气，并运用多种修辞手法增加广告的美感。
汉英广告语言的差异性突出表现在语言结构和社会文化两个方面。汉语的语音特征决定了汉语广告中谐音、双音节形式、叠音现象的大量存在，而英语单词词形变化的灵活性则促使英语广告中经常运用造字、错拼等手法，通过对词形的改变来增强广告的吸引力。此外，汉语广告中常见的对偶句式也是汉语、汉族文化的一大特色，在英语广告中并不多见。
汉英广告语言的不同特点给汉语广告英译带来了一定的困难，一
些汉语广告中特有的句式及修辞手法很难在英语中找到对应的形式。
因此，汉语广告翻译应该遵循“形式让位于功能”的原则，把最大限
度传递原文的功能作为广告翻译的目的。本文对国内外翻译理论的主
要流派进行了简要介绍，得出了这样一个结论:奈达的功能对等理论
和纽马克的交际翻译法适用于广告文体的翻译。
目前，我国广告翻译正处于发展阶段，翻译水平尚待提高，在商
标、广告标题及口号、广告正文翻译中存在着大量语用失误，这严重
削弱了译文的劝诱功能。产生这些失误的主要原因是东西方的文化冲
突，主要表现在中国人注重集体主义，西方人注重个人主义;中国人
重权威，西方人重事实;中国人性格含蓄，西方人性格直露等方面。
此外，社会机构、组织形式等社会因素方面的差异也不容忽视。译者
在翻译时如果忽视了价值观、思维方式、社会组织形式等诸多文化要
素在汉语广告中特有的语用功能，而错误地采用了直译的翻译方法，
就难免造成语用失误。本文以功能对等理论和交际翻译法为指导，提
出了广告翻译应遵循的三条标准，即自然、准确和简洁的标准，希望
能对广告翻译有一定的帮助。
Advertisement appeared due to the exchange of goods and developed rapidly with the development of commodity economy. As a result, more and more scholars in the field of advertisement and linguistics became interested in advertising language and paid much attention to it. In China, the study of advertising Chinese began in 1980's and the study of advertising English began after those English books on advertisement were translated in Chinese. Now the study of advertising Chinese and English are carried on to a deeper degree and more papers and books on advertising language have come out, but the comparison and contrast of advertising Chinese and advertising English need to be studied with greater efforts.
This thesis reviewed the history of advertising language study and gave an brief introduction of the current state and then concluded the similarity and difference of advertising Chinese and advertising English on the basis of summarizing other people's works on advertising language.
Both advertising Chinese and advertising English use simple words and rhyme to make the advertisements sound pleasant and usually use simple sentence, omitted sentence, interrogative sentence and imperative sentence to make the advertisements more attractive and easy to remember. Moreover, adjective with positive meaning and adverb are
usually used in advertising Chinese and advertising English to express the affirmative tone. At the same time, kinds of rhetoric means are also used in both advertising Chinese and English to make the advertisements have more artistic quality.
The difference between advertising Chinese and advertising English are reflected both in the language structure and in social culture. The characteristics in Chinese pronunciation is the reason why in advertising Chinese there are many euphony, double syllables and repeated words. While in advertising English the misspelled words and strange new words created by advertisement makers are often seen. That is because compared with Chinese character, it is much free for English words to change their forms to have different functions. Antithesis is a kind of sentence type with typical characteristics of Chinese language and culture which is seldom found in advertising English.
The differences between advertising Chinese and advertising English are an obstacle in advertising translation because some special sentence types and means of rhetoric in Chinese have no equivalence in English. So in advertising translation we should take the rule of "function prior to form" as direction and consider transmitting the functions of the original work to the maximal degree as the aim of advertising translation. This thesis gave a brief introduction of the translation theories home and abroad and concluded that both Nida's function equivalence theory and Newmark's theory of communicating
translation are fit for adverting translation.
Now the advertising translation in China is in the developing state and the standard of translation is to be improved. In the translation of the brand name, the title, slogan and body of advertisement there are many pragmatic mistakes, which weakened the persuading function of the English version of Chinese advertisement. The main reason of these pragmatic mistakes is the differences in Chinese culture and Western culture. This thesis analyzes the differences from three aspects: collectivism versus individualism, respect of authority versus respect of facts, and implicit way versus direct way. In addition, the difference in social mechanism shouldn't be neglected either. If the translator ignored the functions of Chinese people's viewpoint of value, ways of thinking and China's social organization in Chinese advertisements, and translate the Chinese advertisements directly, he will inevitably make pragmatic mistakes.
This thesis takes function equivalence theory and the theory of communicating translation as direction and put forward three rules in advertisement translation which are "natural", "accurate" and "concise", in the hope th
引文
[1]慕明春：《现代广告学》，陕西人们教育出版社，2000年
[2]胡晓芸：《广告文案写作》，浙江大学出版社，1998年
[3]倪宝元：《修辞手法与广告语言》，浙江教育出版社，2001年
[4]张琼：广告英语的语言特点，湖南大学学报，2002年第1期
[5]赵恩芳：《现代广告学》，山东人民出版社，1998年
[6]于根元：《广告语言教程》，陕西人民教育出版社，1998年
[7]赵静：《广告英语》，外语教学与研究出版社，1992年
[8]刘宓庆：《文体与翻译》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1985年
[9]刘宓庆：《当代翻译理论》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1999年
[10]刘法公：《商贸汉英翻译专论》，重庆出版社，1999年
[11]秦秀白：《文体学概论》，湖南教育出版社，1994年
[12]邵志洪：《翻译理论、实践与评析》，华东理工大学出版社，2003年
[13]张光明：《英汉互译思维概论》，外语教学与研究出版社，2001年
[14]郭富强：《英汉翻译理论与实践》，机械工业出版社，2004年
[15]陈新：《英汉文体翻译教程》，北京大学出版社，1999年
[16]蒋磊：文化差异与商标翻译的语用失误，中国科技翻译，2002年第3期
[17]谭载喜：《奈达论翻译》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1984年
[18]王琼琼：商标及主题句的翻译，英语学习，2000年第6期
[19]陈焰：汉英广告语言对比研究，国际商务英语在中国，厦门大学出版社，1999
[20]胡文仲：《文化与交际》，外语教学与研究出版社，1998年
[21]谭卫国：英汉广告的用词特点，四川师范学院学报(哲学社会科学版)，2001年第6期
[22]徐伊宇、李广荣：跨文化交际与商标翻译，华南理工大学学报(社会科学版)，2002年第4卷第2期
[23]丁树德、李建东：《中英文广告实用手册》，天津科技翻译出版社，1995年
[24]Leech, G.N., English in Advertising, Lodon:Longman, 1966
[25]Myers, G. Words in Ads. London: Green Gate Publishing Services, 1994
[26]Torben, V. The Language of Advertising. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1985
[27]Nida, Eugene A. Language, Culture and Translating. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1986
[2]胡晓芸：《广告文案写作》，浙江大学出版社，1998年
[3]倪宝元：《修辞手法与广告语言》，浙江教育出版社，2001年
[4]张琼：广告英语的语言特点，湖南大学学报，2002年第1期
[5]赵恩芳：《现代广告学》，山东人民出版社，1998年
[6]于根元：《广告语言教程》，陕西人民教育出版社，1998年
[7]赵静：《广告英语》，外语教学与研究出版社，1992年
[8]刘宓庆：《文体与翻译》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1985年
[9]刘宓庆：《当代翻译理论》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1999年
[10]刘法公：《商贸汉英翻译专论》，重庆出版社，1999年
[11]秦秀白：《文体学概论》，湖南教育出版社，1994年
[12]邵志洪：《翻译理论、实践与评析》，华东理工大学出版社，2003年
[13]张光明：《英汉互译思维概论》，外语教学与研究出版社，2001年
[14]郭富强：《英汉翻译理论与实践》，机械工业出版社，2004年
[15]陈新：《英汉文体翻译教程》，北京大学出版社，1999年
[16]蒋磊：文化差异与商标翻译的语用失误，中国科技翻译，2002年第3期
[17]谭载喜：《奈达论翻译》，中国对外翻译出版公司，1984年
[18]王琼琼：商标及主题句的翻译，英语学习，2000年第6期
[19]陈焰：汉英广告语言对比研究，国际商务英语在中国，厦门大学出版社，1999
[20]胡文仲：《文化与交际》，外语教学与研究出版社，1998年
[21]谭卫国：英汉广告的用词特点，四川师范学院学报(哲学社会科学版)，2001年第6期
[22]徐伊宇、李广荣：跨文化交际与商标翻译，华南理工大学学报(社会科学版)，2002年第4卷第2期
[23]丁树德、李建东：《中英文广告实用手册》，天津科技翻译出版社，1995年
[24]Leech, G.N., English in Advertising, Lodon:Longman, 1966
[25]Myers, G. Words in Ads. London: Green Gate Publishing Services, 1994
[26]Torben, V. The Language of Advertising. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1985
[27]Nida, Eugene A. Language, Culture and Translating. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1986