Chapter OneIntroduction
1.1 Research Background
The world we are living in today is becoming more connected and integrated thanever both economically and culturally in the wake of the globalization. Advertising, asone of the most important promotional tools, plays a vital role in the publicity ofproducts and services for companies. And researches on advertising in China andabroad have been taking on for commercial and academic purposes. Despite the gapsbetween different cultures, therefore, advertising translation has become an irresistibletrend and has been probed into from various perspectives, among which equivalencetheory attaches the most attention.
Admittedly, equivalence theory indeed provides an insightful and effectivemethod for advertising translation study, especially Nida’s equivalence theory with itsfocus on the most natural and closest response from the target readers. However,equivalence theory is not without problem in that “the formal equivalence may existin theory, while dynamic equivalence more naturally has to do primarily with the textas a whole”(Chesterman, 1997, 9). Namely, equivalence is more preoccupied with thesemantic and textual sameness. Therefore, equivalence is virtually unattainable in thereal practice of advertising translation, and hence not a useful concept in translationtheory. The translation of an advertisement is a different case, whose ultimate goal isto capture the audience’s attention, forge into their minds and arouse their interest in aminimum span of time. A translated advertisement with the most faithful meaning andelegant wording but without the features in question cannot be called a successful translation. Under such circumstances, the author tries to bring the study ofadvertisement translation into a newly-emerged, interdisciplinary theory---memetics.
........................
1.2 Research Rationale
Through a thorough reflection on the previous study, the author finds that fewresearches on advertisement translation have been done from the perspective ofmemetics. The author tries to do his bit to contribute to the study of the field ofadvertisement translation under the guidance of memetic theory.
Meme comes from sociobiology, where Dawkins first introduced in his book TheSelfish Gene and explained why he wanted to coin such a term as meme. Humanbeings pass down from generation to generation by the heredity of genes; genes areselfish and desperate to enter and survive in the the physical body of the posterity,determining the biological layout of our world. Likewise, meme “would be parallel to“gene” to describe the evolution of cultural phenomena which are subject to the samekinds of Darwinian laws of natural selection as genes”(Chesterman, 1997). Taking anew perspective for cultural transmission, memetics has instantly become one of themost eye-catching theories though it is still in its infancy.
Advertisement is a specially evocative language with a clear purpose to make adeep impression on the target audiences. It is especially true when the advertisementis translated into another language in a brand new culture. Hence, the advertisementtranslation is naturally linked to the meme replication and transmission. Peoplenowadays are bombarded with all kinds of information, and the most effectiveadvertisement translation must derive from their established cognition as the exampleillustrated below,
..................
Chapter TwoLiterature Review
2.1 A General Overview of Advertisement
Advertisement has evolved as society has changed: it has had an effect on society andat the same time society has had an effect on advertisement. Advertisement, farbeyond a set of marketing promotions to sell products or services, has impinged onpeople’s eyes, ears, minds and feelings as a kind of worldview, lifestyle or valuesystem. A proper translation for advertisements, therefore, calls for knowledge andtechniques of translation and a deep understanding of advertisement as well. Thus,this section offers a g
