【英语论文】英语广告语中隐喻的翻译研究初探A Study of Translation of Metaphor in Advertisement

1、 毕 业 论 文 英语广告语中隐喻的翻译研究初探a study of translation of metaphor in advertisement学生姓名： 指导教师： 二级学院： 外国语学院 专业： 英语 班级： 学号： 提交日期： 答辩日期： contentsabstracti摘 要ii1. introduction11.1 current status of translation of metaphor study11.2 brief illustration of metaphor used in advertisement11.3 research purpose22. abo

2、ut metaphor32.1 definition of metaphor32.2 illustration of metaphor32.3 definition of a good metaphor43. three types of metaphors in advertisement53.1 the advertisement with both noumenon and implication53.2 the advertisement with only implication53.3 the advertisement with only noumenon54. the func

3、tions of metaphors used in advertisement64.1 for aesthetics64.2 for economy74.3 for creation of meaning74.4 for vagary84.5 for cultural transmission95. translation methods105.1 translation theory to be applied105.2 translate metaphor into metaphor105.2.1 translate into the same metaphor105.2.2 trans

4、late into the same metaphor complemented with the meaning115.2.3 replace the original metaphor with common metaphor in the target language125.3 translate metaphor with other methods125.3.1 translate metaphor into simile135.3.2 translate metaphor into other rhetorical methods135.3.3 translate metapho

5、r into non- rhetorical methods145.4 translate non-metaphor into metaphor145.4.1 translate other rhetorical methods into metaphor155.4.2 translate non-rhetorical methods into metaphor156. conclusion17bibliography18acknowledgement19abstractenglish commercial advertising has been an important media for

6、 promoting sales, attracting customers, and exploiting the market. metaphor, a common rhetorical method, effects greatly in advertising. metaphor is a linguistic process used to make comparisons between the attributes of one thing/person and something else.of so many dazzling advertisements, those u

7、sing metaphors have taken a great part. the reason mainly lies in that the rhetorical function of metaphor agrees with the characteristics of advertising, transmitting full information and attracting customers in a short time.functional equivalence theory, first put up by nida, argues that we should

8、 achieve the agreement of the two languages instead of demanding word-formed method, which is very rigid.the purpose of this thesis is to probe deeper into the translation of metaphor in english advertisements, with detailed data and the function equivalence theory. key words: advertisement; metapho

9、r; translation, function equivalence theory摘 要英语商业广告已经成为一个重要的媒体，它可以用来促进销售，吸引顾客，以及开拓市场。隐喻，作为一项常用的修辞手法，在广告语中起到了很大的作用。隐喻是一种语言学进程，被用来比较一个事物和另外一个事物的属性。在诸多广告语中，隐喻得到了广泛的应用。原因主要在于其修辞学功能和广告的特点吻合，可以传达广告语的意思并在很短的时间能吸引顾客。功能对等理论由奈达提出，该理论指出翻译的目的是使两种语言达成一致，而不是死板的字字翻译。本论文的研究目的在于利用详细的资料，结合奈达的功能对等理论，初步探究英语广告语中隐喻的翻译。关

10、键词：广告语；隐喻；翻译1. introduction1.1 current status of translation of metaphor studyenglish commercial advertising has been an important media for promoting sales, attracting customers, and exploiting the market. with the economic globalization, english commercial advertising has been playing a more impor

11、tant role in international business affairs. and a good advertisement cannot be separated from excellent expression, and appropriate rhetorical methods. metaphor, a common rhetorical method, effects greatly in advertising, which has also been investigated for a long time. traditional theory of metap

12、hor has regarded it only as a linguistic phenomenon, while modern theory has regarded it not only as linguistic, but more important, a cognitive matter. in modern theory, metaphor is a cognitive matter where people use experience of an area to explain or understand experience of another area (shan,

13、2007:69-71).1.2 brief illustration of metaphor used in advertisement of so many dazzling advertisements, those using metaphors have taken a great part. the reason mainly lies in that the rhetorical function of metaphor agrees with the characteristics of advertising, transmitting full information and

14、 attracting customers in a short time (shan, 2007:69-71) .when people watch advertisement, and they are often dominated by cognitive mind and associational thinking. often, people will put new abstract concept and cognitive matter together, finding the similarity between them. and then with existing

15、 recognition in their mind to treat, think and express new concepts in advertisements (zhou, 1995:48-49). this reaction to new concepts in advertisements is the intentional project between two cognitive areas, and the result alluded by the two areas of noumenon and implication. projecting and alludi

16、ng like this can lead to the effect of association and aftertaste also can infiltrate characters and functions of products into peoples mind, give them the enjoyment of beauty and give birth to the desire to buy them.1.3 research purposemany scholars have made a deep study of the translation of meta

17、phor and got achievements of different aspects, including metaphor in poetics, rhetoric, and literature and so on. they have also studied translation of metaphor in advertising. the fruits of their studies have provided a lot of academic elements.the purpose of this thesis is to probe deeper into th

18、e translation of metaphor in english advertisements, with detailed data，and the function equivalence theory.2. about metaphor2.1 definition of metaphoras one of the key words of this paper, it is necessary to first make an introduction to metaphor. metaphor is a linguistic process used to make compa

19、risons between the attributes of one thing/person and something else (zhang, 2002: 9-25).2.2 illustration of metaphorin our daily life, we can often hear such sentences like “that boy is really a pig.” and “on hearing this, he saw the ray of hope.” how could a person be a pig? is hope shining? of co

20、urse not. but we can easily understand such statements as we know they take the form of figurative language. we should not understand them literally. if we are to communicate our experience with any accuracy, figurative language is frequently the only way we can do so. another word for the figurativ

21、e usage of language is trope. metaphor is one major form of trope together with simile, metonymy, synecdoche, etc (zhang, 2002: 9-25). the simplest example of metaphor is what we usually say, “time is money”.perceiving a metaphor as a kind of transport draws attention to the way a metaphor transport

22、s a concept from where it is normally located, to somewhere else where it is not usually found. thus a metaphor allows you to create correspondences in the world which did not exist before, and allows new meanings to occur.it can be seen that metaphors occur when a word is taken, or transported, fro

23、m the area in which it is usually located in a new context. an effect of this is that the word can still remind us of all the other words it usually collocates with. the consequence of such transportation of a word from its usual context is that the reader may connect the word not only with its new

24、context but also with its old text.every metaphor has the basic feature of one thing talked about in terms of another (zhang, 2002: 9-25). the expression that stands as a metaphor is understood as a metaphor precisely because it does not fit literally in its context of use. we say, “jeff argues with

25、 intelligence and zeal,” and understand that to be a literal expression, where as “jeff is a tiger in debate” is understood to be a non-literal statement, since jeff is not a tiger but a man. “tiger” refers to some mode of behavior jeff exhibited, namely, the savage and cunning character of his argu

26、ments.2.3 definition of a good metaphorin judging the value of a metaphor, the physical similarity of the items compared is easily overestimated. but in many finely effective comparisons the degree of physical similarity is not very great. of course, there must be some element of resemblance, since

27、illustration is not the primary purpose of a metaphor. we may put it into a more proper way, that is, metaphor is the interplay between sameness and difference (zhang, 2002: 9-25).3. three types of metaphors in advertisement3.1 the advertisement with both noumenon and implicationthis kind of adverti

28、sements is easy to identify. for example, “ebel, the architects of time”. it is an advertisement of helvetic watch ebel. it compares ebel to the architects of time. only these few words embody the perfect character of this watch (chen, 2009: 80-83).3.2 the advertisement with only implicationin this

29、kind of advertisements, only implications can be seen. for example, “you are better off under the umbrella”. it is an advertisement of an insurance agent, comparing it to an umbrella (chen, 2009: 80-83). “better off” has the meaning of being freer and happier. this advertisement makes tells customer

30、s that if they buy this insurance, they can be comfortable and safe. 3.3 the advertisement with only noumenonin this kind of advertisements, only noumenon can be seen, implication is connotative. for instance, “flowers by interflora speak from the heart” (wang, 2008: 62-65), the advertisement of flo

31、wer interflora. generally, metaphor includes personification, metonymy, and synecdoche, etc. this advertisement gives customers a feeling of friendliness and nature.4. the functions of metaphors used in advertisement4.1 for aestheticsin traditional rhetoric, metaphor is a rhetorical phenomenon. the

32、aim of using metaphor is to add the effect of expression. the aesthetic function of metaphor in advertising lies prominently in the elegance and circumbendibus of advertising language brought by rhetorical effect.undoubtedly, advertisements of ordinary daily commodities should be popular, and they d

33、ont need metaphor (sun, 2004: 69-71). however, renowned alcohols, luxurious cars, and exclusive cosmetics aim at people of affluence and high culture, as only these people can afford these goods. in order to show the dignity of products and the social status of customers, advertisements of this kind

34、 of commodities should be elegant and rich of literary colors. the most common linguistic means used is metaphor. the most persuasive example is the advertisement of shiseido. as shiseido plunges great technical strength into products, it has high quality and high price, and customers who are white

35、collars with high salary and ladies. therefore, its advertisement is extremely elegant, and metaphor is widely used. for example, “a luxurious, velvety foaming cleanser that gently rinses makeup and impurities from skin while retaining essential moisture.”(chen, 2007: 60-63). in advertisements of sh

36、iseido, “luxurious” and “luxury” are widely used. they do not only mean that components of the cosmetic are abundant and effective, but also give customers the feeling of buying luxuries, and satisfy them. furthermore, “velvety” acts the same with the simile “soft like velvet”. substantially, velvet

37、y is a distinguished material, which is enough to show the quality of the cosmetic. 4.2 for economythe economic function of metaphor in advertising lies in that it applies to kiss principle (keep it short and sweet) in advertising creation. leech has illustrated economy principle in his work princip

38、les of pragmatics, the main connotation is that when the transmitted information is short and accurate, and of the integrated meaning, the process of coding and decoding will save time and energy (sun, 2004: 69-71). leech thinks that this principle has restricted the amount of information, it may le

39、ad to ambiguity. metaphor can solve the problem. in advertising, this certain context, metaphor means using one word to express the meaning which can only be transmitted by many words. also, implication is more detailed than noumenon, so the advertisement can be short and lovely, economical and effe

40、ctive. for example, “a room for five toes”, this is an advertisement of shoes. “room” transmits a series of meanings. certainly, it doesnt mean that toes have room to live, but it can lead people to associate to the characteristics of room, including protecting, comfort, and grace, etc., which are a

41、lso the characteristics of shoes (he, 2008: 124-127).4.3 for creation of meaningthe creative function is on the linguistic angle. aristotle has pointed out that unknown words puzzle us, while ordinary words can not add new things, however, metaphor can provide us some fresh things (sun, 2004: 69-71)

42、 . this “fresh thing” is just the reason why metaphor attracts attention. we know, “metaphor is an important method which kills the development and change of language, if we study the origin of every word carefully, we can find the shadow of metaphor.” trough metaphor, we can use old words to talk a

43、bout new things, if only their contexts have similarity. in this way, we can reflect the essence and characteristic of one thing more visually. common methods of word constructing of in metaphor include transferring nouns to verbs, suffix of adjectives, participles and so on. take participle as an e

44、xample. there are two advertisements, “cracking, elongated eyes, silky shadows, gold sparks.” (advertisement of shiseido kohl) and “soft, enchanting, similar colorthats the gift of focus to your hair.” (advertisement of focus hair oil) in these two advertisements, “crackling” and “smiling” are both

45、metaphorical participles transferred from verbs. they visually reflect the characteristics of two commodities.4.4 for vagarythe vagarious function mainly lies in that it violates patently the principle of “dont say what you think illusive”, which is the “quality” aspect of cooperation principle in g

46、rices conversation. so that it can succeed extraordinarily, leave people a deep impression, and affect their purchasing actions.for example, the advertisement of “the northern affiance corporation” of chicago in america: “a bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for

47、it back again when it rains. for over 96 years, weve been projecting people from a rainy day, and now were serving todays generation, with personal banking products like our equity credit line. it lets you use the roof over your head to gain a personal line of credit. if you dont want to get wet, gi

48、ve us a call.” (sun, 2004: 69-71). the vagarious point of this advertisement is not only that it has quoted american poet robert frosts definition of bank as the item, but also that the definition itself has used metaphor. obviously, bank is impossible to have the service of “lending umbrella”, but

49、in the certain context of “bank”, we can understand that frost use implications such as “umbrella” (the noumenon is “protecting peoples property”), “fair weather” (the noumenon is “good financial condition”) and “rain” (the noumenon is “terrible financial condition”) to satirize that bank hasnt prot

50、ect peoples property timely. at first sight, we will think banks using this sentence as the item is extremely foolish. but after reading the whole text, we know that the actual intention of the author is to contradict this sentence. it uses metaphors such as “the roof over your head” (the noumenon i

51、s “the protection of peoples property by bank”) to indicate that if you dont want to bog down in finance, then accept our service.4.5 for cultural transmissionessentially, metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon. it is an embodiment of a nations language culture. its also the closest part in language whi

52、ch connects with culture (zhu, 2008: 80-82). actually, many original metaphors are derived from conceptual metaphors which have existed for a long time. according to traditional views, some expressing ways are not metaphors, but from the cognitive angle, they have characters of metaphor. advertising

53、 language, just like other languages, is the component and carrier of culture. the function of metaphor in advertising for cultural transmission mainly means that many cultural contents are transmitted for generations by the way of metaphor. so that they can make effects on peoples thinking and acti

54、ng. different language cultures have similarity and difference in the use of metaphors. advertisements, especially international advertisements should pay more attention on this point to avoid misunderstanding. “on cognitive aspect, metaphors can be divided into structural metaphor, orientational me

55、taphor, ontological metaphor, and similarity-creating metaphor.” (sun, 2004: 69-71).5. translation methods5.1 translation theory to be appliedthe main goal of translation, no doubt, is to establish a particular type of correspondence between the source test and the target text. the nature of corresp

56、ondence has been referred to “faithfulness” or “fidelity”, or more predominantly, to the notion of “equivalence”, which has been defined in a multitude of ways, in a huge amount of literature.equivalence is a central concept in the translation theory. but to gain a full equivalence in translation is

57、 only ideal for all translators. since there are, properly speaking, no such things as identical equivalents, one must in translating seek to find the closest possible equivalent. this thesis focuses more on the function equivalence theory.5.2 translate metaphor into metaphor5.2.1 translate into the

58、 same metaphorthere are some concepts and appellations that are similar in both source language and target language. newmark has concluded that these concepts and appellations include: 1) social relations such husband and wife, parent and child, host and servant, etc.; 2) things like food, water, wood, bridge and so on; 3) emotions like hating, envying, loving, regretting and so on. so when translating metaphorical advertisements in this kind, we don