从翻译美学视角探析女性化妆品广告的翻译.docx

ContentsChinese Abstract2English Abstract31. Introduction42. Literature Review 53. Differences of Chinese and English Cultures73.1 Historical Background73.2 Way of Thinking73.3 Aesthetic Standard84.Translation Strategies of Female Cosmetics Advertising 94.1 Literal Translation94.2 Free Translation104.3 Adding Translation115. Conclusion.12References14从翻译美学视角探析女性化妆品广告的翻译摘 要文章旨在探析翻译美学理论对女性化妆品广告翻译的指导作用。通过分析中西方在历史背景、思维方式和审美标准的差异，并介绍女性化妆品广告的特点，从翻译美学视角提出了直译、意译和增译的实用翻译策略。同时，在阐述女性化妆品广告翻译的过程中，发现在翻译美学理论指导下，女性化妆品广告的翻译有章可循，可防止出现“乱译”现象。而且，符合目的语消费者审美、认知、语言和文化认同的女性化妆品广告，能够激发消费者的购买兴趣，从而实现女性化妆品广告翻译的目的。关键词：翻译美学；女性；化妆品广告；翻译On the Translation of Female Cosmetics Advertising from the Perspective of Translation AestheticsAbstractThis paper aims to explore the guiding role of translation aesthetics theory in the translation of female cosmetics advertising. Based on the analysis of the differences in historical background, way of thinking and aesthetic standard between China and the West, and the introduction of the characteristics of female cosmetics advertising, this paper puts forward practical translation strategies of literal translation, free translation and added translation from the perspective of translation aesthetics. Meanwhile, in the process of the translation of female cosmetics advertising, it founds that under the guidance of translation aesthetics, there are rules to follow in the translation of female cosmetics advertising, which can prevent the phenomenon of “random translation”. Moreover, female cosmetics advertising that is in line with the aesthetic, cognitive, linguistic and cultural identity of the target language consumers can stimulate the consumers purchase interest and thus achieve the purpose of translation of female cosmetics advertising.Key words: translation aesthetics; female; cosmetics advertising; translation 1. Introduction In the background of globalization today, the economic development of various countries has entered a “golden period” of rapid development, and cosmetics companies have set their sights on China, a consumer market with great potential, to occupy a place in the market. A cosmetics advertising that can be recognized and accepted by consumers in the target language is a major challenge for many manufacturers. Therefore, the translation of cosmetics advertising is particularly important.Regarding the translation of advertising language, foreign studies were earlier, so the theoretical system is also more mature and standardized. Newmark, a well-known British translation theorist and translation educator, divides language texts into three types in his book A Textbook of Translation. One is a purely expressive text, which consists of literary works and personal autobiographies. The second type is the information text, which mainly transmits the corresponding information, such as meeting minutes and academic textbooks. The third type is the vocative text, such as some brochures, instructions and advertising (Newmark, 1987). In essence, advertising language belongs to vocative text, so it can be reorganized flexibly in the process of translation, so as to make the text more unobstructed, conform to the local culture, and facilitate peoples understanding. However, in the background of that time, peoples research on advertising translation still stays on the simple correction of grammatical errors. It was not until the early 21st century that China began to value the importance of advertising translation. In the early 21st century, the level of advertising translation in China was still undeveloped. Since 2005, more and more researches have worked on the advertising translation, which has raised the level of advertising translation to a new level. Judging from the research data collected so far, the study of advertising translation in China needs to be strengthened at the theoretical level. At present, most of the researches on advertising translation are limited in making a summary description of some translation examples and the personal experience of the researcher. In recent years, Chinas cosmetics advertising industry has made great progress, but in addition to the excellent cosmetics advertising, the essence of many advertisements is rigid. The cosmetics advertising is empty of unnormative, irreality and follows the trend seriously (张欣, 2018). The researchers vision is limited to a certain extent and needs to be further broadened. Translation aesthetics is to use the basic principles of aesthetics and modern linguistics to study and discuss the aesthetic problems in the process of interlingual transformation, so as to help the translator understands the general rules of translation aesthetic activities, improve the ability of interlingual transformation and aesthetic appreciation of the translation. Translation aesthetics can be defined as: the research object of translation aesthetics is the aesthetic object in translation (original text and translated text), the aesthetic subject in translation (translator and reader), the aesthetic activity in translation, the aesthetic judgment in translation, the aesthetic appreciation, the aesthetic standard and the creative aesthetic representation in translation, etc. (方梦之, 2004). On the one hand, due to the subjectivity of the subject, aesthetics vary from person to person, but on the other hand, the beauty can resonate with people. Therefore, in the translation of female cosmetics advertising, as the aesthetic subject, we, as aesthetic subjects, should have aesthetic judgment and appreciation of the advertising translations.This paper conducts a preliminary study on the translation of female cosmetics advertising, which is mainly divided into the following five parts. The first part analyzes the limitations of Chinas advertising translation and elaborates the significance of the study. The second part is a literature review, including the previous studies on advertising translation. The third part discusses the differences in the historical background, the way of thinking and the aesthetic standard in the process of translating female cosmetics advertising between Chinese and English. The fourth part discusses the translation strategies of cosmetics advertising combining the characteristics of female cosmetics advertising. In the fifth part, this paper makes a conclusion.2. Literature ReviewIn the early 1990s, Chinese researchers began to study advertising translation. From the perspective of research content, it mainly aims at the problems and difficulties existing in the translation methodology of advertising terms and translation between Chinese and English, which is still in the initial stage of advertising translation research. Later, with the deepening of the research, it began to involve the principles and standards in the process of advertising translation. However, since the late 1990s, an increasing number of researches have focused on the difficult problems of advertising translation, such as the translatability of artistic conception, the artistry of advertising language, etc., domestic translation scholars have carried out researches on advertising translation from the perspectives of Skopos Theory and culture perspective.Zhang Chao pointed out that the main principle determining the translation process is the purpose of translation, which determines the methods and strategies of the translation (张超, 2008). As a practical style, cosmetics advertising has a strong purpose and function. The ultimate purpose of cosmetics advertising is to make the consumers buy goods and create profits for enterprises. Yan Yang and Wang Qingmei also mentioned that applying the main point of Skopos Theory to the advertising text can properly highlight the purpose of the advertising text, and effectively guide the translator how to make the advertising translation produce the “expected function” (闫杨,王青梅, 2012).For the reason that the great differences in language and culture, different countries have different modes of presentation. Tang Weihua mentions that the globalization of economy makes the cross-cultural communication of advertising inevitable, and advertising is also influenced by cultural factors in the process of cross-cultural communication. Only by understanding the essence of Chinese and western advertising cross-cultural strategies and combining with cultural perspective can we truly succeed in the cross-cultural communication of advertising (唐卫华, 2012).Western scholars have also done a lot of researches on advertising translation. In the article Peut on Traduire La langue de la public, Hurbin raised a question “can we translate the advertising language?” (Pierre, 1972). He believes that the main task of the translator is to select the most appropriate terms to translate from the original text. Peter Newmark, a well-known British translation theorist and translation educator, divided the text into expressive function, information function, vocative function, aesthetic function, phatic function and metalingual function in the book Approaches to Translation (Newmark, 1981). Advertising belongs to vocative function, which makes readers understand the accepted language quickly and express the different relationship between the author and readers by using different appellation or grammatical forms. Brislins Applied Cross-cultural Psychology edited in 1991, he points out that a culture is a habitual way of behavior including a way of thinking (Brislin, 1991). This behavior has a certain tendency, which is the direction and identity of specific culture. From this point of view, advertising is to use peoples habitual behavior to manipulate the audience, or indirectly persuade the specific audience to imitate a certain consumer behavior or lifestyle. In addition, De Mooij pointed out in the article Translating Advertising: Painting Tip of Iceberg in 2004 that the research on advertising translation should focus on contextual research. He pointed out that the consumer behavior and the way of communication among consumers is mainly determined by the consumers cultural values, and the cultural factors also greatly affect consumers consumption needs and motivations (De Mooij, 2004). In the same cultural context, Torresi also makes a study on the advertising translation. He believes that the advertising translation must embody significant cultural characteristics. Geogre Ho is convinced in Translating Advertisement Across Heterogeneous Cultures that the advertising translation is not only a linguistic and cultural act, but also a commercial act (Geogre, 2004). Verschuerens Linguistic Adaptation Theory also has a strong explanatory power for the advertising translation. Its main point is that the process of advertising translation is also a process of continuously selecting the language, making a dynamic adaptation to the context and language structure of the original. 3. Differences of Chinese and English Cultures3.1 Historical Background The historical background of each country is fairly different. No matter what kind of history, it has had a tremendous impact on peoples life, so the importance of historical background in culture is self-evident. When translating the advertisements, the translator needs to fully appreciate the historical factors of the target countries, so as not to inadvertently hurt the feelings of the people of the target countries and hinder the sale of the advertising products. First of all, Chinas long-term feudal hierarchy has a deep influence on the Chinese people, and Chinese people worship authorities and nobles more. Advertisers attach great importance to the design of advertising in order to meet the requirements of the general consumers. Second, China has been in the feudal society for a long time. The culture of the feudal society over 2,000 years has had a great influence on the introverted character of Chinese people. The implication and euphemism in language is one of the crucial manifestations. Western social systems emphasize human rights and freedom of human nature. Most westerners are open-minded and more direct and straightforward in language expression. The following two examples can show the differences between Chinese and western advertising languages toward due to the reason of historical background. One example is the advertising of Sassoon shampoo, that is “Your light from my presence”, and another example is “Your lips will be smooth, replenished and indulged with sublime and reshaping color” for Lancomes lipstick advertising. The former advertising expresses subtle euphemisms, causing consumers to think: cant help but let imagine the relationship between “present” and “light”, which makes people want to give it a try. The latter one advertisings expression is very direct, using the word “smooth” and “replenished” to directly reflect the characteristics of lipstick, sublime and reshaping color reflects how you look after using the lipstick. 3.2 Way of ThinkingThe way of thinking is the sum of specific forms, methods and orders of thinking activities. Because of the differences in living environment and problems faced by different nationalities, the ways of reflecting the problems are also different, and the overall way of thinking formed is also different. The Chinese value human sentiment, thinking about issues do not simply consider from one aspect, and like to consider the overall long-term consideration, which often make things complicated. Westerners may think relatively simply, pay more attention to the facts, will prove the feasibility of their own views through a large number of arguments. The differences between Chinese and western ways of thinking exert a decisive part in the expression of Chinese and western languages. Their differences are mainly reflected in: Chinese people attach importance to comprehensive thinking, while westerners attach importance to analytical thinking. Reflected in the creation of advertising words, Chinese advertising words are mostly vague and abstract with low accuracy. They use general words to leave a good impression on readers as a whole. While English advertising words are specific and accurate, even clear-cut, and attract consumers with facts.Translation is essentially a transformation of different ways of thinking. Although the Chinese and western ways of thinking have common grounds, there are also quite a few differences. Because Chinese and English pertain to two language families, and have different characteristics in terms of pronunciation, semantic rhetoric and other expressions, so under the condition of cultural differences between China and the West, it is not easy for the translator to translate the original advertising exactly