On Poetic Advertisements Translating by Functional Equivalence in Skopostheory

肖枫霄

Abstract A hot issue was once the advertisement translation as a pragmatic one. But it is surprising how little attention has been paid to a new kind of advertisement -poetic advertisement， which has caught a great significance in the world of business. In this paper it attempts to do a poetic translation study by Nidas theories that stand for the German functional translation school. Through the research for some translation cases， it is found that the theory functional equivalence is feasible for representing the poetic beauty， the readers acceptability and the functions of advertisements. What is shown thereby is that the theory functional equivalence can work as guiding principle in the translation of English poetic advertisement.

Key words skopostheory； functional equivalence； poetic advertisement translating

中图分类号：H315.9 文献标识码：A DOI：10.16400/j.cnki.kjdkx.2016.03.080

1 Background of Research

Throughout these years found is the soaring of advertising， which has never been transcended. Advertisement has already entailed to be a quite normal economic form in the modern commodities society， binding the producers of products together with a lot of consumers. When it comes to the functions of modern advertisement， transmission of messages， management of controlling as well as promotion of sales have to be concluded in them. Otherwise， people have the tendency to pursue for beauty， and on the point of this， beautiful things are expected to be brought into making of advertisements so as to enlighten their minds and even get the purposes of advertising realized.

Sourced from the previous studies， very prominent are those of translation methods on such as English idioms， literature works or science and technologies. （Reiss 1971： p.42， translated by Christiane Nord 1997： p.89）. However， the theorists of Equivalence tend to accept non-literal translation procedures more readily in the translation of pragmatic texts. In accordance to the Relativity Theory of Sperber and Wilson， communication of paroles belong to the procedure of from demonstration to eduction. Speakers first give clues to show the purpose while listeners try to figure out what means with message given by configuring the hypothesis of linguistic contexts， by which they spare no efforts to grasp the excellent effects of contexts to let their language hypothesis and purposes of speakers perfectly related （Jeremy M. 2001： pp.78-79）.

2 Functional Equivalence Theory

Eugene Nida （2004： p.1）s concept of Functional Equivalence was the earliest proposed as the theory of translation functional equivalence， whose main requirements are described like that it is demanded that the message of source language be embodied with the equivalents more naturally from the side of semantics to genres. Initially， he gave birth to dynamic equivalence that was defined as that readers must have the similar response to version as the writers to the original text. Although these two responses cannot go in the absolutely same way due to much disparity of cultural and historical backgrounds， equivalence of function still exists to the extreme extent， or else the purpose of translation will not be reached. Later on， Nida put forward as functional equivalence instead of dynamic one， and also， he deduced that the connotation of these both terms are taken as similarity because the word “function” gives priority to contains and effects of translating， which is superficially more feasible than the word “dynamic”. No matter which one is better， they both base on whether those readers of translation versions and of origin texts see something similar from the information received. In the meantime， by the terms of the Structure on Surface and in Bottom from Transferring Generative Grammar of Chomsky， Nida pointed out that function should be equal to deep structure not to surface. And then translating jobs are to focus on the demonstration of original purposes but restricted to linguistic constructions， so the readers of translation versions may be delighted with the comprehension of original texts as the writers themselves do more readily.

3 Feasibilities of Functional Equivalence

The criterion to judge the feasibility of a translation theory is to see how it works in the solution of translation problems. Functional equivalence is a pragmatic theory which emphasizes the functions of the translation and its effects on the readers and is able for the translator to locate the problems that will arise in the translating process and thus able to devise a holistic strategy for their solution.

3.1 Representing the Beauty of Rhyme

Rhyming is one of the most important parts composing the poems. Rhymes of poems refer usually to rhyming and tempo， and the its being used can help readers feel much great about the language itself in poems. If mentioned as rhyming of advertisements， it denotes the resonance of voice， tempo of prominence and joy of music. As we know， the Chinese phrase for debit card of Construction Bank of China goes as follows： “衣食住行，有龙则灵”。When it is publicized overseas， its translated into this version “Your everyday life is very busy； our Long card makes it easy”. To keep a nice rhyme for the advertisement itself， the translator adopts the method of rhyming with busy and easy as to produce an unforgettable keys and tempos， which thereby highlights the convenience of using Long card， and instinct of experiencing this type of card will be coming straight on hearing of this advertisement.

3.2 Representing the Beauty of Form

What is the outline of poetic contents is the form. To take the Chinese ancient poems for instance， they are basically composed very strictly in the field of form. Chinese poems often see some forms like poems of four lines， or eight lines or something like that， each of which is defined and written in the restriction to characters number and rhyming. If advertisements words are translated， the translators would reproduce the forms as poetry in order to entail an effect filled with significance. Whats more， in the translation of advertising， rhetorical devices are usually made the most of to achieve the effect of poetic form. From the perspective of beautification， rhetorical devices are to give support in rearranging the normal verbal order of idioms， which tells the beauty in symmetrical order. Thus， advertising translation finds rhetorics in poetry form to add much cultural factors for better publication of advertisements.

Antithetical form is quite typical of Chinese poem and the standard antithesis makes readers enjoyable at it. Here is an example： Not all the car created equal， which has its translation version as “古有千里马， 今有三菱车”. This advertisement， in fact， is so brief that it consists of six words only， which are sufficient to uncover that the very car is unique. When translated， this advertisement is equipped with an antithetical phrase to express what the original tends to convey in the way of contrast and parody. There we have the contrast between “古” and “今” and the parody from “千里马” to “三菱车”， so the strengths of this car can be distinct from the others.

3.3 Representing the Beauty of Poetic Imagery

Here poetic imagery is relevant to the condition that literature works convey some certain connotations and feelings by description for images， and it is just a combination of connotation from beauty sensors and context from beauty senders. In the art of advertising， connotation is expressed for thoughts or mind during the production of some advertisement， while context refers to those objects around the advertisement， which converge and penetrate into each other. Actually， poetic imagery takes up as a core in the composition of poems.

Shampoos made in P&G Ltd. Company are really renowned by most of people like Rejoice and Heads and Shoulders. If translated in literal way as “兴奋” and “头发和肩膀”， it is badly deemed as great loss of nice feelings and features and cannot draw up to readers context， then collapses the purpose of publicizing this piece of advertisement. Nicer effects might be attained once Rejoice is made into “飘柔” and Heads and Shoulders into “海飞丝”， because the two Chinese characters “飘” and “柔” demonstrate so delightful cultural connotations that always describe something good， but commonly is compared to womens tenderness and softness in heart. At the same time， the juxtaposed characters “海飞丝” depicts a beautiful image where stands in distance a wonderfully graceful lady with her soft hair fluttering in wind on the beachside， bringing the consumers a fantastic sense of poetic image and pushing out their attempt to buying that product， and meanwhile， that propaganda about the shampoo is well realized.

4 Conclusion

Poetic advertisement is an advertising text with the features of poetry. It is a combination of advertisement and poetry and contains beauty of sound， form and meaning of a poem entailing a commercial purpose. As we can see from several case studies， the theory “functional equivalence” can be used as guiding principle in the translation of English poetic advertisement.

Nidas functional equivalence theory is feasible to poetic advertising translation. In order to create a good commercial advertising， it always concentrates on the top placing of readers response and the specific goal of functional communication， by which the products makers can obtain more of economic benefits， furthermore， the language memes could be enriched and transmitted to go with a growing number of goods being famous in the international business markets to bring more money around.

Bibliography

[1] Munday， Jeremy. 2001.Introducing Translation Theories [M]. London/New York： Routledge， pp.37-38.

[2] Nida，Eugene. 2004. The Theory and Practice of Translation[M].Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， p.1.

[3] Nord，Christiane.1997.Translation as a Purposeful Activity：Functionalist Approaches Explained [M]. Manchester， UK： St. Jerome，p.29.

[4] Reiss，Katharina.1997.Translation Criticism： The potentials & Limitations[M].Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， p.42.