a study on difficulties and strategies in english-vietnamese translation of advertising slogans = nghiên cứu các khó khăn và chiến lược cho việc dịch anh-việt khẩu hiệu quảng cáo

Mr Bert Esselink, a globalization consultant for translation company Lionbridge Technologies gave comment on the translation work that “the phrase „translating advertising slogans‟ is no

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT

-

PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN

ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING

SLOGANS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC CHO VIỆC

DỊCH ANH-VIỆT KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

HA NOI, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT

-

PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN

ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING

SLOGANS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC CHO VIỆC

DỊCH ANH-VIỆT KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO)

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS

FIGURES

CHARTS

Vietnamese

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACTS iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Structure of the study 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1 TRANSLATION THEORY 5

1.1 Translation definition 5

1.2 Translation methods 8

1.3 Translation equivalence 11

1.3.1 Translation equivalence 11

1.3.2 Types of translation equivalence 11

1.4 Translation process 12

1.5 Translation procedure 13

2 ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS 14

2.1 Advertising 14

2.1.1 Types of advertising 16

2.1.2 Language in advertisement 18

2.1.3 Structure of an advertisement 20

2.2 Advertising Slogans 22

2.2.1 Definition of advertising slogan 22

2.2.2 Characteristics of advertising slogans 25

CHAPTER 2: STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE

TRANSLATION OF AD SLOGANS 33

1 STUDY OF MODIFICATION IN LEXICAL AND STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS 34

1.1 Lexical addition 35

1.2 Lexical omission 36

1.3 Lexical adaptation 37

1.4 Structural addition 38

1.5 Structural omission 38

1.6 Structural adaptation 39

2 STUDY OF TRANSLATING PUNS IN AD SLOGANS 42

2.1 The phenomenon of puns in ad slogans 42

2.2 Translating puns into Vietnamese equivalent 44

3 PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES IN AD SLOGAN TRANSLATION FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE 45

3.1 Unability to preserve nuance meaning 46

3.2 Pun as case of untranslatability 47

3.3 Neologism as a case of untranslatability 48

3.4 Cultural barrier 49

4 STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING AD SLOGANS 51

4.1 Recognizing the technique used 51

4.2 Understanding background information of ad slogans 54

4.3 Dealing with unstranslable factors 57

4.4 Preserving and reproducing typical qualities of ads slogan 59

4.5 Applying the original slogan: 63

5 SUMMARY 64

PART 3: CONCLUSION 66

1 Recapitulations 66

2 Suggested activities……… 69

3 Limitations and suggestion for further study 6971

REFERENCES 73

APPENDIX 1 76

APPENDIX 2: 80

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The work of translating advertising slogans, in other words as brand taglines, trademark, has gotten a lot of enthusiastic consultation There have been numerous studies and arguments around this absorbing and challenging matter Mr Bert Esselink, a globalization consultant for translation company Lionbridge Technologies gave comment on

the translation work that “the phrase „translating advertising slogans‟ is not really appropriate,” but “It‟s usually a very creative process that consists of finding an equivalent expression in the target language that conveys a similar message to the original.” John

Freivalds, with a lot experience in the international communications with the firm JFA

Marketing in Lexington, Virginia, refers to this creative process as transcreation He argues

that the localization of advertising slogans requires unique skills that may not be found in

traditional advertising agencies Hence, how to do well this creative process is still a question

Personally, in the process of teaching and studying I am really attracted by ad slogans which might contain history or culture of a company as well as some curious story of language I also found out a wide scope of interesting situations of mistranslating or ineffective translation or failure in reality Besides, my students face to the same problems when they work with commercials and especially with these brand tradelines As the matter of fact, advertising slogans are considered brief, meaningful and full of nuances Thus, translating them from English into Vietnamese language is really sophisticated and challenging work It is not easy to be transferred these special ones without changing or fading out the shade of meaning The question raised is that whether there are any techniques

or which methods are useful for handle the difficulties

Furthermore, some earlier investigations only focus on interpreting the meaning and characteristics of ad slogans in borrowed words However, there has not been sufficient and satisfied study to decode the difficulties and figure out strategies for translating advertising slogans Even though it is never easy task, it is new and contributive to give a deep insight of the area

These wondering and interests promisingly provide me with many interesting facts,

ideas and directions to implement this study “A study on difficulties and strategies in English-Vietnamese Translation of Advertising Slogans”

2 Objectives of the study

In brief, the study aims specifically at:

- To provide translators with vital understanding and significant characteristics of the language in advertising slogans

- To compare and contrast English advertising slogans and its Vietnamese equivalent

to find out the typical translating tendencies and difficulties that translators may deal with

- To suggest some solutions as well as strategies for translators to handle difficulties in translating ad slogans and to improve translating work

3 Research questions

To achieve the aims within the scope, the research questions below are addressed:

- What are major translating tendencies and typical characteristics in Vietnamese transcreation of ad slogans?

English What difficulties or problems translators might deal with in translating English ad slogans into Vietnamese?

- What are particular techniques or methods can be applied for translating ad slogans from English into Vietnamese?

4 Scope of the study

In terms of studied subject, the thesis involves wide range of English ad slogans and their Vietnamese equivalents, which sources from television, newspapers, magazines and the Internet In general, I intent to choose well-known advertising slogans which draw attention from the public and meet the purposes and direction of study In particular, the selected advertising slogans in the thesis are the ones connecting to famous products or services; or the ones which have been successful or fail in reality; or the ones which reveal some interesting specialties in its message or in organization of words; etc

In regards to targeted readers, all learners, teachers and translators are considered our audience Furthermore, the exercises designed in the study are aimed to business students for translation course

5 Methods of the study

In order to fulfill the aims of the study, the following methods have been used:

- Comparative and contrastive methods

- Quantitative and qualitative methods

- Review of published related theories

- Analysis and synthesis of selected data

In the research, a number of original ad slogans in English and its equivalent in Vietnamese are collected and treated under various activities of observation, description, analysis, interpretation, synthesis, generalization and compare and contrast This research is the typical case of studying a matter in bilingual view with a combination of many methods, mentioned above, under a lot of dimensions and directions

6 Structure of the study

The thesis will be presented in length of approximately 80 pages and follow the formality of a typical post-graduated thesis It means that it consists of three main parts:

Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part 1- INTRODUCTION introduces Rationale, Objectives of the study, Scope of the study, Methods of the study and Structure of the study

Part 2 - DEVELOPMENT, costs the most energy and space, I intentionally divide it into three sections

Chapter 1 reviews Theoretical background of the study The concepts of translations

theory such as Translation definition, Translation methods, Translation equivalence, Translation process and Translation procedures will be defined After that, I will provide a full understanding about Advertising, in which the definition, typical characteristics about types, language and structure are analyzed thoroughly Then, Ad slogans, as the focus concept

in the study will be clarified in terms of definition and typical characteristics

Chapter 2, namely Study of difficulties and strategies in English-Vietnamese translation of advertising slogan, goes insight of the matter with many aspects of the process

of transposing advertising slogan from source language into a target one At the beginning,

some tendencies in translating ad slogans in reality will be presented Next part is Modification in lexical and structure in translation of ad slogans by which I will observe slogans in bilingual pairs in terms of meaning, lexical and structure Then, Study of

translating puns in ad slogans shows an interesting and popular case of translating rhetorical

device in ad slogans After that, the part Problems and Difficulties in English-to-Vietnamese translating of ad slogans will be illustrated through a lot of famous experience and stories of the translation work Finally, the part Strategies for translating ad slogans exhibits in details

the steps of how to trancreate a slogan into target language and offers some rules and

techniques for making the best choice and best way of translation

Chapter 3 is the last but not least important part, namely the Application with various exercises designed for students in translation course and in business subject

Part 3, namely CONCLUSION, will present the Recapitulation as well as Limitations and suggestions for further researches

The final part provides References and Appendix with a list of 100 advertising slogans

both English and Vietnamese, and some advertisements mentioned in the study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This section involves two parts, in which the first one reviews issues relating to translation theories, such as concept of translations, equivalence, methods, and translation procedure; whereas the second one presents general understanding on concepts of advertising and advertising slogans

1 TRANSLATION THEORY

1.1 Translation definition

The concept of translation has been discussed and presented by many scholars for many historical periods and from different perspectives The following citations taken from different sources provide an overview of numerous opinions on the notion These definitions will be presented in chronological order so that it will be easier to comprehend the evolution

of this concept translation

In 1965, translation is plainly defined as the replacement of textual material in source language by closet natural equivalent in target language (Catford 1965)

Hartmann & Stock (1972) also share the same idea of the concept that “translation is the replace of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of another equivalence text in a second language”

Nida & Taber (1974) call it as a reproducing process with the emphasis of meaning and style Similarly, Dubois (1973) makes the great consideration on the semantic and stylistic preservation in the equivalencies

Later on, Wilss (1982) enhances the understanding of translation as the procedure which requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension

The reference in linguistic nature, social context and communicative purposes are continuously remarked in the modern theorists‟ view of translation:

“Translation, as the process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural barriers, is an eminently communicative activity, one whose use could well be considered in a wider range of teaching situations than may currently be the case.” (Tudor, cited in Duff 1989)

“Translating is the transformation of a text originally in one language into an equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the message and formal features and the roles of the original text.” (Bell 1991)

As can be seen, there has been an evolution of this concept There has been more and more incisive and comprehensive development in interpreting the concept of translation Nearly all definitions of translation, where formal or informal, appeal to some notion of this: translation means the replacement, or substitution, of an utterance in one language by formally or semantically or pragmatically equivalent utterance in another language However, Whatever are the definitions and terminologies of the scholars working in the meaning and

scope of the term “Translation”, most of them share the same idea that translation is not only

understood as a linguistic phenomenon or a process of transcoding between first language and second language, but also a relationship of equivalence between two language while taking into account various constrains In this process, the language from which translation is done is

called “Source Language” (SL) and the language into which translation is done is called

“Target Language” (TL)

Nowadays, in the world of dramatic development and modernization in all fields of human lives, the concept of translation is no longer considered the work of transferring the content from original language into another language It is not advisory for modern scholars for priority language form over content The concept of translation has to not only respect to culture, but more sophisticatedly, it is addressee-conscious Translating work has to aim to culture of target language and to addressees of target language It allows the translators a favour of creatively translating to ensure the purpose of using translation as long as meet the requirement of effectiveness of original text Ideally, a translated product is accepted when it become natural and smooth even the addressees themselves don‟t know it is a translated version There is no standard regulation for translating; and translating is creating but in a satisfactory respect to original text

Translating a language into another language, in natural sense, is a shift of focus from form to meaning without losing on the essence of the content and highest quality By this line,

it is crucial to talk about two dimensions of translation that are formal and meaningful

characteristics of language Sharing the same concerns, Nida, in the book “The Theory and Practice of translation” talks about the former that language has its special feature such as

word-building capacities, unique patterns of phrase, techniques for linking clauses, makers of discourse, etc The translator should be aware of these features which make languages

distinctive Discussing the role of meaning as more important than structure and form, Nida points out that in order to preserve the meaning, the form must be changed if necessary For example, in SL a meaning which is expressed by a single word may require a phrase or even a clause to be expressed in TL

To discuss the complexity of the concept, Savory, in his book “The Art of Translation”

figures out six sets of different opinion of the translation theoreticians, which are considered

to be blending to each other, as follows:

1 A translation must give the words of the original

A translation must give the ideas of original

2 A translation should read like an original work

A translation should read like a translation

3 A translation should reflect the style of the original

A translation should possess the style of the translator

4 A translation should read as a contemporary of the original

A translation may never read as a contemporary of the translator

5 A translation may add or omit from the original

A translation may never add to or omit from the original

6 A translation of verse should be in prose

A translation of verse should be in verse

(Savory 1957)

It is obvious that translation theoreticians acknowledge the work of translating diversified and even contradictory But which principle can be applicable in which cases, it is impossible to provide a certain answer that which principles of translation is the most sufficient Actually, the nature of translation should be interpreted thoroughly and comprehensively The matter of this complexity or contradiction is caused because of using translations for different purposes, by different methods, and with the help of different tools

A lot of studies on the area have look at translation from different perspectives The concept of translation appears to be complicated process However, in general view, translation involving the following features (Hoang, V Van 2006):

1 Context and co-text are important factor in determining not only the meaning of the source language text but also the structural arrangement of target language text

2 Meaning is the key issue in translation

3 Depending on the type of text, the ultimate goal of translation can be communicative or idiomatic (semantic)

4 Grammatical analysis of the source language text is important

5 The intention of the text writer is an important factor that should be taken into consideration in the translating process

6 Equivalence is the key concept in translation

7 Translation shifts (the term postulated by Catford) are possible in all kinds of translation

8 Target readership should be an important factor for determining the legitimacy of translated text

9 Translation is both an art and a science It is an art in the sense that it is performed

by human beings and human beings are creative It is science in the sense that it is a process going through different stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring as suggested by Nida and Hatim & Mason, and Wilss

These issues have been drawn on from modern linguistics, psychology, pragmatics, textlinguistics and communication theory It is necessary to bring all the theories together to establish a kind of starting point and a theoretical framework for the following study of English and Vietnamese translating advertising slogans

1.2 Translation methods

Translation methods are applied by translators when they formulate equivalence for the purpose of transferring meaning elements from the SL to the TL More than one method can be seen in one translation, and some translations may result from a cluster of methods that

is difficult to discern

The aim of this paper is to review the different methods of translation as interpreted by some of the most innovative theorists in this field such as Newmark, Nida, House, and Larson These theorists have studied and divided translating methods into two main groups: semantic translation and communicative translation In the first, they are methods of communicative translations, which are in favour of convenience of TL, aiming to make readers most friendly and understandable to percept the translated text While the second methods, namely semantic translation, prioritize more for SL in sense of respecting style of

SL and making TL one be as original as possible

Later, the terms are developed by Newmark with graduation of following eight popular methods of translation which is classified into two main groups, as in the following V-shaped chart:

SL emphasis TL emphasis

Word-for word translation Adaptation

Literal translation Free translation

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

This chart reflects the relationship between the methods with SL and TL On the left side, being closest with the SL is the method of word-for-word translation downwards to semantic translation which is furthest and closer with the emphasis of TL Similarly, on the right, the adaptation method is the one concerns the TL most and the communicative translation is the method nearest to SL but furthest to TL All in all, the relationship and the respect with SL and TL can be interpreted by basing on the position and the nearness of each

in the chart Moreover, the position also figures out which linguistic characters, SL or TL, are more respected in translated text This will be reflected more in below explanation:

 Word-for-word translation:

This method focuses on SL word order in which words are transferred single and preserved by their most common meanings, out of context Therefore, the results of this method are the translation like original text The TL text is so closed with the SL in terms

of structure and form but may difficult to understand for reader in TL

 Literal translation:

This is also called borrowing translation The SL text, concretely its grammatical

constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again

translated singly, out of context

and less dogmatic than the application of other methods in the group Some modification

or creation by translated can be acceptable

 Communicative translation:

This method attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a

way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership The advantages of method is able to transfer the exact message and contextual meaning of author with the constraints of the TL grammatical structures; and Translator try to produce the same effect on TL readers as the original does on SL reader

form, or content of the original

 Adaptation:

This is the freest form of translation It is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten The deplorable practice of having a play or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established dramatist or poet has produced many poor

adaptations have “rescued” period plays

As can be seen, each method exposes its own features and advantages although many people, in fact, have considered some methods more advanced or qualified than others The matter is that different methods can be applicable for diversified purposes and in various situations Some of them focus much on convenience, some on style, some on meaning, and some on communication In addition, the formers seem to be more primitive methods than the later; and some of them are the base or previous state to turn to others Translators have to make the choice between form-based translation and meaning-based translation, in which the first strives to retain as much of the purely formal aspects of the source text, and the second aims at getting the message of the source text across, even if it takes drastic changes in the

formal aspects of the text The choice of a method or combination of more than one is really flexible and dependable In translating practice, translator flexibly transfers among translation methods; he can and should change if the circumstances demand as long as the goal of an

accurate, clear, and complete translation is the result

1.3 Translation equivalence

1.3.1 Translation equivalence

When translators solve matters relevant to relationships between SL and TL text in terms of professional terminology, this means equivalence to be clarified (Newmark, 1989) Moreover, when a target term is expected to be faithful reproduction of the source text, the equivalence is identity (of meaning and of form), and created in a sense of equal value or correspondence (Christina, 1998)

Translation, as defined previously, is the result of a text-reprocessing activity, by means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language text The principle

is that a translation should have an equivalence relation with the source language text; but an exact equivalence or effect is difficult to achieve Thus, the matter is not whether two texts are equivalent, but what type and degree of translation equivalence they reveal

1.3.2 Types of translation equivalence

Because the target text can never be equivalent to the source text at all levels, researchers have distinguished different types of equivalence This classification is based on different criteria and approach

- Nil equivalence: No TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression Thus, loaned

or borrowed equivalents should be used

 Meaning-based equivalence:

Koller (1997) is the typical representative for this orientation with the description of five following types:

- Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer same thing in the real world

- Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especially between synonyms

near Textnear normative equivalence is related to text types, SL and TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective language

- Pragmatic equivalence, or 'communicative equivalence', is oriented towards the receiver

of the text or message Both SL and TL words have the same effect on their respective reader

- Formal-aesthetic equivalence is related to the form and aesthetics of the text, includes word plays and the individual stylistic features of the source text

 Function-based equivalence:

Nida (1964) proposes two orientations that are formal and dynamic equivalence:

- Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content It requires that the message in the target language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language

- Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where the relationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message

1.4 Translation process

According to Darwish (1989), translation is a process involving a host of activities drawing upon other disciplines in writing, linguistics and culture Furthermore, many activities have to be involved in the process such as perception and interpretation of semantic, syntactic and stylistic elements; grammatical check and correction; consideration of co-text, context, culture and other features Thus, translators need to have wide and deep knowledge

of SL and TL to decode and encode the message and nuances of original text In this part, the most typical and standard theories of translation process, as suggested by Nida as follows:

Translating process, as depicted by Nida (1964) are the process involving three main stages: Analysis, Transfer, and Restructuring According to him, the first stage, namely Analysis, is the perceptive work that translators analyze the structure and its semantic elements to catch the idea of SL Then, the message is transferred in the simple and clear form and structure In Restructuring, with regards to the semantic and syntactic and stylistic points, the translator gives the final message in TL, in a way that is understandable for the audience

Figure 1: Nida‟s three-stage system of translation

1.5 Translation procedure

In other study, Nida also proposes two different translation procedures, namely

Technical procedure and Organizational procedure In brief, they are:

Technical procedures:

- Analysis of the source and target languages;

- A thorough study of the source language text before making attempts to translate it;

- Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations

Organizational procedures:

- Constant reevaluation of the attempt made;

- Contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators,

- Checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers

to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions

Actually, both procedures are chronological ones Actually, the stage of analysis is involved in technical procedure In which the technical procedure mentions the strategies that required translators have right and exact the message, language and nuances of original text before transferring into another language; while the second procedure includes the stages which happen after the translating works as evaluating and checking the effectiveness of

SL TL

(analysis) (restructuring)

X (transfer) Y

translated text in reality By the second procedures, namely organizational procedure, translators can be suggested a way to evaluate and make references before restructuring the text

2 ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS

2.1 Advertising

Advertising was born as a consequence of the occurrence and development of trading economics Advertising has been considered communicative activities or a bridge between people selling goods or services and others who have needs of buying and using those commodities There is wide range of its definitions in which the following are some of typical interpretations of what is advertising:

According to the books for intensively studying of Marketing and Commercials

“Advertising is a form of communication intended to promote the sale of a product or service,

to influence public opinion, to gain political support, to advance a particular cause, or to elicit some other response desired by the advertiser” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980)

Bovee (1992) defines that: "Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”

Churchill, Jr and Peter (1998) confirm the above concept with their definition:

“Advertising is noted as any announcement or persuasive message placed in mass media in paid or donated time or space by an identified individual, company, or organization to serve

a number of audience about products and persuade or remind them of buying, to convey information about the organization itself or issues important to the organization in order to create or enhance perception of the quality or reliability of a product, thus encouraging customer loyalty and repeat purchases”

Similarly, Colly (1997) states that “an advertising goal is a specific communicative task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of time”

From a linguistic point of view, advertising is defined as “an activity of verbal communication not only to present information but also to win mind and heart of advertisement receivers, the potential customers” (Huong, N.T, 2001) In the book “The language of Advertising”, Goddard (1998) suggests: advertising is not just about the

commercial promotion of branded but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is

to enhance the image of an individual, group of organization Goddard (1998) also writes “it

is undoubted true that advert are texts that do their best to get our attention, to make us turn towards them”

These definitions about advertising, which have been expressed by different words, reveal some common features in interpreting the concept:

Firstly, “advertising is non-personal communication” in comparison with

interpersonal communication in which both speakers and hearers are there to interact with each other Advertising is not aimed at any individual, or by any individual It is a non-personal transmission of information aiming at the public or a certain group of people Because of non-personal features of advertising, the dissemination and operation of it should

be restricted by the law of a country, the moral standards and people‟s psychology The information, methods, media, and other components of advertising should follow the advertising laws, policies and rules, and should be under the supervision of the public All of these components are mutual features and essential elements of every advertisement

Secondly, advertisement is a “kind of information which is usually paid”

Advertisement is distinguished from other forms of communication in the sense that the advertiser pays the medium to deliver the message For this payment the advertiser receives the opportunity to control the message Also, it is because of the money advertisers have to pay for their messages the language used in advertisement is always well-chosen and really meaningful It can be said that advertising language is a style of immediate impact and rapid persuasion This must be the result of many processes of writing, rewriting, testing, modifying and so forth

Thirdly, discussing its purposes “advertising as a tool to promote desire for purchasing goods and services”, advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of

customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about products and services It

is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas, or services It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action

2.1.1 Types of advertising

The features of different kinds of advertisements should be taken into account if advertisers want their message to be effectively transferred to customers Based on various criteria such as Function, Region, Target Market, Company demand, Desired response and Media, there can be several branches of advertising Mentioned below are the various

categories or types of advertising suggested by Wikieducator in “wikieducator.org”:

 Classification based on function

Advertising performs some functions: (A) Informative advertising: It can inform the

customers about a product, service, or idea (B) Persuasive advertising: It can persuade or motivate the consumers to buy products, services, and ideas (C) Reminder advertising: It can

remove cognitive dissonance from the minds of the customers to reinforce the feeling that

they have bought the best product, service, or idea and their decision is right (D) Reminder advertising: It can remind existing customers about the presence of the product, service, or idea in the market till now (E) Negative advertising: It can dissuade the public at large from

buying certain products or services that are harmful for them For examples: Advertisements

of various civic authorities against alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics

 Classification based on region

We can also classify advertising according to the region: (A) Global advertising: It is

executed by a firm in its global market niches Reputed global magazines like Time, Far Eastern Economic Review, Span, Fortune, Futurist, and Popular Science Cable TV channels are also used to advertise the products through out world Supermodels and cinema stars are

used to promote high-end products (B) National advertising: It is executed by a firm at the

national level It is done to increase the demand of its products and services throughout the

country (C) Regional advertising: If the manufacturer confines his advertising to a single

region of the country, its promotional exercise is called Regional Advertising This can be

done by the manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of the firm (D) Local advertising: When

advertising is done only for one area or city, it is called Local Advertising Some professionals also call it Retail Advertising It is sometime done by the retailer to persuade the customer to come to his store regularly and not for any particular brand

 Classification based on targeted markets:

Depending upon the types of people who would receive the messages of

advertisements, we can classify advertising into four subcategories: (A) Consumer product advertising: This is done to impress the ultimate consumer An ultimate consumer is a person

who buys the product or service for his personal use This type of advertising is done by the

manufacturer or dealer of the product or service (B) Industrial product advertising: This is

also called Business-to-Business Advertising This is done by the industrial manufacturer or his distributor and is so designed that it increases the demand of industrial product or services

manufactured by the manufacturer It is directed towards the industrial customer (C) Trade advertising: This is done by the manufacturer to persuade wholesalers and retailers to sell his

goods Different media are chosen by each manufacturer according to his product type, nature

of distribution channel, and resources at his command Hence, it is designed for those

wholesalers and retailers who can promote and sell the product (D) Professional advertising:

This is executed by manufacturers and distributors to influence the professionals of a particular trade or business stream These professionals recommend or prescribe the products

of these manufacturers to the ultimate buyer Manufacturers of these products try to reach these professionals under well-prepared programs Doctors, engineers, teachers, purchase professionals, civil contractors architects are the prime targets of such manufacturers (E)

Financial advertising: Banks, financial institutions, and corporate firms issue advertisements

to collect funds from markets They publish prospectuses and application forms and place them at those points where the prospective investors can easily spot them

 Classification based on company demand:

There are two types of demand, as follows:

A) Market Demand: Advertising is the total volume that would be bought by a defined

customer group, in a defined geographical area, in a defined time period, in a defined

marketing environment under a defined marketing program (B) Company Demand: It is the

share of the company in the market demand Accordingly, there are two types of advertising,

it can be:

Primary demand advertising It is also called Generic Advertising This category of

advertising is designed to increase the primary demand This is done by trade associations or groups in the industry Primary advertising is done by many companies at the same time, but there is no competition The idea is to generate a continual demand for the product Or

Selective demand advertising: this is done by a company or dealer to increase the company

demand The company would advertise its own brand only The retailer can also advertise a particular brand

 Classification based on desired responses:

An advertisement can either elicit an immediate response from the target customer, or create a favourable image in the mind of that customer The objectives, in both cases, are

different Thus, we have two types of advertising under this classification (A) Direct action

advertising: This is done to get immediate responses from customers Examples: Season's sale, purchase coupons in a magazine (B) Indirect action advertising: This type of

advertising exercise is carried out to make a positive effect on the mind of the reader or viewer After getting the advertisement he does not rush to buy the product but he develops a

favourable image of the brand in his mind (C) Surrogate advertising: This is a new category

of advertising In this type of promotional effort, the marketer promotes a different product

 Classification based on the media used:

The broad classification based on media is as follows: (A) Audio advertising: It is

done through radio, P A systems, auto-rickshaw promotions, and four-wheeler promotions

etc (B) Visual advertising: It is done through PoP displays, without text catalogues, leaflets,

cloth banners, brochures, electronic hoardings, simple hoardings, running hoardings etc (C)

Audio-visual: It is done through cinema slides, movies, video clips, TV advertisements, cable

TV advertisements etc (D) Written advertising: It is done through letters, fax messages,

leaflets with text, brochures, articles and documents, space marketing features in newspapers

etc (E) Internet advertising: The world wide web is used extensively to promote products and services of all genres (F) Verbal advertising: Verbal tools are used to advertise thoughts,

products, and services during conferences, seminars, and group discussion sessions Kinesics also plays an important role in this context

2.1.2 Language in advertisement

Language has powerful influence on human beings and their behaviour This is specifically true in advertising fields The selection of language to send out a message to promote or to influence public opinion is the virtual and primary goal Crystal and Davy

(1983) provide two main functions of advertising language that are informing and persuading, the latter of these Corke (1986) calls as influencing The advertisers do not offer information

for the sake of improving knowledge of the world but to persuade customer to buy products or promote the sale of a product or service, to influence public opinion, to gain political support,

to advance a particular cause, or to elicit some other response desired by the advertiser It is imperative that they be clearly and flexibly rendered if it is intended for addressees

It is universally believed that advertising language, whatever types or forms, is characterized mainly and significantly by following aspects:

Persuasive: advertising is the art of persuading to familiarize or remind consumers of

the benefits of particular products in the hope of increasing sales It is on pursuancebasing on the consumer‟s psychology that all seek for goods or services of best quality, reasonable price, attractive appearance, diversified choices, etc All of these bring about the persuasive effects

Attractive and impressive: Not all people may have spare time to watch advertisement

and in fact nearly half of number of viewers pays attention to advertising information Because of these, smart advertisers try to make commercials and their products unique, impressive, creative and aesthetic These features of advertisement are laid down in the combination of verbal language and language of images, sounds, and colour The combination can give audience the feeling of interest and trust More attractive and effective the advertisement is, more the sales are Hence, to achieve the function of drawing the attention, building the interest and stimulating the desire to buy the products among buyers, the language should be impressive, credible and stimulated

Cultural: advertising is not only an economic and social phenomenon but also a

cultural and mental symbol of nations This is revealed in the sense that some foreign commercials may not be appropriate or even violent with the culture of some countries Thus, the respect of custom, thought and culture must be required in advertising language and ideas

to be acceptable and accessible to customers

Concise and selective: In order to make the information accessible to audience

effectively, the choice of words in advertising is very cautious and skillful The aim of the advertiser is quite specific Advertisers wish to absorb much attention from the members of a mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product or behave in a particular way Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into consideration in the choice of words Language in advertising should be brief and concise Put

in another way, it means "hit the nail on the head" with as fewer words as possible

According to Huy, X Mai (2005), language use of advertisement is considered via two perspectives as follows:

From qualitative view, advertisement is monologue of highly estimation and

self-praise In fact, this kind of monologue is just in form but dialogue in content and communication The communication in advertising activities, on surface, is indirect and one-sided without the direct response from addressee (reader, listener, or viewer) However, this discourse functions as communicative tool and has many features of dialogue in the sense that

the advertisers have to orient and aim to addressees by attempt to choose the most effective language use, formality and content to be acceptable by their addressees The second personal

addressee like you, we, us are used significantly in slogans are one of good illustration for the

issue:

I love what you do for me Toyota - Toyota

It‟s everywhere you want to be – Visa

You can do it We can help – Home Depot

We deliver it for you – US Portal Service

From quantitative view, one of the major and striking features of most advertisement

is the exaggerative language The emerging power of this language is that it entices and seduces the target customers It arouses people‟s curiosity, appeals their desires and makes them convinced that everything is said in the ad about the advertised product is true The advertisements for cosmetic products named L‟Oreal Paris and Clarins Paris as in

advertisements are taken as example as, “…velvety soft, like Cashmere…incredible finish…perfect up to 12 hours” or “…Radiance…remain flawless in any light” These are the

words with exaggerated meaning making the audiences themselves involved and able to perceive the concept of how perfect the advertised products would bring about At the same time, the language use, to some extent, could solve the psychological problems or satisfy the customers‟ wishes for their beauty

2.1.3 Structure of an advertisement

In regards to the structure of message in advertisement, most advertising messages are

organized from the common and typical components An advertisement begins with The Appeal – This refers to the underlying idea that captures the attention of a message receiver

Appeals can fall into such categories as emotional, fearful, humorous, and sexual It is later

followed by Value Proposition – The advertising message often contains a reason for

customers to be interested in the product, which often means the ad will emphasize the benefits obtained from using the product Normally appearing at the end of every

advertisement, a Slogan serves to represent the central message that the producers want to

convey It is to help to position the product in customers‟ mind and distinguish it from competitors‟ offerings Advertisements will contain a word or phrase that is repeated across several different messages and different media outlets

Hereafter we are looking at some sample advertisements for the illustration of what have been said Here is the transcription of two TV advertisements in which each sentence presents each point of above message structure:

Chắt lọc tinh hoa từ vùng đất ba dan huyền thoại

Cà phê Trung Nguyên giúp suy nghĩ mạnh hơn

Trung Nguyên- Khơi nguồn sáng tạo

(Quitessence got from the legendary basalt soil highlands

Trung Nguyen Coffee helps you think better

Trung Nguyen- Inspire creation)

(VTV3- March 8th , 2008)

From the eight million casks in our reserves, only the rare few make it to be the world‟s most exquisite blend

Johnnie Walk Blue Label, the rarest most exceptional blend of our whisky ever

Johnnie Walker – Keep walking

(CNN- January 18th, 2006) The following is the English version for the advert of Miss Saigon perfume which is

an example for printed advertisement Examine the organization of message:

Is it possible to resist the irresistible,

Miss Saigon Elegance?

Perfume speaks in a silent language It has been said fragrance is a picture painted in smells, which has notes and tones like music If so Miss Saigon Elegance is truly a masterpiece

It is all at once smooth and natural, exhilarating and sparkling An intoxicating perfume with the ability to make one feel positively light headed Miss Saigon Elegance‟s sublime fragrance enlivens one‟s amorous, dreamy desires

This perfume‟s “lightness” and even the sensual glass-art bottle that guards its incomparable aroma perfectly represent the classical beauty of the silken Ao Dai, the traditional dress of Vietnam Miss Saigon Elegance is sensuous, soft and alluring The perfume boasts delightful characteristics that bring those who experience them an undeniable lift and vibrancy A gentle mist summons feelings of passion that only an intoxicating scent like this can bring to a woman Like the light touch of a first kiss, its charm lingers long on the skin and in one‟s reminiscence

Miss Saigon Elegance has captured Vietnam‟s charm with this latest fragrance Using time honored French perfume techniques and a palette of the finest ingredients the fragrance will evoke memories of this most exotic of countries long after you leave Miss Saigon Elegance, exclusively from leading perfumeries

Miss Saigon – Irresistible grace

(Heritage- Vietnam Airlines Inflight Magazine, Sep-Nov, 2006) The advertisements can be as short as some sentences or as long as multi-paragraph text In general, all consist of three parts the appeal, value proportion and a slogan They play different roles and serve for different purposes and hence may not be equally important, but none is dispensable

2.2 Advertising Slogans

2.2.1 Definition of advertising slogan

The word slogan originates from a Scottish Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm pronounced similarly to the word slogorm which is used to mean battle-cry referring to the cry before

Advertising slogans, as a type of slogans, are claimed to be the most effective means

of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product Advertising slogan is a verbal logo normally appearing just beneath or beside the brand name or logo of the product A slogan which advertisers want their customers to remember most is kind of a condensed message of the whole advertisement It is the usual case that slogans come to customer‟s mind first when they think about the products

Nomenclature of the term slogan is quite diversified as it possesses different names in different countries Hereafter, we provide a list of terms that might be used to refer to

advertising slogan:

Countries Terms meaning slogan

The UK Endlines, endlines, or straplines

The USA tags, tag lines, taglines or theme lines

The Netherlands and Italy Pay-offs or payoffs

Figure 2: Different terms refer to slogans

In his book Creative advertising, Charle L Whittier (1958) says that a slogan “should

be a statement of such merit about a product or service that it is worthy of continuous repetition in advertising, is worthwhile for the public to remember, and is phrased in such a way that the public is likely to remember it” By this definition, the concept is mentioned in

terms of content, purpose and formality These characteristics are going to be clarified in latter section

The use of slogans, firstly, is to sum up or to convey the central message of the advertisers Additionally, a slogan is especially useful in reinforcing the product‟s identity Though placed together with a logo to symbolize for the product, a slogan is thought to be even more powerful than a logo because people often remember and recite the slogan of a product rather than sketching its logo Functionally, it has been summed up that slogans have two basic purposes: To provide continuity to a series of advertisements in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message to a brief, repeatable, and memorable phrase or very short sentence It is the reason why slogans are easy to understand, hence easy to be memorized by the audience

Take the two advertisements below as examples:

http://www.decodog.com/inven/coke/ck15290.jpg

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14249/

The slogans “Full of refreshment” of Coca cola and “Touching is believing” from

Iphone Advertisement can be good illustrations for what have been said They obviously are

“brief and memorable phrase”, “conveys the central meaning”, and “come with the logo”

Furthermore, advertisers also take much consideration to locate and design the size, the colour, and position of slogans to make attractive effect It can be seen that one of the typical and important features concerning with the purpose of advertising slogans is to leave the key brand message in the mind of the target audiences The reason why a slogan normal appears with the logo of the product is to make sure that if customers get nothing from the advertisement, they can get from the slogan Another reason may be that, in a printed advert, a slogan often comes next to the logo In case readers just have a glance at the logo in most notable position on the paper, they at the same time must have a look at the slogan So the advertiser may reach their purpose of transmitting the central message of the advertisement

2.2.2 Characteristics of advertising slogans

According to Naixing W., Advertisising slogans are characterized by these features: In

terms of text category, they are concise and clarified; under the category of grammatical features, they are full of frequent uses of comparative and superlative constructions; they consist repetition and non-sophistication and brandname involvement that belong to the category of lexical feature,; and traditionally in the category of rhetoric feature application of rhetorical devices (traditionally, figures of speech) are popular in slogans

a Concision

This should be discussed as the top and the first of the list as “Keep it Short and Sweet” (Guo, 1992) “Short” can be replaced with words like “concise” or “brief” or

“terse” or “succinct” or “pithy,” while the word “sweet” somewhat means it should catch a

person's attention and quickly create a memorable impression It is clear that slogans can be a phrase or several phrases together as simple sentences or longer with more clauses in a

sentence In fact, the length of slogans is rarely up two sentences

Heart‟s desire - Coca-cola (1916)

Her kiss Her body Her perfume – Channel No5

Diamonds are forever” - DeBeers

You can take it out of the country, but you can't take the country out of it

- Salem Cigarettes

The feature of concision by the word number also makes a good slogan catchy and easy to understand Slogan can not cover all information of the characters, uses, advantages of

product which make slogan lengthy and wordy Let‟s compare two slogans which Trung Nguyen Café considers for its campaign:

Mang lại nguồn cảm hứng sáng tạo mới (bring inspiration for new creation)

and Khơi nguồn sáng tạo (Inspire Creation)

After using the first without the satisfaction, the second has been applied by company for its shortening and meaningfulness and it really successful in reality

b Clarity

Clarity means “clear expressions” and “avoiding ambiguity,” for which purposes it uses concrete words more than abstract ones, thus achieving a kind of directness and

straightforwardness For example,

When it comes to your safety, we don't overlook the smallest details - Toyota

It is the advertisement slogan of the automobile maker Toyota By keeping the message clear and direct, the company can lucidly manifest their priority in making their cars, thus sending an unmistakable message to potential consumers Not only in term of the use of word choice, the clarity also achieved by the use basic and short structure or expression in linguistics The language if viewed from the perspective of syntax is characterized be the employment of: bare-infinitive Verbs, short simple sentence, phrases, questions, imperative sentences, and famous and popular idioms and proverbs Also, the use of normally present simple tense is noteworthy This can be illustrated in the following cases, respectively:

Buy it Sell it Love it- EBay

Mikey likes it- Life cereal

Easy as Dell- Dell computer

Is she or isn‟t she? – Harmony hair spray

Don‟t leave home without it – American Express

Impossible is nothing – Adidas

The future takes VISA – VISA

c Comparative and Superlative Constructions

In fact, these kinds of expression are so popular in advertising slogans; and they are considered an effective technique to promote customer to take action It goes without saying that only by comparing and contrasting can consumers make the decision which product is of better quality and more satisfactory They naturally would choose the best Sometimes advertisers make tactful use of certain expressions to produce the desired effect

We are not the best; we are better than the best - QC minibuses

Take the last slogan under consideration It is a witty slogan In fact, the use of comparative and superlative expressions are plenty and popular in advertisement in general and in its slogan in particular

More than that, advertising slogans may exploit the effectiveness of the comparative expression to refer opening comparison or meaning These expressions make customers the feeling of better choice:

Higher standards – Bank of America

Making more possible – ABN AMRO

Ask for more – Pepsi

Get more – T-mobile

Go farther – Network Solutions

d The brandname involvement in ad slogans

Brandname involvement means the company name or part of the company name appearing in slogans This case is called brandname involvement It is clear that one of most effective methods evoking the brandname in customer‟s mind is to bring the name of brandname into slogan This serves to add impact, reward and amuse, ensuring good recall Moreover, the brand name is a crucial part of the slogan This way has been exploited very

popularly and successfully in reality For example,

See the US in your Chevrolet – Chevrolet

You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent

- Pepsodent toothpaste

Have a break, have a Kit-Kat – Kit Kat

City Linking, smart thinking – City Link

For mash get Smash- Smash

These are convincing examples of how brandnames are cleverly involved In the first case, the rhyming effect is created between the repetition of phonology of brand name and the slogan This seems to be a good way of making the bandname become memorable and stick in customers‟ mind The brandname involvement is noticeable phonological phenomenon in slogans

e Repetition

As mentioned in the definition of advertising slogans, slogans are usually used for reinforced meaning and effect, which can be caused by two cases: repetition of the same

words or repetition of words of the same semantic field “Faster, higher, stronger”

(International Olympic Motto in 1894) is a handy example in question As the Olympic ad slogan it advocates sportsmanship and competitive skills that all people aspire to in sports The bellows are some other examples:

Check Create Inspire - ADSlogans Unlimited

New Fast Efficient - Air

Eye it Try it Buy it - Chevrolet

Food Health Hope – Monsanto

Making the unmissable unmissable - BBC iPlayer

The repetition can be achieved by the parallel in structure or words of the same semantic field or by the repetition of exact word as the last slogan These techniques make the slogan and its idea entertaining and easy to recall

f Non-sophistication

In general, language use in slogans is non-sophistication, which is meant that advertisement style avoids technical terms In other words, it can also be termed as non-technicality This is because advertisements, for the major part, are intended for public rather than professionals For advertising slogans which are considered brief and clear, the case is specifically true Technical terms are seldom used in advertisements and slogans, even if the

product is sophisticated “The genius is in the details” and “no color print film in the world gives you the detail as we do” are two slogans of Kodak films, using no difficult vocabulary, just plain words Another example is “I love what you do for me” (Toyota) Though it could

also describe the technical improvements on the former model, it chooses to remain simple Non-sophistication can also mean being short and concise, that have been discusses in previous category for the sake of clarity When words such as short or concise are used, what they first bring to mind is the idea that there are fewer words in a sentence Non-sophistication

is also manifested in simple syntax, which refers to simple sentence structures It is rather uncommon to find complex sentences in advertising slogans

g Rhetorical devices

Advertisement style is full of rhetorical devices (or traditionally figures of speech) Rhetorical devices never fail to create aesthetic pleasure in us while simultaneously they catch our attention and force themselves into our memory Again consider the slogan:

We are not the best; we are better than the best”- QC minibuses

This is a hyperbole in that it stresses “better than best”, but it does not do too much harm to brag a little bit to attract attention This reveals a very popular device, which is mentioned before for advertisements as well as for slogans, that is exaggeration

Figures of speech, to provide an all-inclusive list, are as follows: simile, metaphor, analogy, personification, hyperbole, understatement, euphemism, metonymy, synecdoche, antonomasia, pun, syllepsis, zeugma, irony, innuendo, sarcasm, paradox, oxymoron, antithesis, epigram, climax, anti-climax, apostrophe, transferred epithet, alliteration, and onomatopoeia (Bai & Shi, 2002) Of course no advertising slogan uses all devices listed here The following phrases illustrate the use of different rhetorical devices in advertising slogans

to memory association:

Alliteration: Repetition of two or more syllable sounds, sound groups or letters at the

beginning of words in a phrase, as:

Portable Power for Progress

Sell Simpson and Be Sure

Metaphor: To suggest a resemblance, a term is applied which is not literally applicable, as:

A Rainbow of Distinctive Flavors

The Money Truck

Simile: To express a resemblance of one thing to another, using "like" or "as if", as

Sleeping on a Seely Is Like Sleeping on a Cloud

Allusion: Link to a literary character or situation or to a proverb or topical saying, as:

The Strength of Gibraltar

Don't Be a Pale Face

Hyperbole: Extravagant statement not intended to be understood literally, as:

The One Man Gang

Chiasmus: Inversion in the second of two parallel clauses or phrases of the structure of the

first, as:

Sells Hard Wherever Hardware Sells

At Last a Perfume That Lasts

Analogy: Comparison of similarities in two things:

Our Work is Child's Play

A Diamond Is Forever

Pun: Play on words, as:

The Sound Approach to Quality (hi-fi)

When It Rains, It Pours (salt)

Best Glue in the Joint

In brief, these are some major features of advertising slogans, which are categorized into different aspects of phonology, lexical, syntactic to style and so forth In the coming parts, advertising slogans are going to be analyzed in terms of their meaning and function towards company and product By these perspectives, there are three typical features of ad slogans as follows:

h Focused and clear objective

It is vitally important that slogan must convey a particular goal and always stay focused on its goal Because slogan is created to state the purpose and to make the public to absorb and penetrate the spirit by which the product or campaign of the company aims to And this spirit and aim should be unique and distinctive from other products or companies For instance, when Pepsi appears in market for the first time, Coca Cola Company has been a

giant in soft-drinking industry With the slogan “Generation Next”, Pepsi targets at the next

generation- the young people and refers that its born is the new and evident as the next generation for drinking The slogan can still operate very effectively for consumers as a means of establishing, reinforcing or even triggering important brand associations and meanings In other words, a slogan should be simple in some way but have been replaced by the need for an in-depth marketing idea The clear and focused objective is expressed clearly

in slogans as in:

Think different – Apple

The Worldwide Leader in News - CNN

i Ability of appealing and inspiring audience

A successful slogan has to present attractive message of its own and appeal the imagination of customers about the product The slogan‟s success is down to its power in its attractiveness and encouragement to make audience to take action, i.e buying and using the product or service Slogans have to be memorable and they have to be true to the product and services that they are advertising A good slogan, to be conceived and sold, it should be straight and honest, and that resonates with people it targets As mentioned before, slogans are created in such a way that is catchy, memorable and attractive for customer to understand, identify, and desire or aspire to product and brand Slogan with its own features can help

achieve this and can contribute to purchasing intention and behaviour Here are some illustrations with appealing language:

Eye it Buy it Try it – Chevrolet

A passion to perfection – Lufthansa

They‟re Gr-r-reat – Breakfast cereal KFF

j The identifiable characters

For advertisers, slogan can be a powerful tool Because they stick in the public mind and create an identity for the product and service That one short sentence needs to sum up a brand‟s positioning, integrate all of its different marketing channels and give consumers a memorable message to take a way with them In other words, a slogan should be simple in some way and convey and be inspired by a particular in-depth marketing idea Different brands have their own idea and identification

Slogan has to expose its identity of brand and specialty of product or service it is advertising Here are some such advertising slogans:

Connecting People – Nokia mobile company

What is sexy? – Victoria Secret

Say No to dandruff – Clear Shampoo

There are two senses of identity should be clarified in above ones The first, it is the

field or industry the slogan‟s advertising for For example, the word “connecting” and “sexy”

are very typical and identified for the industry of mobile phone and clothes respectively However, the second sense is the identification to distinguish a product from other products in the same field Advertising for same kind of product or service, different companies can build

up their own slogans with typical and unique character The below are two examples in insurance field, but each has its own identification: the first particular focuses on its identification of care and dedication towards customer, while the second makes its different

by the sense of appealing and calling customers to take action:

Always listen, always penetrate – Prudential Insurance Company

Cash if you die, cash if you don‟t – Lloyd‟s Life Insurance

Each company invests a lot money and energy in creating a slogan that is unique and identified and that can not be easily copied by rivals However, there are some cases which reveal no distinction with others

My goodness, my Guinness – original by Guinness

My goodness, my Murphy‟s – copied by Murphy That can not make the effect of

repetition of word and the sense of goodness by Guinness

Other examples, the slogan “Simply the Best” can be used by many companies

Simply the best – Aspen

Simply the best - Bishop's Nissan

Simply, the best – Kuoni

CHAPTER 2: STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF AD SLOGANS

In reality, when dealing with English advertising slogans, because of differences in purposes and reasons, there are some tendencies for using the slogans in Vietnamese

environment: Applying English original slogans and Translating into Vietnamese equivalent

The first translating tendency is applying the English original ad slogans There have

been many cases of commercials, in which the content is translated into Vietnamese except the slogans These kinds of slogan, appearing at the end, are kept in English We can find a lot

of such cases for hi-tech products on official advertising programs on television For instance,

Ideas for life - Panasonic

Leading innovation - Toshiba

Life‟s good – LG

Inspire the next - Hitachi

These original ad slogans appear at the end of commercials as an evidence for integration of English language in Viet Nam There are some reasons- first the product aims

to the young who are considered be able to English and understand the message in English Moreover, the use of original is fashion for connoisseur or up-to-date tendency for high-tech products Actually, these kinds of slogan often contain basic vocabulary and are understandable for public

In another tendency, namely translating into Vietnamese equivalent, the translators are

various from unprofessional translator, translating learners to experienced translators They translate ad slogan mainly for business or for studying They both are the main sources for data collection in this thesis One of them is considered standard for good and typical sample for translation, while another seems to contain many translating problems In particular, the first case that people translate ad slogans for business purposes, the equivalents are considered qualified and well-designed and are the standard for typical ad slogan translation It can be found on the advertisement on TV or magazine commercials of some huge cooperations such

as Heineken and Nokia:

- Connecting people – Nokia

Kết nối mọi người

- It could be only Heineken- Heineken

Chỉ có thể là Heineken

The second case that is found in translating exercises of students or articles of unprofessional translators This type of slogan translation reveals a lot of common mistakes or problems

Both translating tendencies, especially the second one will provide a lot of data for the paper In the chapter, the study will devote a great effort to analyze, evaluate, compare as well

as contrast English slogans and Vietnamese equivalents to (1) find out the he fundamental features of translating advertising slogans in practice; (2) to come to some conclusions about common problems and difficulties in translating process; and finally (3) to suggest some strategies for translating of advertising slogans

1 STUDY OF MODIFICATION IN LEXICAL AND STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS

The slogans analyzed in this section are included in the list consisting 100 English ad slogans and their Vietnamese equivalents The list is shown and quoted in the part of APPENDIX at the end of the study They will be put under analysis and comparison I make great effort to involve many translations relating to slogans from wide range of sources to select as many Vietnamese equivalents as possible to make thorough and comprehensive comparison and figure out the real situation of translating practice

This analysis and synthesis will be presented by several charts, accompanied by evaluation and explanation These analyses are taken under many dimensions such as lexical, structure, use of rhetorical devices, cross-culture sense Using comparative and contrastive activities, the study will point out how translators‟ ability is to keep original message and expressiveness in translating process Thank to the comparison, the study also shows the effort of translators in how to adapt, create, and make slogan alive in target language

In translating practice, translators do not always tightly decode or too faithfully transfer English ad slogans into Vietnamese There are a lot of cases, he or she attempts to change or modify features of vocabulary and structure in order to make the new Vietnamese slogan more meaningful and expressive In fact, there are two areas usually got modified or changed: vocabulary and structure In which, there are six particular tendencies of translation modifications that English-Vietnamese translations of advertising slogans can be categorized:

Lexical addition, lexical omission, Lexical adaptation; Structural addition, Structural omission and Structural adaptation Below are some examples to demonstrate what they are

and how to decide the cases:

1.1 Lexical addition

This case happens when the TL equivalent consists of a new lexical feature that completely doesn‟t exist in the SL slogans No vocabulary in English ad slogans shares the meaning or the same sense of meaning with the new Vietnamese words in the equivalent In other words, the new word in TL is not translated from any items in SL text For instance,

- Sometimes you‟ve gotta break the rules – Burger King

Thỉnh thoảng cũng nên phá lệ một chút

- Pepsi‟s got your taste for life – Pepsi (1981)

Pepsi- hương vị tuyệt vời cho cuộc sống của bạn

In these two translated slogans, the phrases “một chút” and “tuyệt vời” are completely

new items which no word in English text refers to

The purposes of adding some lexical features can be considered in three cases: to improve, to emphasize, ands to clarify

 To enhance or improve the expressive sense for message by adding lexical words such as verbs, adjectives, adverbs or nouns:

- Verb:

We deliver it for you – General Electric Co

Chúng tôi chuyên trách việc giao hàng

Imagination at work – General Electric Co

Trí tưởng tượng trong công việc bay cao

- Noun and Adjective:

It the Cola - Pepsi (2003)

Hương vị Cô la chính hiệu

- Adverb:

Get to know Geo – Geo

Biết thêm về Geo

 To clarify or make the message more clear by adding some certain nouns and functional words for example pronoun, preposition and conjunction:

- Certain nouns clarifying the kind of product:

Now it‟s Pepsi for those who think young – Pepsi (1961)

Pepsi- nước uống của tuổi trẻ

You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent -

Pepsodent Toothpaste