A study on difficulties and strategies in English-Vietnamese translation of advertising slogans

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) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến HA NOI, 2011 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 Rationale Objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Structure of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TRANSLATION THEORY 1.1 Translation definition 1.2 Translation methods 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 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 v CHAPTER 2: STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF AD SLOGANS 33 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 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 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 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 SUMMARY 64 PART 3: CONCLUSION 66 Recapitulations 66 Suggested activities…………………………………………………………………… 69 Limitations and suggestion for further study 6971 REFERENCES 73 APPENDIX 76 APPENDIX 2: 80 vi ABSTRACTS This thesis investigates the difficulties and strategies in translating ad slogans from English to Vietnamese The main theoretical basis of the study is involving concepts of methods, equivalence, process and procedure of translation; as well as significant characters of the subject- ad slogans The research begins with comparison and quantitative and qualitative analysis of 100 ad slogans and equivalents under three categories: lexical, structure and puns This aims at finding out common translating tendencies and typical characteristics of English-Vietnamese translation of ad slogans The result is also the base for later analysis of common problems translators face to in translating practice Later on, some techniques and methods are suggested to help translators solve the difficulties and improve translation After the investigation, some significant findings have been discovered are: translating ad slogans, especially translating puns or wordplays, are interesting but challenging Thus, translators tend to be flexible and creative in vocabulary features and rhetorical devices and faithful to the organization of message and spirit of original slogans It can come to a conclusion that the adaptation and free methods are preferable and recommended in translating the subjects The conclusion clarifies research questions and gives some suggestions for further research iii Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF Merger! To remove this page, please register your program! Go to Purchase Now>> AnyBizSoft PDF Merger  Merge multiple PDF files into one  Select page range of PDF to merge  Select specific page(s) to merge  Extract page(s) from different PDF files and merge into one