OnTranslaionMehodsofCosmeicAdverisingfromhePerspeciveofDynamicEquivalence_开题报告

Advertising comes from the Latin word “advertere”, which means “to turn toward” and slowing develops to the nowadays “advertising”. According to American Marketing Association (AMA), 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”. Cosmetic advertisement belongs to the advertising style, and the translation of cosmetic advertising belongs to the non-literary translation, which is of great importance to promote world trade and business.

1.1. Studies at Abroad

Though not many scholars specifically studied the translation of cosmetic instructions, a great number of foreign scholars did make lots of studies on non-literary translation. The famous foreign scholars include Nord, Vermeer, Mona Baker, Peter Newmark, Nida and so on.

The Skopos theory starts at 1970s, which focuses mainly on “function and functions of the texts and translations”. (Nord, 2001:11) Vermeer points out three principles: the first is that translation is a form of action based on a source text and any action has an aim or purpose. The second is coherence rule, which means that the translation should be intra-textual coherent. The third is fidelity rule, which means that the translation should be inter-textual coherent. In contrast with the coherence rule, the translation should be loyal to the source culture and language (Vermeer, J., 1990). However, in Rainer Kohlmayer (1988)’s opinion, skopos-targeted translation may influence the literal translation, to make it less innovative and less original, so the authority of source texts will be influenced. (Bian, 2008) Also, some scholars propose that apart from the explored purpose of translation, factors such as words, syntax, or style are also important for the successful translation (Chesterman, 1994)  

Another famous theory is Nida’s functional equivalence theory.In Nida’s view, a dynamic equivalent translation must fit the target language and culture in order to make the translated message more natural to the target language audience. The above two theories are the main theories used in the practice of English-Chinese advertising translation. 

1.2 Studies at Home

There are many Chinese scholars analyze the practice of advertising translation based on the above theories. The first Chinese scholar to focus on the cosmetic product translation is Gu Rong'er (1993), who makes a deep analysis on the C-E translation of nouns in products. Later on, more and more scholars begin to focus on the translation of this field with the use of different theories as guidance. Gu Weiyong's Translation of Practical Discourse (2007) is an introduction about the non-literal translation and he points out that the style of texts is important in translation. In Zheng Lifang (2010)'s paper, he uses the Skopos theory to make an analysis on the linguistic features on the brand names of Chinese and foreign cosmetic products, and he focuses on the common strategies for translation as well as the typical errors that may occur in translation process. His case analysis show that Skopos theory is effective in translating the cosmetic brands. 

Functional translation theory is also another important advertising translation theory in the studies of Chinese scholars. Zhang Pei (2013) analyzes the functional theory in the practice of cosmetic translation with some examples, and he suggests translators should be aware of cultural differences in different language during translation.Xu Xianghui (2004) makes a careful analysis on how to apply functional translation theory into the C/E advertising translation. 

Besides, scholars also analyze the cosmetic product translation from other perspectives. For example, Hu Chenxi (2011) believes that cosmetic product translation is a process for communication, and therefore he uses the Relevance Theory to guide the cosmetic product translation. His strategies mainly include domestication and alienation. Zheng Yuqi and Guo Yanhong (2005) also publish a paperThe Elementary Study on Translation of Cosmetic Instructions, in which they point out that the translation of cosmetic instructions from the aspects of content and form, and they also introduce the aesthetic approach to the translation. Also, Zhang Xiaoyun (2004) chooses to discuss cosmetic brand name translation from aesthetic perspective. 

To sum up, more and more Chinese research focus on the translation about the cosmetic products, names and instructions with the help of different theories as basis.

Outline

Introduction on the Language Features of Cosmetic Advertising

1.1 Lexical Features

1.2 Syntactical Features

An Introduction of Dynamical Equivalence 

2.1 Semantic Equivalence

2.2 Rhetoric Equivalence

3.The Translation Strategies of English Cosmetic Advertisements

3.1 Literal Translation

3.2 Free Translation

3.3 Adding Translation

Conclusion

3. Bibliography 

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