广告中的隐喻及其翻译 = METAPHORS IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND THEIR TRANSLATION

Abstract

This Academic Exercise looks at the usage and effects of Metaphors in advertisements and examines the various factors governing their translation between English and Chinese. Advertising is a prominent discourse type and its crucial distinguishing feature is function, which is to inform and sell. Audiences do not voluntarily choose to watch or read advertisments, unlike most other discourse types such as literatuure. Thus advertisements need a different blend of language usage, and metaphors can fulfill this need in general. A metaphor is to invoke a vision of the similarities between dissimilars, and this vision is usually cultural-based. This makes cultural difference between English and Chinese speakers a major factor in the process of translating metaphors, for it can cause a change in the effect of the original advertisement text. The results of our observation has shown that when translating metaphors in advertisements, the main consideration is to obtain in the target language (the translated text) a similar effect as the selected language (the original text). This means that the translator has the freedom to change the original metaphorical image to one that can be best accepted by the target language audience.