论英文广告中双关语的翻译

摘要

广告英语作为一种应用语言，有着自己独特的语言特点和风格。广告英语用词优美，句法简洁却内涵丰富，修辞变化多端，耐人寻味，以最简单的语言表达最复杂的意义，语言的魅力在广告中得以充分的展示。广告旨在于打动人心，激发人们的购买欲，一字一句都需要充分发挥它的魅力和产品所要表达的商业目的。因此，广告商挖空心思地追求新的创意，在广告中运用丰富的双关语。巧妙的双关能使语言含蓄、幽默、生动、机智，起到旁敲侧击、借题发挥的作用，能很好的突出广告的特点，因而在广告中得到大量应用。本文从同音双关、谐音双关、一词异义双关、一词多义双关几个方面对双关语在英语广告中的运用作了阐述；同时也运用契合译法、分别表义法、套译法、侧重翻译法和补偿法等对英语广告双关语的翻译作了些探讨。

关键词：英语广告；双关语；翻译技巧

ABSTRACT

As an applied language, advertising English has its own specific language style and features. With appealing dictions, succinct sentence structures, rich connotation and varied use of rhetoric devices, advertisements surprisingly give full play to the charm of language, using the simplest language to express the most plex meanings. Advertisements aim to stimulate people’s desire for shopping. Therefore, manufacturers wrack their brains to be creative with the use of rich puns. The artful use of such rhetorical devices makes advertisements connotative, humorous, vivid and witty—impressive in a roundabout way. Thus pun bees widely and frequently used to achieve purposed effects of advertisements. This article aims to elaborate on the various forms of puns such as homophonic pun, paronomasia, antalaclasis and syllepsis, and to probe into some mon techniques of translating English puns in advertisements such as fit translation, semantic translation, sets translation, priority translation, and pensation translation.

Keywords：English advertisements; pun; translation techniques

Contents

1．Introduction of pun1

1.1 The definition and features of pun1

1.2Classification of pun2

2. Function of puns in English advertisement3

2.1 Rhetoric function3

2.2 Pragmatic function4

3. Translation of puns in English advertisement4

3.1The importance of pun translation in English advertisement4 3.2Delabastita's theory for translating puns5

3.2.1The ment on Delabastita's method for translating puns5

3.2.2 Translation methods of puns on basis of Delabastita's theory6

3.3 Translating techniques of puns in English advertisement7 3.3.1 Fit translation(契合译法)7

3.3.2 Semantic difference（分别表义法）8

3.3.3 Sets translation(套译法)9

3.3.4 Priority translation(侧重译法)10

3.3.5 pensation translation（补偿译法）10

4．Conclusion11

Acknowledgements错误!未定义书签。

References12

1．Introduction of pun

Pun is one of the ancient trope, which is now widely used as a rhetorical means in advertisements, literature and drama. It is defined as "the humorous use of a word or words that are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications"[1]. Since pun contains ic and rakish language style which put the advertisement into the most suitable language environment, many advertisers would like to choose the pun as the most important way of expression in advertisements so that they can be more persuasive and touching. However, some discrepancy between different culture and languages sometimes makes pun untranslatable. For all these reasons, pun bees the most charming but hard nut to crack.

1.1 The definition and features of pun

Pun is defined in Longman Dictionary of the English Language as "a witticism, involving the use of a word with more than one meaning, or of words having the same, or nearly the same sound but different meaning"[2]. In the book A Detailed Study of Figures of Speech in English, Professor Li Xinhua has concluded that pun has two essential features. The first essential feature of pun is ambiguity. "No matter with the same sound or the same spelling, what a pun wants to convey is the difference instead of the sameness in meaning"[3]. In daily munication, people are trying to avoid the presence of ambiguity. However, pun attaches much importance to ambiguity. It expresses addressers’intended meaning with literary meaning together. Another characteristic is that a pun contains a double context. It is easy to understand that apun is a form of word game in which a word or phrase unexpectedly and simultaneouslybines two unrelated meanings. Of course, every meaning has its own context. ProfessorArchibald A. Hill points out that "there are three elements in analyzing and posing a pun: adouble context, a hinge and a trigger"[4]. A hinge is the pun itself, and a trigger refers to theintention and background that lies behind the puns.

1.2Classification of pun

As Xu Zhongbing(China) states in The Varieties and Translation of English Puns: "pun can be roughly divided into two parts. They are named paronomasia and antalaclasis[5]". Paronomasia always involves two words, which are similar in pronunciation but different in meaning. As for antalaclasis, it refers to the same word which is used twice or more, but each time it contains different meaning, according to English Writing and Rhetoric written by Prof. Wen Jun, a more specific approach of classification is concluded.. It classifies four categories of pun, that is, homophonic pun, paronomasia, antalaclasis and sylleptic pun.

Homophonic pun is the use of words, which are identical in pronunciation but different in spellings and meanings. For example, (1)"Make your every hello a real good-buy"(telephone advertisement). Here "buy" reminds people the image of "buy" and "good-bye". The advertiser tries to catch the customers eyes and assure that the purchase of their telephone is sensible..

Paronomasia involves two words which have similar pronunciation but different meanings. As the beneficial advertisement says that (2)"Drunk drivers often put the quart before the hearse". Here "quart" has similar pronunciation as "cart", while "hearse" has similar pronunciation as "horse". "quart" is a vessel for alcohol and "hearse" is a carriage specially used for conveying the dead to the grave.This pun is used to warn the drivers that drunk driving is dangerous and to remind them of the importance of safe driving.

Antalaclasis refers to a word used twice or more, but each time with a different meaning. For example, (3)"You need the strongest line of defense against gum disease"(advertisement of JNJ dental floss). It's a mon sense that dental floss can keep teeth clean and healthy by defending against gum disease. Here "line" refers to both the material of dental floss and the defensive line against gum disease.

Sylleptic pun is similar to antalaclasis, but the word is used as a pun only once with two or more different meanings. With sylleptic puns, the advertisement can convey the information in fewer words. For example, (4)"money can not be grown on trees but it blossoms at our branches". This is the advertisement for Lloyd Bank in Britain. "Branch" is a pun and has two meanings: one is in agreement with "trees" in the first sentence, meaning "the arm of a tree"; the other meaning is "division and subsidiary bank". The bank smartly warns consumers that money can not be gained from trees but