Pragmatic functions of puns in advertising English and its translation--论文代写范文

51Due论文代写平台essay代写范文:“Pragmatic functions of puns in advertising English and its translation”，这篇论文主要描述的是随着全球化的不断发展，英语作为各国之间交流通用的语言，在传统的广告行业中出现了一种新的形式：广告英语，广告英语对于过往的广告来说是非常的新颖，经常会使用一些一语双关的广告技巧，使潜在的顾客觉得十分特别而产生消费的需求，对于广告英语的翻译也需要采用多种策略才能够更加准确地进行翻译。

Abstract: Advertising English is characterized by its originality, flexibility of language usage and the diversity of the forms.Apart from the distinguishing features at lexical and syntactic levels, rhetorical vehicles, as decorative devices of language, are frequently employed in advertising English. Punning, a concise way to express humor and wit, is particularly favored by advertisers to enhance the appeal of language. Drawing on existing studies in the field,the author offers five strategies in the translation of puns in advertisement, i.e. preservation, creation, compensation, explication and omission.The author argues that each of the five strategies is not always applied on its own, and sometimes two or more stratrgies are jointly employed in advertisement translation in accordance with the principle of optimal relevance depending on the situation.

Introduction

The definition of advertisement by AMA(American Marketing Association): Advertising is the nonpersonal communication usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services of ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. It is a device to arouse consumers’ attention to a commodity and induce them to use it. In modern age, people find themselves surrounded by various advertisements each day. An American writer writes: “ we find advertisement of all kinds everywhere, for example, glittering neon signs on top of high buildings and a long main streets, colorful pictures painted on buses pamphlets sent to very house, advertisement jammed between TV programs various advertisement glutting, newspaper and radio broadcast; etc.” Facing so many advertisement, how to make the advertisement impressive is the main purpose of the advertisers. In order to enhance the appeal of an advertisement, advertisers pay much attention not only to such expressive devices as plates, color and the layout of a printed page, but also to the choice of words or phrases, to make an advertisement beautiful and attractive.

In the practice of the advertising English, people pay more attention to pun to make the advertisement succinct, accurate and vivid and to provide rich imagination and plentiful associations for readers so as to stimulate their desire.The frequent and wide use of figures of speech is an important characteristic of advertising English, which is an effective way to make the advertisement attractive. Among the figures, pun is loved deeply. Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines pun as “humorous use of a word that has two meanings or of different words that sound the same” [1]. A pun (also known as paronomasia) can be understood like that it is a deliberate confusion of similar-sounding words of phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. It leaves a deep impression on readers by its readability, wit and humor. It can satisfy the requirement of advertisement characteristics—selling power, memory value, attention value, and readability. So pun is very popular in advertisement. The article just wants to present the pragmatic function and translatability of pun in advertisement.

1  Definition and classification of pun in advertisement

1. 1 Definition of pun

Looking at the same issue from different perspectives, we may often come up with different definitions of the thing under discussion. And, not surprisingly, pun can be thus defined in many ways. There is such a humorous explanation about pun: “punning – to torture one poor word ten thousand ways (John Dryden)”. In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, pun is defined as “An amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings, or words with the same sound but different meanings”. According to The Oxford English Dictionary, pun is defined as “the use of word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect”. In Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, pun is defined as “A figure of speech depending upon a similarity of sound and a disparity of meaning”. From the above definitions, we can see that homonyms, homophones, and homographs all are available to construct puns with.

1. 2 Types of pun in advertisement

1. 2. 1 Pun on Polysemy

“While different words may have the same of similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called polysemic word. Historically speaking, polysemy can be understood as the growth and development of or change in the meaning of words.” Pun on polysemy is used widely, especially with the name of the product such as the following examples

“From sharp minds. Come sharp products.”

The example is an advertisement for the Sharp copier. The word “sharp” praises the consumers’ brightness, but also refers to the Sharp product. The advertisement praises the consumers who are sharp to buy the product which is sharp. The vanity of the audiences is aroused and they want to use it to show their wise, and also they believe the product is really sharp.

“Money doesn’t grow on the trees. But it blossoms at our branches. Lioyd Bank.”

It is the slogan of Lioyd Bank. “branch” means “part of a tree growing out from the trunk”, but here it implies the division of bank”. The slogan encourages people to store their money in Lioyd Bank, and their money will be like the blooming flowers, yielding better fruits. After understanding its meaning, readers will figure it out in mind that their money will become more and more daily and daily, just like the leaves in spring.

1. 2. 2 Pun on Homonym

“Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words with different meanings have the same form, i.e, different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones. When the words are identical in spelling, they are homographs. When two words are identical in both spelling and sound, they are complete homonyms.” The follow instances will explain that:

“ ‘VIPs’ an atomical comfort.Variable Impact Pressure Sole”

The advertisement of sportshoes uses the homophonic word “VIPs”. As we know, VIP usually stands for “ very important persons”, while, here, it stands for “Variable Impact Pressure Sole”. It implies if you use VIPs, you will be a VIP. The word “VIPs’ motivates the audiences’ vanity and induces them to buy the product.

“Trust us. Over 5000 ears of experience.”

It is an advertisement for audiphone. The literal meaning is that the product has experienced a lot of texts. While “ears” and “years” are a pair of homophone. So it implies that the product has a long history and has high quality.

“Goodbuy Winter! 100% cotton knitwear $40”

It is an advertisement for the sale of winter clothes. The advertisement seems to people that it s a good and cheap to buy cotton knitwear. But when the audiences read “goodbuy winter” together, they will understand the good use of pun. “Goodbuy winter” sounds the same as “goodbye winter”. The advertisement use homophone to show two meanings: it is a good business to buy the cotton knitwear now, and winter has passed away. Naturally, people will associate the situation happening every year that when they say goodbye to winter, the clothes will have a great discount and it is good time to buy them.

“More sun and air for your sun and heir.”

The advertisement is for a bathing beach. The advertiser uses homophone skilfully, sun vs. son, and air vs. heir. The advertiser encourages people to bring their son and heir to the bathing beach to get sun and air to keep fit. Each couple hopes their son and heir will be healthy all their life. Pun makes the advertising language sound sweet, fluent and persuasive.

1. 2. 3 Pun on Parody

“Parody is a piece of speech, writing of music that imitates the style of an author, composer, etc in an amusing and often exaggerate way” [2]. Pun on parody uses the outfit of saying, apothegm, proverb or idiom to form new meanings. English has a lot of well-known phrases, idioms and sayings. They are important part of everyday language spoken by the English speakers, and have become one of the aspects of the English culture. The advertisement designers are sharp-minded and imaginative. They change a part of the expressions and put their ideas into them to achieve sensational effect. And most of them achieve a remarkable success. The transformations are not only eye catching, but also easy to be accepted by the common, who will do according to the tradition. As the sayings of idioms have been one part of the tradition, the people will be easily persuaded by the advertisement works of this kind. So pun on parody is popular in advertisement.

Conclusion

Advertisement is a way for the company to propaganda their product. To gain the market among the severe competition, it is important to carry out a wonderful advertisement to promote their product, and figures of speech is an effective way to achieve the purpose. Among the figures, pun is a wide and frequent approach, because it is an effective way to make the advertisement attractive, accurate, striking, vivid and forceful. Although pun violates the pragmatic maxims, it can correspond to the requirement that said by Geoffrey N.Leech, a famous British linguist, that advertising words must be vivid, conspicuous and impressive, with high readability and the force to promote sales, so it is used widely in advertisement. Pun in advertisement has many forms of expression such as pun on polysemy, homophone, hononymy, parody, illustrations and words, grammar, etc. and can result in the effects of humor, wit, beauty, economy, warning, and even makes the product more competitive and profitable. So only understand its pragmatic analysis, types and function of pun, can it be used rightly and make the advertisement sweet to the ear, and pleasing both the eye and mind.

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