Semantic pun refers to the pun formed by polysemy in a specific environment. How to analyze pun in English advertisements and its translation strategies?

First, the use of puns in English advertisements and their main types

Advertising plays an important role in our social life. It has important functions such as establishing corporate image, promoting marketing and increasing transactions. Advertising language is usually concise, powerful, concise and easy to understand. However, excellent advertisements cannot be separated from excellent rhetorical devices. In order to increase sales, advertisers must work hard on advertising language. Being able to use puns, a special figure of speech, will undoubtedly add luster to advertisements. There are three different types:

(A) Phonetic pun

Phonetic pun is also called? Homophonic pun? . Phonetic pun refers to a form of pun composed of words with the same or similar pronunciation. This kind of pun has humorous language characteristics, which can enhance the appeal and persuasiveness of advertisements. For example: Goodbuy Winter! 100% cotton knitwear $40. This is an advertisement for selling winter clothes on sale. The advertisement designer uses the homophonic pun of goodbuy and goodbuy, which not only implies that this is a good deal for consumers, but also seems to tell consumers that the cold winter is about to pass and the warm spring is beckoning to you. Isn't this reminding consumers not to miss the best time to buy? Phonetic pun can kill two birds with one stone.

(B) semantic pun

Semantic pun refers to a pun formed by polysemy in a specific environment. This pun phenomenon literally has only one word, but in fact it cares about two different meanings at the same time. Different understandings of the word in advertisements will make sentences have different meanings, which is very common in advertisements. For example, spoil yourself rather than your figure. This is an advertisement for an ice cream brand. Advertising ruins itself, doesn't it? Enjoy someone? What does he mean by pet one? What does the S diagram mean? Destroy your figure? . Eat as much as you want, it won't affect your figure. In this way, even dieters can't help buying this ice cream!

(C) Grammatical Pun

Grammatical pun refers to the pun produced by omitting the double or multiple grammatical functions of a structure, word or phrase. This pun often uses polysemy. For example, Coca-Cola can refresh you. Nothing can refresh you like coke. In advertising language? Is it okay? There are two parts of speech: modal verbs and nouns. As a noun, can stands for bottled drink; As a modal verb, this sentence itself is an ellipsis. The complete form is: Coca-Cola makes you feel refreshed, and nothing else can make you feel refreshed. This advertisement is humorous and unforgettable.

Secondly, the translation strategies of puns in advertisements.

(A) pay attention to translation

Because of the different meanings of puns, translators have different interpretations of puns. However, in order to achieve the maximum equivalence between the original text and the translated text, translators often pay attention to expressing the meaning similar to the original text, thus retaining the information that needs to be conveyed to consumers most in advertisements. Of course, sometimes such translation loses the interest of the original text and is relatively dull. Let's give a simple example: it is safer to drive when the road is dry. When the road is dry, the road is safer. The driver woke up and the road was safe. This is a road safety warning, and dry has many meanings. In translation, we adopt different meanings according to our understanding of the original text. Among them, what does it mean to do first? Fuck? What do you mean by two jobs? Sober? .

(2) Methods of expressing meaning respectively

The separate ideographic translation method refers to the translation method of flexibly splitting the two meanings of the original pun into two words or two sentences because the corresponding pun cannot be found in the target language. This method can better express the double meanings of puns, but the target language is not as concise as the original advertisement. I'm more satisfied. Ask for more. This is a classic advertisement for Moore cigarettes. The designer skillfully used the double meaning of the word more. As an adverb, what does it mean more? More? ; Capital More has become a noun, not just a brand name? Moore? . The translation is: Moore cigarettes, I am more satisfied? ; ? Another one. Still smoking moles? . This kind of translation has left a deep impression on people, and the translation of four-character structure is more in line with Chinese expression and is a masterpiece in advertising translation.

(3) Setting translation methods

Copying refers to translating English advertisements by applying the inherent patterns of English to Chinese. Of course, a certain cultural background is the basis of translation, so the spread of English language and culture is very important. The characteristic of fixed translation method is that it can convey the cultural connotation of the original advertisement and basically ensure the concise language characteristics of the original advertisement, but the meaning of pun is often not reflected. The propaganda newspaper of The Times skillfully uses fixed translation methods, and its slogan is: We are not proud of prejudice. It quotes the title of J Austin's book Pride and Prejudice, and skillfully links people's existing knowledge with advertising language, which not only achieves the propaganda effect, but also is very humorous, giving people a sense of fairness and justice at once.

(4) Translation of compensation

Compensation translation means that when the translator translates the meaning of a pun, he compensates another meaning that has not been expressed in other ways. The most commonly used means of compensation is to achieve the goal through mass media. It is worth pointing out that in the modern world with advanced technology, the use of television and other media will also produce unexpected results. This method has been successfully used in an advertisement for glasses, and its slogan is: OIC. Oh, I see it! This is an advertisement for glasses. Three capital letters are concise and powerful. What is the pronunciation? Oh, I see. ? Visually, advertisements attract people's attention. Auditively, they also make customers with poor eyesight feel a little comfort and express the surprise when customers wear glasses. However, it is difficult to give attention to both vision and hearing in the translation of advertisements, and it is best to translate it into: Oh, I see it! Then use other auxiliary media, such as images, to make up for another layer of information that the translation can't convey.

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