On the Chinese-English Translation of Advertising Slogan from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

Nowadays, advertising slogan has been used by various corporations as an aid to promote their products. As advertising slogan is crisp, concise, and direct, it has been viewed as the identity of a corporation. With the tide of globalization, the translation of slogan is much more important in for the corporation in world economy. This paper introduces the functional equivalence theory, which consists of two points: the receptor’ response and content over form. And the main function of the advertisement is vocative function, evoking the customers’ purchasing desire. At this point, Functional Equivalence Theory is suitable to guide the translation of advertising slogan, for it aims to achieve the equivalent or similar response between the receptors of the source text and those of the target text. What’s more, the application of this theory in Chinese-English translation is also discussed from many different respects base on the specific examples of slogans’ translation. At last, three useful strategies are proposed: literal translation, parody translation and creative translation.