Tracing the Impact of Culture in the Translation of Selected Advertisements between English and Arabic

Abstract

The role of advertising across cultures can be touched upon quite differently. Therefore, translators should approach advertisements unequally in a particular culture. The translation of advertisement has gradually expanded as a result of the rise of globalization and trade intensification, and that necessitated that companies communicate with consumers of different cultures.The present study aims at investigating how sociocultural variables which play a vital role in advertisement are dealt with cross-linguistically. It first introduces a theoretical background that discusses the concept of culture and its impact on translation, as well as the major translation strategies used to deal with cultural issues. It, moreover, attempts to answer the question about how cultural variables affect the process of translation and the selection of an appropriate equivalent. To answer this question, seven ads, along with their translations, have been selected and subjected to a thorough analysis. The article comes up with some conclusions, the most important of which are: cultural domination plays a more pivotal role in translating ads than in other text types, that the translation strategies used for rendering an ad between English and Arabic range from literal translation to rewriting, with free translation to be of a higher frequency, that specific translation methods, such as transliteration, have been overused. Finally, the study has shown a growing tendency in Arabic to depart the traditional cultural aspects of writing and translating an ad and move towards those of the English-speaking culture.