Abstract

Everyday people get access to varied advertisements through internet and traditional mediums such as broadcast, television and newspaper. As a mode of mass media, the advertisement can convey information, promote products, and expand the market. A good advertisement not only introduces details of the product to customers, but also arouses their interests. Meanwhile, rhetorical devices are always employed to enhance the beauty of the advertisement. With the development of global economy, a lot of foreign brands and products come in our sight. In English advertisements there are also vivid and varied rhetorical devices, among which puns are a commonly used one. Puns can arouse the audience’s interests in the products and then encourage them to consume. However, these vivid and varied rhetorical devices make it more difficult to translate English advertisements into Chinese. As a well-known pragmatic theory, Relevance Theory with strong explanatory power has provided a good theoretical framework for translation studies. This thesis first briefly introduces the application and effects of puns in English advertisements. Then, translation of puns in English advertisements rendered with various translation strategies are analyzed from the perspective of relevance theory. The author aims to present a different perspective for translation of puns in English advertisements, and attempts to promote the researches on puns translation to some degree.

Keywords: translation of puns; English advertisements; Relevance Theory

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 A Brief Introduction of Puns in English Advertisements-1

2.2 An Introduction of Relevance Theory-2

2.3 A Historical Review on Translation of Puns in English Advertisements-4

3. An Analysis of Translation of Puns in English Advertisements from the Perspective of Relevance Theory-5

3.1 Explication-6

3.2 Corresponding-7

3.3 Recasting-8

3.4 Compensation-10

4. Conclusion-11

Works Cited-13