VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSLATING ADVERTISING SLOGANS FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE NHỮNG KĨ THUẬT TRONG DỊCH KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student :BUI THI THUY Student code :621210 Major :ENGLISH Supervisor :TRAN THI TUYET MAI, M. HaNoi - 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSLATING ADVERTISING SLOGANS FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE NHỮNG KĨ THUẬT TRONG DỊCH KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student :BUI THI THUY Student code :621210 Major :ENGLISH Supervisor :TRAN THI TUYET MAI, M. HaNoi - 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled Techniques for translating advertising slogans from English to Vietnamese submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Bui Thi Thuy Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:……………………. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Implementing a graduation thesis is the most important stage in every student's life. The graduation thesis is a premise to equip me with research skills and valuable knowledge before starting a career. Graduation thesis with the topic "Techniques for translating advertising slogans from English to Vietnamese" is the result of my ceaseless efforts and the enthusiastic help and encouragement of teachers, friends and relatives.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to M.A Tran Thi Tuyet Mai for her wholeheartedly helping and orienting the way of thinking and working in science. Those are very precious comments not only in the process of implementing this thesis, but also as a luggage for me in the process of studying and establishing my career in the future. I would like to sincerely thank all teachers of Vietnam National University of Agriculture. Especially the teachers of the Faculty of education and foreign languages, who have provided me with not only knowledge during my student life but also their useful advice for me to be able to complete this graduation paper.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the authors of the books and materials listed in the reference part for their worthy information and ideas that have been reflected and developed in the study. And finally, thanks family, friends, K62ENGA class for always being there, supporting and encouraging during these stressful and difficult moments. Thanks again to all who helped me.………2021 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT v LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Aims and objectives of the study 2 3.
Scope of the study 3 5. Significance of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 5 Chapter 1. REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 5 1.
REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7 1. Advertising and Advertising Slogan Theory 14 1. Summary 28 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 29 2.1 RESEARCH GOVERNING ORIENTATION 29 2. Research hypothesis 29 iii 2.
Principles/Criteria for data collection and data analysis 29 2. SUMMARY 31 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 3. SOME ADS SLOGANS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS 33 3. USEFUL TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSLATING ENGLISH ADVERTISING SLOGANS INTO VIETNAMESE 52 3.
Translating by Literal Translation 53 3. Translation by Equivalence 54 3. Translation by Adaptation 55 3. Translation by Modulation 56 3.
SUMMARY 57 Part III: CONCLUSION 58 1. Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives 59 3. Limitation of the current research 59 4. Suggestions for further research 60 REFERENCES 61 APPENDIX 63 iv ABSTRACT An effective brand identity system is the first factor and also the prerequisite for building a strong brand image.
Brand positioning statement (slogan) is a very important tool in the brand identity system to help the brand "flirt" effectively to consumers. Wrong translations may have severe consequences if they come out in company communication. It may influence the company image and bottom line negatively. From that, techniques for translating ads slogans to help translators will be presented.
This study first gives theoretical background about translation including its definition, translation procedure, translation techniques, definition of ads and ads slogan. The main goal of this study is find out the useful techniques applied in translating English ads slogans into Vietnamese. Besides, this paper also goes further into definition and characteristics of ads and ads slogan to give background knowledge about these ones before having a deep analysis about the principle linguistic of ads slogans language, such main features of advertising language as phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic and lastly semantic levels were introduced and techniques for translating ads slogans from English to Vietnamese have been carried out. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied in this study.
This result points out that there are four translation techniques including equivalence, literal, adaptation, modulation are applied in English- Vietnamese translation of ads slogans are the most useful techniques and some slogans are non-translated. Although there are some limitations remaining in this study, hopefully, this study will be a valuable study that not only helps translators recognize gaps in their English advertising slogans translating techniques, but also helps those who are passionate about translating English advertising slogans to translate intelligently and effectively. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION Ads: Advertising TL: Target Language SL: Source Language L: Literal E: Equivalence B: Borrowing M: Modulation C: Calque T: Transposition A: Adaptation vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 01: The Translation techniques used in Translating English Advertisement Slogans into Vietnamese based on Vinay and Darbelnet Translation Model. 49 Table 02: Frequency of Translation Techniques Used in Translating English Advertising Slogans into Vietnamese.
51 vii PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, with the proliferation of the market economy, as well as the increasing needs and demands of customers, all business and companies have to make efforts to promote and create great influence on customers. Mr Kumail Hemani said that:” Creating a prominent identify is what every brand desire and so getting an extra identify is surely a bonus. Slogan is embroidered with brand name and has ubiquitous presences along with it…so it technically works as a shadow for brand name”.
It is crystal clear that most companies have their own advertising slogans and brand names to bring their products closer to the public. The results of this marketing make it easier for customers to know what name of this product is, how quality it is. It is not difficult to recognize the slogan as an advertising trend in the future. Thus, it is not surprising that most of these companies use alliteration, puns and extended semantics which are almost mandatory in advertising slogans.
While verbal humor, puns… can add to the novelty of an advertisement, extended meaning (also known as figurative meaning) is unlikely to be translated into another language. Therefore, many humorous translations were born. When entering the Vietnamese market, international brands usually already have all the promotional materials and communication available. Therefore, the translators’ job is simply to rely on that material to perceive the brand identity and translate it.
But the translation here is not merely a purely literal translation, but must convey the true spirit of the slogan. Personally, in the process of learning I am fascinated by advertising slogans which might comprise the organizational image and brand’s spirit as well as some inquisitive about the picture of language, the creative use of words in ad slogans. I also found out a variety scope of interesting situations of mistranslating or failure 1 translation in reality. Besides, I have learnt many translation techniques during school.
However, each field has its own effective techniques. Hence, how to do well this creative transfer is still a question. As a matter of fact, translating is not an easy work, especially in translating advertising slogans. The question occurred is that whether there are any techniques, rules,….are useful to solve those difficulties.
Transposition, Adaptation and Free translation work effectively or not in transmitting English ad slogans into Vietnamese. Furthermore, advertising slogans translation is exquisite and perceptive. The aspects of attractiveness, message, spirit, elegance of expression, faithfulness is needed to be transferred. It is difficult to transmit these aspects.
But there are a few research and satisfied studies to figure out useful techniques for translating advertising slogans into Vietnamese. Thereby, my research is contributive to give a deep insight of the area and create a premise to study some useful techniques applicable to translating the advertising slogans as well as helping Vietnamese people learn English to recognize interesting characteristics in English advertisement in order to identify more accurately and apply in practice and from that be able to choose interpretations from an advertising slogan English to Vietnamese and vice versa reasonably and exactly. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims to find out the techniques that are used to translate slogans from English into Vietnamese. In order to fulfill this task, linguistic features of famous advertising slogans will be analyzed.
At the same time, the translation versions of these slogans will also be examined. Research question To reach the aims within the scope, the research questions below are solved: 2 -what are the typical linguistic features of the English advertising slogans? -what are useful techniques for translating advertising slogans from English into Vietnamese? 4. Scope of the study My research paper includes the study of linguistics features and techniques used in translating 30 well-known advertising slogans which are collected from newspapers, magazines, the internet…. Significance of the study Wrong translations affecting brands.
People will tend to remember the ‘funny’ translation for a long time. Making a good translation is essentially not an easy task. It is not just translating word for word. Professional translators are trained to consider all the aspects needed to make a translation work.
Successful translation is a means to magnetize customers and make a strong appearance for a company. It is never an easy work. That is why this study is shepherded to discuss the techniques that translators usually use in the advertising slogans translating process and to come up with some useful techniques for translating English advertising slogans from English into Vietnamese. Design of the study This research is divided into three primary parts: Part I: Introduction presents rationale for the study, Aims and objectives of the study, Research questions, Scope of the study, Significance and Design of the study.
Part II: Development consists of 3 chapters 3 Chapter 2. Literature review comprises Review of the previous studies and Review of theoretical background (This chapter states the theories of translation, advertising and advertising slogans including translation definition, translation procedure and translation techniques, …) Chapter 2.2: namely Methodology will present the research methodology, research setting, data collection and data analysis.3 is Findings and Discussion that will suggest useful techniques for translating advertising form English to Vietnamese. Part III: Conclusion will provide some references related to this study and appendix. 4 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1.
REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) When it comes to business, having own distinct brand is essential. Aside from the logo, the slogan - also known as a commercial slogan - is regarded as one of the most effective tools for making a lasting impression on customers. One of the brand positioning forms of the company in mind of customers is to give a tiptop and extraordinary advertising slogan for its brand. So, it is no surprise that advertising slogans has become a field of specialization and advertising translation has rapidly been expanded in professional practice as well as in the curricula of translators and has become one of the most dialectical researches in translation studies.