The translation of advertising texts : a study of English-language printed advertisments and their translations in Russian
Since the end of Communism, adverts for Western products have been flooding onto the Russian market. These have undergone translation, with strategies ranging from complete transference of the source text into the target culture, to the creation of new texts based on advertisers' briefs. The choice of strategy, it appears, is dependent on the power balance between the agents of translation, including not only translators, but advertisers, designers, governments, text receivers and on the cultural, historical and economic situation in which the translation takes place. This thesis suggests advertisement translation be considered in terms of power, culture and history. A postcolonial framework is used to set out changes in translation strategy, emphasize the role of power differentials and make predictions for practice. Seeing translated adverts as 'contact zones' where different cultures meet, the empirical research centres on the absorption of the 'dominant's' culture into that of the 'subjugated', and focuses on the interaction of 'foreign' and 'native' elements in these translated adverts. A parallel corpus of contemporary English adverts, their translated Russian pairs, and a control corpus of native Russian
Smith, Karen Louise
Linguistics
The translation of advertising texts : a study of English-language printed advertisments and their translations in Russian. Since the end of Communism, adverts for Western products have been flooding onto the Russian market. These have undergone translation, with strategies ranging from complete transference of the source text into the target culture, to the creation of new texts based on advertisers' briefs. The choice of strategy, it appears, is dependent on the power balance between the agents of translation, including not only translators, but advertisers, designers, governments, text receivers and on the cultural, historical and economic situation in which the translation takes place. This thesis suggests advertisement translation be considered in terms of power, culture and history. A postcolonial framework is used to set out changes in translation strategy, emphasize the role of power differentials and make predictions for practice. Seeing translated adverts as 'contact zones' where different cultures meet, the empirical research centres on the absorption of the 'dominant's' culture into that of the 'subjugated', and focuses on the interaction of 'foreign' and 'native' elements in these translated adverts. A parallel corpus of contemporary English adverts, their translated Russian pairs, and a control corpus of native Russian
translation advertising text study english_language print translation russian since_end communism western product flood onto russian market undergone translation_strategy range complete transference source_text target_culture creation_new text base brief choice_strategy appear dependent power balance agent translation include translator designer government text receiver cultural_historical economic situation translation take_place suggests advertisement translation consider_term power culture history postcolonial framework use set change translation_strategy emphasize role power differential make prediction practice seeing translate contact zone different culture meet empirical centre absorption dominant culture focus interaction foreign native element translate parallel_corpus contemporary english translate russian pair control corpus native russian