英语广告中的模糊语言及其翻译策略

论文总字数：36047字

摘 要

随着经济的不断发展，越来越多的企业意识到了广告的重要性。广告宣传在企业的生产经营过程中越来越重要。在很多情况下，广告商会选择使用模糊语言来做广告。模糊语言是一种语言现象，模糊性是语言的基本属性之一。它更简洁，能承载更多的信息，符合广告语言的需要。在广告中恰当地使用模糊语言，不仅可以提高表达的效率，而且可以提高广告的艺术性和感染力，使表达更加含蓄更加委婉的同时又不失说服力。

本文在讨论广告实例的基础上,分析模糊语言在英语广告中的具体应用,并试图总结英语广告中模糊语言的翻译方法和策略从而帮助人们更好地理解广告语言和使用模糊语言来实现广告的目的。

关键词：模糊语言；英语广告；翻译

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Vague Language in English Advertisements 3

3.1 Phonetic vagueness 3

3.2 Semantic vagueness 4

3.3 Sentence vagueness 9

4. Translation Strategies of Vague Language in English Advertisements 11

4.1 From vague to vague 11

4.2 From vague to clear 13

4.3 From vague to variable 13

5. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 16

1. Introduction

As an ideal medium to promote products, promote consumption and enhance understanding, advertising is influencing people’s life in various forms in the modern society with continuous economic development. Generally speaking, advertisements have various stylistic features, such as publicity, intelligence, authenticity, attraction, inspiration, nationality, pertinence, artistry and so on. Understanding and mastering these characteristics is of great significance to understand and appreciate advertising words. Successful advertisement requires beautiful and original words, concise and rich syntax, strong artistic appeal and beauty of language and literature, giving people visual and auditory beauty, memorable. As the carrier of publicity, the authenticity of advertisements is very necessary, which requires the language expression of advertisements to be accurate and convincing, but it is not inconsistent with the use of vague language. The vagueness of language exists in oral communication and written communication in large quantities. In fact, it is impossible to live without vague concepts and replace vague concepts with precise concepts everywhere. （Wu 19-21）Advertising language is both different from the formal written language, and not completely the same as the daily spoken language. It is concise, vivid, attractive, as well as euphemistic, implicit, polite and other characteristics. A successful advertisement is often inseparable from vague language, the appropriate use of vague expression can produce some kind of resonance in the inner world of the advertising audience, so as to better achieve the various functions of advertising.

This paper will first give a brief introduction to the development of vague language in the past years. Then on the basis of specific advertising cases, the paper analyzes the application of vague language in English advertisement from three aspects: phonetic, semantic, and sentence, so as to deepen our understanding of vague language. Then, the paper summarizes three translation methods of vague language in English advertisements with specific examples: from vague to vague, from vague to clear and from vague to variable. At the end of the article, it summarizes the positive role of vague language in advertisement and the difficulties that should be paid attention to when translating vague language.

2. Literature Review

The word “vague” is a linguistic term introduced from philosophy and mathematics. In 1923, Bertrand Russell, a famous British philosopher, said, “every word has more or less a vague meaning”. D. Jones, a famous English linguist, also noticed the vagueness of language in 1957. He said: “we often use terms and principles which are imprecise, vague and difficult to define when speaking and writing. But this does not prevent the words we use from being very useful and indeed indispensable”.

In 1965, L.A. Zedeh, an expert in cybernetics at the University of California, USA, published a paper named Fuzzy Sets in the Information and Control magazine, which put forward the famous Fuzzy theory and provided a new research approach for language science, which systematically studied the problem of the vagueness of things and thoroughly corrected people’s prejudice against the vagueness. In 1977, as for the vagueness of language, Israel Scheffler points out in his book Beyond the Letter that vagueness is a common feature of descriptive words. (Wang 32-33) In Semantic Theory (1977), R.M. Kempson divided the vagueness of words into four categories, namely, vagueness of reference, uncertainty of word meaning, lack of definition of lexical meaning, and differences of lexical definition meaning. (Kempson 26-27)

Austrian philosopher Witt.Genstein also believed that most of our daily language is vague, but as long as the vagueness does not affect the function of language, it is acceptable. For example, people all have the heart to love beauty, but what kind of talent is the most beautiful, people judge the criteria vary widely, some advocate the beauty of the soul, some pursue the appearance of beauty, fat was the beauty of tang dynasty, but slim is the beauty of modern society. This shows how blurred is the line between beauty and ugliness.

In 1979, Mr. Wu Tieping first introduced the vague theory into China in his book A Preliminary Study of Vague Language. Then, many domestic scholars, such as He Zuran, Wang Rongpei, Wu Shixiong, He Zhaoxiong and Shi Anshi, have made in-depth studies on the semantic vagueness, the function of vague restrictive language and the verbal communication function of vague language. He Zhaoxiong, citing the English linguist Leech, believes that pragmatic vagueness is the uncertainty of discourse, makes the unspoken power of discourse unclear but motivated and serves the common interests of both parties in communication.（Geoffrey 45-48） The speaker allows the listener to have two or more interpretations of the intention of his words, with the purpose of making the listener assume part of the responsibility for the consequences caused by the words and making himself in an active position. He Zhaoxiong believes that the listener in language use is not necessarily passive. He can also use vagueness as a pragmatic strategy to express acceptance or rejection of the other party’s pragmatic vagueness, or even change passivity into initiative.

From the above discussion, we find that vague language is suitable for advertising language, because vague language makes advertising language implicit and concise, delicate and profound. The vague expression of the slogan can stimulate people’s understanding and imagination, and produce a unique and memorable effect. Vague language can also play a role of self-protection for advertisers, as consumers, we also need to correctly understand the implied meaning of advertising language. At present, domestic studies on pragmatic vagueness are mostly theoretical. This paper mainly explores the translation methods of vague language by analyzing its application in English advertisements.

3. Vague Language in English Advertisement

Language is a system with phonetics as the shell of substance, vocabulary as the building material and grammar as the rule of structure. Therefore, the vagueness of language must also be reflected in these three aspects. Generally speaking, literary vagueness can be divided into semantic vagueness, image vagueness, sentence vagueness, pragmatic vagueness and thematic vagueness according to its attributes and functions. As far as advertising English is concerned, advertising is a kind of practical style. Different from literary works, there are few images. We will not discuss them here. Therefore, in this article we only discuss phonetic vagueness, semantic vagueness and sentence vagueness.

3.1 Phonetic vagueness

At present, most of the discourses on phonetic vagueness in advertising language involve pun rhetoric, among which homophonic pun is the most common one. Homophonic pun uses words with similar spelling, pronunciation or similar relations. Many people think that the surface semantics of pun often show obvious violation of the cooperative principle, but this is conducive to stimulate consumers to actively seek the hidden real intention of the discourse, enhance the persuasive power and appeal of the advertisement, and leave a deep impression on consumers.

Here are some examples:

a. Have a nice trip, buy-buy（bye-bye）.

This is an advertisement for a duty-free shop at Heathrow Airport in London. In the specific context of the airport, homophone puns buy-buy and bye-bye naturally remind passengers of two meanings: 1. Have a pleasant journey, good-bye; 2. Welcome to our store for shopping. Such advertisements not only give visitors warm greetings, but also enhance the publicity effect of duty-free shops.

b. Trust us. Over 5000 ears of experience.

This is an advertisement for a hearing aid. “Ears” has the same pronunciation as “years”, therefore, this advertisement can give consumers the impression that the hearing aid of this brand has a long history and is very popular among consumers.

c. Sofa So Good.

This is an advertisement for a sofa. “Sofa” has the same pronunciation as “so far”, and “so far so good” can create a slow atmosphere for consumers, and make people feel comfortable and peaceful. And this will enhance consumers’ interest in sofas.

To sum up, the use of phonetic vagueness in English advertisements can make the language humorous and full of the beauty of rhyme, so that the expression in a specific environment has two layers of meaning. This not only effectively enhances the persuasive and infectious power of advertising, but also leaves a deep impression on the public and stimulates the purchase behavior of the audience.

3.2 Semantic vagueness

Semantic vagueness can be said to be born with the existence of language. As professor Wu Tieping said: “the antiquity of language is proportional to the vagueness of language”. (Wu 72-73) That is, the more words in a language are traced back, the more ambiguous they become. This sentence also shows that the vagueness of words has not been invariable since ancient times. The vagueness of vocabulary mainly refers to the extensive expression of words without clear boundaries and uncertain meaning. Many words in natural language have vague attributes, such as adjectives, verbs, numerals, etc.

3.2.1 Vagueness of adjectives

(1)Descriptive adjective

Advertisers often use adjectives to describe and judge the quality and effectiveness of products. Adjectives make language vivid and infectious. It is the descriptive characteristics of adjectives that make them the most frequently used vague words. According to Geoffrey Leech, the top 20 adjectives in English advertising are: new; good; free; fresh; delicious; full; sure; clean; wonderful; special; crisp; fine; big; great; real; easy; bright; extra; safe and rich. These adjectives can be applied to almost any aspect of a product, such as shape, appearance, color, composition, etc.

The widespread use of descriptive adjectives to highlight the virtues of an advertised product and to exaggerate its distinctive characteristics actually obscures a coherent objective justification. This kind of language with strong emotional orientation is precisely to grasp the heart of advertising readers or listeners with vague and general description, so as to stimulate readers’ imagination and interest in advertising products. Therefore, it is very common that descriptive adjectives are used in English and Chinese advertisements.

Here are some examples:

a. Something within you is Dior.

This is an advertisement for Dior flavor. “Something” has no clear meaning, but here it makes consumers feel that they should use Dior, because the body odor of them comes from Dior.

b. How’s your coffee? Wonderful, rich, smooth and bursting with flavor.

This is an advertisement for Nestle coffee. This advertisement uses some adjectives which are very appealing, causing the readers to have wonderful associations from taste and smell, so that the “strong aroma” of nestle coffee gladdens the heart. There is no precise technical quality index in the advertisement, but it can reveal the product’s personality in the “vagueness”.

c. In perfect shape, For unlimited times.

This is an advertisement for RADO watch. In this AD, perfect and unlimited are adjectives that have no connotation. It is difficult to define a precise standard for the perfect shape of a watch. There is also no measure of how long a watch will last. So although the characteristics of the watch is clear, but advertisers do not have to use precise Numbers to describe its diameter, the length of the watchband, the number of years can be used, just use vague adjectives, the good quality and perfect appearance of the watch can be shown to the consumers clearly.

d. New medicine，new hope．

This is an advertisement for a medicine. Through the vague semantics generated by “new”, this medical advertisement firmly grasps the consumers’ psychology of “new drugs produce new curative effect and ignite new hope”, and promotes consumers’ consumption desire, thus producing good advertising and promotion effect.

(2) Comparative and superlative adjectives

The vagueness of the adjective in the advertisement can also be expressed by other forms of the adjective, such as comparative and superlative. Advertisers who want to differentiate their products need to compare them to other products. Compared with the adjective itself, the comparative and superlative adjectives are extended and their meaning is vaguer. But this kind of vague comparison can affect consumers’ propensity to spend. The comparative and superlative adjectives in advertising English rarely indicate the object of comparison and usually do not include the superlative range caused by than or in or of. In fact, this kind of vague expression often does not have an exact comparing object, but arbitrarily expands the scope of comparison to a range that consumers can understand. In this way, advertisers can raise customers’ expectations to almost a perfect state.

Here are some examples：

a. You won’t find a quicker, easier, neater way to enhance your beauty.

This is an advertisement for cosmetics. The advertiser used three parallel vague adjectives to describe the performance and function of cosmetics, without a comparing object. However, this kind of vague semantics caters to people’s psychology, so it is easier for people to accept.

b. You are more beautiful with Kodak.

This is an advertisement for Kodak film. The AD doesn’t specify whether people look better on Kodak film than they do in real life, or whether people look better on Kodak film than they do on other types of film. Consumers often make the latter choice, but advertisers don’t explicitly state it, they use vague expressions to let consumers figure it out for themselves. This makes the goods of this brand more attractive, and at the same time, merchants can avoid the responsibility of making false advertisements.

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