12. ADVERTISING TEXTS - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

12. ADVERTISING TEXTSSlide2

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING TEXTS 1

Advertisements

are

designed

to

attract

attention

rather

than

give

information

Texts

are short and

related

to

striking

visual

images

Advertisements

are

usually

designed

by a

professional

,

well-paid

team

They

feature

mnemonics

, i.e.

linguistic

devices

to

make

a text easy to

remember

:

rhyme

and

rhythm

,

alliteration

(

repeated

use of the

same

consonant

) and

onomatopoeia

(the sound of the word

imitates

its

meaning

).

Mnemonics

represent

an

enormous

challenge

for the

translator

. An

imaginative

approach

is

essential

, and the task

is

often

to create

equivalents

rather

than

translations

.Slide3

No

Italian

word

rhymes

with Electrolux

What

can the translator do?

And

what

can the

Italian

-to-English

translator

do

here

?Slide4

Niente attira

Come Electrolux aspira

Change

the word

order

.

Use the

inflections

of

Italian

verb conjugations. The _are infinitives have great potential.

TRONY

Genuine,

never

phoneySlide5

Rhythm

Alliteration

Slide6

O

nomatopoeiaSlide7

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING TEXTS 2

The

language

is

typical of speaking rather

then

writing

The imperative mood is frequently usedOmission of function words and copular “to be”Parataxis

rather

than

hypotaxis

.

Comparatives

and

superlatives

are

used

a

lotSlide8
Slide9

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING TEXTS 3

Creative word play of various

kinds

:

Puns

Homophones

Metaphors

Similes

Metonyms

NeologismsSlide10
Slide11

Linguistic and Visual

MetaphorsSlide12

Similes: with

like or

as

…

asSlide13

Metonymy: “[…] an

attribute of an

entity

is

used in place of the entity

itself

. People are

using

metonyms when they talk about the bottle to mean ‘drinking’.” (Crystal 1992: 250)The White House = the US Government

Suits

= the

powerful

men

who

make

the

decisions

Fresh

blood

= new

people

The

pen

= the

written

word =

ideas

The

sword

= a

weapon

= force “The

pen

is mightier than the sword”Slide14

Neologisms =

invented

words

Entirely

new

expressions

: baby boomers,

yuppies

New

meaning for existing word: flake (USA), anorak (UK)Combining parts of two existing words to make

a new

one

:

smirting

(

sm

oking +

fl

irting

),

chuggers

(

ch

arity +

m

uggers

)Slide15

The translator’s

task

Quite

often

it is impossible to

translate

puns

, neologisms etc. But if we can’t translate the words, we can translate the communicative

intention

(

illocutionary

force) by

creating

a

broadly

equivalent

discourse

.

We

have

to

identify

what

aspect

of the

product

is

being promoted (style, flavour, modernity, price, association

with

youth

etc.) and

find

a way to

present

the

same

quality

to the

same

target consumers.

Nowadays

many

advertisements

are

presented

in a single

version

all

over the world (“

Nespresso

.

What

else?”).

However

,

there

are cultural

preferences

. Taylor (p. 144) notes

that

“English

advertisements

rely

very

heavily

on humour (English humour), and

thus

there

is

much

evidence

of word play and

intertextual

allusion

.

Italian

advertisers

can be

seen

to

place

more

attention

on the

aesthetic

attributes

of

products

in line with the

Italian

predilection

for style and

handsome

presentation

.”

And in

2016

the

female

body

is

still

used

(or

exploited

) to

advertise

a

great

range

of

products

.

Especially

in

Italy

.Slide16
Slide17

And finally

, how

does

the advertising

industry

promote itself?Slide18
Slide19

FALSE FRIENDS 12

What do you remember about

complexion

and

comprehensive

?

Concrete (adjective): like the Italian concreto. Not gossip but concrete/hard facts.

Concrete

(noun): like the Italian

cemento. There is an English word cement. In general cement is in powder form, concrete is solid.Concurrence 1: two events happen at the same time. The concurrence of the film festival in Bristol and the music festival in Manchester made it impossible to attend both.Concurrence 2: like the Italian consenso. An unexpected concurrence of opinion

between the parties.

Concorrenza

: competition. Our business is struggling because of competition from

Chinese firms.

Concorrenza

sleale

= unfair competition.

Concussion

: In Italian

trauma

cranico

. The rugby player left the field suffering from

concussion.

Concussione

:

extortion

(legal term),

graft

(journalistic expression)Slide20

THE DIARY OF A BRAVE TRANSLATOR VERILY IN LEG – PART 12

I don’t like political correctness because I think we should say bread to bread, wine to wine and use words that do not hide the truth. Of course, we don’t want to go back to the widespread use of the sexist and racist language of the 1950s, but some of the 21

st

century euphemisms are ridiculous. To prove whether an expression is really offensive or not, we should find out how the alleged victims describe themselves. I have met plenty of blind people in my time and they all described themselves as blind, not “visually impaired” or “suffering from vision loss”. It seems to me that some politically correct enthusiasts want to be more realistic than the king. Slide21

Dire pane al pane = Call a spade a spade (spade =

vanga)

Provare

= variously translated as

test

,

try, try out,

try on

,

feel

, rehearseProve = like Italian dimostrare or, in legal contexts, provare or fornire una provaEssere più realista del re: no equivalent expression in English.

A possible paraphrase would be: to support or defend a cause more fervently than people directly involved do.