免费英语论文范文(13)
Eg. Coca Cola可口可乐
Pun also appears in brands，for instance, “Coca Cola”, a brand of soft drink. According to American Heritage Dictionary, “cola”originally refers to “African evergreen plants having reddish，fragrant, nutlike seeds yielding all extract that contains caffeine and theobromine”，but nowadays，it usually refers to “a carbonated soft drink containing an extract of the cola nut and other flavorings”. When it was introduced into China, the translator borrowed the name and hence a name for this new type of soft drink came into being. “可乐” in Chinese also means “something that deserves to be happy about”; therefore “可口可乐” has more than one interpretation: on the one hand, it is the name of the brand, a usage of alliteration which sounds very pleasant; on the other hand, it means “both tasty and deserves to be happy about”, referring to its superb taste and its quality of being able to bring happiness or even good luck, and this really caters to Chinese reader’s interests. What is important is that, obviously, the translator has given full consideration to both the advertiser’s intentions and the reader’s expectations, making them meet each other perfectly. So not only the original pun is successfully preserved but also new values are added. Thus, it’s an ideal translation, both its quality and function are included in the translation.
3. 2 Creation
In case the cognitive environment of the target text reader differs significantly from that of the source text reader or the source text touches on some social taboos or sensitive topics, preservation of the original may cause negative response or misunderstanding, while other approaches prove to be ineffective, the translator can choose to introduce new pun in the target text. By creation, we mean the translator can introduce new pun on the subjects(related but not necessarily the same as the original)in the target text. For instance, by reproducing the pun with a standard target language pun in the target text, or by turning non-pun expression in the source text to pun expression in the target text, or zero to totally new pun expression in the target text, the translator can produce the similar contextual effects in the target text. Baker says: “One may either omit or play down a feature such as idiomaticity at the point where it occurs in the source text and introduce it elsewhere in the target text…it may be used to make up for any loss of meaning,emotional force, or stylistic effect which may not be possible to reproduce directly at a given point in the target text.” If other things being equal, sometimes by creation it is possible to achieve a lower degree of resemblance but roughly the same level of overall relevance as it can bring in adequate contextual effects if the translator’s assumptions about the cognitive environment of target language reader are accurate. Here, creating similar contextual effects acts as the criterion. Nevertheless, the created new pun should be acceptable in the cognitive environment of the reader. Eg. Better late than the late.
