Abstract

Public service advertisement (PSA) is a non-profit advertising focusing on social issues and serving the public interests. Its unique originality, striking position and healthy content affects the public emotions and values, which plays an extremely important role in promoting the social progress. Metaphor, as a rhetorical device, is frequently used in the PSA, not only making the PSA more concise, vivid and powerful, but also helping promote the social custom and the spiritual civilization construction. In this paper, based on the analysis of metaphors from cognitive linguistics Lakoff and Johnson put forward in the book Metaphors We Live By, the author tries to analyze the types and functions of metaphors in PSA, then through analyzing the specific examples of translation, the author proposes that adoption of some translation strategies and methods of metaphors, like literal translation, free translation and imitation, can not only effectively help the creation of advertisements enjoy the pubic support, struck a chord with them, but also improve the promotion, the culture taste and reading interests of the PSA, so as to better realize the value of PSA. 

 Key Words: public service advertisements; metaphor; application; translation methods

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-2

3 An Introduction to Public Service Ads-4

3.1 Definition of Public Service Ads-4

3.2 Linguistic Features of Public Service Ads-5

3.2.1 Lexical Features-6

3.2.2 Syntactic Features-6

3.2.3 Rhetorial Features-6

3.3 Functions of Chinese PSA-7

3.3.1 Guiding Function-7

3.3.2 Cohesion Function-7

4 Application of Metaphors in PSA-8

4.1 Definition of Metaphor-8

4.2 Three Types of Metaphors in PSA-9

4.2.1 Structural Metaphor in PSA-9

4.2.2 Ontological Metaphor in PSA-10

4.2.3 Orientational Metaphor in PSA-11

4.3 The Functions of Metaphor in PSA-12

4.3.1 Improving the Appreciation of PSA-12

4.3.2 Advancing the Popularity of PSA-13

5 Translation Methods of Metaphors in PSA-13

5.1 Literal Translation-13

5.2 Free Translation-14

5.3 Imitation-15

6 Conclusion-15

References-17