Abstract

Advertising English is characterized by its originality, flexibility and the diversity of the forms. In addition to the features of the lexical and syntactic levels, figure of speech, as a kind of linguistic device, is frequently employed in English advertisement. English pun, with its wide use in various literary works, such as poetry, novels, stories, advertisements and riddles, is a category of importance in figure of speech. It expresses humor and wit in a simple way, in that advertisers prefer to use them in their works. Puns with the feature of vividness and interest make the advertising language concise, rich, humorous and attractive. Appropriate use of puns in advertisement can make a remarkable contribution to its influence on its audiences. Based on existing research in this field, the author starts from the pragmatic function to analyze the translation of puns, in hopes to find some strategies for translating puns in advertisement.  It is hoped that this study can not only help enrich the theory of pragmatic function in general, but also provide some enlightenment to the readers who want to seek further study on the translation of pun in practice.

Keywords: pun; advertising English; pragmatic function; translation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

2.1 The definition of puns-2

2.2 Applications of puns in English advertisement-3

2.3 Pragmatic functions of puns in advertisements-5

3. Translation of Puns from the Perspective of Pragmatic Function.-8

3.1 Replacement-9

3.2 Compensation-9

3.3 Focus-on-10

3.4 Footnotes-10

4. Conclusion-11

Work Cited-13