Abstract: This thesis aims to do researches on translation of puns in English advertisements from the perspective of functional equivalence. Puns in advertisements are the humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest different meanings and thus can attract public’s attention and persuade consumers to buy the goods. However, it is difficult to translate English puns in advertisements because of untranslatability of quite a number of puns. By collecting present translations of puns guided by different theories in English advertisements, this study analyzes their merits and drawbacks and compares different translations. With reference to Nida’s theory, the author tries to work on the translations with low efficiency in achieving the promotion purpose and come up with some tentative suggestions.

Key words: puns; English advertisements; functional equivalence

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Translation of Puns in English Advertisements ..1

2.1 Puns in English Advertisements

2.2 Translation of Puns in English Advertisements

   2.2.1 Translatability and Untranslatability of Puns 

   2.2.2 Popular Theories Guiding Translation of Puns 

3. A Functional-equivalence View on Translation of Puns in English Advertisements.8

  3.1 Theoretical Guidance

  3.2 Analysis of Translation Examples

  3.3 Emendation of Translations

4. Conclusion10

Bibliography.11

Acknowledgments. 12