VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT
PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN
ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING
SLOGANS
(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC CHO VIỆC
DỊCH ANH-VIỆT KHẨU HIỆU QUẢNG CÁO)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

HA NOI, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT

Vietnamese
Chart 2 Types and number of occurrences of wordplay
Chart 3 Number of translatable and untranslatable cases in five kinds of puns v

2.2.1. Definition of advertising slogan 22
2.2.2. Characteristics of advertising slogans 25

vi
CHAPTER 2: STUDY OF DIFFICULTIES AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION OF AD SLOGANS 33
1. STUDY OF MODIFICATION IN LEXICAL AND STRUCTURE IN TRANSLATION
OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS 34
1.1. Lexical addition 35
1.2. Lexical omission 36
1.3. Lexical adaptation 37
1.4. Structural addition 38
1.5. Structural omission 38
1.6. Structural adaptation 39
2. STUDY OF TRANSLATING PUNS IN AD SLOGANS 42
2.1. The phenomenon of puns in ad slogans 42
2.2. Translating puns into Vietnamese equivalent 44
3. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES IN AD SLOGAN TRANSLATION FROM
ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE 45
3.1. Unability to preserve nuance meaning 46
3.2. Pun as case of untranslatability 47
3.3. Neologism as a case of untranslatability 48
3.4. Cultural barrier 49
4. STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING AD SLOGANS 51
4.1 Recognizing the technique used 51
4.2. Understanding background information of ad slogans 54
4.3. Dealing with unstranslable factors 57
4.4. Preserving and reproducing typical qualities of ads slogan 59
4.5. Applying the original slogan: 63
5. SUMMARY 64

fading out the shade of meaning. The question raised is that whether there are any techniques
or which methods are useful for handle the difficulties.
Furthermore, some earlier investigations only focus on interpreting the meaning and
characteristics of ad slogans in borrowed words. However, there has not been sufficient and
satisfied study to decode the difficulties and figure out strategies for translating advertising
slogans. Even though it is never easy task, it is new and contributive to give a deep insight of
the area.
These wondering and interests promisingly provide me with many interesting facts,
ideas and directions to implement this study. “A study on difficulties and strategies in
English-Vietnamese Translation of Advertising Slogans”

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2. Objectives of the study
In brief, the study aims specifically at:
- To provide translators with vital understanding and significant characteristics of the
language in advertising slogans
- To compare and contrast English advertising slogans and its Vietnamese equivalent
to find out the typical translating tendencies and difficulties that translators may deal with.
- To suggest some solutions as well as strategies for translators to handle difficulties in
translating ad slogans and to improve translating work
3. Research questions
To achieve the aims within the scope, the research questions below are addressed:
- What are major translating tendencies and typical characteristics in English-
Vietnamese transcreation of ad slogans?
- What difficulties or problems translators might deal with in translating English ad
slogans into Vietnamese?
- What are particular techniques or methods can be applied for translating ad slogans
from English into Vietnamese?
4. Scope of the study
In terms of studied subject, the thesis involves wide range of English ad slogans and

Chapter 1 reviews Theoretical background of the study. The concepts of translations
theory such as Translation definition, Translation methods, Translation equivalence,
Translation process and Translation procedures will be defined. After that, I will provide a
full understanding about Advertising, in which the definition, typical characteristics about
types, language and structure are analyzed thoroughly. Then, Ad slogans, as the focus concept
in the study will be clarified in terms of definition and typical characteristics.
Chapter 2, namely Study of difficulties and strategies in English-Vietnamese
translation of advertising slogan, goes insight of the matter with many aspects of the process
of transposing advertising slogan from source language into a target one. At the beginning,
some tendencies in translating ad slogans in reality will be presented. Next part is
Modification in lexical and structure in translation of ad slogans by which I will observe
slogans in bilingual pairs in terms of meaning, lexical and structure. Then, Study of
translating puns in ad slogans shows an interesting and popular case of translating rhetorical
device in ad slogans. After that, the part Problems and Difficulties in English-to-Vietnamese
translating of ad slogans will be illustrated through a lot of famous experience and stories of
the translation work. Finally, the part Strategies for translating ad slogans exhibits in details

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the steps of how to trancreate a slogan into target language and offers some rules and
techniques for making the best choice and best way of translation.
Chapter 3 is the last but not least important part, namely the Application with various
exercises designed for students in translation course and in business subject.
Part 3, namely CONCLUSION, will present the Recapitulation as well as Limitations
and suggestions for further researches
The final part provides References and Appendix with a list of 100 advertising slogans
both English and Vietnamese, and some advertisements mentioned in the study.


will be presented in chronological order so that it will be easier to comprehend the evolution
of this concept translation.
In 1965, translation is plainly defined as the replacement of textual material in source
language by closet natural equivalent in target language (Catford 1965).
Hartmann & Stock (1972) also share the same idea of the concept that “translation is
the replace of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of another
equivalence text in a second language”
Nida & Taber (1974) call it as a reproducing process with the emphasis of meaning
and style. Similarly, Dubois (1973) makes the great consideration on the semantic and
stylistic preservation in the equivalencies.
Later on, Wilss (1982) enhances the understanding of translation as the procedure
which requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension.
The reference in linguistic nature, social context and communicative purposes are
continuously remarked in the modern theorists‟ view of translation:
“Translation, as the process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural
barriers, is an eminently communicative activity, one whose use could well be
considered in a wider range of teaching situations than may currently be the case.”
(Tudor, cited in Duff 1989)

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“Translating is the transformation of a text originally in one language into an
equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the
message and formal features and the roles of the original text.” (Bell 1991)
As can be seen, there has been an evolution of this concept. There has been more and
more incisive and comprehensive development in interpreting the concept of translation.
Nearly all definitions of translation, where formal or informal, appeal to some notion of this:
translation means the replacement, or substitution, of an utterance in one language by
formally or semantically or pragmatically equivalent utterance in another language. However,
Whatever are the definitions and terminologies of the scholars working in the meaning and
scope of the term “Translation”, most of them share the same idea that translation is not only

figures out six sets of different opinion of the translation theoreticians, which are considered
to be blending to each other, as follows:
1. A translation must give the words of the original.
A translation must give the ideas of original.
2. A translation should read like an original work.
A translation should read like a translation.
3. A translation should reflect the style of the original.
A translation should possess the style of the translator.
4. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.
A translation may never read as a contemporary of the translator.
5. A translation may add or omit from the original.
A translation may never add to or omit from the original.
6. A translation of verse should be in prose.
A translation of verse should be in verse.
(Savory 1957)
It is obvious that translation theoreticians acknowledge the work of translating
diversified and even contradictory. But which principle can be applicable in which cases, it is
impossible to provide a certain answer that which principles of translation is the most
sufficient. Actually, the nature of translation should be interpreted thoroughly and
comprehensively. The matter of this complexity or contradiction is caused because of
using translations for different purposes, by different methods, and with the help of different
tools.
A lot of studies on the area have look at translation from different perspectives. The
concept of translation appears to be complicated process. However, in general view,
translation involving the following features (Hoang, V. Van 2006):
1. Context and co-text are important factor in determining not only the meaning of the
source language text but also the structural arrangement of target language text.
2. Meaning is the key issue in translation.

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SL and making TL one be as original as possible.

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Later, the terms are developed by Newmark with graduation of following eight
popular methods of translation which is classified into two main groups, as in the following
V-shaped chart:
SL emphasis TL emphasis
Word-for word translation Adaptation
Literal translation Free translation
Faithful translation Idiomatic translation
Semantic translation Communicative translation
This chart reflects the relationship between the methods with SL and TL. On the left
side, being closest with the SL is the method of word-for-word translation downwards to
semantic translation which is furthest and closer with the emphasis of TL. Similarly, on the
right, the adaptation method is the one concerns the TL most and the communicative
translation is the method nearest to SL but furthest to TL. All in all, the relationship and the
respect with SL and TL can be interpreted by basing on the position and the nearness of each
in the chart. Moreover, the position also figures out which linguistic characters, SL or TL, are
more respected in translated text. This will be reflected more in below explanation:
 Word-for-word translation:
This method focuses on SL word order in which words are transferred single and
preserved by their most common meanings, out of context. Therefore, the results of this
method are the translation like original text. The TL text is so closed with the SL in terms
of structure and form but may difficult to understand for reader in TL.
 Literal translation:
This is also called borrowing translation. The SL text, concretely its grammatical
constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again
translated singly, out of context.
 Faithful translation:
It attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the

adaptations have “rescued” period plays.
As can be seen, each method exposes its own features and advantages although many
people, in fact, have considered some methods more advanced or qualified than others. The
matter is that different methods can be applicable for diversified purposes and in various
situations. Some of them focus much on convenience, some on style, some on meaning, and
some on communication. In addition, the formers seem to be more primitive methods than the
later; and some of them are the base or previous state to turn to others. Translators have to
make the choice between form-based translation and meaning-based translation, in which the
first strives to retain as much of the purely formal aspects of the source text, and the second
aims at getting the message of the source text across, even if it takes drastic changes in the

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formal aspects of the text. The choice of a method or combination of more than one is really
flexible and dependable. In translating practice, translator flexibly transfers among translation
methods; he can and should change if the circumstances demand as long as the goal of an
accurate, clear, and complete translation is the result.
1.3. Translation equivalence
1.3.1. Translation equivalence
When translators solve matters relevant to relationships between SL and TL text in
terms of professional terminology, this means equivalence to be clarified (Newmark, 1989).
Moreover, when a target term is expected to be faithful reproduction of the source text, the
equivalence is identity (of meaning and of form), and created in a sense of equal value or
correspondence (Christina, 1998)
Translation, as defined previously, is the result of a text-reprocessing activity, by
means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language text. The principle
is that a translation should have an equivalence relation with the source language text; but an
exact equivalence or effect is difficult to achieve. Thus, the matter is not whether two texts are
equivalent, but what type and degree of translation equivalence they reveal.
1.3.2. Types of translation equivalence
Because the target text can never be equivalent to the source text at all levels,

 Function-based equivalence:
Nida (1964) proposes two orientations that are formal and dynamic equivalence:
- Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content. It
requires that the message in the target language should match as closely as possible the
different elements in the source language.
- Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where the
relationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same as that
which existed between the original receptors and the message.
1.4. Translation process
According to Darwish (1989), translation is a process involving a host of activities
drawing upon other disciplines in writing, linguistics and culture. Furthermore, many
activities have to be involved in the process such as perception and interpretation of semantic,
syntactic and stylistic elements; grammatical check and correction; consideration of co-text,
context, culture and other features. Thus, translators need to have wide and deep knowledge
of SL and TL to decode and encode the message and nuances of original text. In this part, the
most typical and standard theories of translation process, as suggested by Nida as follows:

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Translating process, as depicted by Nida (1964) are the process involving three main
stages: Analysis, Transfer, and Restructuring. According to him, the first stage, namely
Analysis, is the perceptive work that translators analyze the structure and its semantic
elements to catch the idea of SL. Then, the message is transferred in the simple and clear form
and structure. In Restructuring, with regards to the semantic and syntactic and stylistic points,
the translator gives the final message in TL, in a way that is understandable for the audience.

translated text in reality. By the second procedures, namely organizational procedure,
translators can be suggested a way to evaluate and make references before restructuring the
text.
2. ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS
2.1. Advertising
Advertising was born as a consequence of the occurrence and development of trading
economics. Advertising has been considered communicative activities or a bridge between
people selling goods or services and others who have needs of buying and using those
commodities. There is wide range of its definitions in which the following are some of typical
interpretations of what is advertising:
According to the books for intensively studying of Marketing and Commercials
“Advertising is a form of communication intended to promote the sale of a product or service,
to influence public opinion, to gain political support, to advance a particular cause, or to
elicit some other response desired by the advertiser” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980).
Bovee (1992) defines that: "Advertising is the non-personal communication of
information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or
ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”
Churchill, Jr. and Peter (1998) confirm the above concept with their definition:
“Advertising is noted as any announcement or persuasive message placed in mass media in
paid or donated time or space by an identified individual, company, or organization to serve
a number of audience about products and persuade or remind them of buying, to convey
information about the organization itself or issues important to the organization in order to
create or enhance perception of the quality or reliability of a product, thus encouraging
customer loyalty and repeat purchases”.
Similarly, Colly (1997) states that “an advertising goal is a specific communicative
task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of
time”
From a linguistic point of view, advertising is defined as “an activity of verbal
communication not only to present information but also to win mind and heart of
advertisement receivers, the potential customers” (Huong, N.T, 2001). In the book “The

purchase or take some action upon products, ideas, or services. It includes the name of a
product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a
target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. Advertising can also serve to
communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince them to take a
certain action.

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2.1.1. Types of advertising
The features of different kinds of advertisements should be taken into account if
advertisers want their message to be effectively transferred to customers. Based on various
criteria such as Function, Region, Target Market, Company demand, Desired response and
Media, there can be several branches of advertising. Mentioned below are the various
categories or types of advertising suggested by Wikieducator in “wikieducator.org”:
 Classification based on function
Advertising performs some functions: (A) Informative advertising: It can inform the
customers about a product, service, or idea. (B) Persuasive advertising: It can persuade or
motivate the consumers to buy products, services, and ideas. (C) Reminder advertising: It can
remove cognitive dissonance from the minds of the customers to reinforce the feeling that
they have bought the best product, service, or idea and their decision is right. (D) Reminder
advertising: It can remind existing customers about the presence of the product, service, or
idea in the market till now. (E) Negative advertising: It can dissuade the public at large from
buying certain products or services that are harmful for them. For examples: Advertisements
of various civic authorities against alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics.
 Classification based on region
We can also classify advertising according to the region: (A) Global advertising: It is
executed by a firm in its global market niches. Reputed global magazines like Time, Far
Eastern Economic Review, Span, Fortune, Futurist, and Popular Science. Cable TV channels
are also used to advertise the products through out world. Supermodels and cinema stars are
used to promote high-end products. (B) National advertising: It is executed by a firm at the
national level. It is done to increase the demand of its products and services throughout the

There are two types of demand, as follows:
A) Market Demand: Advertising is the total volume that would be bought by a defined
customer group, in a defined geographical area, in a defined time period, in a defined
marketing environment under a defined marketing program. (B) Company Demand: It is the
share of the company in the market demand. Accordingly, there are two types of advertising,
it can be:
Primary demand advertising It is also called Generic Advertising. This category of
advertising is designed to increase the primary demand. This is done by trade associations or
groups in the industry. Primary advertising is done by many companies at the same time, but
there is no competition. The idea is to generate a continual demand for the product. Or
Selective demand advertising: this is done by a company or dealer to increase the company
demand. The company would advertise its own brand only. The retailer can also advertise a
particular brand.
 Classification based on desired responses:

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An advertisement can either elicit an immediate response from the target customer, or
create a favourable image in the mind of that customer. The objectives, in both cases, are
different. Thus, we have two types of advertising under this classification. (A) Direct action
advertising: This is done to get immediate responses from customers. Examples: Season's
sale, purchase coupons in a magazine. (B) Indirect action advertising: This type of
advertising exercise is carried out to make a positive effect on the mind of the reader or
viewer. After getting the advertisement he does not rush to buy the product but he develops a
favourable image of the brand in his mind. (C) Surrogate advertising: This is a new category
of advertising. In this type of promotional effort, the marketer promotes a different product.
 Classification based on the media used:
The broad classification based on media is as follows: (A) Audio advertising: It is
done through radio, P A systems, auto-rickshaw promotions, and four-wheeler promotions
etc. (B) Visual advertising: It is done through PoP displays, without text catalogues, leaflets,
cloth banners, brochures, electronic hoardings, simple hoardings, running hoardings etc. (C)

combination of verbal language and language of images, sounds, and colour. The combination
can give audience the feeling of interest and trust. More attractive and effective the
advertisement is, more the sales are. Hence, to achieve the function of drawing the attention,
building the interest and stimulating the desire to buy the products among buyers, the
language should be impressive, credible and stimulated.
Cultural: advertising is not only an economic and social phenomenon but also a
cultural and mental symbol of nations. This is revealed in the sense that some foreign
commercials may not be appropriate or even violent with the culture of some countries. Thus,
the respect of custom, thought and culture must be required in advertising language and ideas
to be acceptable and accessible to customers.
Concise and selective: In order to make the information accessible to audience
effectively, the choice of words in advertising is very cautious and skillful. The aim of the
advertiser is quite specific. Advertisers wish to absorb much attention from the members of a
mass audience and by means of impressive words to persuade them to buy a product or
behave in a particular way. Both linguistic and psychological aspects are taken into
consideration in the choice of words. Language in advertising should be brief and concise. Put
in another way, it means "hit the nail on the head" with as fewer words as possible.
According to Huy, X. Mai (2005), language use of advertisement is considered via
two perspectives as follows:
From qualitative view, advertisement is monologue of highly self-estimation and self-
praise. In fact, this kind of monologue is just in form but dialogue in content and
communication. The communication in advertising activities, on surface, is indirect and one-
sided without the direct response from addressee (reader, listener, or viewer). However, this
discourse functions as communicative tool and has many features of dialogue in the sense that

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the advertisers have to orient and aim to addressees by attempt to choose the most effective
language use, formality and content to be acceptable by their addressees. The second personal
addressee like you, we, us are used significantly in slogans are one of good illustration for the
issue: