The Use of Second-Person Reference in Advertisement Translation with Reference to Translation between Chinese and English

Abstract

This research aimed to review the use of second-person reference in advertisement translation, work out the general rules, and provide guidance to translators. Using second-person reference is common in the advertising discourse. Addressing audiences directly involves their attention and in this way enhances their memorization of the advertised message. Second-person reference can be realized via second-person pronouns and the imperative tone. In this study, we investigated the differences between Chinese and English advertising texts. The statistics based on the corpus demonstrated a tendency of using second-person pronouns in the English texts and using imperatives or the implicit way of second-person reference in the Chinese texts. Analyses were provided as to the adjustment made in advertisement translation, referring to the basic human needs and communicative principles.