2.2 Researches of AT in Domestic Nation
Until the 20th century, Chinese scholars began to do formal studies of AT on principles, strategies and theoretical foundation. Jiang (1994) proposed that the translators should be aware of the semantic equivalence, socio-cultural equivalence and stylistic equivalence while translating ads. Meng and Zhan (2001) studied the pun in AT and pressed ahead the development of translation strategies, including agreement, replacement, emphasis and compensation. In the following years, some researchers started to study AT on foreign theory, such as, Relevance Theory or Skopos Theory, but these papers were always similar to each other and had no great break-through in the translation field.
When it comes to the topic of parody in AT, Wang (2003), through cases study, proposed that parody was not only a figure of speech, but also a kind of effective strategy while translating the advertisements. Chen (2006) further studied this topic, briefly introduced the application of parody in AT and made some tips for advertising translation. Chen and Zhao (2009) proposed two strategies, imitation and creative parody in advertising translation.
Meanwhile, as memetics, the theory of biology, was introduced into China and gradually used as a translation theory, some theses based on this theory emerged in translation field. He (2005) translated “meme” into “模因”, whose semantic meaning is “to imitate propagation factor’’ with its pronunciation closely related to gene, which indicates that it has a double meaning of imitation and gene. Meme is the key concept of memetics. Meme is infected by imitating; if the imitation happens, there is bound to be some thing which has been passed, and this thing is just what we call--meme. In other words, anything, as long as it has been transmitted through the imitation, can be called a meme. Zhou (2008) discussed the memetic method of advertising translation, and demonstrated the novelty and terseness of using linguistic meme in the translated version. Wang (2011), further researched the memetic AT from English to Chinese, and provided readers with several interesting cases.
Influenced by the memetics and parody in translation, Luo (2009) compared the strategy of parody with two Chinese translation methods on Memetics. But the paper attached more importance on the qualitative analysis. Later, few scholars choose this topic to do a detailed research owing to lack of novel advertising examples and acquaintance of the Memetics. Fortunately, this present paper will dwell on the application of parody in AT on Memetics respectively from the famous idioms and proverbs, well-known poems and songs and popular couplets and quotations. What matters is that four tips concerning cultural difference, suitable conditions, practical correlation and anti-hackneyed expressions will be introduced after the total analysis.
3 Definition and Relation of Parody and Memetics
As parody, one of the strategies of translation methods, is mentioned and discussed in this paper, it will be explained in the following part. Also, memetics, used as a theoretical guide of a thesis, will spell out in the next part. Due to the similarity function between the transmissions of linguistic meme and parody in the advertising translation, it is necessary to demonstrate the relation of parody and memetics.
3.1 Definition of Parody
According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms, “Parody” is derived from a Greek word “Paroidia”, which means “mock song”. Cuddon (1986) defines “parody” as “the imitative use of the words style, attitude, tone and ideas of an author in such a way as to make them ridiculous”, which is usually achieved by exaggerating certain traits, using more or less the same technique as the cartoon caricaturist. In fact, it is a kind of satirical mimicry. As a branch of satire, its purpose may be corrective as well as derisive. Parody is also a rhetorical method, a literary or a musical work that copies a serious work in a humorous way. (Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2002: 1030). 从模因论角度下谈广告语的仿译(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_2221.html