The outcomes of researches are splendid. Four stylistic characteristics of advertising have been put forward: concise expressions, a prominent theme, unique contents and catchy pronunciation. These four stylistic characteristics of advertising can be viewed from four perspectives:lexical, syntactic, discourse and aesthetics. Advertising functions include function to disseminate information, persuasion function, image-building function, stimulating consumption function (Tan Guowei, 2002). Apart from these, different types of rhetorical devices have drawn many people’s attention. Six rhetorical devices have been deeply illustrated: rhyme, simile, metaphor, antithesis, pun and repetition. The differences between Chinese and English advertisements have been discussed in depth. Compared to English advertisements, which are much more concise and clear, Chinese advertisements tend to be gorgeous (Zhang Chao, 2008). Many domestic scholars have studied English advertisements for products in certain fields, such as field of cosmetics and machinery. Products from different areas should use different translation strategies and style. However, in the field of electronic communication products, few scholars have set their feet. Therefore, this paper will analyze the rhetorical devices and translation of English electronic communication advertisements.
2 Literature Review
2.1 General Stylistic Characteristics of Advertising
2.1.1 Four Advertising Functions
Advertising function has a complicated relationship with the general stylistic characteristics of advertising. On one hand, the former is realized by the latter. On the other hand, in order to achieve certain functions, an advertisement has to meet some requirements, so the latter is decided by the former. Advertising functions include persuasion function, image-building function, stimulating consumption function and function to disseminate information(Tan Guowei, 2002). Persuasion function means that an advertisement tries to persuade people to consume (See following examples 1 to 5).
E.g 1. Go well, go Shell.(Lubricant)
E.g 2. Just do it! (Nike shoes)
E.g 3. Ask for More. (Coca Cola)
E.g 4. The taste of paradise. (Chocolate)
E.g 5. Tell him, I’m good .(KFC snack)
Persuasion function is similar to the third function: stimulating consumption function, which is the ultimate goal of advertisements, evidently showed in e.g 2 and e.g 3. E.g 4 gives people a vision of delicious chocolate. The final function is vividly demonstrated in e.g 5, an advertisement for a kind of snack.
2.1.2 General Stylistic Features of Advertising
The stylistic requirements of advertisements play a role in achieving these functions. Thus, it is not difficult to understand that the general stylistic features of advertising are mainly summarized as follows: concise expressions, a prominent theme, unique contents and catchy pronunciation(Tan Guowei,2002).
Firstly, an advertisement should not be too long, otherwise it will become cumbersome, gaining little attention. The following two examples show the advantages of short advertisements. Long advertisements are always cumbersome. Concise expressions are important in designing advertisement, the first one is surely more preferable （Examples 6,7）. 通讯类电子产品英文广告的修辞与翻译(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_30578.html