Cultural translation problems with special reference to English/Arabic advertisements

Kashoob, Hassan S. (1995) Cultural translation problems with special reference to English/Arabic advertisements. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The thesis deals with the problems of translating "soft-sell" advertisements between Arabic and English. It is argued that a standardisation strategy of any international advertising campaign across cultures of soft-sell advertising is unsuccessful at any time in the case of Arabic and English. This stems not only from, besides the huge differences already existing between the two languages and cultures, such as socio-economic and socio-political, but also from the different methods and strategies adopted by the copywriters in employing various elements of humour, irony, persuasion, taboos (e.g. sexual connotations), conceptual sarcasm and cultural intertextuality, which are aimed at particular audiences, and the translation of which is determined by the elements of time and space. Localisation, according to the characters of the local market is thus the best solution for any successful cross-cultural advertising.

The development of the role of culture and language in a given society has also been illustrated, followed by various approaches to cultural translation equivalence and cultural translation difficulties between Arabic and English. The thesis also contains a study of the techniques and methods of advertising. This includes elements of persuasion, strategies of standardisation, language and paralanguage of advertising, style of advertising and deviation in advertising from the norm of standard English.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania; P Language and Literature > PE English; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities
• Supervisor's Name: Mattock, Prof. John
• Date of Award: 1995
• Depositing User: Mrs Marie Cairney
• Unique ID: glathesis:1995-1147
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Sep 2009
• Last Modified: 04 Feb 2014 13:40
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/1147