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[Abstract] Advertising language is an important research material of social change, it is picked up conveniently. There is no distortion and glossing over history, it is the most simple and most visual material. For English advertising, it reflects values, aesthetic tastes, lifestyle, cultural traditions in the U.S., Britain and other countries. With their own unique ways of recording social change, English advertising is quietly playing an important role in the social life and the psychology of social culture. As a practical style, the advertising language has its unique characteristics in vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric and other aspects. Leech opened the first systematic study of advertising language. He studied the various features of advertising language from literature perspective. With the emergence of the theories of pragmatics, some Chinese scholars, like Zhao Jing, Huang guowen, also set out to explore the advertising language from different aspects. But few of them devoted themselves to the English advertising of American beverage. This paper sets out to explore the issues from a pragmatics perspective. Based on the characteristics of advertising language of American Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the paper analyzes the inevitable language impact on social functioning and the concept of values between English advertising and the interaction of modem simple life, revealing the failure of English advertising language in cross-cultural exchanges and social pragmatic information.
[KeyWords] English Advertisement；Pragmatics；Translation
Ⅰ.Introduction
According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association (Fang Wei, 1997:2), advertising is defined as follows: Advertising is the non-personal communication of the information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the mass media. Advertisements are a culture that closely surrounds us, and are gradually permeating every aspect of the society, guiding, harmonizing, or even leading the audience’s ways of thinking, ways of life and values, etc. Specifically, the dominant role of advertising is in its social influence. In addition, the leading role of advertising is more important to society in the performance of any words reproduction control.
Therefore, the paper comes to a conclusion that more attentions should be paid to both the linguistic cultural differences between two nations to avoid the pragmatic failure in translation. Ⅱ.Characteristics of English Advertising
2.1 Characteristics of English Advertising Language
2.1.1Grammatical Characteristics
High-frequency nouns are often used in English advertising. Adjective, verb, complex words and some coin words are also used to make the writing style of English advertising simple and vivid. It shows concretely as follows:
（1）Morphology characteristic of advertising English
Select the daily word. The advertising term must be easy-to-understand and make readers receive information as soon as possible.
① My goodness! My Guinness!
我的天啦！Guinness啤酒！(Bai Guang, 2003:20)
（2）Simulation makes words new
In the application of the word, another important characteristic of English advertising is to create the neologisms.
② Hi-fi Hi-fun Hi-fashion, only from Sony.
高保真，高乐趣，高时尚，只来自索尼。 (Cui Gang, 1993:18)
（3）Use the complex word
The complex word is not merely employed extensively in English advertising, and their group-word method is arranged the restriction in the word order by English grammar. It can fully reflect the initiative spirit created in advertisement.
③ Soft sweater with an easy-going attitude.
柔软的运动衫，舒展的姿态。(Zhao Jing, 1992:14)
2.1.2 The Rhetoric of English Advertisement
Rhetoric of English advertising is one kind of word, a function based expression skills. The use of the rhetorical devices is often to determine intention and result of the advertisement. Here are rhetoric characteristics of English advertising.
（1）Figure of speech
④ Look like a pump, feels like a sneaker.
看似舞蹈鞋，穿似运动鞋。（Espirit鞋）(Li Zhongxing,1986:17)
（2）Personification
⑤ Flowers by Interflora speak from the heart.
英特福罗拉鲜花替您诉衷肠。 (Li Zhongxing, 1986:18)
（3）Parallelism
⑥ Go for it! Look good! Fell good! Be your best!
快去订阅！看着好，感觉好，好上加好! (Fang Wei, 1997:30)
（4）Rhyme
⑦ Hi-fi Hi-fun Hi-fashion, only from Sony.
高保真，高乐趣，高时尚，只来自索尼。(Cui Gang, 1993:18)
2.2 The Characteristics of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Advertisements
2.2.1 The Characteristics of Coca-Cola
（1）Preferred simple sentence.
The sentence of English advertising is often simple, less emphasis on grammar, but concise and straightforward. So it is easy to understand.
⑧ Coke adds life.
可乐点缀生活。（Bai Guang,2003:49）
These advertisements have emphasized Coca-Cola to bring the simple and simple life for people.
（2）Advertising slogan language features: Simple, neat and music, easy to read aloud and to remember. ⑨ Cannot beat the feeling.
挡不住的感觉。(Bai Guang, 2003:49)
（3）Language integrated with the arts.
⑩ Cannot beat the real thing.
挡不住的诱惑。(Bai Guang, 2003:50)
2.2.2 The Characteristics of Pepsi
（1）Pepsi advertising language is quite unique
Pepsi thought that young people pursue something such as music, sports, thus Pepsi made “For unlimited” as advertising language. With multiple language advertising, the advertising content generally goes along with music, sports.
（2）Imaginative
As a challenge, Pepsi does not imitate Coca-Cola advertising strategy, but innovation through the image, and the kind of brand contains progressive and fashion forward, displaying humor and tireless pursuit of a better life to the next generation to carry forward the spirit of the host Pepsi every corner.
（3）Simple
11 Generation Next. (Pepsi)
新的一代。（百事）(Liang Ting& Xia Tian,2003:35)
（4）Rhyme
12 Pepsi-Cola hits the spot.
Twelve ounces, that’s a lot.
Twice as much for a nickel, too,
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you. (Dupont, 1999:27-28)
In this advertisement, the “spot” and “a lot” rhyme, and “you” rhyme “too”. Using rhyme means easy to read and to increase their influence, and to enhance product visibility, for it may be puzzling to the audience.
III. The Pragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
3.1 Pragmatic Failure
“Pragmatic competence” is the ability to use language effectively in order to achieve a specific purpose and to understand language in context. (Rotzoll, Haefner&Sandage, 1986:10) To be more specific, failure occurs when the hearer fails to perceive the illocutionary force of an utterance or when the speaker fails to convey the intended meaning. Thus the term “pragmatic failure” can be defined as the inability to understand what is meant by what is said or to mean what is intended by what is said. Pragmatic failure is not language performance error or grammatical error.
3.1.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure
Pragmalinguistic failure occurs when the pragmatic force mapped by the speaker onto a linguistic token or structure is systematically different from the force most frequently assigned to it by native speakers of the target language. Pragmalinguistic failure is a question of highly conventionalized usage, which can be treated as part of the grammar. As is proposed by Leech (1983:25-27), pragmalinguistic failure may arise from two identifiable sources: “teaching-induced errors” and “pragmalinguistic transfer”, the inappropriate transfer of speech act strategies from one language to another, or the transferring from the mother tongue to the target language of utterances which are semantically syntactically equivalent. 3.2 The Pragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
3.2.1 The Pragmalinguistic Failure in Advertising Translation
The application of ambiguous or inappropriate words and the translator’s failure in expressing the elocutionary meaning of the source text will both result in difficulties in communication and hence pragmalinguistic failure. When translating cross-cultural advertising, the translator, as the direct “speaker” to the readers, might in some cases simply render the denotative meaning of the source text where the connotative meaning should be presented. Failure caused in this way will undoubtedly weaken the communicative effect of the source text.
3.2.2 The Sociopragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
In advertising translation, if the translator ignores or misunderstands the discrepancies between the two cultures, he will also fail to convey the pragmatic force or intended meaning of the source text and sociopragmatic failure thus arises. Soicopragmatic failure can cause equal confusion among the target language readership or even weaken or distort the intention of the source text. To be more specific, such problems usually result from differences in the following aspects:
（1）Social Values
a. Group Tendency vs. Individual Tendency. Advertisements must be consistent with the value of a people. Many argue that the best (most effective) ads are those that express and affirm core cultural values.
b. Authority vs. Fact The traditional Chinese culture advocates the absolute authority from the top. Therefore, many Chinese advertising copywriters resort to certain authority to assure the target audience the quality of the product advertised. For this reason, one can often come across messages like, “国有企业”(a state-owned enterprise),“天然椰子汁- 国宴饮料”(the Natural Coconut Milk--a drink for state banquets), etc. English advertising also takes an advantage from certain authority. Anyhow, it often supports the authority with facts. (Zhang Dianyu, 2005:21)
（2）Cognitive Styles
In writing, people in English-speaking countries are inclined to begin with a topic sentence, pointing out the main idea of the whole paragraph, then to follow the illustration as well as supporting evidences of the theme. In contrast, Chinese writing usually takes a circuitous way to make a development instead of a straightforward narration.
（3）Customs and Conventions
People of China and those of the English-speaking countries have their respective customs and conventions, which cover almost every aspect of social life. For instance,“喜鹊”bed sheets may meet trouble in promoting sales in the world market if the brand name is literally rendered into "Magpie", because "magpie" is related to gossipy persons in English, which is different in the associative meaning from the Chinese original“喜鹊”，which means "a lucky bird that heralds good news". As a result, the brand name“喜鹊”is adapted into "Lucky bird" in English to avoid the sociopragmatic failure. （4）Political Systems
Due to the different political systems between China and the English-speaking countries, some words and phrases that reflect the political characteristics of China may not be understood by people in the English-speaking countries. For example, we Chinese are all very familiar with the term“五讲四美三热爱’' as we were taught to stick to this principle when we were young.(He Zhaoxiong, 1989:36) The connotation of this term is so widely known that some translators just take it for granted that everybody knows what are the "five stresses", what are the "four points of beauty" and what are the "three aspects of love" when they provide foreigners with the English version "five stresses, four points of beauty and three aspects of love". As a matter of fact, such ideal foreigners of Chinese political systems are extremely hard to find.
（5）Religious Beliefs
Different religious beliefs leave different imprints on language and these differences sometimes make it hard for people to understand the meaning or implication of words. In China, Buddhism and Taoism have been prevalent for thousands of years, and a great number of Chinese words are related with them, e.g. “金刚”“芸芸众生”.The majority of people in English-speaking countries believe in Christianity and the Bible is a significant source of allusions. That is why many words are borrowed from the Bible and utilized as brand names, like "Eden", "angel" and so on. (Cheng Yumin,1997:34)
IV. Conclusion
Language is a tool of communication. Communication is actually the realization of the three language functions: the informative, expressive and vocative functions. Translation, as a kind of communication, means the transformation of functions from the source language to the receptor language. New mark’s equivalent effect is based on the accomplishment of this functional shift and it tends to be the only criterion of advertising translation. There are many approaches to equivalent effect, among which the pragmatic approach may be the most applicable. Any translation taking the pragmatic approach is tentatively named as pragmatic translation, which aims at achieving the equivalent effect and proves useful relevant translation problems, which is also the method applied to reincarnate the spirit of the advertisement language of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in another language to appeal to the need of the target audience.
So, when the pragmatic approach is applied to advertising translation, the pragmatic translation of advertising can also be viewed from two perspectives: pragmalinguistic equivalent translation of advertising and sociopragmatic equivalent translation of advertising. To attain the pragmatic equivalent effect in advertising translation, we should identify the pragmatic force or intended meaning of text and choose the appropriate forms of language to convey its target to the linguistic and cultural differences between the target audiences, the pragmatic failure in advertising translation inevitable. In a word, more attentions should be paid to both the linguistic cultural differences between two nations to avoid the pragmatic failure in translation.
Bibliography：
[1] Conrad Berke, Entrepreneur magazine: Successful advertising for small businesses [M]. Published by John Wiley& Sons, Inc.
[2] Dupont,1999,1001 Advertising Tips [M]. White Rock Publishing, Inc.
[3] John Philip Jones,1999,When ads work: New proof that advertising triggers sales [M]. London: Routledge.
[4] Rotzoll,Haefner&Sandage,1986,Advertising in Contemporary Society [M]. By South-Western Publishing Co, Cincinnati, Ohio.
[5] Leech,1996,G. Pragmatics [M].Oxford University Press.
[6]白光.《外国当代广告评析150例》[M].北京：中国广播电视出版社，2003.
[7]崔刚.《广告英语》[M].北京：北京理工大学出版社，1993.
[8]程雨民.《语言系统及其运作》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，1997.
[9]方薇.《现代英语广教程》[M].南京：南京大学出版社，1997.
[10]何自然.《语用学与英语学习》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2000.
[11]何兆熊.《语用学概论》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，1989.
[12]李中行.《广告英语》[M].长沙：湖南教育出版社，1986.
[13]梁婷，夏天.《英文广告实用手册》[M].西南财经大学出版社，2003.
[14]赵静.《广告英语》[M].外语教学与研究出版社，1992.
[15]张殿玉.《英语学习策略与自主学习》[J].《外语教学》第一期，2005.
[KeyWords] English Advertisement；Pragmatics；Translation
Ⅰ.Introduction
According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association (Fang Wei, 1997:2), advertising is defined as follows: Advertising is the non-personal communication of the information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the mass media. Advertisements are a culture that closely surrounds us, and are gradually permeating every aspect of the society, guiding, harmonizing, or even leading the audience’s ways of thinking, ways of life and values, etc. Specifically, the dominant role of advertising is in its social influence. In addition, the leading role of advertising is more important to society in the performance of any words reproduction control.
Therefore, the paper comes to a conclusion that more attentions should be paid to both the linguistic cultural differences between two nations to avoid the pragmatic failure in translation. Ⅱ.Characteristics of English Advertising
2.1 Characteristics of English Advertising Language
2.1.1Grammatical Characteristics
High-frequency nouns are often used in English advertising. Adjective, verb, complex words and some coin words are also used to make the writing style of English advertising simple and vivid. It shows concretely as follows:
（1）Morphology characteristic of advertising English
Select the daily word. The advertising term must be easy-to-understand and make readers receive information as soon as possible.
① My goodness! My Guinness!
我的天啦！Guinness啤酒！(Bai Guang, 2003:20)
（2）Simulation makes words new
In the application of the word, another important characteristic of English advertising is to create the neologisms.
② Hi-fi Hi-fun Hi-fashion, only from Sony.
高保真，高乐趣，高时尚，只来自索尼。 (Cui Gang, 1993:18)
（3）Use the complex word
The complex word is not merely employed extensively in English advertising, and their group-word method is arranged the restriction in the word order by English grammar. It can fully reflect the initiative spirit created in advertisement.
③ Soft sweater with an easy-going attitude.
柔软的运动衫，舒展的姿态。(Zhao Jing, 1992:14)
2.1.2 The Rhetoric of English Advertisement
Rhetoric of English advertising is one kind of word, a function based expression skills. The use of the rhetorical devices is often to determine intention and result of the advertisement. Here are rhetoric characteristics of English advertising.
（1）Figure of speech
④ Look like a pump, feels like a sneaker.
看似舞蹈鞋，穿似运动鞋。（Espirit鞋）(Li Zhongxing,1986:17)
（2）Personification
⑤ Flowers by Interflora speak from the heart.
英特福罗拉鲜花替您诉衷肠。 (Li Zhongxing, 1986:18)
（3）Parallelism
⑥ Go for it! Look good! Fell good! Be your best!
快去订阅！看着好，感觉好，好上加好! (Fang Wei, 1997:30)
（4）Rhyme
⑦ Hi-fi Hi-fun Hi-fashion, only from Sony.
高保真，高乐趣，高时尚，只来自索尼。(Cui Gang, 1993:18)
2.2 The Characteristics of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Advertisements
2.2.1 The Characteristics of Coca-Cola
（1）Preferred simple sentence.
The sentence of English advertising is often simple, less emphasis on grammar, but concise and straightforward. So it is easy to understand.
⑧ Coke adds life.
可乐点缀生活。（Bai Guang,2003:49）
These advertisements have emphasized Coca-Cola to bring the simple and simple life for people.
（2）Advertising slogan language features: Simple, neat and music, easy to read aloud and to remember. ⑨ Cannot beat the feeling.
挡不住的感觉。(Bai Guang, 2003:49)
（3）Language integrated with the arts.
⑩ Cannot beat the real thing.
挡不住的诱惑。(Bai Guang, 2003:50)
2.2.2 The Characteristics of Pepsi
（1）Pepsi advertising language is quite unique
Pepsi thought that young people pursue something such as music, sports, thus Pepsi made “For unlimited” as advertising language. With multiple language advertising, the advertising content generally goes along with music, sports.
（2）Imaginative
As a challenge, Pepsi does not imitate Coca-Cola advertising strategy, but innovation through the image, and the kind of brand contains progressive and fashion forward, displaying humor and tireless pursuit of a better life to the next generation to carry forward the spirit of the host Pepsi every corner.
（3）Simple
11 Generation Next. (Pepsi)
新的一代。（百事）(Liang Ting& Xia Tian,2003:35)
（4）Rhyme
12 Pepsi-Cola hits the spot.
Twelve ounces, that’s a lot.
Twice as much for a nickel, too,
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you. (Dupont, 1999:27-28)
In this advertisement, the “spot” and “a lot” rhyme, and “you” rhyme “too”. Using rhyme means easy to read and to increase their influence, and to enhance product visibility, for it may be puzzling to the audience.
III. The Pragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
3.1 Pragmatic Failure
“Pragmatic competence” is the ability to use language effectively in order to achieve a specific purpose and to understand language in context. (Rotzoll, Haefner&Sandage, 1986:10) To be more specific, failure occurs when the hearer fails to perceive the illocutionary force of an utterance or when the speaker fails to convey the intended meaning. Thus the term “pragmatic failure” can be defined as the inability to understand what is meant by what is said or to mean what is intended by what is said. Pragmatic failure is not language performance error or grammatical error.
3.1.1 Pragmalinguistic Failure
Pragmalinguistic failure occurs when the pragmatic force mapped by the speaker onto a linguistic token or structure is systematically different from the force most frequently assigned to it by native speakers of the target language. Pragmalinguistic failure is a question of highly conventionalized usage, which can be treated as part of the grammar. As is proposed by Leech (1983:25-27), pragmalinguistic failure may arise from two identifiable sources: “teaching-induced errors” and “pragmalinguistic transfer”, the inappropriate transfer of speech act strategies from one language to another, or the transferring from the mother tongue to the target language of utterances which are semantically syntactically equivalent. 3.2 The Pragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
3.2.1 The Pragmalinguistic Failure in Advertising Translation
The application of ambiguous or inappropriate words and the translator’s failure in expressing the elocutionary meaning of the source text will both result in difficulties in communication and hence pragmalinguistic failure. When translating cross-cultural advertising, the translator, as the direct “speaker” to the readers, might in some cases simply render the denotative meaning of the source text where the connotative meaning should be presented. Failure caused in this way will undoubtedly weaken the communicative effect of the source text.
3.2.2 The Sociopragmatic Failure in Advertising Translation
In advertising translation, if the translator ignores or misunderstands the discrepancies between the two cultures, he will also fail to convey the pragmatic force or intended meaning of the source text and sociopragmatic failure thus arises. Soicopragmatic failure can cause equal confusion among the target language readership or even weaken or distort the intention of the source text. To be more specific, such problems usually result from differences in the following aspects:
（1）Social Values
a. Group Tendency vs. Individual Tendency. Advertisements must be consistent with the value of a people. Many argue that the best (most effective) ads are those that express and affirm core cultural values.
b. Authority vs. Fact The traditional Chinese culture advocates the absolute authority from the top. Therefore, many Chinese advertising copywriters resort to certain authority to assure the target audience the quality of the product advertised. For this reason, one can often come across messages like, “国有企业”(a state-owned enterprise),“天然椰子汁- 国宴饮料”(the Natural Coconut Milk--a drink for state banquets), etc. English advertising also takes an advantage from certain authority. Anyhow, it often supports the authority with facts. (Zhang Dianyu, 2005:21)
（2）Cognitive Styles
In writing, people in English-speaking countries are inclined to begin with a topic sentence, pointing out the main idea of the whole paragraph, then to follow the illustration as well as supporting evidences of the theme. In contrast, Chinese writing usually takes a circuitous way to make a development instead of a straightforward narration.
（3）Customs and Conventions
People of China and those of the English-speaking countries have their respective customs and conventions, which cover almost every aspect of social life. For instance,“喜鹊”bed sheets may meet trouble in promoting sales in the world market if the brand name is literally rendered into "Magpie", because "magpie" is related to gossipy persons in English, which is different in the associative meaning from the Chinese original“喜鹊”，which means "a lucky bird that heralds good news". As a result, the brand name“喜鹊”is adapted into "Lucky bird" in English to avoid the sociopragmatic failure. （4）Political Systems
Due to the different political systems between China and the English-speaking countries, some words and phrases that reflect the political characteristics of China may not be understood by people in the English-speaking countries. For example, we Chinese are all very familiar with the term“五讲四美三热爱’' as we were taught to stick to this principle when we were young.(He Zhaoxiong, 1989:36) The connotation of this term is so widely known that some translators just take it for granted that everybody knows what are the "five stresses", what are the "four points of beauty" and what are the "three aspects of love" when they provide foreigners with the English version "five stresses, four points of beauty and three aspects of love". As a matter of fact, such ideal foreigners of Chinese political systems are extremely hard to find.
（5）Religious Beliefs
Different religious beliefs leave different imprints on language and these differences sometimes make it hard for people to understand the meaning or implication of words. In China, Buddhism and Taoism have been prevalent for thousands of years, and a great number of Chinese words are related with them, e.g. “金刚”“芸芸众生”.The majority of people in English-speaking countries believe in Christianity and the Bible is a significant source of allusions. That is why many words are borrowed from the Bible and utilized as brand names, like "Eden", "angel" and so on. (Cheng Yumin,1997:34)
IV. Conclusion
Language is a tool of communication. Communication is actually the realization of the three language functions: the informative, expressive and vocative functions. Translation, as a kind of communication, means the transformation of functions from the source language to the receptor language. New mark’s equivalent effect is based on the accomplishment of this functional shift and it tends to be the only criterion of advertising translation. There are many approaches to equivalent effect, among which the pragmatic approach may be the most applicable. Any translation taking the pragmatic approach is tentatively named as pragmatic translation, which aims at achieving the equivalent effect and proves useful relevant translation problems, which is also the method applied to reincarnate the spirit of the advertisement language of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in another language to appeal to the need of the target audience.
So, when the pragmatic approach is applied to advertising translation, the pragmatic translation of advertising can also be viewed from two perspectives: pragmalinguistic equivalent translation of advertising and sociopragmatic equivalent translation of advertising. To attain the pragmatic equivalent effect in advertising translation, we should identify the pragmatic force or intended meaning of text and choose the appropriate forms of language to convey its target to the linguistic and cultural differences between the target audiences, the pragmatic failure in advertising translation inevitable. In a word, more attentions should be paid to both the linguistic cultural differences between two nations to avoid the pragmatic failure in translation.
Bibliography：
[1] Conrad Berke, Entrepreneur magazine: Successful advertising for small businesses [M]. Published by John Wiley& Sons, Inc.
[2] Dupont,1999,1001 Advertising Tips [M]. White Rock Publishing, Inc.
[3] John Philip Jones,1999,When ads work: New proof that advertising triggers sales [M]. London: Routledge.
[4] Rotzoll,Haefner&Sandage,1986,Advertising in Contemporary Society [M]. By South-Western Publishing Co, Cincinnati, Ohio.
[5] Leech,1996,G. Pragmatics [M].Oxford University Press.
[6]白光.《外国当代广告评析150例》[M].北京：中国广播电视出版社，2003.
[7]崔刚.《广告英语》[M].北京：北京理工大学出版社，1993.
[8]程雨民.《语言系统及其运作》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，1997.
[9]方薇.《现代英语广教程》[M].南京：南京大学出版社，1997.
[10]何自然.《语用学与英语学习》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2000.
[11]何兆熊.《语用学概论》[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，1989.
[12]李中行.《广告英语》[M].长沙：湖南教育出版社，1986.
[13]梁婷，夏天.《英文广告实用手册》[M].西南财经大学出版社，2003.
[14]赵静.《广告英语》[M].外语教学与研究出版社，1992.
[15]张殿玉.《英语学习策略与自主学习》[J].《外语教学》第一期，2005.