ALFRED NOBEL UNIVERSITY, DNIPROPETROVSK
ENGLISH PHILOLOGY AND TRANSLATION DEPARTMENT
SEMANTICS OF ENGLISH
ADVERTISING HEADLINES AND
PPROBLEMS OF THEIR TRANSLATION
INTO UKRAINIAN
By ZHYVCHYKOVA KATERYNA
The role of advertising
Today advertising
influences and changes
our minds a lot. Nowadays,
advertisement is the tool
which many companies and
enterprises use to inform
prospective customers
about their products and
services.
Relevance and aim of thesis
topic
• It is relevant to study the
mechanisms of verbal impact of
advertising headlines to the
audience.
• The aim of the thesis is to identify
translation transformations used
in the English translation of
advertising headlines into
Ukrainian.
Objectives of the work:
• to review the works of
various linguists, who
studied this problem;
• to give the definition of
"advertising headline";
• to study the existing
classifications and features
of advertising headlines;
• to identify the features and
problems of translation of
advertising headlines;
• to consider the translation
transformations used while
translating the ad headlines
from English into Ukrainian.
• to perform frequency
analysis of the use of ad
headlines in various forms;
• to compare the basic
techniques and methods of
reproduction of Ukrainian
and English advertising
headlines.
Object and subject of research:
• The object of
research is the
English
advertising
headline that can
be at the level of
word forms
(morphological
features) or at the
level of phrases or
sentences (syntax
features).
• The subject of
research is
theoretical and
practical aspects
of translation of
advertising
headlines from
English into
Ukrainian.
As a methodological basis for
the research we have used such
methods as:
• morpho-syntactic analysis,
• linguistic analysis,
• complex translation analysis, involving
contextual element, component,
transformational analysis,
• quantitative methods of counting.
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Linguists who studied the problems of
ad text and headlines translation:
E. Pozdnyakov,
A. Prokhorov,
T. Pateman,
B. Phillips,
E. Semino,
R. Mokshantsev,
E. Orlova,
M. Chernyshev,
W. Scott,
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R. Barth,
O. Vorobyov,
H. Kaftandzhiev,
A. Berger,
T. Bex,
G. Sook,
A. Goddard,
G. Myers
and others
Advertising text
components:
• Headline
• Main ad text
• Slogan
• Echo-phrase
What is a «headline»???
• Headline is graphically
highlighted sign of the text,
expressed by verbal and
non-verbal resources of
language, which is relatively
auto semantic and
completely original; unique
text element that calls
and/or describes the
following text, predicts
content, interprets the text,
informing its additional
meanings.
Main functions of an ad headline:
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attract attention;
arouse interest;
identify customers / target groups;
identify products / services;
sell products / services.
Common features of ad headlines:
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Wordplay
Repetition of a word
New lexemes
Shortenings
Idioms/changed idioms
Metaphor
Anaphora/epifora
Allusion
Alliteration etc.
Classification in terms of semantic
aspects of the headline functioning by
Syrov I.A.
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1. Headline-summary:
a) informative-neutral;
Shift your thinking
b) informative-evaluative.
Smile, you're picture-perfect
2. Headline-indicator.
Deal of the day!
3. Headline-localizer.
Unleash your alter ego…
Classification of the headlines by their
information content according to Lazareva E.A.:
• Fully informative
headlines:
• Nominative
• Spring sale
• Predicative
• Brighten your summer look!
• Partially informative
headlines
• We all want to get more out of
life
Classification of ad headlines by their syntactic features
by H. Kaftandzhyyev:
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By relation to reality:
Affirmative
Negative
By the aim of
expression:
Narrative
Interrogative
Motivating
By gramatical
structure:
Simple
Complex
Own classification of ad
headlines in terms of
visual information
representation method:
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Textual
Graphical
Digital
Mixed
In the second part of diploma work where 52 headlines were
analyzed, we can detect the frequency of the headlines use in
one of the forms. Namely, 14 headlines were in the form of the
nominative construction (27%) , 33 in the form of a simple
sentence (63 %), 2 in the form of a complex sentence (4%), 3
headlines in the form of segmented construction (6%).
Частота вживання заголовків в одній із форм
сегментована
конструкція
складне
6%
речення
4%
номінативна
конструкція
27%
номінативна конструкція
просте речення
складне речення
сегментована конструкція
просте речення
63%
Examples:
FULLY EQUIVALENT TRANSLATION
• Gifts for her– Подарунки для неї
• Six ways to WOW!– 6 засобів приголомшення
• Live your passion – Живи своєю пристрастю
PARTIALLY EQUIVALENT TRANSLATION
• Very famous amongst very few – Широко відомий у вузьких
кругах
• The most rational decision your heart can make –
Найраціональніше рішення, яке ви можете прийняти.
• African lore says the Marula washes away bad luck – За
африканським повір’ям марула позбавляє від невдач
COMPLETE REPLACEMENT
• It’s just arrived - Нові надходження
• So you’re not a Vegas person. Are you sure? – Ви впевнені, що не
любите Вегас?
• Last night? Never happened! – Важка ніч? Ніхто не дізнається!
In the third section of diploma work where 39 titles were analyzed, we can
detect the frequency of translation method use. Namely, we have 26 headlines
translated using fully equivalent translation method (66% ), 10 headlines were
translated using partially equivalent translation method (26%), 3 headlines were
presented as completely new (8%).
Частота використання різніх способів перекладу рекламних
заголовків
частковоеквівалентн
ий переклад
26%
повна заміна
8%
повноеквівалентний
переклад
частковоеквівалентний
переклад
повна заміна
повноеквівалентний
переклад
66%
• The most commonly used complex lexical and
grammatical transformations were omission/addition,
transposition, replacement, compensation, transcription
and transliteration.
• Advertising headline translation should be considered
from the functional-pragmatic (functionalcommunication) adequacy standpoint. Under this
concept, the key requirement is to reproduce the
dominant feature of the original text and
communicative intentions of the author, which must
provide the necessary impact on the recipient
(consumer).
Thank you for your attention! 