Types of translation

Although advertisements as operative texts require communicative translation, when they were imported to the Czech Republic soon after 1989, ST-oriented close equivalents were preferred and their closeness was checked by the initiator through back-translation. (Advertisements are not only creative pieces of almost fiction but they are also quite sophisticated in their structure and strategy: this is why any changes introduced into translation tend to be carefully monitored.) In fact, closeness in translation was found to represent a scale ranging from non-translation and word- for-word translation over literal to idiomatic translation. Philological translation was also used, but was found to have had a subsidiary function, serving as a draft for advertisement translations done by copywriters who did not understand the SLT.

2.1 Literalness and word-for-wordedness

Literalness is understood here as the initial norm or a translational strategy oper­

ating on semantic level. Word-for-word translation resulting in formal correspon­

dence may be considered literal if it grants semantic equivalence; otherwise word- for-word translations often violate TL rules and norms, yielding TL texts which sound strange and are almost incomprehensible. The borderline between word-for- word translation and literal translation is rather fuzzy. Toury defines literalness as a linguistically-motivated translation where “solutions were sought on a level which is lower than the one on which they would have been selected in the case of pragmati­

cally equivalent, or adequate translation... ” (Toury 1995: 95, 171). Literally trans­

lated advertisements now (unlike in 1990-1994) usually respect TL idiomaticity and syntax, occasionally violating semantic restriction rules; on the macrolevel complete text patterns have as a rule been copied from SLT (Mares 1993, Jettmarová 1995a).

Breaches of norms and conventions in the Czech advertising discourse observed between 1990-1995 may have been inevitable because the genre and its language were not established.

Word-for-word and literal norms often resulted in incomprehensibility or loss of sense, as in The True Spirit of Vodka for Vodka Gorbatchov - Cisty duch vodky (lif.The cleanlpure nature!spirit of Vodka) in 1992 and Duse cisté vodky (lit: The soul!spirit of pure/neat Vodka) in 1995; or Nimm Dein Kinder - Vezmi si svou Kinder (lit:Take your Kinder) for Kinderchocolate, where the dual meaning is lost, Kinder should have been rendered as Kinderchocolat to identify the referent, and the pragmatic impact is

“dullness” rather than appeal.

2.2 Idiomatic translation and adaptation

„Adaptation” is a term used in advertising worldwide. In fact, it may mean any­

thing from (1) linguistic idiomaticity in translation over (2) the technique of addi­

tion/omission/substitution and its product to (3) a complete recreation of the

adver-Zuzana Jettmarová

tisement based on SLT or a creative brief. In the Czech Republic, the term has been used to designate linguistic idiomaticity or the pragmatic technique of addition/

omission/substitution in segments of verbal messages. For example Chappi keeps your best friend fitfiveways (1995) as Chappi - pet slozek pro dokonalou kondiéi vaseho

nejlepsiho pfitele (lit: Chappi- five components for the perfect shape of your best friend)', when form dominates over content like in vocal texts; in puns where adaptive strate­

gies may result in “free” translation: Go well. Go Shell. (1992-93) as A by Vas motor skvéleShell. Shell (lit: For yourengine to gowell. Shell.) in 1992 and Shell.AbyVds motor dobré Shell, (lit: Shell. So that yourengine goes well) in 1995-6, based on semantic and syntactic restructuring, explicitation/implicitation and the homophones sel (go, past, particip.) - Shell. In other cases idiomatic changes may just observe basic stylistic requirements, causing minor semantic changes on referential level.

Idiomatic translation may also be required in order to conform with linguistic usage and/or semantic restrictions, as in the Signal toothpaste tagline building on the image of Signal family (i.e. the range of products) and Signal for the whole family.

Signal. Because your family teeth should last for the lifetime, which has been rendered as Signal. Zdravé zuby pocely zivot. (lit:Signal. Sound teeth for thewhole life), since family teeth is an unacceptable collocation in Czech (example cited from Kolínová 1996).

Here literal translation would have resulted in ridiculousness similar to the effect of the famous Pepsi slogan Pepsi brings you back to life translated into Chinese where it was interpreted as -Pepsibrings your ancestors backfrom the grave’ (example reported by de Pedro 1995).

While in 1994-1995 “idiomatic translation” was a frequent word, by 1996, as Kolínová (1996) reported, the word “translation” almost disappeared from the Czech advertising agencies’ usage and was substituted by “adaptation”. This may reflect the the client's and the agencies’ awareness of the necessity to adjust the copy to the consumer. Czech advertising/translation agencies have, however, complained about having constant disputes with their client over any kind of alterations in the transla­

tion (Jettmarová 1995b, Kolínová 1996). Therefore in the Czech culture, “adapta­

tion” may rather be a proper designation for the special cases of copywriting based on creative briefs or the cases of draft-based translation when the ST is adapted before undergoing translation.

As a technique of complete substitution adaptation has been used in western cul­

tures (Smith 1995, Quillard 1996, de Pedro 1995). For de Pedro (1995: 35) adapta­

tion applies to cases where “the concept behind the advert stays the same, but the images and/or words vary to a greater or lessser extent, which means that some seman­

tic aspects are preserved, whereas others are lost or substituted”. She also views adaptation as a procedure that can “result in an extreme case of translation, a form of cultural transposition, which involves the production of a totally different advert or campaign for each of the countries in which a product is launched or promoted.”

This adaptation concept is supported by her argument that (1) the basic message behind every advertisement is “Buy this”, and that (2) the item advertised and its specifications remain constant throughout the different advertisements and cam­

paigns devised to promote it. Therefore she concludes that “every different version that may appear on TV screens across the world is a translation of that elementary message” (de Pedro 1995: 31).

Present tendencies of development in the Czech Republic suggest that the cur­

Section 3. MediaT/1

rent norm of idiomatic translation will probably evolve in communicative transla­

tion, the usual practice in western cultures like Germany (Smith 1995), the UK and Spain (de Pedro 1995), France and Canada (Quillard 1996), where cultural stereotypes and national preferences as to types of messages (rational vs. emotional, humorous vs. factual, etc.) are accounted for and entrusted to local translators/copy­

writers.

References

Jettmarová, Z. 1995a. Mezitextové vazby a interference v ceské reklámé In: Spisovná céstina a jazyková kultúra. Sborník z olomoucké konference. Praha: FF UK. 184-187.

Jettmarová, Z. 1995b. Import of conventions and textual patterns in advertising through translation. In: Moser-Mercer, B. & Králová, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Translation and Interpreting, Translators' Strategies and Creativity, Amsterdam:

Benjamins, (in print).

Kolínová, K. 1996. Vztah lingvistickych a extralingvistickych faktom v reklame z hlediska prekladu. Ústav translatologie. Praha: FF UK.

Mares, P. 1993. Reklama, pfeklady a “preklady”. Cestina doma a ve svete. Praha: FF UK. 40- 43.

de Pedro, R. 1995. Beyond the Words: The Translation of Television Adverts. ^Babel 42:1.

27-45.

Quillard, G. 1996. Advertising, translation and the reproduction of culture. Paper at the Second International TNE Conference, Current Trends in Studies of Translation and Interpreting. 5-7- Budapest. 1996.

Smith, V. & Klein-Braley, Ch. 1995. Advertising and the limits of translation. In: Snell-Hornby, M. & Jettmarová, Z. & Kaindl, K. (eds.) Translation as Intercultural Communication. Selected Papers from the EST-Congress. Amsterdam: Benjamins, (in print).

Toury, G. 1980. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute.

Toury, G. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam: Benjamins.