THE TRANSLATION OF FAST-FOOD ADVERTISING TEXTS FROM ENGLISH TO ARABIC by BASEM ABBAS AL AGHA THE TRANSLATION OF FAST-FOOD ADVERTISING TEXTS FROM ENGLISH TO ARABIC by BASEM ABBAS AL AGHA submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject LINGUISTICS at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR : Prof. A Kruger November 2006 Student number: 3251-878-1 I declare that THE TRANSLATION OF FAST-FOOD ADVERTISING TEXTS FROM ENGLISH TO ARABIC is my own work and all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. 29-5-2007 _____________________ _______________ SIGNATURE DATE MR B A Al AGHA Acknowledgements To my wife, the children, Shadi, Rula, Fadi, Bilal, and Raneem and my parents: - for love and support. To my supervisor, Prof. Alet Kruger: - for teaching and guiding me all way through to the end. Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used in this study: ST : Source Text TT : Target Text SL : Source Language TL : Target Language DTS : Descriptive Translation Studies Abstract On the assumption that the translation strategies used to translate American fast-food advertisements into Arabic cause the Arabic translations to be culturally bound to their originals, the aim of the present study is to identify such translation strategies. The study was conducted with the aid of questionnaires as a primary research method to obtain data which are then complemented by means of textual analyses of the corpus. The findings reveal that the main translation strategies used to translate phrases in fast-food advertisements from English into Arabic are borrowing and transliteration. The overall finding is that inadequate translations of culture- specific concepts, phrases, logos and terms produce target texts which are bound to the source texts. This causes the translations to be rejected by the target culture. (125 words) Key terms: Advertising; fast food, advertising agencies; translation strategies; culture-specific concepts; logos; phrases; descriptive translation studies. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Page 1.1 Identification and statement of research problem 1 1.2 Background and rationale to the research problem 1 1.3 Statement of problem 4 1.4 Aim of the study 5 1.5 The corpus 6 1.6 Methodology 6 1.6.1 Questionnaire 6 1.6.2 DTS framework for the comparative analysis 6 1.7 Structure of the study 9 Chapter 2: Literature overview 2.1 Introduction and objectives 10 2.2 Domains of the study 10 2.2.1 Culture 10 2.2.1.1 The influence of American fast-food culture 11 2.2.1.2 Culture and language 12 2.2.1.3 The importance of culture in translation 14 2.2.1.4 The importance of translation in culture 14 2.2.1.5 Culture and advertising 15 2.2.2 Advertising 16 2.2.2.1 What is advertising? 16 2.2.2.2 Elements of an advertising text 16 2.2.2.3 Advertising media 18 2.2.2.4 Translation of advertisements 19 2.2.3 Translation 25 2.2.3.1 What is translation? 25 2.2.3.2 From prescriptive to functionalist approaches 26 2.2.4 Descriptive translation studies (DTS) 30 2.2.5 Problems in translating advertisements 32 2.2.6 Strategies for translating advertisements 34 2.2.6.1 Adaptation 34 2.2.6.2 Literal translation strategy 35 2.2.6.3 Partial substitution strategy 35 2.3 Summary 36 Chapter 3: Analytical framework and research procedures 3.1 Introduction and objectives 38 3.2 The questionnaire as research tool 39 3.2.1 The questionnaire’s aims 40 3.2.2 Type of questionnaire 40 3.2.3 Operational measures 40 3.2.4 Populations 41 3.2.5 Closed format questions 42 3.2.6 Questionnaire compilation 43 3.2.7 Questionnaire administration 46 3.3 Macro-textual aspects of advertisements 47 3.3.1 Headlines 48 3.3.2 Length 50 3.3.3 Proper names 51 3.3.4 Colour 52 3.3.4.1 Substitution 52 3.3.4.2 Transference 52 3.3.5 Senders 54 3.3.6 Recipients 54 3.3.7 Medium 55 3.4 Micro-textual aspects of advertisements 56 3.4.1 Strategies used for translating fast-food advertisements 56 3.4.1.1 Transliteration 58 3.4.1.2 Loan words 60 3.4.2 Examples 62 3.4.2.1 Culture-specific concepts 62 3.4.2.2 Phrases 63 3.4.2.3 Logos 66 3.4.2.4 Terms 70 3.5 Conclusion 71 Chapter 4: Findings and interpretation 4.1 Introduction and objectives 73 4.2 Discussion: Translation strategies of fast-food advertisements 73 4.2.1 Culture-specific concepts 73 4.2.2 Phrases 76 4.2.3 Logos 78 4.2.4 Terms 80 4.3 Summary 82 Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1 Aim of the study 84 5.2 Overview of chapters 85 5.3 Contribution of the present study 86 5.4 Implications for future research 87 5.5 Recommendations to advertising translators 88 89 List of sources 92 Online references Appendices Appendix A : Sample Questionnaire 94 Appendix B : Questionnaire with respondents’ percentages 96 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Transliterated examples from restaurant menu 58 Table 2 Transliterated examples from fast-food corpus 59 Table 3 Examples of loan words in fast-food advertisements 61 Table 4 Culture-specific concepts 62 Table 5 Types of fast-food outlets 68 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Headlines, Hardee’s flyer 49 Figure 2 Street poster, Hardee’s 50 Figure 3 Proper names used in English and Arabic advertisements, Indoor 51 Figure 3a,3b,3c Advertisement Agency, 15/20-10-2004 Figure 4a Colour transference, Arab News, 20-9-2004, page 1 53 Figure 4b Riyadh News, 20-9-2004, page 2. 53 Figure 5a Color transference, Arab News, 20-10-2004, p. 1. 53 Figure 5b Riyadh News, 20-10-2004, p. 4 53 Figure 6 Chillie Chicken, Outdoor Advertisement Agency street poster 20/10-2004. 63 Figure 7 Kentucky Fried Chicken flyer. 66 Figure 8 New Pizza Hut logo, Outdoor Advertisement Agency, 10-10-2004. 69 Figure 9 Arab News, 1-8-2004, p. 1. 70 Figure 10 Arab News, 13-8-2004. 71 Figure 11 Riyadh News, 13-8-2004 71 LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 4.1 (Question 7) 74 Graph 4.2 (Question 10) 75 Graph 4.3 (Question 12) 75 Graph 4.4 (Question 9) 77 Graph 4.5 (Question 3) 78 Graph 4.6 (Question 8) 79 Graph 4.7 (Question 5) 81 Graph 4.8 (Question 6) 82 List of diagrams Diagram 1: Tertium comparationis for comparing translated TTs and their STs 8