24) Translating journalistic (publicistic) style

The term ‘publicistic style’ is a coinage of Russian linguists.255 Foreign researchers speak of different variations, like ‘journalistic language’, ‘news media language’, ‘newspaper language’, ‘broadcasting language’, etc.256

In Russian linguistics, the publicistic style is understood as a variety of language that carries out simultaneously two functions – informative and expressive – and is used in public and political spheres of activity.

This style incorporates such substyles (sometimes called styles) as newspaper, journalistic, oratorical, and propagandist substyles. Each substyle has particular genres. The newspaper substyle includes editorials, news stories, chronicles, reports, summaries (e.g., weather broadcasts, sports results, etc.). The journalistic substyle is made up of commentaries, comic strips, analytical articles, pamphlets, reviews, essays and the like. The oratorical substyle comprises speeches, sermons, and orations. And the propagandist substyle implies slogans, proclamations, appeals, promotions, commercials - the last genre, though, is now referred to as a new style of advertising.

The main distinctive features of the publicistic style are standardization and expressiveness.257 These features fulfill the two basic functions: to inform the readership as quickly as possible, which demands from a journalist the use of ready-made phrases, or clichés, sometimes called journalese. Expressiveness results from the necessity to influence public opinion. The two tendencies are in perpetual conflict258 - this is the distinctive feature of newspaper and journalistic substyles, first and foremost, which will be discussed here.

Expressiveness can be detected in lexical characteristics of newspapers, magazines and broadcasting, and also in headlines.

English mass media are abundant in connotative colloquial words and phrases, even slang: eyesore, blackleg, new words (drunk-driving, think-tank), abbreviations (champ for ‘champion’, E. Germans for ‘East Germans’). Metaphorical and metonymical associations are not infrequent [Russia’s perestroika has turned missiles into sausages. (The Daily Telegraph)], especially those connected with sports: An industrial port … received a serious blow… (Vladivostok News); Mortgage lenders call for curbs on ‘low start’ advertisements (The Daily Telegraph). Epithets sometimes accompany nouns (strenuous political activity, aggressive grain exporters, the crystal-clear waters).

Though expressive, most metaphors in newspapers are trite and commonplace259: We have also suffered the virtual death of such vital industries as machine tools, motor cycles, and shipbuilding. (The Guardian). It concerns both languages, English and Russian. For example, Russian дары тайги, труженики моря – metaphors turned into hackneyed phrases.

English and American journalists take liberties with well-known public figures, calling them by nicknames (Old Fox, the nickname of Adenauer, Gorby, Gorbachev, Rocky, Rockfeller, Ike, Eisenhauer), shortened names (Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter; FDR – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, JFK – Jack Kennedy – John Fitzgerald Kennedy). Most of these short forms and all the nicknames are translated into Russian in full form, since Russian readership feel disrespect with these types of names.260

Expressiveness of English and Russian headlines is based on different criteria. The English headline includes more colloquial words than a Russian headline.261 Even if an article may be very serious and informative, the headline, to catch the reader’s attention, may contain slang: Scramble to Unseat the Confident Mrs. Bain (The Guardian).

Many headlines are expressive due to alliteration:262 Buck Bush, Man Behind. Malta’s Seasick Summit. When the War of Stones Becomes the War of Guns. Alliteration is not inherent in Russian headlines, so there is no need to perform it in translation.

On the other hand, the expressiveness of Russian headlines is often achieved by puns and allusions: Слонята учатся летать. Весна – время рубить деревья? Кому продается наш гордый «Варяг»? (Владивосток). This stylistic device is lost in translation because of the readers’ background.

A formulaic character of newspaper language is also seen in the vocabulary, syntactic structures, and headlines.

It is typical of an English newspaper to have more verbs, and of Russian newspaper, more nouns to express actions: Одна из крупнейших южнокорейских корпораций – Halla Business Group – приняла решение отказаться от участия в строительстве Владивостокского индустриального порта. (Владивосток) The article with this sentence was shortened in translation for Vladivostok News, with the corresponding sentence reading: An industrial port …received a serious blow recently when a major investor decided to pull out.*

Nominal sentences are also typical of Russian headlines, whereas English journalists prefer verbal headlines:263 U.S. Sales of Vehicles Built in North America Slide 24%. (The Wall Street Journal) – Падение на 24% объема продаж американских автомобилей.

A distinctive feature of Russian newspaper is the abundance of informatively ‘empty’ words, like в частности, дело, со стороны, etc. In translation, these words are reduced. The translated sentence should be made as simple and compressive syntactically as possible. The following example, cited by A. Shveitser, illustrates the idea. Source language sentence: Согласно таблице, составленной Организацией экономического сотрудничества и развития, Финляндия занимает 8-е место в мире по уровню жизни. The translator’s version was According to a table drawn up by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Finland ranks eighth in the world in its living standards. The editor, whose native language was English, compressed the sentence to A table drawn up by the OECD shows Finland as the world’s eighth best-off nation.264

There is a standard for featuring numerals in newspaper articles and headlines. In the English text, whole numbers below 10 are spelled out, figures are used for 10 and above.265 In the Russian text we may find a figure in any case: в 5 км от берега – five kilometers off-shore. In headlines, however, numerals are not spelled-out: 3 Die in Ambulance Crash.

One special problem is translating English headlines. Some features of the headlines have already been mentioned. Another characteristics is that some articles may have several headlines of different levels: headline, lead and ‘catch words’ in the text.

A headline summarizes and draws attention to the story. It is often elliptical: auxiliary verbs, articles and even the sentence subject may be reduced. This presents a particular difficulty in translation. Headlines are normally translated only after reading the whole article, so that the translator is able to restore the subject: Fury at City Bus Cowboys. The article tells us about Manchester’s bus passengers coming out on the streets in protest against bus chaos. It is this thematic component that is missing in the headline. Hence the translation: Жители Манчестера возмущены работой городских автобусов, or Возмущение жителей Манчестера работой городских автобусов.

Most often verbs in headlines are in the so-called present historical tense: Salvador Rebels Take Battle Beneath Streets. If the event described in the headline was completed in the past, the verb is translated in the past form: Повстанцы Сальвадора начали войну под землей. In case the event is not yet finished, the verb is translated with the present form: Mutual Distrust Threatens Yugoslav Peace Accord. – Взаимное недоверие угрожает подписанию мирного соглашения в Югославии. (Угроза мирному соглашению в Югославии). Researchers mark that Russian newspaper headlines are not as informative as English ones, probably because of their nominal thematic character.266

To express a future event, the infinitive can be used in English: Iraqi Minister to Visit Moscow. – Министр Ирака собирается отправиться с визитом в Москву. – Предстоящий визит в Москву иракского министра.

The lead is the first paragraph of the article. It both summerizes and begins to tell the story. The lead answers Who? When? Where? Why? What? How? Some years ago the demand was that the lead consist of one sentence only, which required its partitioning in translation. Now the lead may include two or three sentences.

“Catch words” are used in the English text as if they were small titles of paragraphs. But in fact their usage is purely psychological. They do not summarize the paragraph; out of the context, they are meaningless. They are simply expressive words taken out of context in order to attract the reader’s attention and to make the reader believe that the paragraph is not too large to be read. Because of this, these ‘catchy’ titles are not translated.

25)Translating Advertisements

The translation of advertising texts has its own specific features requiring both translation skills and the knowledge of technologies of writing marketing materials. Translation of advertising texts must not only set out the data exhaustively, but also be clear and easy to read. The translator must take into account the purpose of the advertising message, its audience and their needs, specifics of the particular advertising media, language capabilities, which make it possible to create the desired associations, emotions and moods. Such an approach requires the translator to know the subject, referred to in the original, well and be skilled in generating advertising creative ideas and copywriting. If advertising messages are translated without taking into account these factors, the purpose of an advertising message - raising awareness among consumers and, therefore, increasing sales - will not be achieved.

In our country most advertisers are foreign companies. Many of them have a problem of translating an original long phrase and its adaptation to the Russian (Kazakh) language. The reason is, obviously, typological differences in the Russian (Kazakh) and English languages. In English the meaning of the phrase is expressed through changes in the formal characteristics of words. But in Russian (Kazakh) it is transmitted through a combination of the meanings of several words. When translating English-language advertising texts, in some cases, Russian (Kazakh) translators do not translate the text, but give its "semantic equivalent." For example:

Maybe she's born with it, Maybe it's Maybelline Все в восторге от тебя, А ты - от “Мэйбеллин”

Advertising text of "Johnny Walker" in English is "taste life". In literal translation it would be “попробуй жизнь на вкус”. But it was translated as “Живи, чтобы было, что вспомнить”. This is a typical example of the pragmatic adaptation of the text.

Advertising text tries to convey the properties of the advertised product as by means of images, and by means of the language, example: usually advertising style of expensive perfume is concinnous and expressive:

'M' is for moments you'll never forget?

For days marvelous with flowers and laughter.

For nights magical with means and old promises.

`M 'Fragrances by Henry C. Miner.

It's Magic;

Advertising style of autocars aims to make impression of speed and efficiency.

In this regard, there are advertising texts which include elements of interjection and sound imitation:

Lemonade "Merinda" M e r i n d a - a - a - a ....

Sheweps: Sh - sh - sh -veps

M - m - m - m "Danone"

In the Russian-speaking environment there are a lot of untranslatable slogans that contain words from a minimum vocabulary of foreign words of an average high school student. This factor is largely due to the successful introduction of untranslatable slogans in the foreign language to the Russian market: Sports company Nike - Just do it. The company Sony - It's a Sony. The company Panasonic - ... from Panasonic.

The existence of foreign language advertising slogan in the Russian-speaking environment in the original language is possible. Practice of Translation of advertisement has shown that English slogans in Russian-speaking environment requires certain conditions. The first condition requires the target audience should know English. The second is that it emphasizes the foreign origin of the advertised product. The third condition is that the slogan should be extremely laconic in order it can be perceived well and remembered by the consumer.

Expressive means of advertising texts.

Verb combinations and their translation

A special place in translating advertising texts takes verbal combinations.

If we look at the English-language advertising we can see that verbal combinations such as "Buy this", "Discover that", "Try some today", "Do not forget", "Treat yourself" are quite common. They are found in all parts of the advertising text - in the title, body and echo phrase.

The study of English advertising texts shows that the most frequently used imperative verbs are as follows: buy, try, ask, get, see, call, feel, taste, watch, smell, find, listen, drive, let, look, drink, do, discover, start, enjoy.

Here are some examples:

Buy the car. I own the road. (Pontiac Grand Am)

Drive the new Paseo. Fall in love. Your future awaits down the road. (Toyota Paseo)

Give your lips a double infusion of color. (Estee Louder).

An analysis of Russian advertising texts shows the same number of imperative verbs, i.e. the ratio of the verbs is equal.

Translators of the English advertising pay attention to the special nature of the use of personal and possessive pronouns in the advertising texts. The earnest tone of the advertising appeal (which is also characteristic to the Russian advertising) is often built on the consistent application of the following communication model: "We, our" is to describe the advertiser, "you, your" is to refer to a potential buyer, and "they, their" is a reference to potential competitors:

(Реклама банка)

Звоните прямо сейчас и Вы получите эти часы с 10 % скидкой!

Это предложение только для Вас.

Приходите и убедитесь сами.

In both languages personal and possessive pronouns of the 2nd person are ​​frequently used because they reinforce the advertising appeal, for example:

Your own car. Your own phone. Your own place. Your dad's insurance?

(Nationwide Insurance)

Билайн - это ваш выбор!

"Мы сэкономим Вам 1 миллион рублей!;

"Звоните и Вы сэкономите 1 миллион рублей!"

Thus, in the English advertisement there is a number of verb combinations, personal and possessive pronouns that are found in the text very often. These examples are relevant in interpreting the entire message and its extra-linguistic reality.

Translation of attributive word-combinations and comparisons

Study of some advertising texts lead to the conclusion that the adverbs and adjectives are the key words of the advertising text.

Advertising is full with words "more", "less", "better", "more favorable", "best", "unique", "super". All these words are signals showing that the advertised brand is compared directly or not with other brands of the same product category. And the adjectives and adverbs help to create a unique tone of the advertising appeal, which allows to convey the quality and dignity of the advertised subject. When translated into another language this fact must be taken into account:

Мы докажем: Вы можете выглядеть моложе".

(Реклама крема Oil of Olay)

When translating advertising texts adjectives and adverbs are used to describe a wide variety of properties of the advertised product: shape, size, quality, cost, feeling that this product causes. In the English-language advertising the most common adjectives are: natural, sensual, innocent, passionate, romantic, mysterious, etc. In Russian: новый, новинка, первый, революционный, непростой, необычный, в отличие от обычных and other.

Just as in the Russian advertising frequently used adjectives in the English-language advertisements are: good, better, best, free, fresh, delicious, full sure, clean, wonderful, special, fine, big, great, real, easy, bright , extra, rich, gold.

Often there are adjectives that indicate the authenticity of the brand - genuine, authentic and original. But perhaps the record for frequency of use in the English language advertising is the adjective new - it can be found in almost every other advertising text, for example:

New LAST OUT extra extending mascara with a new advanced protein formula;

The new truth for sensitive skin: Estee Lauder invents Verite;

Special attention must be paid to the comparisons that are widely presented in the advertising text. Competing brands that make up the natural class of comparison are usually ignored. In translation we should take into account this effect.

In some the same linguistic techniques serve to mislead skillfully, while others are to soften the categorical unpleasant messages or just to make the message more expressive.

Хорошие хозяйки любят Лоск. (Эта фраза телевизионного ролика, воспринимаемая на слух, многозначна: хозяйки любят стиральный порошок "Лоск" или чистоту - лоск.).

Клей Момент - Цени Момент

Harmonious combination of advertising idea with the means of expression.

A peculiarity of successful advertising is the harmonious combination of the primary advertising idea with the means of expression which are ​​the most consistent with this idea and give a special power to the text, increasing its total figurative and language impact to a mass audience.

Usage of the associative properties of the sound form of the word helps to create a certain image, for example:

Russian advertising of drink Schweppes beverage - Sh-sh-sh-veps

A desired advertising image with the help of background imitation or onomatopoeia is created in the following English ad fragment, which tells about the virtues of a relaxing vacation on Lake Ontario:

The dip and pull and ripple of the paddle, the whistle whirring of the reel, the echo of the loon.

When choosing the translation method you should take into account many factors such as the audience (if it's necessary to localize the text) or the purpose of advertising. If you need to focus on imported goods, you can leave some words or even sentences without translation. If you want to induce positive emotions, you should use more emotive words. In any case the translation of advertising texts is a creative process, and sometimes you can think for weeks about a slogan.