About the problem of wordplay transmission (based on the material of English and Russian advertising texts)

Abstract

The object of the study is examples of the use of wordplay in the advertising texts translated from English into Russian. The subject of the study is the translation techniques used by translators to preserve the communicative orientation and impact on the reader. The choice of the research object is due to the prevalence of advertising text in the modern world, which implies the need to develop common translation standards and examples of solutions to emerging difficulties. The problem of translating different types of wordplay has been little studied in modern linguistics, which determines the need for further research. Even less studied is the problem of translating wordplay in advertising slogans in a comparative aspect. The analysis of the collected material allowed us to identify three main translation strategies: the transmission of wordplay, in which the method of wordplay formation is preserved; transmission, in which the preservation of the method of wordplay formation is impossible or undesirable; transmission, in which the preservation of wordplay itself is impossible. In the latter case, translators often have to sacrifice the communicative effect, which is not desirable from the standpoint of modern translation studies. The article concludes that the linguistic features of slogans and, in particular, the use of wordplay in them must be taken into account when translating in order to ensure maximum preservation of communicative intent and communicative effect.