earticle

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This paper examines a genre of text, advertisement, in an attempt to define the role of translation and translator in this very unique type of international business communication. The primary purpose of an advertisement, both the original as well as its translation, lies in partly to provide information but mostly to appeal to the target customers by appealing to their needs and emotion. In consideration of such, the translator, as one of the most important factors in translating an advertisement text, must recognize the sociocultural differences between the SL and TL and mediate the communication in order to bring out the maximum "intended" effect in the TL advertisement. Such roles require the translator to be fully aware of the limitations imposed in the translation process by the linguistic format and function of the SL, as well as to be sensitive to any extra-linguistic factors such as cultural differences that could have significant impact on marketing. The most ideal case would be for the person requesting the translation to communicate to the translator as specifically as possible the goals of the advertisement at the beginning of a translation assignment. On the part of the translator, he/she must be familiar with both the SL and TL cultures not to mention be able to anticipate and prepare for potential hindrances that may pose as barriers to the delivery of meaning. In other words, the translator must be aware of what and how one word which may have same denotation can convey quite different connotation in different cultures. In the paper, an analysis is made of an advertisement, Hyundai Oilbank's ad “the Prince of Arab” episode, and its Arabic translation. The analysis is based on a written interview conducted with the producer of the advertisement. In the advertisement, traditional Arabic attire and music were used for visual effect. In the translated version, both standard Arabic and colloquial Arabic were used. This paper will look into what impact such strategy of translation has brought on the translated version as a whole.