Multimodal discourse analysis of the transcreation of advertisements in Singapore

Abstract

Singapore is a multicultural society with four official languages, requiring Chinese-English translation in various areas, including translating advertisements in newspapers. Quality advertisement translation enables consumers to find the desired products and helps merchants to sell their products more effectively. This study investigates the transcreation approach in translated advertising texts using a multimodal discourse analysis approach. The purpose of this research is to establish a systematic framework for various advertising transcreation strategies and provide insights for future Chinese-English advertising transcreation. This dissertation presents a case study of twenty-seven pairs of advertisements extracted from The Strait Times and Lianhe Zaobao, written in both Chinese and English, which adopted the translation strategy of transcreation. The analysis compares the Chinese advertisements from Lianhe Zaobao and their English versions from The Strait Times, utilizing Visual grammar and previous translation theories related to transcreation. This comparative analysis aims to analyse the reasons for adopting transcreation, the factors influencing translation choices, and the effects of multimodal discourses and to classify the different transcreation methods in these advertisements. This comparative analysis aims to generalise transcreation strategies for multimodal texts that prioritise the acceptability and readability of the target audience.