[Abstract] Punning is one of the most common rhetorical devices used in advertisement. There are various ways to form puns in advertisements. The translation of puns is difficult because of the double meanings, and the translation of puns in advertisements is even more difficult because one must keep both the double meanings of a pun and the style of the advertisement in mind. This paper is about the techniques of punning and the translation of puns in English advertisements. It expresses the technique of pun by the ways of homophonic pun, homographic pun, grammatical pun and idiom pun. And this paper has some preliminary discussions in punning of English advertisement through the methods of conjunct translation, nimble translation, replenishment translation, transliteration, compensate translations.

[Key Words] advertising language; pun; translation

1. Introduction

What is advertising? Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or idea by identified sponsors through the various media. [1]p4 Whether it is goods advertisement or public service advertisement, the creation of the advertisement is a comprehensive art. The creation of the advertisement involves sociology, aesthetics, psychology, sound of electricity, literature and linguistics etc. The skills needed in this art are more than other forms of writing. It shows the vivid and interesting characters by the principle of salesmanship. And it has special communication to bring the reader''s attention in a moment, stimulates the desire of buying and facilitates the behavior of buying finally. Therefore, the using of precision and appropriate in advertising literary language will make the influence of advertising language far beyond the advertisement itself. The rhetorical of pun is a common skill, in creating advertisement. The pun, in Italian, “puntiglio” means “a fine point,” hence a verbal quibble, and is most likely the source of the English punctilious. A pun is defined by Webster as “the humorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible application; a play on words.”[2] As the game of words, pun will leave a deep impression on readers by its readability, wit, and humor. Therefore it is used in the advertisement with a large amount.

2. The Puns in English Advertisements

There are many kinds of puns exist in English advertisements. In this paper, four mainly types of them are talked. There are homophonic puns, homographic pun, grammatical pun and idiom pun.

2.1 Homophonic Pun

Homophonic means two or more words are of the similar or same sound.

Because “There exist no information channels of bilingual conversion at the sound level” [3] the partial sound puns are always seen in the daily life. It concludes close sound pun and the same sound pun.

2.1.1 Close Sound Pun

Close pun means pairs or more of words having the same sound but different meanings.

(1)   AN ideal marriage is one in which the wife is a treasure and the husband treasury.

理想的婚姻—太太是宝贝 , 而先生是金库 .

(2)   Nowadays, a pair of dice is made a paradise

如今，一副股子就可以成为乐园

In the two examples above, both the two advertisements successfully convey the satirical tones of the two English sentences. Nevertheless, neither “宝贝，金库” nor “股子 , 乐园” reflect the partial tones of “ treasure, treasury ” and “ pair of dice, paradise ” . It just put one layer of the double meaning into Chinese and the pun affect disappears without any trail.

(3)   Centrum with beta-carotene

From A to Zinc

More Complete [4] P15

富含胡萝卜的珍多美，

从 A 到锌，应有尽有，

营养更全，口味更新！

This is one of food advertisement named centum. “From A to Zinc” harmonics with the English phrase “From A to the Z”, the latter meaning refers “comprehensively, complete”. The pun here wants to explain this kind of food nutrition rich in prominent, all contains from Vitamin A (namely carrot element) to the zinc element, has the extreme power of persuasion..

2.1.2 The Same Sound Pun

 The same sound pun means the words have the same sound but have different meanings.

（ 4 ） Have a nice trip, buy-buy![5]

  祝君旅途愉快，拜拜 / 快买！

“ Buy-buy” is a varied spelling, and it unison with “bye-bye”. Airport store says goodbye to the passenger, the purpose is that reminds everybody to buy a present or other thing to bring with just before leaving. “Buy-Buy”! Forms in one''s mind ingeniously, humorous to be humorous, makes one thump the table and shout praise.