CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS IN ADVERTISING

Abstract

The article examines the specific features of translating metaphor within advertising discourse in the English-Ukrainian and English-German language pairs. The aim of the study is to identify common challenges, strategies, and tendencies in rendering metaphorical constructions in translated advertising slogans, as well as to determine the degree to which their pragmatic and emotional impact is preserved. The research material includes 50 metaphorical slogans of international brands from the fields of fashion, food industry, automotive manufacturing, electronics, tobacco products, and services, along with their translations into Ukrainian and German.

The methodology is based on a combination of comparative analysis, which made it possible to reveal similarities and differences between the original and translated slogans; cognitive-discursive analysis used to identify the underlying conceptual metaphors; a linguocultural approach aimed at defining how cultural codes influence translators’ decisions; as well as descriptive and contextual analysis for examining linguistic means and pragmatic characteristics of advertising messages. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to record overall tendencies in metaphor translation.

The results demonstrate that the leading strategies in metaphor translation are literal equivalence and adaptation. In German-language advertising campaigns, the frequent use of untranslated English slogans was observed, although statistical data show that such slogans are often partially or completely misunderstood by the target audience. Ukrainian translations, in contrast, display a stronger orientation toward cultural adaptation, allowing for natural-sounding messages and effective communicative influence. In some cases, non-metaphorical paraphrasing helps preserve the core meaning; however, it often results in the loss of imagery and creativity, consequently weakening the persuasive effect of the advertisement.

The conclusions emphasize that metaphor serves as a key tool of emotional and cognitive influence within advertising discourse, and its successful translation depends on the translator’s ability to account for linguistic, cultural, and pragmatic factors. Future research may include expanding the corpus of slogans, incorporating additional language pairs, analyzing multimodal advertising messages, and empirically studying consumer responses to various strategies of translating metaphorical advertising slogans.