港大中文學院

School of Chinese Scholar Seminar

Transcreation of Marketing Texts: The 3 Dimensions of Persuasion

Abstract:

Transcreation has been a buzzword for more than two decades. Its definitions proliferate yet remain nebulous. This talk offers a universal definition of transcreation by debunking the myths of transcreation and decluttering the discussion around similar concepts such as localisation and adaptation. It follows by a discussion of the main function of marketing texts: persuasion. Ho challenges the traditional information-persuasion divide in marketing texts. To explore transcreation practice in this genre, she will present her model of the three dimensions of persuasion: the Presence of Persuasion, the Force of Persuasion and the Inducements of Persuasion, developed from the Appraisal framework in Systemic Functional Linguistics and Aristotle's three principles of persuasion. The application of this model will be exemplified by English-Chinese marketing texts.

About the Speaker:

Dr Mavis Ho (何雅祺) is a Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research interest lies in transcreation of the marketing genre and the extended applications of theories in Systemic Functional Linguistics to Translation Studies. She has been teaching a transcreation workshop for translators at University College London since 2021. She had also taught at the University of Glasgow and Nankai University. She was a practitioner in marketing transcreation, with clients including Burberry, and a conference interpreter. Her talk is based on her book: Ho, N.-K. M. (2024). Appraisal and the Transcreation of Marketing Texts: Persuasion in Chinese and English. Routledge: New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003290575.