TRANSLATION OF VERB-PICTORIAL METAPHORS FOR HUAWEI P40 PRO SMARTPHONE WEB PAGES IN THE LIGHT OF THE THEORY OF NEEDS

Abstract

In the era of global digital marketing, multinational companies adopt metaphors as an innovative advertising strategy on their websites to attract more consumers and stimulate their buying needs. This paper, based on the conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and expanded by Forceville (1996) and Forceville & Urios-Aparisi (2009), along with Maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs theory, analyzes the verb-pictorial metaphors in advertisements on the Huawei P40 Pro smartphone website and their translations into Brazilian Portuguese. With the aim of examining how the metaphors conceptualize the product’s features in both versions, and based on the analyzed metaphors, we also explore the different intentions of the Chinese advertiser and the Brazilian translator in stimulating the purchasing needs of the Chinese and Brazilian target audiences. The findings reveal that the original Chinese advertising leans towards evoking the needs for love and belonging among Chinese consumers, while the Portuguese translation tends to fulfill the esteem needs of Brazilian consumers.

Keywords
Translation; Conceptual metaphor; Verb-pictorial metaphor; Needs theory; Webpage advertisements