Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies

Transcreation in the Translation of Food Advertisements Under the Functional Equivalence Theory

2026-07-02T08:32:31+00:00

Food advertising translation plays a significant role in global market promotion. Accurate and creative translation is essential for breaking down cultural barriers and ensuring effective communication of advertising messages. The quality of translation directly affects the product’s appeal to consumers in the target language market, which in turn impacts the product’s sales profits.

This study, based on the functional equivalence theory, explores how to achieve equivalent communication of advertisements between the source language and target language markets through this theory, thereby promoting the globalization of food marketing. The study employs the literature survey method to systematically review previous research findings in the field of functional equivalence theory and advertising translation, providing a solid theoretical foundation for this study. Meanwhile, the case analysis method is used to collect a wide range of domestic and international food brand advertising translation cases. The study deeply analyzes creative translation strategies based on the functional equivalence theory, such as lexical substitution, syntactic adjustment, and cultural imagery transformation, exploring the specific application of creative translation in advertising translation. The study finds that to improve the effectiveness of food advertising translation, two principles should be followed: content is prioritized over form; the translated text should produce similar effects and functions as the source text.

The research indicates that creative translation strategies can effectively overcome cultural differences and enable target language consumers to have similar feelings to those of the source language consumers. This study is expected to provide valuable references for advertising translation practice, helping advertising practitioners improve translation quality and promoting the widespread dissemination and promotion of food in the international market.

Ngugi wa Thiang’o and National-Consciousness: Re-Reading the Early and the Later Novels from a Postcolonial Perspective

2026-08-27T09:59:10+00:00

The discourse of national-consciousness in African literature is so pertinent that early and contemporary African writers have “embraced” it with intense, artistic interest and literary enthusiasm. Consequently, in poetry, drama and the novel, critics and scholars have explored varying “faces” of national-consciousness, which on the one hand have opened the readership eye to its ever existence in the texts and equally have enriched the literature and the criticisms of the continent on the other. This paper, as innumerable others explore this discourse in the early and the later novels of Ngugi wa Thiang’o, one of such prolific African writers. These are Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1980) and Matigari (1987). The aims are two-folds. First, to unveil the great pertinence Ngugi accords to national-consciousness in his novels. Second, using the postcolonial standpoints of Franz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Kwame Nkurumah for instance, the paper corroborates that while in the early novels Ngugi accentuates cultural and political consciousness, in the same vein, he demonstrates how these two forms of national-consciousness have metamorphosed into revolutionary consciousness in the later.

The Waig Protocol: Ecological Trial, Somatic Belonging, and the Withheld Verdict in Manuel E. Arguilla’s How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife

2026-08-27T10:02:36+00:00

How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife by Manuel E. Arguilla is an uncomplicated story about rural-urban reconciliation; this paper presents a counter-reading through the lens of the ecological trial, a rite of passage instituted under patriarchy and shaped by the environment. Through a qualitative hermeneutic-thematic reading of 28 excerpts, the authors focus on the social belonging of a future daughter-in-law, evaluated not through dialogue but through the person’s somatic positioning in relation to the agrarian sensorium. The analysis identifies five themes: the diverted route across the Waig riverbed as a counter-infrastructure; bull Labang as a non-human expert; physical sensory information over verbal interrogation; structural paralipsis through a child focalizer; and withheld verdict. The research shows how the common pedagogical headnotes obstruct the narrative structure.

A Study on Stress Misplacement in English Polysyllabic Words by Chinese EFL Learners: A Perspective of Perception and Production

2026-08-25T03:11:24+00:00

In phonological acquisition, word stress is one of the most important suprasegmental features, and stress misplacement has an impact on the clarity of phonological expressions and the accuracy of language acquisition. Therefore, studies on stress misplacement in perception and production of English words by Chinese EFL learners is of great significance for improving English teaching. Among these studies, stress misplacement in the perception and production of English polysyllabic word stress is particularly significant. In this study, 39 non-English major sophomores participated in experiments on the perception and production of word stress. The tendency of stress misplacement in the perception and production of English polysyllabic words was examined by the author, along with the connection between the two processes.

The results showed that stress misplacement was affected by the number of syllables and parts of speech. The frequency of stress misplacement increased with the increase of the number of syllables in the word, and the frequency of stress misplacement was highest in nouns, followed by verbs and adjectives. The Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.796 (p=0.01, p<.05) indicated a significantly positive correlation between stress misplacement in perception and production. The frequency of stress misplacement was higher than that during production, suggesting that there was an imbalance between perception and production. This study suggests that more attention should be paid to the teaching of stress perception, and that perception practice should be combined with production practice.

Contextual Misalignment and Meaning Distortion in Brand Use of Internet Slang

2026-08-27T10:11:24+00:00

Internet slang has become increasingly common in brand communication, especially on social media where brands are expected to appear informal, responsive, and culturally aware. Yet the meaning of slang is rarely stable or self-contained. It is often tied to a particular group, moment, tone, or interactional setting. When brands move these expressions into commercial discourse, the original context may no longer hold, and the result can be a change in tone, meaning, or social position. This paper examines contextual misalignment and meaning distortion in brand use of internet slang. It focuses on the relationship between brand identity, the original social context of slang, and the commercial purposes that reshape its meaning after recontextualization. Particular attention is given to cases in which shared humor becomes promotional formula, ironic or attitudinal meanings are weakened, and community-based expressions are turned into marketing resources. The paper argues that the effectiveness of internet slang in brand communication depends less on whether a brand uses fashionable language than on whether the expression remains appropriate to the speaker, audience, and communicative situation. Misalignment can make brand language appear forced or intrusive, while careful recontextualization may preserve the social meaning that gives slang its communicative value in the first place.