An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation

Second-person pronouns (SPs) address readers directly, and they are widely used in the advertising discourse. SPs are often handled flexibly in English-Chinese advertisement translation, and SPs may be added to Chinese translations even when the original texts do not have second-person reference. Th...

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Main Authors: Ying Cui, Xiao Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2025-07-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251352363
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author Ying Cui
Xiao Liu
author_facet Ying Cui
Xiao Liu
author_sort Ying Cui
collection DOAJ
description Second-person pronouns (SPs) address readers directly, and they are widely used in the advertising discourse. SPs are often handled flexibly in English-Chinese advertisement translation, and SPs may be added to Chinese translations even when the original texts do not have second-person reference. This study has explored Chinese readers’ reception of SPs via pupillometry. Thirty-seven participants were recruited for an eye-tracking experiment. Two parallel Chinese versions of 20 English advertisements were prepared, one set with an SP and the other one without it. After the eye-tracking experiment, participants filled out a questionnaire and rated their impression of the texts on a five-point scale. Data analysis shows that pupil dilation was significantly higher when participants read the SP version, with longer fixation duration and more fixation counts. In addition, their subjective ratings of the SP version were also higher, meaning that they liked the version better. Such results suggest that using SPs in Chinese advertisement translation is an effective method of attracting readers.
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spelling doaj-art-85a12cb2e02848d89833e695828db66a2025-08-20T03:15:27ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402025-07-011510.1177/21582440251352363An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement TranslationYing Cui0Xiao Liu1Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, ChinaShandong University, Weihai, ChinaSecond-person pronouns (SPs) address readers directly, and they are widely used in the advertising discourse. SPs are often handled flexibly in English-Chinese advertisement translation, and SPs may be added to Chinese translations even when the original texts do not have second-person reference. This study has explored Chinese readers’ reception of SPs via pupillometry. Thirty-seven participants were recruited for an eye-tracking experiment. Two parallel Chinese versions of 20 English advertisements were prepared, one set with an SP and the other one without it. After the eye-tracking experiment, participants filled out a questionnaire and rated their impression of the texts on a five-point scale. Data analysis shows that pupil dilation was significantly higher when participants read the SP version, with longer fixation duration and more fixation counts. In addition, their subjective ratings of the SP version were also higher, meaning that they liked the version better. Such results suggest that using SPs in Chinese advertisement translation is an effective method of attracting readers.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251352363
spellingShingle Ying Cui
Xiao Liu
An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
SAGE Open
title An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
title_full An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
title_fullStr An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
title_full_unstemmed An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
title_short An Eye Tracking Study on the Reception of Second-Person Pronouns in English-Chinese Advertisement Translation
title_sort eye tracking study on the reception of second person pronouns in english chinese advertisement translation
url https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251352363
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