OnTranslaionofBrandName_开题报告

With the rapid acceleration of globalization, more and more enterprises have come to the realization that one of their most valuable assets is the brand name associated with its product. A well called brand name could not only represent the image of the enterprise itself, but also attract customers’ interest. In western world, the saying “You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression” holds true for brand management and shows the high recognition towards brand. For a local enterprise that wants to enter western country, the translation of brands between the two languages is even more important. 

Cultural difference of Brand Name Translation

English and Chinese are carriers of the two distinct cultures which are different from each other. The greatest difficulty in translation is the cultural difference. Translation will be constantly influenced, either explicitly or implicitly, by culture. During the process of translation, translators always encounter some difficulties caused by cultural differences. For instance, the translators cannot find the equivalents in the target culture, or the translators often encounter some barriers that the connotative meanings of quite a lot of words in source language are in conflict with the connotative meanings of their equivalent words in target language. In other words, the same word may not mean the same thing to the people from different cultural backgrounds. Yang lihua have mentioned that animals like“孔雀”、“金鸡”are favorable in the mind of Chinese people. However, when these brand names were literally translated into English, they are disgusting in the westerners ’mind. “孔雀”in Chinese culture, symbolizes beauty and auspiciousness. The brand name gives Chinese people many favorable associations such as luck, beauty and peacefulness. But in English, “peacock” has derogatory meanings, which indicate a vain and conceited person. Similarly, “金鸡”translated into“Golden Cock”, the meaning is opposite. The reason is that the connotation of“cock” in the western culture is the male’s reproductive organ. Any product with “Cock” and “Peacock” brand names made a bad impression (2010:15-16). Therefore, brand name translation cannot be simply treated as a transferring process from one language into another.

To sum up, cultural differences and the non-corresponding relations of pragmatic meanings are the main reasons for the failure of brand name translation. Whether translators can successfully to cross cultural barriers is the key to avoid trademark translation pragmatic failures. Therefore, In the course of translating, the thinking patterns of receptors and culture of the target language should be taken into account to avoid misunderstanding.

1.2 Functional Equivalence Theory

An excellent brand name translation has an increasing significance and meaning that may influence the international economy in some aspects and can provide potential but enormous effects on the enterprises. In such a context, brand name translation has become a heated and favorite topic in the field of translation, which has aroused the research interest of many linguists and translators. As a world-famous American linguist and translation theorist, Eugene A. Nida, has a great and unique influence in the field of both linguistics and translation. Among his productive achievements, his theory of Functional Equivalence, which was used to be called Dynamic Equivalence (1964), is widely considered as his one and only masterpiece. In his theory, he puts forward two types of equivalence: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Formal equivalence “focus attention on the message itself, both form and content”, while dynamic equivalence is “the principle on equivalent effect” (Nida, 1964:159). 

Functional Equivalence is an influential translation theory both in the western world and in our country. Its merits are that the translator should aim at the response of the target text reader and look for the closest natural equivalent of the source language in order to enable a smooth and easy reading experience. Under this theory, it is essential that the function of the source text should be realized in the target text although the source text and target text might be different in form. Only through the realization of function can the translator be able to convey the information and central meaning of the source text. Otherwise the target text would become obscure and misleading to the readers. In his opinion, a good translation does not sound like a translation. It means that a translation should be natural and authentic in terms of language and culture.

1.3 Methods of Brand Name Translation 

Translation by definition is rendering of a text from the source language to the target language. But it would be deficient in referring to translation as a merely rendering of a source language text to a target language text. Because translation sometimes appears to be as innovative as the original writing, especially for brand name translation, whose ultimate aim is to persuade consumers to buy their products. Therefore, to a certain degree the translated brand name should be able to perform the original brand name functions as many as possible. Only when the consumers understand the conceptual meaning of the translated brand name in a similar way can they rightly obtain the messages conveyed from the producers. Also only when this is achieved, will the translated brand name succeed in translating the same brand image and arouse the same interest and stimulating the same purchasing desire. 

No matter how to deal with the translated text, it will be one type of feasible translation method if it can communicate the intention of the original author to the target audiences. If the translated text readers can accept and understand the implication in the original text culture, literal translation can be adopted. If the culture in the original is completely different from that of the translated text, the image and language similar to that of the original can be used. If the above methods don’t work, the translator could adopt other methods such as liberal translation, transliteration etc. On the other hand, the varying degrees of adequacy of Nida’s Functional Equivalence just provide a firm theoretical foundation for the flexibility of our choice about brand name translation strategy. For the sake of obtaining the same cognitive effect, the translator of brand names must make the translated text equivalent in relevance aspects with the original text, by certain adjustment, compensation, adaptation, even deletion and rewriting. Based on Functional Equivalence, the following strategies such as literal translation, transliteration, mixed translation and adjustment turn out to be very reasonable, applicable and effective.

1.3.1 Transliteration

Transliteration means to translate the original brand name into the target language according to the pronunciation of the words rather than their literal meanings. The purpose is to retain the similarities and keep the original sound as much as possible. The biggest advantage of transliteration is that it helps to preserve the phonological beauty of the original brand name and reflects the authentic features or exotic flavor of the products. This is especially true for some upscale brands like Cadillac (凯迪拉克), Hilton (希尔顿) or Rolls Royce (劳斯莱斯) which employ phonetic translations that mean nothing in Chinese. Although these names do not make sense in Chinese language, they cater to the psychology of some wealthy people who are very fond of the western established brands. 

In some cases, we should be careful in choosing proper Chinese characters because different ones with the same pronunciations may represent different meanings. We should select characters with fine associative meanings to meet Chinese consumer’s psychological preference. For example: “Pampers” (baby’s paper nappy) is transliterated as “帮宝适”, which has a similar pronunciation to “Pampers”. In Chinese, “帮宝适” means helping babies feel comfortable. Thus the targeted consumers, mothers, would instantly be attracted to buy this kind of paper nappy to make their own babies comfortable(郑畅, 2006:34).

1.3.2 Literal translation

Liberal translation is the most commonly used translation method in brand name translating. It means to translate trademarks literally or directly into another language, keeping both the original form and the original sense. It is often used when the trademark can find a corresponding expression in another language. For example, Apple(苹果), Bluebird(蓝鸟), Nissan(日产), Crown(皇冠), Accord(雅阁), etc. They all have succeeded in achieving functional equivalence between source language and target language, and have attracted the consumers all over the world. In addition, since most of foreign trademarks are composed by two or three syllables, Chinese translation is better to be restricted in two or three Chinese characters, which is in accordance with Chinese custom and aesthetic. Take “Mercedes-Benze” as a typical translated example, the former name “莫塞德斯・本茨”is not only long but also contain the uncommon Chinese characters and hard to be memorized. By reading this trademark, people get nothing from it except for an obscure name with awkward pronunciation. But the name“奔驰”not only avoids complicated translation but also reflects its function---rapidness.

1.3.3 The Combination of Transliteration and Literal Translation

More often than not, translators will find it is very difficult to make a choice between transliteration and literal translation, in many case, neither of them can represent the characteristics of the product. In order to make a trademark best perform its functions in the target language, we often combine the two frequently used ways of translation: literal translation and transliteration. This method is often used when trademarks can find the correspondences which have the similar sounds and the relevant meanings in the target language. And the translated trademark can also clearly tell the consumer about the quality, function and characteristics of the products. A good example is the world famous trademark “Unilever”. When coming to the Chinese market, it is translated as “联合利华”by combination of transliteration and literal translation. Part of the trademark “uni-”means “joined together”, thus translated as “联合”by literal translation. And the other part “lever” is transliterated as “利华” because “利华”is close to, though not exactly the same as “lever” in pronunciation. The meaning of the Chinese name “联合利华”sounds friendly and pleasant to the Chinese, and the trademark soon becomes very famous and popular(郑畅, 2006:39).

1.3.4 Adjustment

As the saying goes, “The translation purpose determines the choice of translation method and strategy”. In order to make the brand name to achieve the purpose of information transfer, the translator can give full play to creativity in translation. Therefore, when the above mentioned cannot achieve the expected function, the translators can adopt the adjustment method for the translation. The technique of adjustment in translation mainly includes addition or deletion, blending, acronym and purposive misspelling. In a word, these methods can be taken as complements to the frequently used translation methods.

2. Bibliography

[1] Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation [M], Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004.

[2] 杨丽华. On Translation of Brand Names [J], Read and Write Periodical, 2010, 7(5): 15-16.

[3] Nida, Eugene A. Language, Culture and Translating [M], Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004.

[4] Nida, Eugene A. Toward a Science of Translating: with Special Reference to Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating [M], Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1964.

[5] Nida, Eugene A. Language and Culture: Contexts in Translating. [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001.

[6] 朱益平, 王靖涵. 国内近十年商标翻译研究综述[J], 西北大学学报(哲学社会科学版), 2009, 39(1): 143-147.

[7] YANG Xue, REN Pei-hong. The Analysis of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory[J], Overseas English, 2014: 260-261.

[8] 柏威. On Methods and Characteristics for Chinese Translation of Foreign Brand names[J], Overseas English, 2012:131-132.

[9] 李淑琴. 中国大陆英汉商标翻译研究综述[J], Shanghai Journal of Translators, 2007(4): 21-25.

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[11] 文婕. 基于功能派翻译理论的商标名称英汉互译[D], 上海: 北京第二外国语学院, 2002.

[12] 冯小春. 从功能翻译理论分析化妆品商标翻译[D], 上海: 上海外国语大学, 2009.

[13] 郑畅. 从功能对等的角度论英汉商标翻译[D], 桂林:广西师范大学,2006.

Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Definition of Brand Names

1.2 Historical Evolution of Brand Name Translation

1.3 Significance of this Paper

2. Functional Equivalence Theory

2.1 The Origin of the Theory

2.2 Equivalence Study in Translation

3. Methods of Brand Name Translation

3.1 Principles of Brand Name Translation

3.2 Methods of Brand Name Translation

4. Conclusion