The Translation of Brand Names.doc

1、AbstractTranslation of brand names is a form of intercultural communication. However we translate the Chinese brand names into English ones or translate the English brand names into Chinese ones, language laws, cultural psychology, aesthetic interest and some other factors will be involved. The tran

2、slators should also pay attention to some cultural taboos and choose appropriate method to translate. Of course, brand name translation is not a simple thing. Sometimes the good translated name likes the inherent one, when we translate brand name there is something we can do to strive for perfection

3、. One good kind of commodity adding on a good name is not different with improving on perfection, and its charm is infinite.Key WordsTranslation of brand names; principles; methods; cultural taboos;摘 要商标名的翻译是一种跨文化交际形式，不管是中文商标的英译还是英文商标的汉译，都会涉及到语言规律、文化心理、审美情趣等方面的因素。商标翻译者在遵循翻译原则的同时，也要注意一些商标翻译的文化禁区，并且选择

4、适当的方法来进行翻译。当然，商标的翻译绝不是简单的问题。有时好的译名也有自然天成的味道，所以在翻译商标时我们大有文章可做，可以精益求精。一种好的商品，加上一个动听上口的名字，无异于锦上添花，魅力无穷。关键词商标翻译；原则；方法；文化禁区；IntroductionThe human society has entered the 21st century. The international trade is developing fast. The national boundary concept desalinates gradually, when the scale of the co

5、mmercial cooperation and the commodity import and export expand unceasingly. Import and export product in foreign land whether can develop the market and seize the market successfully; the brand name translation is playing the pivotal role, besides medium advertisement. The commodity brand name is s

6、imilar to humans name. The translated brand name is the second name of commodity in other country, its importance is self-evident.The Principles of Brand Name TranslationA successful brand name translation both must retain the original text the essence, has with the original text same level effect,

7、and must conform to consumers brand name psychology simultaneously, but also must give dual attention to the cultural difference of English and Chinese.A. The Advertising Nature of Brand Name TranslationThe translated brand name must conform to the products nature and the characteristic, manifests t

8、he localization concept in the original text, plays role which informs widely. At the same time, the translated name should conform to the commodity characteristic, succinct novel, the pronunciation is sweet. It is advantageous to spell, read, write and remember, and easy to cause the consumer to pr

9、oduce the good association and impression about the commodity. For example, “Dynasty” -the English trademark of “皇朝葡萄酒”, let us cannot help associating the old mystical orient country, so we have deep image of the good aged wine. “Forever” is the trademark of “永久自行车 ”. It tally with the advertisemen

10、t “经久耐用，直到永远”of the bicycle completely. “飞鸽自行车” was translated “Flying Pigeon”. “Pigeon” is the symbol of peace and “flying” makes the character of the bicycle vivid. “蜂花化妆品”is translated into “Bee Are you not willing to take out money? Therefore, when translation brand name, we must study consumers

11、 psychology carefully, consider repeatedly, translate exquisitely, lofty, brief, easy to record, can arouse the customer interest, let persons have the happy association, makes the deep impression to the customers.C. Aesthetic Principle of Brand Name TranslationThe translated brand name cannot let t

12、he consumer have the bad association; otherwise the good product also cannot sell out. This requests the translator considering the culture and the historical perspective fully. For example, if “Goldlion” (mens clothes) is translated into “金狮”, it has a homophonic one as “金失”. That is the taboo of f

13、actory. They believe that if they use the translated name, the product never be sold well in China. But “金利来”is a lucky name. It has already been familiar and loved by consumers. In Japan, lotus is the symbol of death, so the brand name“荷花”should be changed to another one. However a ship has the bes

14、t quality and the lowest price, if it uses the name “Titanic”, nobody may buy it. Japanese car manufacturer “Toyota” presents a kind of luxurious car whose brand name is “Lexus”. When the car begins to sell in china, the administrant of Toyota company decided to translate “Lexus” to Chinese “凌志”. To

15、 the mainland Chinese, the name may recall their memory about Chairman Maos majestic poem “久有凌云志，重上井冈山”. So when we translate brand names, we have to avoid the words which are tabooed by consumers carefully, and choose propitious names meticulously.D. Equivalence Principle of Brand Name TranslationE

16、quivalence is the core in the west translation theory. In 1961, a famous person pointed out: “The influence which the translated works gives us should be identical with the influence which the original text gives its first audience.” The principle of equivalence is suit for brand name translation be

17、st in all the translation theories. According to the principle of equivalence, translated brand name must have two factors: a. Translated name should have the brand name form. b. The translated one must have the ability to produce the same or approximate functions of the original brand name. That is

18、 to say, the translated name should be reading easily, pleasant to hear, good-looking. It must be the perfect unity of tone, form and meaning. Let us see some examples: cosmetic “Clean we might use the Chinese word, Chinese Pinyin, the foreign language or the minority language. If we use Chinese and

19、 the foreign language together as a brand name, the industry and commerce department requests that the two kinds of language are mutually consistent, or requests that Chinese and the foreign language divide into two brand names to register, and then use the combined form of the brand names. In fact,

20、 commodity packing design should take into consideration the internationalization and the modern market, if it is, we can use the foreign language as the commodity brand name. There are many Chinese products only thought the local role during the development period, and till the scales are big enoug

21、h to march to the international scene, they just then discovered the images fall behind America, Japan and some other countries obviously. The Methods of Brand Name Translation“Brand name means business.” Brand name concerns image, credit, and actual strengtha series of significant elements of enter

22、prise. When the west advertisement designers design the brand name, product and manufactory, they rack their brains to produce vivid and unique brand name which in order to give consumers deep impression and win in the fierce market competition. When The Standard Petroleum Company designed the brand

23、 name “EXXON”, they invited many faceted specialists including package-linguists to research the language situation of 55 countries. It took 6 years and cost more than 1,400,000 dollars to complete. Of course, brand name translation doesnt likely cost so much effort, but we should adopt different me

24、thods carefully on the basis of different conditions.A. The Method of Chinese PinyinChinese Pinyin is the form of Latin words and the sound, meaning of Chinese. It is popular in Chinese brand name words. Chunlan （春兰空调）, Lishen（力神咖啡）, etc. Some use the abbreviation of Chinese Pinyin to express brand

25、names: LL（露露饮料）, LC（浪潮集团）, TG（天歌集团）. When we use Chinese Pinyin to translate brand names, we should pay attention to that it only marks tone to brand names, but it has no sense itself and its meaning is the content of corresponding Chinese words. Some Chinese Pinyin words have sense in English in so

26、me translation practices. “芳芳 ”cosmetics Pinyin is “Fang Fang”, and “Fang” is “the teeth of snake” in English. There is a brand name “FUCK” of pliers. Maybe it is the abbreviation of company name. But “fuck” is also an English word. Its meaning is “cheat, dupe”, even “have sex” in slang. So when we

27、use Pinyin to translate, we have to be careful. “永芳”cosmetic supplies us some inspirations. “永芳”has been marked as “Yin Fang” to avoid ambiguity.B. The Method of ParaphraseIt is popular that brand names of company and commodity are translated into English according to their sense in daily life. “开元集

28、团”is translated into “Create”, “雪莲羊绒衫”into “Lotus”, “椰风饮料”into “Coconut Hit”, “巨人集团”into “Giant Group”, “H型强场磁化杯”into “H-Type Magnetize a Drinking Water Cup”. When we paraphrase brand names, except that some registered English words have other senses in their culture background, we must pay attentio

29、n to that because the brand names of most enterprises in China are ready-made words; maybe they are same with the brand names which have been registered abroad. For example, there is a “浪潮计算机集团公司”in China, and there is also a famous “Fiae” （浪潮）company in America which produces detergent specially; O

30、r some brand names involve the quality, nature, function and raw material etc. All the above cannot paraphrase to English directly. We need re-consideration. Maybe we can register another English brand name. The brand name “美加净”has another corresponding Latin brand name “MAMAM” abroad; “广”beer of Gu

31、angzhou Beer Company has another English brand name “Guangs”.C. The Method of TransliterationWe can adopt or create English words which the tones are near to the Chinese words to translate brand name. These English words are very particular because they not only have the approximate tone of Chinese,

32、 but also meaning of itself. “风华”refrigerator has been translated into “Forward”（向前）,“四通计算机集团公司”into “Stone”（石头）,“ 黛妹牌生眉笔 ”into “Dame”（夫人）,“好娃友口服液”into “How Are You Oral Liquid”（你好口服液）,“ 海信电器公司”into “Hisense”（高灵敏）. All these give people deep impression.D. The Method of Word-BuildingWe can use mechan

33、ics, spelling wrongly on purpose and adding prefix or suffix to create many new words according to the specialty of English. Then adopt these words to translate brand name and express the distinction of the product. Although the sharps of new and original words are different, the meanings are remain

34、ed. The new words not only are vivid and interesting, but also can spread information of product effectively.1. The Method of Piecing Together and Adding AffixSometimes we tailor two words and choose the beginning or end to make up a new word which is used as a brand name. 东方星表 is translated into “E

35、astar” （East东方+Star 星） , 新意达集团 is into “Newit”（New 新+Wit 智慧），肤美灵化妆品 is into “Skinice”（Skin 皮肤+Nice 美）, 金霸王电池 is into “Durable cell” （Durable 耐久的+Cell 电池）, 康立戒烟灵 is into “Convene Smohquit” （Smoke 烟+Quit 戒除）.2. The Method of MisspellingThere is a “Kasn Karry Supermarket” abroad. “Kasn” and “Karry” is

36、the wrongly spelling word of “Cash” and “Carry”. It indicates the supermarket where if you pay money you can leave at once. Although there are only a few examples which use this method to translate brand names, its very successful. “奥林饮料”is translated into “Orien”. Although “Orien” is the wrongly sp

37、elling word of “Orient” （东方）, the sense is remained. It makes consumers recall the mystical “orient” life spring in the west legend; “清妃化妆品”is into “Chine”. “Chine” corresponds to “China ” （中国）. Consumers didnt use the product yet; they have seemed to see the beauty of Chinese woman already.3. The M

38、ethod of Compounding WordsThe method means we make up new word by arrange two or more than two words according to some order. “Hisense” is a good example. There are many example: “梦月广告公司”is translated into “Dream Moon ”（Dream 梦+Moon 月亮）, “清脑助学器”is into “Brain Bright”（Brain 大脑+Bright 聪明）. At present,

39、 we use paraphrase or pinyin to translate trad.Ch.medicine and health products generally. 胃苏冲剂 is translated into Stomach Comfortable Lotion, 555 神威丸 is into Three Five Shenwei Pill, Jie Shen Chun and Jie Er Yin are both the pinyin of their Chinese name. Because they dont have the proper names, the

40、features of the medicine cannot be showed up completely. Maybe the method of compounding English words could start a new road of translation.4. The Method of Using the Corresponding English WordsSome products names are the corresponding English words of Chinese names. So we can just find the origina

41、l English words when translate them. “乔士衬衫” is translated into “Choice”（精选）, 雅戈尔衬衫 is into “ Younger”（更年轻）, 康巴丝钟表 is into “Compas”, 奇士美 is into “Kiss Me”, 凯瑞按摩笔 is into “Carry”. The Cultural Taboos of Brand Name TranslationIn international commerce, we can find easily that the product which uses the

42、 same brand name is welcome in some countries but in other countries it may be treated coldly. Whether the brand name can be “in Rome do as the Romans do” is very important to cater to the aesthetic sense of consumer. Wang Zuoliang said: “A translator must be a real educated person.” It is undoubted

43、 problem that how to get rid of the barrier which is caused by nations cultural diversity in brand name translation. The translation of Chinese brand name into English may do wrongly easily, if the translator doesnt have good comprehension of the target language and its culture. For example, there i

44、s an electrical equipment “蝙蝠”, “蝠” is the homophonic of “福”. But if we translate it into “Bat”, the west people are disgusted with it. Because they dislike this kind of animal very much. It is bad to translate “蓝天”toothpaste which is made in China into “Blue Sky”, as “Blue Sky” means “the debenture

45、 of a enterprise which cannot be taken back” in English. The “白翎”pen cannot be translated into “White Feature”. Because “To show the white feature” means “escape and flee” in English. Someone translates “金鸡”clock into “Golden Clock”, it gives person vulgar and uncultured impression. Except cock, “Co

46、ck” also means penis. As we known, “白象”is left out in the cold in America, as it is translated into “White Elephant”. And “White Elephant” means “big but useless thing” in USA. Some animals have different allusions in the west and orient. So if we want our products sell well in other countries, we s

47、hould pay more attentions to the brand names and patterns of animals. Dragon （龙）is totem in Chinese history, but in the west dragon represents crime and evil. In Chinese tradition, phoenix（凤凰）is a mysterious animal, but in the west culture, it is a kind of birds which will never die and has meaning

48、of revivification. Magpie（喜鹊）is lucky bird in our country, as means hateful person in English. Turtle（龟）symbolizes longevity in Japan, as is seemed as hideousness in many countries. Because panda（熊猫） likes pig, it is hated by people of Islamic countries. There are many examples which like the cases

49、above caused by translator lacking culture. The Problems in Brand Name TranslationBrand name translation means translate brand name including name of product and manufactory from Chinese into English. The translated brand name must be Standard English which conforms to the international usual practice and cultural customs of target countries. So that it can develop overseas market and improve celebrity of product, eventually create good factors for founding Chinese international famous brand name. Because of economical development, there are more and more p