On Trademark Words'Translation in English 论英语商标词的翻译
On Trademark Words＇Translation in English
论英语商标词的翻译
Abstract
With the development of economy and the continuity of the open Policy, the trade between China and foreign countries comes hourly. The international market is filled with varieties of goods. Advertisement besides high quality plays an essential role in the process of promoting sales and cultivating international markets. Trademark is a sign, symbol, and carrier that identifies the products or services of a company .To win the field in the international trade, the study on the trademark translation is not only necessary but urgent.
This paper, as based on the culture differences in east and west, from the characteristics of Chinese and English trademark words, in-depth analysis of the trademark translation methods and existing problems in the trademark translation, tries to propose some trademark translation skills and principles. It also aims at advising the translators to pay attention to consumers’ cultural and psychological characteristic and translation methods while translating trademark words.
Key Words:trademark formation, translation principle, translation methods.
摘要
随着经济的发展和改革开放的进一步深入，中国与世界各国的贸易更加频繁，国际市场上商品种类日见繁多。如何在品种繁多的商品中脱颖而出？商品宣传就成为国际市场推销商品和进行竞争的一种重要手段。而商标作为品牌的标志和载体，在国际贸易活动中针对其进行的翻译就尤为重要了。
本文以中西方文化差异为基础,从中英文商标的特点,深入分析商标词的翻译方法及存在问题,并提出商标翻译的翻译方法和翻译原则。指引译者在翻译时注重消费者的文化心理特征和翻译方法。
关键词：商标组成；翻译原则；翻译方法
Content
Abstract..............................................................................I 摘要...........................................................................II Contents...........................................................................III Introduction (1)
1. The Origin of Trademark Words (2)
2. The Principle of Trademark Translation (3)
2.1 Using compliment and neutral color words............................ (3)
2.2 Using the words easy to read and remember (3)
2.3 Paying attention to consumer cultural and psychological characteristic (3)
2.4 Being consistent with cultural and geographic style (4)
3. Main Methods of Trademark Translation............................ .. (5)
3.1 Transliteration (5)
3.2 Free translation (5)
3.3 Literal translation (5)
3.4 Innovation (6)
Conclusion (7)
Bibliography (8)
Acknowledgements (9)
Introduction
With the development of the world economy, many products were produced and enter into the international market .How can a product gain a place in the international market which is full of keen competition? Undoubtedly a well-known product should have a famous name, besides high quality.A famous trademark can add value to a product in the marketplace because it has a potentially powerful influence on consumer’s behavior.This paper discusses the characteristics of trademark language taking culture elements into consideration, further analyses existing methods and problems in trademark translation and meanwhile putting forward techniques and principles in this field.
1. The Origin of Trademark Word
1.1 From name
Some trademark words are borrowed from the people＇s name, named after the founder, such as the U.S. entertainment brand, Disney（迪斯尼）named after its founder, Walt Disney, the famous automobile brand Roll-Royce （劳斯莱斯）is to founder Charles Rolls and Henry Royce name and surname.
1.2 From allusion
Some trademark words are borrowed from the allusions, such as the Stature Roman is herbicide, Stature is the agricultural god Roman mythology; The world famous cosmetic brand Sahara (丝芙兰) ,she is Moss’s wife in the Biblical, she is beauty, wisdom, courage and generosity in a young woman , a symbol of elegance, happiness and freedom, and this is fashion and creative store business philosophy is identical?
1.3 From the first letter
Some trademark words are constitution of the acronym. those trademark words simple and easy to read ,give the impressive of a deep. Such as the clean company P & G(宝洁公司) is by the two founders of Proctor and Gamble the first letter of composition; American Enterprise 3M is a Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing from the first letter; Japan’s Electric Company NEC is equivalent to Nippon Electric Company.
2. The principle of trademark translation
The translation of trademarks is a kind of cross-cultural communication activity. Every trademark implies its cultural connotation. While translating it, we must pay attention to the cultural differences and have the version co mply with the consumers’ cultural psychology, language rules and the regional culture
2.1 Using compliment and neutral color words
Chinese characters, both phonetic also ideographic conducting English Translation of trademark words, the selected characters must be considered carefully, to choose Chinese consumers are increasingly seeking profits Kyrgyzstan commendatory term psychological language, otherwise, it will affect product sales. Such as: According to August 7, 1995 "International Business Daily" reported that: In 1995, Britain's Whisky (威士忌) and France's Brandy (白兰地) In Hong Kong and started dumping war as a result, "威士忌" only sold 17.15 million bottles, and "白兰地" has sold 3.5 million bottles, of the reasons lies in its Chinese translation on. Sound in the table also ideographic Chinese, the "威士忌" make us thinking "Visa is taboo," Lenovo naturally poor sales; And "Brandy" are full of poetic, it is imagination, how can the Chinese people are not like it?
2.2 Using the words easy to read and remember
The most important goal of trademark words translation is make consumers to remember the trademark represented by those goods, trademark translation should be simple and easy to remember, vivid. Such as: Hewlett - Packard is the world's largest electronic equipment and small computer manufacturers, its trademark in China's translation of the word was originally used came from the transliteration of the name "休利特- 帕卡德", this name long to reach 6 words, these six words no actual meaning, people talking, it is difficult to attract consumer, which later translated as "惠普"While Hewlett and Packard with the first letter of euphony, make some people having many association , such as" to benefit ordinary people, "the beneficial
association, thus becoming the industry in China, a well-known brand.
2.3 Paying attention to consumer cultural and psychological characteristic
Cultural psychology is a nation in the long process of development of cultural reproduction made of the psychological characteristics of accumulation. Culture can influence the national psychology. The same word may evoke different associations in different cultural environment. A translator must have a general idea about the target culture and respect it. Let’s take the following trademarks as examples. such as: Bowling is a popular sports, translator its ingenious translated as "保龄球", The sports could be fitness, "保龄" is similar with extend the longevity, extend the longevity and fitness in line with the psychology of consumers, who do not like it?
2.4 Being consistent with cultural and geographic style
East and West due to geographical location, ethnic origin, the natural environment, religion and other cultural backgrounds are different, people's thinking, aesthetic, consumer attitudes, value orientation and knowledge of the commodity point of view there are many differences in such areas. Translation of this trademark should not only meet consumer culture and psychology, in line with the characteristics of the national language, but also respect for the sales market consumer groups national feelings, religion, in line with the humanities, geography, and customs. such as: U.S. well-known beverage "Coca-Cola" was originally translated as "可口可腊" is difficult to the desire for domestic consumers, "可口可腊" is inexplicable, "腊" attracts people to wax associations, more "tasteless.” and replaced by "Coca-Cola," situation is very different. "可口可乐" in Chinese, brings a good association, "可口" gives us a tasty sense of the word ,"可乐" is that "bring happiness to you". In addition, the translation of the original trademark on the word very similar in pronunciation, rhythm is also consistent with, and forms, have the same aesthetic. Coke - cola translated as "可口可乐" It's really wonderful of the translation. The translation Greely, funny, short but loud, easily mass psychology to accept an immediate sensation effect?
3. Main Methods of Trademark Translation
In a narrow sense, translation is rendering of a text from the source language to the target language. It is a recreation activity, based on the original writing in the source language. Trademark translation is a highly challenging job. We should take the different history, customs, art, culture and some other factors into consideration. we could use the following four main methods of trademark translation, that is, transliteration, free translation,literal translation, innovation.
3.1 Transliteration
Transliteration is based on the sounds of the source language. Choosing some target words or language that sounds same or familiar to the source language to translate. Sometimes, we should use Chinese Pinyin to translate some English trademarks directly. Most of this kind of trademarks is coined words and proper names. Sometimes they do not have the concrete meaning in target language. Let’s take some translated names as examples. Audi----奥迪Cadillac-------卡迪拉克Ford-----福特Lincoln--------林肯（car）Motorola----摩托罗拉Daphne------达芙妮DuPont--------杜邦Adidas-------阿迪达斯.
3.2 Free translation
Free Translation is a trademark under the direct translation of its meaning for the purpose of language, translated the target language culture, trademarks and blending. Such as:"安琪儿" is girl exceptional love bike in china, "angel" means "天使" and the English "Angle" are homonyms, coupled with the bike body, "rosy clouds catches up the dream", Chinese and Western, adding to the romantic atmosphere. Homophonic pun made use of a trademark of transliteration of the word are taken into account most of the phonological effect, to read fluently, Playboy (花花公子), Crocodile (鳄鱼), Blue-Ribbon (蓝带).
3.3 Literal translation
Literal translation is the most commonly used translation method in trademark translating. A prominent feature of this method is loyalty to the literal meaning of source trademarks. This method is often used to some ornate trademarks that have tangible and implied meaning. For example, car trademark “Bluebird”was often translated into“蓝鸟”directly. “Bluebird”comes from Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck’s fairy tales named as “Bluebird”symbolizing “Future happiness”. Later, it was used as the car trademark. Poet Li Shangying wrote: “蓬山此去无多路，青鸟殷勤为探看”<<无题>>。
In the poem, “blue bird”is “fairy bird”which comes of fairy tales. Poet wrote the feeling of lovesick. And in Chinese, “蓝”and“青”both have the meaning of “blue”. “Bluebird”translated into “蓝鸟”，not only is equal in form but also in cultural connotation. Both of them have the perfect meaning of messenger.
3.4 Innovation
Trademark is a mainly culturally loaded. It is also a mirror of social culture. Trademark not only reflects the society, culture and customs, and meets people’s psychological preference but also has an important influence on society, culture and aesthetic psychology. Creative translation is a technique, which is different from above four techniques, and could be used as the complement of the previous techniques. This method often uses some of the characters and words instead of pure.
Transliteration, The most talked-about example is“Sprite ”is a good example. The term literally translated as the sprite, for the "小妖精", the translator is to understand the psychology of Chinese consumers, be creatively translated as "雪碧", because "雪" gives a sense of purity, "碧" give people a sense of cool comfort, this translation, one is immediately associated with refreshing feeling after drinking soft drinks will no doubt promote product sales. The adoption of innovative translation translated as "飘柔", reminiscent of elegant supple hair. Such as these are toothpaste Crest (佳洁士), shampoos, Head & Shoulder (海飞丝), detergent Ariel (碧浪), etc.
Conclusion
Trademark is a bridge between producers and consumers. Trademark translation is very important in international trade. Though many translators have done much work on the study of trademark translation, some problems are still there that need to be solved. Trademark Translation is not just translation problem, it relates to export the image and business opportunities. Translation of the word mark is a cross-cultural exchange, and need to study the language, local culture, consumer psychology and aesthetic value, and never was a spoken and written language into other language machine translation activities. So mark the process of translation the translator must be taken into account the characteristics of target language country's culture, so as to transcend cultural barriers successfully translated the word trademark.
Bibliography
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Acknowledgements
The three years’ study in the Technical College as a college student in Business English department will come to its end soon. In college, I learn a lot of knowledge, and I meet many profound teachers who they teach me how to be, at the same time, I also make many friends. This thesis can finish with the help of many people.
Firstly, I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor, for her help, guidance, and insight comments. Without her illuminative suggestions and careful revisions, there would not have been this thesis presented. I would like to thank all teachers who have shared their ideas with me over the years. Their commitment and enthusiasm motivated me to write this thesis.
Secondly, I want to thanks my classmates and my parents, without their help and encourage I can’t have completed this thesis.
Finally, I also want to thanks many people who did the helps to me. Without their help I can not write this paper.