学士学位论文--从文化视角论商标的翻译.doc

毕 业 论 文

院 别 外国语学院
系 别 英语系
专 业 英 语（师范）
年 级 2009
学生姓名 程玉娟
学 号 200924061436
论文题目 从文化视角论商标的翻译
指导教师 张琼
完成时间 2013 年 5 月

肇庆学院教务处制

On the Translation of Trademark from the Cultural Perspective

A Thesis
Submitted to the School of Foreign Languages of
Zhaoqing University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
By
Cheng Yujuan

Supervisor：Zhang Qiong
May 2013

On the Translation of Trademark from the Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Trademark is one of the effective ways to help companies to spread their identities and better sell their commodities. The paper discusses the international significance of trademark and the important effect of trademark translation that it can also be favored for a brand in the international market. Trademark is a symbol of representative product image and quality, with the specific cultural connotation. Trademark as a cross-cultural activity, there is a huge difference in Chinese and western language and culture, customs and tradition. The paper illustrates the commonly used translation methods in the trademark translation, as well as analyses the main strategy of trademark translation on the influence of cultural difference. Finally on the question “how to make an accurate translation of China’s export brand name so that it can get the better sales goal”, this paper gives a further study.

Key Words: trademark; culture; translation

内容摘要

商标是公司传播自身特点和促进销售量的有效途径。商标的国际性的意义和商标的翻译对于一个商品品牌在国际市场上是否也能够得到青睐，也起着至关重要的作用。商标是产品形象的代表和质量的象征，承载着特定的民族文化内涵。作为一种跨文化活动，在中西方的语言文化、风俗习惯、传统等方面存在着巨大差异。论文最后了商标的翻译中常用到的翻译方法：一般情况用音译的方法；根据商标所表达的意义、商标名称是否符合当地文化、商标名称对顾客的吸引性可选择意译，并分析文化差异对商标翻译的影响及商标翻译应把握的主要策略，探讨了如何准确翻译我国出口商品的商标名称，达到促进商品销售的目的。

关键词：商标；文化；翻译

Acknowledgements
Here, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the people who have helped me finishing this paper. Especially I want to give my thanks to Ms. Zhang Qiong, my respected supervisor. Without her help, I am sure that I will not accomplish this thesis successfully. Out of her busy work in the supervising, she helped me with revising my thesis. She read through my paper carefully and pointed the errors. With her careful revising, I finished my paper smoothly. In addition, I would like to express my thanks to the writers of the reference books. From them, I got so much useful materials.

Outline
Thesis Statement: This thesis analyses the translation methods of trademark from the cultural perspective.

1. Introduction
2. Culture Differences in the Trademark
2.1 Thinking-pattern Differences
2.2 Social Value Differences
2.3 National Psychological Differences
2.3.1 National Values
2.3.2 Religious Beliefs
2.4 Aesthetic Interest Differences
3. Translation of Trademark
3.1 Transliteration
3.2 Free Translation
3.3 Combination of Transliteration and Free Translation
3.4 Effectiveness Translation
4. Conclusion

Table of Contents
1 Introduction ………………………….…………………………………..…….…1
2 Culture Differences in the Trademark ……………………………………..……2
2.1 Thinking-pattern Differences …………………………………………………2
2.2 Social Value Differences ………………………………………………………3
2.3 National Psychological Differences……………………………………………3
2.3.1 National Values……………………………………………………………4
2.3.2 Religious Beliefs……………………………………………………….…5
2.4 Aesthetic Interest Differences…………………………………………………..6
3 Translation of Trademark ………………………….…………………………….....7
3.1 Transliteration ………………………….………………………………………7
3.2 Free Translation ………………………….…………………………………….8
3.3 Combination of Transliteration and Free Translation ………….………………9
3.4 Effectiveness Translation………………………….……………………………10
4 Conclusion………………………….………………………………………………11
Bibliography ………………………….……………………………….………………..12

v
1. Introduction
Trademark is a symbol of a product in the form of one or more words (Oxford Dictionary of Business, Market House Book Ltd, 1990). It stands for the quality, function, after-sale services and other important traits of the product. And it is not only a logo, also a lure, the final goal which is to attract customers and sell commodities. The translation of trademarks belongs to the field of business translation and also has its own distinguishing features. As stated by an American scholar, “A good translation of a brand name can bring millions of dollars’ difference in the product sells record.”(包惠南，2001:28)
With more and more foreign products came into China and Chinese products exported abroad, trademark translation has become an increasingly significant part of marketing strategy. A well-translated trademark can also save millions of dollars over the product’s life because it carries its own meaning, describes the product’s advantages, and differentiates the product significantly from its competitors. By reading the trademarks, it is easy to tell the products from one to the other and to know the characters of products. For the good trademark has the functions of distinguishing, providing information of products and being symbol of credit, the good trademark has a good advertisement for the product and help to take in a larger market .So this paper emphatically point out the culture differences in trademark translation, if the translators know more about these differences, they may translate trademarks better.

2. Culture Differences in the Trademark
The trademark translation and cultural differences are inseparable. In social life, culture plays a vital role, which greatly affects people’s daily life. Cultural diversity decides people to have different ways of thinking, aesthetic temperament and interest, and national psychology as well as the social value in trademark translation. (Nida, Eugene, 2004:27)Therefore, the translators must consider the influences of the cultural differences during the trademark translation. (陈炼，2002:47)Now, I will discuss on the influences of the English trademark translation from the following four different kinds of cultural differences.
2.1 Thinking-pattern Differences
Countries all over the world have different geographic location, political system and racial system as well as economic development level. Besides, people in different culture background tend to have different ways of thinking. Now, let’s talk about the thinking-pattern differences. In Western countries, people often are used to getting the abstract way of thinking, however, Chinese are used to thinking in images. The essential difference between abstract thinking and thinking in image lies in using the different basic unit during the process of the thinking. Abstract thinking is the basic unit of the concept, and thinking in image is the basic unit of the perceptual image. The trademark translators should pay much attention to transfer from the abstract thinking to the thinking in image in English trademark translation into Chinese. Therefore, in some cases, many rather abstract English trademarks are translated into Chinese, which should be objectified in visualization. For example, English trademarks “Pepsi Cola”, “Coca-Cola”, “Colgate”, and “Rejoice” are translated into Chinese words, separately for “百事可乐”;
“可口可乐”; “高露洁”and “飘柔” They are not only specific image, but also can bring a person enjoyment. This way of translation considers that people from different countries have different thinking-pattern. These kinds of famous and successful trademarks have brought great benefits for businessmen.
2.2 Social Value Differences
Every society and culture has its own social values. As a core of the system of culture, social value is an evaluation of things around him or her and also is the orientation to taking behavior. Social value is a person’s behavior direction and motivation. Therefore, the social values directly affect the consumption behaviors. As is known to all, the most important difference between Chinese culture and Western culture is that people have collectivism and individualistic attitudes. (詹欣珍，2004:24)In Western culture, people strongly advocate individualism. They advocate personal struggle, enterprise and innovation. So the Western trademarks are named after the people who are the founders of relevant goods. However, in China, collectivism is advocated by people and plays a leading role in our society. It is also the criterion to identity people whether they own a sense of responsibility or not. Different social values play an important influence on the trademark translation. For example, English trademark “Budweiser” is translated as “百威”, “GOME” is translated as “国美” and “Aiwa” is translated into “Love China”, and so on.
2.3 National Psychological Differences
The national psychology refers to a character, temperament, emotion, value orientation and religious mentality of a nation. Even though a national psychological model and characteristic have something in common with other nations’ psychological models and characteristics, mostly are reactive and different. National psychological differences enable people from different countries to have psychological impacts and form the obstacles in their association. So a national psychological mode will inevitably affect people shopping mentality. In the trademark translation process, if the translators ignore national psychological differences, even good products will not be accepted by people just because of the trademark names. National psychology contains national values and religious belief.
2.3.1 National Values
Cultural value is to display the profound humanistic spirit through the “restraint” and “self-denial”. (李宝成，2004:62)It advocates moral values that are self-cultivation and regulating the family as well as governing. Trademark also expresses this concept with its concise language. Chinese people in psychology are more willing to select the lucky words or connect the trademark name with nice wish through “谐音”. Trademark translation process is a process of renaming. So when English trademarks are translated, the translators should know that Chinese people have minds that are hastening lucky, avoiding disaster and blessing.
Many importers pay much attention to Chinese culture and the national values during the translation so that they can open the China market for the products. The famous beverage “Coca-Cola” is translated as “可口可乐”, which caters to Chinese people “Great happiness, Great joy” psychology, brings the revenue for company. Also, “Gold Lion” was translated as “金狮”originally, but “狮” in Hong Kong and Macao is similar with the pronunciation “lose” so it sold block. Later, it is translated as “金利来”. The translator uses the free translation of “Gold” which is “金”, and adopts the transliteration of “Lion” that is “利来”. From then on, the profits of good are increasing rapidly because its name caters to Chinese people’s psychology. There is an example, BMW are acronyms of Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian motor company). When the product comes to the Chinese market, the translator leaves out the last letter W and just translates two letters B and M as “宝马” according to Chinese two-syllable. The name enables BMW to contain rich Chinese culture.
Chinese consumption mind is hastening lucky and making profits, paying attention to durability and efficiency, often expecting to be long, sure and real allowance and guarantee. When many English trademarks are translated into Chinese, the translators should pay much more attentions on Chinese consumers’ values and national psychology, such as “Seven-up”(七喜), “Gold Lion”(金利来), “Cannon”(佳能), “Dove”(德芙) (the homonyms of Chinese nice word “De Fu”). Chinese people would rather choose trademarks which represent good things not to choose trademarks with evil things.
2.3.2 Religious Beliefs
Different nations have different religious beliefs and different beliefs have different taboos. Understanding taboos has a very important significance in trademarks translation, because people’s religious beliefs in a large extent influence people’s consumption idea and behavior. If the business ignores religious differences, products not only can’t open market, but also would be suppressive. For example, as the above mentioned “Gold Lion” (金利来) product, firstly it was translated into “金狮” so that it can’t open the market in China. Because it suffers from “Buddhism” and “Taoism” and people pursue a long life. “Golden Lion” and “today death” are the same sound so that people will consider it is unlucky. And then it was translated as “金利来”, which is a good fortune. In addition, Chinese ethnic culture always pays attention to inside, steady and euphemism. One English trademark called “Kiss Me”, which wishes to express that it makes females more enchanting sexy. If a translator lacks Chinese culture, simply translated it was “吻我”, then its amount in the Chinese market is far from “奇士美”.
2.4 Aesthetic Interest Differences
Elegance is a kind of cultural characteristic that human being own. Vulgar trademarks can cause consumers disgusted. It may have this case that what is considered elegant in one culture may be vulgar in another one. Therefore, we have to understand different characteristics of cultures, like taboo and metaphor and so on. The aesthetic psychology is an important factor of social culture. The translators only cater to different national aesthetic psychology so as to give consumers a beautiful enjoyment and stimulate their purchasing desire. For example, a France famous perfume brand called “Poison”. It caters to Western women’s rebellious and personality. It is sold very well in Western countries. However, in China, people’s aesthetic interest is quite different from Western. Eastern women are well-known as good morality and virtue. If the “Poison” is directly translated into “毒药”, for most Chinese women it is difficult to accept. Sales will well? Later, it is translated into “百爱神” to enter into Chinese market. It shows the other kinds of beauty which is different from the original one. In translation, national aesthetic interest differences should not be neglected. Take color as an example, Belgium hate blue because they think blue is unlucky. In a word, the translators should know exactly about the other countries of culture and tradition so that products would be promoted well in the international market.

3. Translation of Trademark
Speaking of methods of translation, free translation, transliteration and combination of transliteration and free translation are always mentioned. (冯庆华，1998:35)In trademark translation, they are also in common use. According to William Wells’ advertising book, he argues that it is particularly difficult for international companies to adapt to names an