浅析商标翻译.doc

学科分类号（二级）740.5011

本科学生毕业论文
（设计）

题 目A Brief Analysis on Trademark Translation
浅析商标翻译
姓　　名 　 道 路　　　
学　　号 　　 084050001　　　　　
院、　系 　　 外语学院 英语系
专　　业 　 英语 (师范1)　
指导教师 　　 吴巳英 　 　
职称（学历）　 讲师 (硕士)

2012年5月10日

2012年5月10日

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Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or part from a thesis presented by me for another degree or diploma.

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Acknowledgements

My thanks go to all the teachers who have taught me and helped me during the four years of my study in Yunnan Normal University. I am deeply grateful to Ms. Wu Siying, my advisor, for her patient guidance, generous assistance, invaluable advice and continual encouragement, all of which have been of tremendous worth to the completion of my thesis.

Abstract
Nowadays, with increasing exchanges in international trading, more and more foreign trademarks have been introduced into our Chinese market, and simultaneously, our home-made products are exported on a large scale. For better promotion and selling, a proper and perfect translation of the trademark is absolutely needed. Nonetheless, translating trademarks is not simple, or at least it can not follow the same way as translating articles, news, manifestos, claims, etc. This requires unique translation methods, for free and literature translations are not enough for it because of different background of various cultures and the comparative flexibility. On the one hand, some improper translations happen now and then, and hence block the sale of the product. On the other hand, there are many excellent trademark translations, and due to their outstanding translations, the products have been recognized by the local market and sold well. Hence, the translation of the trademark is so crucial, not only in the field of language study, but also in the field of current trading.
However, the related academic studies on this issue are not focused enough domestically. For instance, the translation of our national trademarks is still deficient and inadequate because of the criteria on the trademark translation is not universally used. Therefore, in the thesis, I’d like to make a brief analysis on the field and put forward some solutions of my own.
Key Words: the translation of trademark; translation methods; solutions

摘 要
当今随着国际贸易的增长，越来越多的国外商标进入中国市场，同样，我国商品也大量地出口至海外。这期间必然经过不同语言的翻译处理，为了更好的销售产品，一个恰当出彩的译名是必不可少的。可是，对于商标的翻译来说，并不能按照翻译文章，新闻，公告以及宣言的套路，因为商标翻译其后是不同文化成分的认同与否以及相对较大的随意性，因此，对于商标的翻译也绝非易事，传统的直译与意译法并不能完全胜任其中。
关键词:商标翻译；翻译方法；解决方案

Contents

1. Introduction.......................................................................................1
2. Literature Review.........................2
2.1 Preface............................................................................................................2
2.2 Theory Framework.........................................................................................2
2.3 The Reasons for the Differences in Trademark Translation…………...........3
2.4 Principles and Method in the Adoption of Rendering…………………...….3
2.5 Some Concepts and Academic Works and Theories about the Trademark Translation both in China and Overseas......……………………………….. 4
3. Study Method................6
3.1. The Method....................................................................................................6
3.2. The Instrument...........................................................................................6
4. The Practical Cases Representation…….........................................7
4.1 Analysis on Improper Cases ……………………..........................................7
4.1.1. The Ignorance about the Culture of the Target Language…..…………7
4.1.2 the Overuse of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet(汉语拼音) in the Trademark Translation…………………………...…...................................9
4.2 Analysis on Proper or Excellent Cases …….…………………………...….10
4.2.1. The Proper Rendering Cases under the Culture and Mental Acceptation.
……………………………………………………………..………….10
4.3 The Contrast Between Each Case…………………………………………..12
5. Conclusion..........................................................................................13
References……………………………………...…………….…..…….15

1. Introduction
A trademark is the crucial and the most outstanding symbol of a product, which is often constituted by words. Meanwhile, the trademark is also a surface or representation of a producer and its statues in the market, for example, many companies or producers invest bulks of money on the designing of their own trademarks so that they can get good images and repercussions from the consumers, moreover, an ideal commercial statue they can build. As the international commerce develops dramatically, the function of the trademark translation has also become more and more necessary, for some instances which are quite familiar to us, some good translations, just like Benz, Coca-cola, BMW and Riich could give the consumers a very deep impression, therefore, their markets must be better than those translations which are not remembered easily and involved the local successfully. Based on such condition, it is obvious that the role of trademark translation is quite imperative and vital for the market competition, so, the analysis of the trademark translation is wealth on the field of international or domestic trading. Simultaneously, it is also quite meaningful and valuable for the study about linguistics, culture and translatology.
As this issue is so important, and the trademark itself includes many factors in it, such as the difference of culture factors, the emotional factors, the aesthetic factors and the various consumers, etc. Considering these existing complicated aspects, the trademark translators must be careful in the translation. During the work, comprehensive thinking and the overall cautions on these factors should be adopted in, so that can the translator make sure the accuracy and the proper aesthetic standard could be reached. Just like the Hegel’s words, “beauty is the perceptual appearance of any philosophies”, it expresses that any kinds of beauty is the dialectical combination of the formal beauty and the beauty in its content. Translating a trademark should not only involve the accuracy of the content, but the aesthetic and emotional acceptation factors must be taken into account. While, the current situation does not always go like this, as I can see, there are still many improper and even ridiculous translations of the trademark existing around us, to the more crucial one, most of these improper renderings are the trademark of our Chinese brands. Thus, an improper or even ridiculous translation may lead to the defects in the international market. And from my view, is it a phenomenon of the blind admiration for the foreign brand but the ignorance about our own product?
Hence, from the angle of a language leaner, and my national identity, I am eager to scrutinize this field, very daily but also complicated, so that some practical methods could be emphasized and utilized in the trademark translation.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Preface
Nowadays, as the larger exchange in international trading, more and more names of trademark have been introduced into our Chinese market, simultaneously, our home-made products export largely. For better promotion and selling, a proper and perfect translation of the name of trademark is absolutely needed. While, the translation of trademark is not simple, or not the same as the way of translating articles, news, manifestos, claims etc. This is the unique translation, the free and literature translations are not enough for it because of different background of various culture. Hence, some improper translations happen now and than and block its selling. To the opposite, there are many excellent trademark translations are well-known, and for their outstanding trademark names, the products have been recognized by their markets and sold well. These theses are a brief analysis on both the neglect one and the successful case by some theories, thus a few standards on the trademark translation is concluded, meanwhile, the author’s own opinions are added.
During the translation of trademark, not only the “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance(信达雅) ” is necessary, but the unique of source language and the feature of the trademark should be laid stress on them. However, any translation between the source and target language would involve the culture and history.

2.2 Theory Framework
Three principles of “信达雅” and the cautions on culture, history factors, principle of correspondence.

2.3 The Reason for the Differences in Trademark Translation
2.3.1 The Different Culture’s Influences.
Because of diversities of culture, the different angels of thinking may bring some disputes on the rendering.

2.3.2 The Association of Social Value
Social value is the center of a culture system. The western world is an individual-oriented society, while China is collected-oriented.
e.g. Budweiser-百威， Gome-国美，AIWA-爱华

2.3.3 National Psychology
Different psychology would result some different consuming orientation, e.g. our Chinese nation’s psychology involves in many aspects which avoids misfortune, there is a perfume named as “Poison”, the Chinese rendering is “百爱神”, averting the original meaning and adopting the transliteration.

2.3.4 The Different Background Culture about the Vocabulary.
A word maybe associated something, just like the different representations of “Dragon”, in western world; it is the symbol of evilness, whereas in China, it is a representation of supreme, e.g.古龙水

2.4 Principles and Method in the Adoption of Rendering
Transliteration (under the condition of culture acceptation)
Emphasis on the advantage or the peculiar features of production.
Innovation by the translator
Zero translation(零翻译)
Indigenousness (localized)
Legalization in the market
(1) abide to the region and custom
(2) within the scope of the law

2.5 Some Concepts and Academic Works and Theories about the Trademark Translation both in China and Overseas
2.5.1 The Three Translation Principles Mentioned by Yan Fu, the Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance(信达雅)
The criterion of three principles was firstly brought up by the Chinese distinguishable scholar Yan Fu in the late of Qing dynasty. It includes three sectors; they are faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. This theory mainly focuses on the translation job and is mostly accepted by many translators today.
Though this criterion only contains three words, the connotation is very rich and practical. Based on today’s scholars’ research and study, its connotation can be divided into two parts (Shen 10). The first part is the explanation of the faithfulness, which means when the translation is processing, the translator should be always faithful to the source language, and meanwhile, the translating version must be as possibly accurate as the original context. This standard not only requires the accuracy and identity of the rendering version in the lexical and syntaxic symmetry of the source language, but also the accuracy on the message, emotion, idea which the original article conveys. In this level, Yan emphasized that the sense to the sense is the most vital and important aim which the translator must approach. The second part is obviously the interpretation of the expressiveness and elegance. In Yan’s Evolution and Ethics（天演论）, he put forward that a translator can revise some parts of the rhetoric so that the rendering version could be accepted by the readers who use the target language in an easier way, both in the readers’ cultural and emotional factors（修辞立诚）. To be brief, the rendering must be easily read by the local readers. The highest level is the last one, elegance. Yan ever said in his book, “except the faithfulness and expressiveness, the highest and ultimate level is the elegance(信达而外，求其尔雅)”(Shen 48). This requires the rendering one could also be as elegant and aesthetic as the original version.
In conclusion, the three principles could be used as a judgment on the quality of a rendering. Only if the translation reaches these three principles, it can be assessed as a good rendering. In my notion, the trademark translation is also a common sort of rendering which conveys lots of message, or even the culture, thus, Yan’s theory is quite proper in it

2.5.2 Nida’ s Correspondence Theory
In the contemporary translation theorist and linguist Nida’s book Principles of Correspondence, he developed a very distinguishable theory, which is called the Dynamic (functional) equivalence and formal equivalence. Because he found that “there are no two absolutely identical languages either in the meaning given to corresponding symbols or in the ways in which symbols are arranged in phases and sentences” (Nida 5), this reveals that no absolute corresponding between two languages, hence, when rendering is processing, the translators should strive to render as close as the original version.
While in this process, there are two main approaches that the translator can utilize the formal or dynamic equivalence. One is the formal equivalence, or the formal correspondence. In this conception, the rendering one must consist of the closest equivalence with the original one, such as the grammatical unites, the word usage and the meaning in terms of source context. The factor of the formal one just “focuses attention on the message itself” (literature fidelity) (Nida 68) to the source text. So, the formal equivalence is only a measure to transmit the insight onto the lexical, grammatical and structural form of the source text. “Typically, formal correspondence distorts the grammatical and stylistic patterns of the receptor language, and hence distorts the message, so as to cause the receptor to misunderstand or to labor unduly hard” (Nida 75