论文总字数：32616字

摘 要

具有较高国际宣传力的商标可以有效提高产品的市场竞争力,有益于企业或国家获得经济效益。在这种情形下,商标翻译引起了人们极大的关注。本文宗旨在探究跨文化交际背景下的商标翻译。有五个原则影响了商标的翻译：功能对等原则、文化背景、符合审美、体现产品性能特点和简洁易记。针对这些原则，涉及到四种翻译方法：音译法、直译法、意译法和音意结合法。这篇论文总结并且分析了大量的例子，用来证明这些原则与方法是否对商标翻译有影响。在跨文化交际的背景下,本文也针对商标翻译的不同策略提出了需要注意的事项。

关键词：跨文化交际；商标；翻译

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 The definition of trademark 3

2.2 The value of trademark translation in intercultural communication 4

2.3 The functions of trademarks 4

3. Principles of Trademarks Translation Under the Background of Intercultural Communication 5

3.1 Keeping functional equivalence 5

3.2 Having culture background 6

3.3 Observing Aesthetic principle 6

3.4 Reflecting the characteristics of product performance 7

3.5 Being brief and easy to remember 7

4. The methods of trademark translation under the background of intercultural communication 8

4.1 Transliteration 8

4.2 Literal translation 9

4.3 Liberal translation 10

4.4 The combination of transliteration and liberal translation 11

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

In the past few decades, promoted by the rapid development of modern science and technology such as the new economy and information networks and the liberalization of trade and investment in the WTO multilateral trading system, the globalization of the world economy and the process of integration have continued to accelerate, and the interdependence of national economies has become increasingly, international trade has become an important driving force for accelerating the global economy and the economic development of countries around the world. The competition of market has also become more intense across national borders. The quality of credit and the degree of popularity are directly related to the market competitiveness of commodities, and become one of the important guarantees and conditions for winning in the fierce international competition. Moreover, excellent product credibility and brand awareness can also enable companies to achieve higher economic benefits in the competition. Therefore, in the transnational business and international competition, we actively promote ourselves through trademarks, establish a brand image and corporate image with high quality and high price. It is one of the main competitive strategies of major multinational companies around the world. It is also one of the important ways for companies around the world to explore market potential, actively improve competitiveness and actively promote international operations. Under this background, the important role of the translation of trademark is becoming more and more obvious in global trade.

Commodities entering national markets will first encounter consumers of different languages and cultures. Therefore, as a special form of cultural communication, trademark translation must fully consider the similarities and differences between different languages and cultures. At the same time, the translation of trademark is also one of the special ways of intercultural communication. Consumers can communicate with sales companies or manufacturing companies through real-time communication. Therefore, trademark translation requires translators to understand the cultural similarities and differences between the country where the original language is spoken and the country of the target language, and based on the phenomenon of surface culture, to deeply grasp the deep cultural connotation, so that the translated name can accurately convey the cultural characteristics of foreign countries. It is necessary to fully consider the factors of intercultural communication in the translation of trademark .

Unlike little variety of products was available of the past, now the market provides a feast for people’s eyes with various commodities. Facing so many choices, the consumers naturally consider not only quality but also other factors. Before buying things, people cannot help questioning:”Will the quality be good since its trademark is so ordinary? What’s this commodity for since the meaning of name is vague? Who are willing to buy this as it sounds bad and possesses inauspicious meaning?” People want to buy goods with both distinctive trademark and trusty quality which can satisfy the consumers’ psychology of good wish and stimulate their desire to buy it. Although many people think that only the quality of products is important to the sales in the international market, successful translation of trademark as well as trademark itself is more necessary to attract consumers and make higher sales.

1. Literature Review

Nowadays, many researchers at home and abroad have analyzed and studied the translation of trademark from different perspectives. Based on the research findings, what the experts study mostly are about the principles and methods of trademarks translation under the background of intercultural communication.

Chen Jiao (2018) in “Cultural Factors in Trademark Translation ” points out the color cultural differences in trademark translation. It means that there are many different meanings about colors in Chinese and English. For example, “ red ” is the symbol of fire and blood in western culture. However, it represents happiness and joy in Chinese culture.

Fu Qianwei (2018) in “On the Methods of Trademark Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory” apply Nida’s functional equivalence theory.

Ding Chumin (2014) in”On Cultural Intension of Trademark’s Translation” explains to us a new translation method, that is adding words. It means that according to the characteristics of the products or the key word to add to on the basis of original translated name.

Xu Lihong and Feng Jianmin (2009) in “Brief Discussion of Strategies of English Trademark Translation” put forward the pure transliteration method. It means that according to the pronunciation of English to match with the similar pronunciation of Chinese.

It can be seen from the review of the existing literature that trademark translation has been widely studied, but it doesn’t have the scale of a systematic study. As far as I am concerned, the application of translation theory about trademark translation will be further deepened. Based on the existing literature, I will summarize and analyze a large number of examples, and summarize the translation principles suitable for trademark translation.

2.1 The definition of trademark

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines a trademark as an indication that a commodity service is produced or provided by an individual or enterprise (Yu 134). The trademark is a kind of name, sign or design, etc, which is engraved or printed on the surface or package of a certain commodity, such as pictures, patterns and words. Just like the name of a person, the trademark of commodity can be regarded as a prominent representative of the product image, a sign of quality and reputation, and also a sufficient guarantee of intellectual property rights. When China’s export commodities enter the international market, they need to compete with foreign well-known brand commodities, so they requires a good image of enterprise’s commodities. This not only requires commodities have good quality, favorable prices and high-quality packaging, but also have trademarks which are distinctive, beautiful and loud, rich in connotation, easy to understand and remember by consumers of different languages and cultures, rich in associations and capable of inspiring consumers to buy. Similarly, the trademark names of imported goods are usually named directly by foreign manufacturers or advertising designers, and these trademarks mainly use foreign characters, which are bound to carry a strong western culture color. After entering the Chinese market, these commodities are mainly faced with differentiated domestic consumer groups. Whether these foreign commodities can successfully expand our market and expand our market and expand their own market share by defeating competitors in the same industry, and then get the favor of consumers. It requires foreign enterprises to formulate more scientific and flexible marketing methods according to the actual situation of our market, in which the advantages and disadvantages of trademark translation is also an extremely important link.

2.2 The value of trademark translation in intercultural communication

According to the Trademark Law of the People"s Republic of China, a trademark is any combination of characters, figures and three-dimensional signs that can distinguish goods or services of natural persons, legal persons or other organizations from those of others. From the perspective of consumers, trademarks can be said to be a comprehensive impression of goods or service in their minds. It is not only an important symbol of goods, but also a message conveyed by goods and a symbol of its own connotation. From the perspective of enterprises, a trademark can be said to be an intangible asset. Some foreign companies even use their company’s names and trademarks as their most valuable assets. In view of this, whether the commodity can successfully expand the target market, the advantage or disadvantage of the trademark translation is an extremely important link. The market significance of trademarks lies in the special cultural connotation of the trademark itself, and the valuable benefits of this cultural connotation are the embodiment of the external value of the trademark. Culture is a combination of a variety of human behavior patterns with historical inheritance, including language, social system, moral norms, values, consumption habits and lifestyles. It affects and acts on people’s ways of thinking and behavior. However, because there are huge differences in geographical location, religious beliefs and economic development levels among countries all over the world, there must be more or less differences when people are determining the types of thinking, aesthetic pleasure, consumption and values of commodity trademarks. Therefore, trademark translators must understand and analyze trademark translation issues from the perspective of intercultural communication.

2.3 The functions of trademarks

Trademarks have a great effect on stimulating consumption. Many consumers choose the goods according to the beautiful designs on the package. Trademarks are the expression of corporate culture and management theory. Trademark is a tool of modern business promotion, through it releases commodity information and stands out its features. Trademarks can show the features of products or services. Most trademarks can provide information about products or services, such as the place of production, the original material used for the product, the functions of the products, and the name of the producer and so on. Trademark, especially the well-known trademark is a very large wealth for the enterprise. In modern society, the trademark has become an important intangible asset, and is also the symbol of enterprise. A social visibility of trademark often contains large commercial value and brings rolling profits for enterprise.

3. Principles of Trademarks Translation Under the Background of Intercultural Communication

3.1 Keeping functional equivalence

In the process of the translation of trademark, we can fully preserve the connotation and form of the source language, and achieve the same effect as the source language. It is very hard to achieve harmony between sound, rhyme and meaning. In addition to the difference between Chinese traditional culture and Western culture, it is necessary for trademark translation to fully respect the traditional customs in culture and language expressions of the consumer. For example, the famous American translator Nida has proposed the theory of functional equivalence to guide the trademark (Fu 148). The so-called functional equivalence refers to the original language speakers have the roughly same feeling with the target language speaker when they accept information. He proposed that each language has its own characteristics. If you want to carry out effective intercultural communication activities, you must respect the characteristics of each language. A productive translation expert does not impose a certain linguistic structure on other languages. Instead, it is always ready to implement various formal adjustments and use the structural form of the translated language to reproduce the corresponding information. According to this theory, the translation of trademark should be equivalent to the original language in many aspects such as sound, meaning and shape. For example, the tie brand “Goldlion” is translated as “金利来”instead of “金狮”. Because “金狮”sounds like “金失”, which means losing wealth. It is ominous for Chinese people. However, “金利来”means gaining wealth and benefits and it reads smoothly and comfortably.

3.2 Having culture background

Chen Jiao thinks that trademark is the concentration of culture(Chen 66). Many aspects of modern people’s life are influenced by culture, and culture limits the process of modern people’s feeling of the world and the production of ideas. So that people gradually produce the so-called perception stereotype which is determined by culture, and these stereotypes will affect modern people’s values, consumer psychology and associative meaning. Because of this, the translation of trademark must take into account the aesthetic psychology and cultural habits of all consumers. For example, “Peacock（孔雀）” is a trademark that Chinese people are pleased to see and hear. Because Chinese people think that it is regarded as a symbol of good luck and beauty. Peacock opening is considered to bring good luck to people in China, and the same “peacock” in Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, it is regarded as a sign of complacency and pride. For example, there are many expressions in English such as “as proud as peacock” (meaning proud like peacock) and “play the peacock” (meaning to show off). The translation of trademarks of imported commodities must take into account the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. Chinese people like to speak “auspicious language” and are willing to use words about lucky, peaceful and so on. Chinese characters are not only phonetic but also ideographs. Therefore, when translating imported trademarks, we must carefully select the vocabulary that conforms to the aesthetic habits and psychological habits of Chinese consumers. For example, the famous commodity brand “Amway” is translated as “安利”, which links to “get benefit safely”. “安” in Chinese means stability, safety and security. “利”means advantages and benefit. So, the trademark translation of “安利”let people feel comfortable and at ease.

3.3 Observing Aesthetic principle

Trademark translation should follow the principle of Aesthetic, including beautiful sound, beautiful language and beautiful meaning. Beautiful sound means that the translated trademark pronounces loud and catchy. Beautiful language means that language should be aesthetically pleasing to make consumers think of the products and be impressed. Beautiful meaning means that the translated trademark has certain artistic conception and aesthetic feeling (Yu 135). For example, the “Coca-Cola” is translated as “可口可乐”, not only retained the pronunciation, but also cater to the Chinese consumer psychology. The name point out its “delicious” flavor, but also tells of its “Coke” effect. So this translated name plays a great role for coca-cola to be sold very well in Chinese market. “Coke” has become China’s modern society drinks. China Skyworth （创维） Group’s English trademark is "skyworth", which means "the sky of creating value". It extends "creation" and "sky" to form a new concept, showing that the Skyworth brand has been entering into a new stage of development. It shows its enterprise spirit of forge ahead. The brand image of Skyworth is a pure international character symbol, which not only reflects the pluralistic tolerance of Skyworth Group, but also shows broad vision and great ambition.

3.4 Reflecting the characteristics of product performance

Trademark is one of the important contents that reflect the performance of goods and one of the ways to advertise the goods themselves. Xu Lihong and Feng Jianmin have proposed a view that the function of trademark is to let consumers know clearly the types and characteristics of goods. Once the trademark translation can reflect the outstanding performance of the product in some aspects, it can impress consumers. For example, the baby diaper brand “Pampers” is translated as “帮宝适”. It shows that this product can help mothers better nurture their babies and make babies more comfortable and happy. It is full of mothers" deep concern for their babies. The detergent brand “Comfort” is translated as “金纺”. It embodies the category of product itself and shows the better performance.

3.5 Being brief and easy to remember

An important goal of trademark translation is to enable consumers to deeply remember the representative products by their translating names. Thus the company can form a longer and more far-reaching network system for product sale. Ding Chumin has proposed that trademark translation should be concise and suitable for reading to make it unforgettable(Ding 131). Therefore, it is necessary for the translated name of the trademark to be simple and easy to remember. For example, the Chinese translation of the famous brand "Hewlett Packard" is “休利特·帕卡德” by transliteration at first, which is six words long. It does not conform to the characteristic that Chinese trademark name is generally composed of two syllables. And these six words have no specific meaning, people will not know what to do after reading. It fails to play an important role in communicating between products and consumers. As a result, the company later changed the brand name into "HP", which is not only synonymous with the first letter of "Hewlett Packard", but also created positive associations such as "benefit ordinary people". Thus it become a classic successful case of trademark translation. The beer brand “Budweiser” is translated as “百德威斯”, obviously, “百威”is more concise, and“百威”gives people the feeling that they will have the spirit of hundred times and the power of infinity if they drink this beer.

4. The methods of trademark translation under the background of intercultural communication

According to the principles of trademark translation, good translation also requires the translator to adopt flexible methods to translate trademark well. By analyzing some trademarks, it can be seen that four methods are as follows.

4.1 Transliteration

Transliteration is a common method of the translation of trademark. It refers to use the target language directly according to the pronunciation of the brand in the original language. This method is quite common when translating foreign trademarks. It can not only retain the pronunciation of the original trademark and emphasize the exotic-sentiment of the goods, but also stimulate the desire of consumers to purchase. At the same time, it is simple and easy to do. This method is often applied to the brand which is named by people’s names, place’s names and other proper nouns. For example, the brand “Pantene” is translated as “潘婷”. The word “Pantene” does not have its own substantive meaning, and translating it into “潘婷” has no substantive meaning, too. However, the translation of “潘婷” seems to be catchy and it is similar to the name of a girl in Chinese. It can help people associate a beautiful woman with beautiful hair, so it is easy for consumers to accept. The cosmetics brand “Elizabeth Arden” is translated as “伊丽莎白·雅顿”. It is exotic and consumers can naturally classify it as a famous foreign brand. “海尔” is translated as “Haier”, which is same with Chinese pinyin. And also the pronunciation of “Haier” has the same with “higher”. It shows that “Haier” will develop better and better in the overseas markets(Yu 135).

This method accords with the principle of functional equivalence. In addition, we can not just use transliteration for some trademarks, it is necessary to endow them with some associate meanings. We should also pay attention to the choice of words on the basic of the principle of equivalence. We need try our best to make the translation of trademark sounds beautiful, and bring good association to customers.

4.2 Literal translation

The literal translation method means preserving the original content and form. Literal translation is actually one of the common methods in trademark translation. It mainly chooses the words related to its meaning in the target language according to the original meaning of the trademark. This method can faithfully express the meaning of the original trademark, and it is generally applicable to trademarks named by common words. However, translators must consider whether the meaning of the original trademark can be accepted by the consumers when applying this method. For example, the well-known automobile brand "Crown" translated into Chinese is the “皇冠”, which can reflect the luxury and elegant positioning. Similarly, the English translation of Chinese brands also adopts literal translation. For example, the Chinese bicycle brand “永久” is translated as "Forever", it emphasizes that this bicycle brand has strong and durable features. However, because of cultural differences, some trademarks have a positive meaning in one culture, while in another culture, they have a negative impression on the consumers. This is also a common problem in intercultural communication. For example, “白翎” pen’s literal translation is “White Feather”, but in the western culture, the cock-fighting with white tail feathers is thought as inferior timid cock and cowardly, so the sale is poor in Western countries. It can be seen that the use of literal translation to translate trademarks must take into account the specific connotations of words under different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, it is very likely that cultural differences will lead to consumer misunderstandings and even resentment, which in turn will affect to the advertisement of products and the effort of promotion .

This method accords with the principle of having culture background. Some Chinese trademarks have beautiful images and symbolic meanings in Chinese, but when they are literally translated into English, their cultural association meanings are quite opposite. Therefore, the method of literal translation should make sure that the translation can better respect the culture background of different countries.

4.3 Liberal translation

Liberal translation is another common method of the translation of trademark based on the original meaning of the trademark. It takes flexible and innovative forms to give full play to the advantage of the target language. The translated trademark should conform to the habit of the target language expression, impress the consumers deeply, and better show the original intention of the designer. For example, "Transformer" is a trademark of a well-known toy. The original meaning is “变压器”, by translating into “变形金刚” through liberal translation, it can clearly highlight the functions of the goods. The shampoo brand “Rejoice” is translated as “飘柔”. The original meaning of “Rejoice” is joy and elation. If the company translate the brand according to the original meaning, it can not reflect the characteristics of shampoo itself. However, “飘柔” can help people associate with the feeling of soft and elegant after washing their hair. “Safeguard” is translated as “舒肤佳” instead of “安全卫士”. “舒肤佳” is an elegant translation, which has kept the original meaning, that is to say, to keep the skin clean and comfortable, while “安全卫士” is hard for people to remember its original product, which means it is not a proper translation. So in these situations, people should use liberal translation.

This method accords with the principle of observing Aesthetic. Generally, if the source language trademark is not meaningful, we will use the method of liberal translation. Because the greatest advantage is that the source language trademark can be acquired beautiful language and beautiful meaning. The method of liberal translation should make sure that the translation can better observe Aesthetic principle.

4.4 The combination of transliteration and liberal translation

In the process of trademark translation, sometimes it is difficult to find the vocabulary in the target language that exact pronunciation and meaning are completely corresponding to the original trademark language. It is necessary to combine the pronunciation or part of the meaning of the original trademark, give full play to the imagination and creativity of the translator and choose words with similar pronunciation and beautiful meaning. This is a common method in Chinese and English trademark translation called the combination of transliteration and liberal translation. For example, the well-known German automobile brand “Benz” is translated as“奔驰”. Its Chinese translation sounds very similar to the original trademark. “奔驰”in Chinese means running very fast, it reflects the most important characteristic of cars, that is, speed, so this trademark is very widespread. It has become an excellent example of trademark translation and a typical case of cross-cultural communication.

This method accords with the principle of reflecting the characteristics of product performance. The combination of transliteration and liberal translation trademark is more likely to leave a deep impression on consumers than the transliteration trademark and liberal translation trademark. Therefore, the method of the combination of transliteration and liberal translation should make sure that the translation can better reflect the characteristics of the product.

5. Conclusion

Trademark translation seems simple. Actually, it is a very complex intercultural communication activity. The translation of the trademark is at the language and cultural level. Because of the differences in the background of cultural such as thinking style, value orientation and aesthetics, trademark translation must be based on respecting the cultural traditions of the target market, and retain the national characteristics and charm of the trademark itself, so that all the information and function of the source language trademark can be displayed in the translated trademark at the maximum. Between two different languages, accurate translation of trademark not only need to follow the principles and rules of translation, but also need to pay attention to study the cultural factors, especially the cultural factors of the target language. Only by truly transcending the corresponding obstacles in the cultural context of the target language can we successfully handle the cultural adaptation of cross-cultural communication. If we truly translate all kinds of trademarks that meet the aesthetic appeal and psychological needs of consumers, the trademarks in the target market can be culturally recognized, to achieve real success.

Nowadays the consciousness of commodity becomes increasingly fierce, and trademark cannot allow neglecting at all and more and more people have already valued it. Enterprise have reached the agreement that they should pay equal attention to both quality and trademark. Translation of trademark has many ways but not rules that must be elastically applied in the course of translation proved that the unity of those methods can best express the lingering charm of the original trademarks. In addition to those ways, translators need to notice several characteristics of trademarks when interpreting them, by which the translation can successfully transfer the features of products. One purpose of trademark is to produce influences on consumers, so concise trademarks are consumers’ favorites. Another purpose of trademark is to give people many information about goods. In addition, translators need to learn the culture of the target language and make more careful consideration. Only after those concerns, the products can remain invincible in the present market.

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