浅谈品牌翻译
ON TRANSLATION OF BRAND NAMES
浅谈品牌翻译
A thesis paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in English
ABSTRACT
The 21st century is the age of economic globalization. The export and import of domestic and overseas products become much more frequent. Therefore the translation of brand names shows its great importance in helping the transnational companies to open new markets on foreign lands. A successful version will, to a large extent, improve the brand image among customers. Though many companies have realized the significance of brand name translatio
n, some problems still exist today like abusing pinyin, over-complexity and neglecting cultural association. To avoid these mistakes, translators are required to get familiar with the basic theories in translating brand names. Generally speaking, there hasn’t been systematic study on translation of brand names. But some scholars like Nida and Newmark have ever established their theories in this area. On the basis of their theories, some main translating methods are introduced in this article. They are transliteration, literal translation, free translation, combining transliteration and free translation, and transference. All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages, so translators should make cautious use of them when translating brand names. To reflect the best effect of advertising, the translation should stick to principles of concision, equivalence and association. At last, the conclusion is reached that the standard of how good the translation is lies in how successfully the version achieves the advertising function. So with the purpose of attracting customers, translators should produce the most suitable versions by studying customers’ psychology and aesthetic appreciation.
Key Words: Globalization, functionalism, problems, practical translation, equivalence
摘要
二十一世纪是全球经济一体化的时代，国内外商品的进出口日益频繁。因此，对于跨国公司而言，品牌翻译在开发国外新市场上起着举足轻重的作用。而一个成功的翻译可以在很大程度上帮助公司提升其在消费者心目中的品牌形象。虽然许多公司已经意识到了品牌翻译的重要性，但是如今的品牌翻译还是存在着很多问题，比如说过分依赖拼音翻译，过于复杂拗口以及忽略文化联想。为了避免出现这些错误，译者因当先熟悉一些基础的翻译理论。总体而言，迄今为止还未有针对品牌翻译的系统研究。但一些象奈达和纽马克的学者曾提出过相关的理论。从而在他们的理论基础上，本文将介绍五种主要的品牌翻译方法。这些方法有其各自的优势与缺点，所以译者因当谨慎选择适当的翻译方法。而为了充分发挥品牌的广告效应，译文应当遵循简洁，等价以及联想。最后得出结论，品牌翻译优劣取决于译文是否充分发挥了品牌的广告功能。因此，本着吸引顾客的目的，译者应当通过研究顾客的心理与审美来制定最佳的译本。
关键词：全球一体化，问题,功能论，实用翻译，等价
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction (1)
2. The Existing Problems in Translation of Brand Names (1)
2.1 Excessive Dependence on Pinyin (1)
2.2 Over-complexity (2)
2.3 Neglecting Cultural Association (2)
3.Basic theories (3)
.
4. Methods of Translating Brand names (4)
4.1 Transliteration (4)
4.2 Literal Translation (5)
4.3 Free Translation (6)
4.4 Combining Transliteration and Free Translation (6)
4.5 Transference (7)
5. Conclusion (8)
Bibliography (9)
react to翻译1. Introduction:
With the globalization of economy, the bilateral trades between countries in the fields of service and products become even more frequent in the 21st century. So on the one hand, more and more foreign products are swarming into our country; on the other hand, more and more domestic products are making efforts to enter the international market. To gain a high reputation among foreign customers, transnational corporations must try their best to establish a good image first. There are many ways to admire this goal. Apart from the ways of intensifying advertising, improving quality and perfecting service system, introducing a good brand image into a foreign market is of great significance. Nowadays, brand not only
stands for the image of company but also for the quality of products. So for a transnational company, how successful the translation of brand names is directly determines whether their products will survive the heated competition in a foreign market.
A successful translation of brand names will draw potential customers’ interest in products and inspire their desire of buying. In other words, it should have the same advertising effect or at least the closest effect on target customers as the original brand names do. Here I will mainly discuss about how to produce the good translation of brand names.
2. The existing problems in translation of brand names
The translation of brand names is satisfactory by and large, but there still exist some problems.
2.1 Excessive dependence on pinyin
This problem mainly exists in the translation of Chinese brand names. Since pinyin can be applied to all the Chinese characters, many Chinese companies simply adopt pinyin as the
English brand names for their products. But pinyin is often composed of individual English letters, which neither match western habit of pronunciation nor convey exact information. As a result, foreign customers will fell confused about the brand and then suspect the quality of the product. Unfortunately, many of our famous brand names are translated in this way. For example, our well-known toothpaste “中华”is simply translated into “Zhong Hua”. Few western customers like the brand name starting with
“Z” for it’s hard to pronounce. What’s worse, with no idea of pinyin, they will be totally confused. So Chinese companies should make cautious use of pinyin in translation of brand names.
2.2 Over-complexity
This problem appears more in the translation of English brand names. Many English brands are named after their founders, and there are no exact meanings themselves, so many of them are translated into Chinese according to their English pronunciation. Then the problem of over-complexity arises. Take the translation of “McDonald’s” for example, th
e previous version was “麦克唐纳”, which seemed too complex for Chinese customers. Owing to the phonological preference, Chinese people admire brand names with two or three characters. That’s the reason why the latest translation of “麦当劳” is more popular than that of “麦克唐纳”. So generally speaking, the brand names with more than three characters really challenge Chinese customers’ memory and preference. Translator must keep the principle of concision in mind.

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