商標英語的翻譯

1、商標語的翻譯Abstract Translation of brand names is a form of intercultural communication. However we translate the Chinese brand names into English ones or translate the English brand names into Chinese ones, language laws, cultural psychology, aesthetic interest and some other factors will be involved. T

2、he translators should also pay attention to some cultural taboos and choose appropriate method to translate. Of course, brand name translation is not a simple thing. Sometimes the good translated name likes the inherent one, when we translate brand name there is something we can do to strive for per

3、fection. One good kind of commodity adding on a good name is not different with improving on perfection, and its charm is infinite. Key Words Translation of brand names; principles; methods; cultural taboos; Introduction The human society has entered the 21st century. The international trade is

4、 developing fast. The national boundary concept desalinates gradually, when the scale of the commercial cooperation and the commodity import and export expand unceasingly. Import and export product in foreign land whether can develop the market and seize the market successfully; the brand name trans

5、lation is playing the pivotal role, besides medium advertisement. The commodity brand name is similar to human's name. The translated brand name is the second name of commodity in other country, its importance is self-evident.The Principles of Brand Name TranslationA successful brand name transl

6、ation both must retain the original text the essence, has with the original text same level effect, and must conform to consumer's brand name psychology simultaneously, but also must give dual attention to the cultural difference of English and Chinese.A. The Advertising Nature of Brand Name Tra

7、nslationThe translated brand name must conform to the products nature and the characteristic, manifests the localization concept in the original text, plays role which informs widely. At the same time, the translated name should conform to the commodity characteristic, succinct novel, the pronunciat

8、ion is sweet. It is advantageous to spell, read, write and remember, and easy to cause the consumer to produce the good association and impression about the commodity. For example, “Dynasty” -the English trademark of “皇朝葡萄酒”, let us cannot help associating the old mystical orient country, so we have

9、 deep image of the good aged wine. “Forever” is the trademark of “永久自行車”. It tally with the advertisement “經(jīng)久耐用，直到永遠”of the bicycle completely. “飛鴿自行車” was translated “Flying Pigeon”. “Pigeon” is the symbol of peace and “flying” makes the character of the bicycle vivid. “蜂花化妝品”is translated into “Be

10、e & Flower”. We may feel comfortable and fragrant after we use it. The translated names above give consumers relaxed feeling and they also can be remembered easily.B. Inductive Principle of Brand Name TranslationThe final goal of the brand name is bringing consumer's attention, taking consum

11、er's demand, stimulating consumer's purchase desire, and finally serving with the purchase behavior. Inductive principle of brand name should regard as the soul of brand name translation. The Chinese-foreign joint venture washing product “飄柔” is the classics of brand name translation about i

12、nductive principle work. The translator did not transliterate the “Rejoice” or translate it literally to “歡樂”or “歡歡”, but adopt free translation boldly. He used “飄柔”to show the brilliance of it. At the same time, this translation also has the very strong inductive. Generally speaking, the shampoo ex

13、pense group is almost female, and each woman vainly hoped for has mild-mannered sharp luxuriant. “飄柔” has held the dream of the expense groups, lured them to choose this product. Prokids (小淘氣嬰兒用品) using the love of mother to the child indicated all these are for your lovely baby; Are you not willing

14、 to take out money? Therefore, when translation brand name, we must study consumer's psychology carefully, consider repeatedly, translate exquisitely, lofty, brief, easy to record, can arouse the customer interest, let persons have the happy association, makes the deep impression to the customer

15、s.C. Aesthetic Principle of Brand Name TranslationThe translated brand name cannot let the consumer have the bad association; otherwise the good product also cannot sell out. This requests the translator considering the culture and the historical perspective fully. For example, if “Goldlion” (mens c

16、lothes) is translated into “金獅”, it has a homophonic one as “金失”. That is the taboo of factory. They believe that if they use the translated name, the product never be sold well in China. But “金利來”is a lucky name. It has already been familiar and loved by consumers. In Japan, lotus is the symbol of

17、death, so the brand name“荷花”should be changed to another one. However a ship has the best quality and the lowest price, if it uses the name “Titanic”, nobody may buy it. Japanese car manufacturer “Toyota” presents a kind of luxurious car whose brand name is “Lexus”. When the car begins to sell in ch

18、ina, the administrant of Toyota company decided to translate “Lexus” to Chinese “凌志”. To the mainland Chinese, the name may recall their memory about Chairman Maos majestic poem “久有凌云志，重上井岡山”. So when we translate brand names, we have to avoid the words which are tabooed by consumers carefully, and

19、choose propitious names meticulously.D. Equivalence Principle of Brand Name TranslationEquivalence is the core in the west translation theory. In 1961, a famous person pointed out: “The influence which the translated works gives us should be identical with the influence which the original text gives

20、 its first audience.” The principle of equivalence is suit for brand name translation best in all the translation theories. According to the principle of equivalence, translated brand name must have two factors: a. Translated name should have the brand name form. b. The translated one must have the

21、ability to produce the same or approximate functions of the original brand name. That is to say, the translated name should be reading easily, pleasant to hear, good-looking. It must be the perfect unity of tone, form and meaning. Let us see some examples: cosmetic “Clean&Clear” means clean and

22、fresh. The information of the original is if you use the product, your skin will be clean and fresh. The original name is bright and makes consumers feel clean and neat. If it is translated into “干凈清爽”, the comfortable feel which it gives us may disappear. If we use “可伶可俐”,the product is the girls f

23、avor sure. Because it makes consumers associate it with clever and bright girls. In the example, both the original and translated words give the same influence to different accepters.E. Observing the International StandardThe general country all stipulated that, the word of brand name must not have

24、narration to the commodity nature, the quality, the function, raw material and so on. As a result of the historical reason, there are many registration trademarks opposed the above stipulation in our country. For example, “永久自行車”,“金杯足球”,“羊毛毯”, “鉆石手表”and so on. If uses their English names which are t

25、ranslated directly in the overseas application registration, they are easy to encounter the veto. The Shandong “Qinqi” group produces “Qinqi” motorcycle, “Qinqi “are not translated into English directly, so as to evade the suspicion of implication commodity quality, but used Chinese Pinyin form &quo

26、t; Qinqi ", it passed on Chinese pronunciation and meaning by used Latin alphabet. Compared with "Forever " (永久), “GoldCup” (金杯) and " Best " (百得), it registers easily in overseas.F.  Observing Our Country's Relevant Laws"The People's Republic of China Bran

27、d Name Law" stipulated that we can not use the word which is similar with the name of People's Republic of China, also can not use the word which has the national prejudice. In 1988, a factory in Hangzhou registered brand name “PRC “for its product industry chain link. But “PRC " is th

28、e English abbreviation of People's Republic of China, therefore, this brand name is impossible to allowed to register. As a result of the contrast intense, black's tooth appear very white, therefore some one used " 黑人 " as the brand name of the toothpaste. But its English name &quo

29、t; Darkie " is one kind of derogatory names to black's, so this brand name which has used several dozens years in mainland China cannot continue to register and be avoided to use just because of including the racial discrimination ingredient. Revised in February, 1993, "the People'

30、s Republic of China Brand Name Law" didnt limit the kind of language of brand name; we might use the Chinese word, Chinese Pinyin, the foreign language or the minority language. If we use Chinese and the foreign language together as a brand name, the industry and commerce department requests th

31、at the two kinds of language are mutually consistent, or requests that Chinese and the foreign language divide into two brand names to register, and then use the combined form of the brand names. In fact, commodity packing design should take into consideration the internationalization and the modern

32、 market, if it is, we can use the foreign language as the commodity brand name. There are many Chinese products only thought the local role during the development period, and till the scales are big enough to march to the international scene, they just then discovered the images fall behind America,

33、 Japan and some other countries obviously. The Methods of Brand Name Translation“Brand name means business.” Brand name concerns image, credit, and actual strengtha series of significant elements of enterprise. When the west advertisement designers design the brand name, product and manufactory, the

34、y rack their brains to produce vivid and unique brand name which in order to give consumers deep impression and win in the fierce market competition. When The Standard Petroleum Company designed the brand name “EXXON”, they invited many faceted specialists including package-linguists to research the

35、 language situation of 55 countries. It took 6 years and cost more than 1,400,000 dollars to complete. Of course, brand name translation doesnt likely cost so much effort, but we should adopt different methods carefully on the basis of different conditions.A. The Method of Chinese PinyinChinese Piny

36、in is the form of Latin words and the sound, meaning of Chinese. It is popular in Chinese brand name words. Chunlan （春蘭空調(diào)）, Lishen（力神咖啡）, etc. Some use the abbreviation of Chinese Pinyin to express brand names: LL（露露飲料）, LC（浪潮集團）, TG（天歌集團）. When we use Chinese Pinyin to translate brand names, we sho

37、uld pay attention to that it only marks tone to brand names, but it has no sense itself and its meaning is the content of corresponding Chinese words. Some Chinese Pinyin words have sense in English in some translation practices. “芳芳”cosmetics Pinyin is “Fang Fang”, and “Fang” is “the teeth of snake

38、” in English. There is a brand name “F·U·C·K” of pliers. Maybe it is the abbreviation of company name. But “fuck” is also an English word. Its meaning is “cheat, dupe”, even “have sex” in slang. So when we use Pinyin to translate, we have to be careful. “永芳”cosmetic supplies us some i

39、nspirations. “永芳”has been marked as “Yin Fang” to avoid ambiguity.B. The Method of ParaphraseIt is popular that brand names of company and commodity are translated into English according to their sense in daily life. “開元集團”is translated into “Create”, “雪蓮羊絨衫”into “Lotus”, “椰風飲料”into “Coconut Hit”, “

40、巨人集團”into “Giant Group”, “H型強場磁化杯”into “H-Type Magnetize a Drinking Water Cup”. When we paraphrase brand names, except that some registered English words have other senses in their culture background, we must pay attention to that because the brand names of most enterprises in China are ready-made w

41、ords; maybe they are same with the brand names which have been registered abroad. For example, there is a “浪潮計算機集團公司”in China, and there is also a famous “Fiae” （浪潮）company in America which produces detergent specially; Or some brand names involve the quality, nature, function and raw material etc.

42、All the above cannot paraphrase to English directly. We need re-consideration. Maybe we can register another English brand name. The brand name “美加凈”has another corresponding Latin brand name “MAMAM” abroad; “廣”beer of Guangzhou Beer Company has another English brand name “Guangs”.C. The Method of T

43、ransliterationWe can adopt or create English words which the tones are near to the Chinese words to translate brand name. These English words are very particular because they not only have the approximate tone of Chinese, but also meaning of itself. “風華”refrigerator has been translated into “Forward

44、”（向前）,“四通計算機集團公司”into “Stone”（石頭）,“黛妹牌生眉筆”into “Dame”（夫人）,“好娃友口服液”into “How Are You Oral Liquid”（你好口服液）,“海信電器公司”into “Hisense”（高靈敏）. All these give people deep impression.D. The Method of Word-BuildingWe can use mechanics, spelling wrongly on purpose and adding prefix or suffix to create many new wo

45、rds according to the specialty of English. Then adopt these words to translate brand name and express the distinction of the product. Although the sharps of new and original words are different, the meanings are remained. The new words not only are vivid and interesting, but also can spread informat

46、ion of product effectively.1. The Method of Piecing Together and Adding AffixSometimes we tailor two words and choose the beginning or end to make up a new word which is used as a brand name. 東方星表is translated into “Eastar” （East東方+Star星）, 新意達集團is into “Newit”（New新+Wit智慧），膚美靈化妝品is into “Skinice”（Ski

47、n皮膚+Nice美）, 金霸王電池is into “Durable cell” （Durable耐久的+Cell電池）, 康立戒煙靈is into “Convene Smohquit” （Smoke煙+Quit戒除）.2. The Method of MisspellingThere is a “Kasn Karry Supermarket” abroad. “Kasn” and “Karry” is the wrongly spelling word of “Cash” and “Carry”. It indicates the supermarket where if you pay mo

48、ney you can leave at once. Although there are only a few examples which use this method to translate brand names, its very successful. “奧林飲料”is translated into “Orien”. Although “Orien” is the wrongly spelling word of “Orient” （東方）, the sense is remained. It makes consumers recall the mystical “orie

49、nt” life spring in the west legend; “清妃化妝品”is into “Chine”. “Chine” corresponds to “China ” （中國）. Consumers didnt use the product yet; they have seemed to see the beauty of Chinese woman already.4. The Method of Using the Corresponding English WordsSome products names are the corresponding English w

50、ords of Chinese names. So we can just find the original English words when translate them. “喬士襯衫” is translated into “Choice”（精選）, 雅戈爾襯衫 is into “ Younger”（更年輕）, 康巴絲鐘表 is into “Compas”, 奇士美 is into “Kiss Me”, 凱瑞按摩筆 is into “Carry”. The Cultural Taboos of Brand Name TranslationIn international commer

51、ce, we can find easily that the product which uses the same brand name is welcome in some countries but in other countries it may be treated coldly. Whether the brand name can be “in Rome do as the Romans do” is very important to cater to the aesthetic sense of consumer. Wang Zuoliang said: “A trans

52、lator must be a real educated person.” It is undoubted problem that how to get rid of the barrier which is caused by nations cultural diversity in brand name translation. The translation of Chinese brand name into English may do wrongly easily, if the translator doesnt have good comprehension of the

53、 target language and its culture. For example, there is an electrical equipment “蝙蝠”, “蝠” is the homophonic of “福”. But if we translate it into “Bat”, the west people are disgusted with it. Because they dislike this kind of animal very much. It is bad to translate “藍天”toothpaste which is made in Chi

54、na into “Blue Sky”, as “Blue Sky” means “the debenture of a enterprise which cannot be taken back” in English. The “白翎”pen cannot be translated into “White Feature”. Because “To show the white feature” means “escape and flee” in English. Someone translates “金雞”clock into “Golden Clock”, it gives per

55、son vulgar and uncultured impression. Except cock, “Cock” also means penis. As we known, “白象”is left out in the cold in America, as it is translated into “White Elephant”. And “White Elephant” means “big but useless thing” in USA. Some animals have different allusions in the west and orient. So if w

56、e want our products sell well in other countries, we should pay more attentions to the brand names and patterns of animals. Dragon （龍）is totem in Chinese history, but in the west dragon represents crime and evil. In Chinese tradition, phoenix（鳳凰）is a mysterious animal, but in the west culture, it is

57、 a kind of birds which will never die and has meaning of revivification. Magpie（喜鵲）is lucky bird in our country, as means hateful person in English. Turtle（龜）symbolizes longevity in Japan, as is seemed as hideousness in many countries. Because panda（熊貓）likes pig, it is hated by people of Islamic cou

58、ntries. There are many examples which like the cases above caused by translator lacking culture. The Problems in Brand Name TranslationBrand name translation means translate brand name including name of product and manufactory from Chinese into English. The translated brand name must be Standard Eng

59、lish which conforms to the international usual practice and cultural customs of target countries. So that it can develop overseas market and improve celebrity of product, eventually create good factors for founding Chinese international famous brand name. Because of economical development, there are

60、 more and more products join in the competition of international market. According to the international usual practice, the words on the package must be English. Besides, when many products of other countries come into Chinese market, many products sold inside the country use English names which are used together with Chinese words an