跨文化交际视角下的商标翻译

Intercultural Communication

Abstract: As the global communication growing nowadays, the trademark has an important function as the weapon of the enterprises when participating in international competition in the market. Its unique function determines that the translation of trademark words is not only the simple change of two languages, but also the transformation of culture. Good brand names and the internationalization of them play an important role in the process of product sales and brand promotion. Thus a successful translation can help the company improve its brand image among the consumers to a great extent. Researching the trademark is a necessary and urgent task in the current international backdrop. At the same time, the translation of trademark has also been promoted to a new level. Nowadaysthere are still many problems in brand translation, in order to avoid these errors, this paper focuses on summarizing and clear up concretely the method and the way of brand translation by collecting, reading, learning information and comprehending the trademark translation` studing achievement current days under the premise of the cross-cultural communication.To provide a reference for related trademark translation researchers and other people who may have the need.Hoping my paper can do some help for related researchers who study on this theme. Because the trademark translation study is of great significance to help the domestic enterprises to open up and occupy the foreign markets, boost sales and gain the protection of intellectual property. Hope my research can have a positive fuction on not only the points that I have mentioned above,but also on the domestic brands trademark translation, the development of relevant industries in our country, promote economic prosperity etc.

Key words: Trademark; internationalization; translation research

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跨文化交际视角下的商标翻译

摘要: 在全球经济交流日益增加的今天，商标作为企业参与国际市场竞争的重要武器具有重要的功能。它的独特功能决定了商标词语的翻译不仅是两种语言符号的转换,而且还是文化的转换。好的商标名称以及商标名称的国际化在产品销售、品牌推广的过程中发挥着重要作用。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。在当前国际化大背景下，研究商标是一项必要而且紧迫的任务，同时，商标的翻译也随之提升到一个新的高度。如今的商标品牌翻译仍然存在着很多问题，为了避免出现这些错误，本文重点研究在跨文化交际视角的前提下，通过收集、阅读、学习相关资料和了解现下商标翻译的研究成果，具体的总结梳理出商标翻译的原则和方法。为相关的商标翻译研究者和有需要的人士提供一个参考，希望能够对相关的研究人员起到帮助。因为商标翻译的研究对于帮助企业开拓和占领国外市场，提高销售额和保护知识产权具有重大意义。希望我的研究不仅能够对以上几点，而且能够对国内品牌商标的翻译，我国相关产业的发展，国内经济的繁荣等方面起到积极作用。 关键词：商标； 国际化；翻译研究

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Analysis on the Trademark Translation from the Perspective

of Intercultural Communication

1. Introduction

1.1 The Purpose and Importance of the Thesis

As the research of trademark can help the enterprises to open up and occupy foreign markets, improve sales and play an important role in the protection of intellectual property, and domestic brand trademark translation can help more products go into the overseas market in our country, lead the development of relevant industries in our country, which help to promote the economic prosperity. Trademark for goods is just as important as the name for people. To commodities, the trademark is not only a name, but also is the symbol of quality; To enterprises, the brand is more like a salesman who don't need to open his mouth,thus it has an irreplaceable role in the process of commodity sales. As a special symbol, the brand competitive language has the difference, advertising and protective.We should be more careful and earnest when translating.

The trademark is the product deriving from the rapid development of market economy and has Prevailed among our life.From the micro point,the trademark not only promotes business,brings added value for the product,but also facilitates consumers` purchase and brings convenience to consumers.From the macro perspective,the trademark stands for the reputation of a nation and plays a vital role in its economic growth.According to the research into trademarks,trademark study comes to a new branch in the academic field,and involves many disciplines and fields pertaining to it such as advertising,cultural studies,linguistics,psychology and semanties.With the advent of the global village and international market,trademark translation conerns the lifespan of products as well as businesses.This thesis focuses on the study of the trademark from the perspective of translation studies in the context of globalization and China`s accession to the WTO.

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1.2 Research Questions: Problems in Trademark Translation at Home and Abroad

Being a special advertising and marketing language,the trademark is heavily culture loaded and embedded with rich cultural property.On the ground of the wide range

of

research

of

the

trademark

from

its

definition,classification,funetions,formations to unique charaeteristics,the study of trademark translation is explored from the perspectives of culture and intercultural communication.Then the problems come out:If the translaters do not absolute or to some degree have the comprehension of the two countries` culture.There may be some mistakes in their translation.Such mistakes seems little but determins the success or lose of one brand.So whether we can avoid these problems or not is so important that translators must pay great attention.The problems that has been existed are like some history stories,the symbolism of some animals or some colors,some idioms and so on.After we analyzed these problems,further explored and studied of the principles and regularity of brand translation, combining with the consumer psychology.We summarize the cross-cultural brand translation rules, and thus concluded that the premise of successful brand name translation must be the understanding of the target language areas` unique geographical culture and the psychology of consumer. Brand translation must go cross the cultural barriers then it can eventually achieve the promotion purposes.I hope that these rules can do some help and play a important role in domestic brands` going out and on the other hand can help the foreign brands to came in out country. 1.3 Ways of the Research

This paper mainly studies the signs of cultural and the translation strategy of brand.After my carefully consideration,I decide to study this theme in two ways:they are literature method and case method. The first method is literature method.The meaning of this method is that we study this task through collecting and looking out a large number of related literature data,trying to obtain the important and useful information about comprehensive trademark translation theory among these papers and data.Combined with the feature of trademark and literature method, we both analyze the cultural features of trademark and the cause of the problem which are related with the cultural factors.By analyzing these aspects,we can pointed out what is

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the root of the problem, and thus we can analyze some other related problems.In the trademark translation strategy part ,we combine with some translation theory both home and abroad.Then we can use these theory to solve our brand trademark translation problems.The nachgeschaltet way is that we do our best to find the points in these data which help us to prove our points. So the literature method is we try to find some problems which exist in the present situation of trademark translation research and analysis, combining Chinese and western translation theories which can put forward reasonable suggestions, so as to provide reference for trademark translation. To conduct this method,we need the school library,zhejiang library journal books, network, database, and the teacher's guidance to achieve the desired results of this study.The second method is the case method.When talking about the relationship between the cultural factors and the brand name,we illustrate a large number of examples trying to prove the problems that come out when aranslating brand trademark because of the cultural factors. When it comes to trademark translation,the useage of specific examples to illustrate each of the translation strategies really have a great effect on this problem.After we have studied the subject by many scholars at home and abroad, we find the current research situation is there are only analysis of shallow levels of translation theory,or some research are from the creativity of translators themselves putting forward the application of brand translation, and combining with consumer acceptance to talk abouttranslation strategies.This article focus on talking about translation strategies and methods in the cultural angle, angle of culture includes the language and the target language cultural differences, traditional consumption patterns and language habits, habits and psychology.Because the related trademark translation system theory knowledge is so less, I need the teachers to guide. 2. Literature review 2.1 Theoretical Foundation

Since the present paper focuses on cultural differences in English and Chinese brand

words' translation from the perspective of the theory of communicative translation, it is essential to make clear the research background which will help answer four unavoidable questions including the distinctions in the concept of brand, brand words

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and other terms

concerned, the classification of brand, historical evolution of brand and functions of brand. 2.2 Definitions

2.2.1. Definition of Trademark and Trademark Translation

Trademark is essentially a legal teen, since it refers to the particular brand name chosenby one seller, e.g., Kraft and Baby Ruth. Trademark is \"a brand or part of brand that is given legal protection. Registering a trademark protects the seller's exclusive rights to the use of that brand name. From the consumer's perspective, trademark helps to identify the origin of the product and provides a guarantee of consistent quality\". In various kinds of media, for example, in the newspaper, TV programs, and the packages, we can find lots of trademarks with symbols like\"TM\" referring to \"Trademark\" at their top right or bottom right corners and showing that the trademarks have been registered with the relevant trademark registry, like \"OLAY.\\"V-Cool TMhe name of a specific product. For instance, the trade name for the company selling Campbell products is \"Campbell Soup Company\". In foreign countries, the trade mark and the trade name are combined into a whole, both of which are legally protected. Many famous foreign trade marks are at the same time the trade names of the companies, such as \"Coca-Cola\" and \"IBM\". But in China, it is very common for us to know a certain famous trade mark but not to hear of the trade name of the company which turns out the products. For example,“永久”is a well-known trade mark for the bicycle made by Shanghai Bicycle Factory, but few people know its trade name, \"Shanghai Bicycle Factory\". So it will be a better choice for the Chinese enterprise to embody its famous trade mark in its trade name,which would otherwise be a great loss for it. In short, the author makes the following table which helps the readership better understand the nuances between these conceptions.

2.2.2 The Concept of Intercultural Communication Translation

Because of the accelerating globalization of English and the increasing mass media,translation is characterized by features of communication and mediation rather than some simple dictionary work. Among the many factors that take part

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in the process of translation,culture has been raising the awareness of scholars in recent years. Today, the arguments and theories about culture and translation have formed some sort of web-like system, which stretches out and blurs disciplinary boundaries.When we look at the traditional translation analysis, we found that many people tendedto adopt the textual, structural and linguistic way of looking at it, while now more and more are taking historical, global, cultural and other perspectives that lie deeper between the lines,which are really helpful for the development of Translation Studies, especially the introduction of culture. But taking a cultural perspective does not mean that we can disregard the “text”and itself, it means that a successful translator must be aware of the importance of both text and context.

The aim of this thesis is to give a general introduction to current understanding about the impartance of culture in translation; there will be an emphasis on the viewpoints of some distinguished figures on this subject, and also to bring up a culture-orientated way of focusing either on translation theory and practice. 2.2.3 Significance of Intercultural Communication to Trademark Translation

A Successful brand is the intangible asset of an enterprise and great wealth, manifested the enterprise.The image and the credibility of products and services. Trademark translation for commodity in outside Marketing plays an important role. Based on the characteristics of trademark, trademark Basic methods of translation and in trademark translation should pay attention to the question to carry on the analysis and discussion, So as to guide consumption and promote consumption.With the speeding up of the global economic integration, brand has become the countries and asked The most main means to compete. Trademark translation for sales of goods outside the home Sales plays a vital role. How to translate, to make commodity trademark in Commodities marketing set up good image and be respectful of the target language culture Trademark does not lose the original language culture, so as to achieve the marketing effect of value? In this paper, Characteristics of trademark, in trademark translation, the basic methods and trademark translation should pay attention to Problems were analyzed and discussed, so as to guide consumption and promote consumption.

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2.2.4 Principles Applied to Trademark Translation

Before we make a discussion on characteristics of brand words, we should

be aware that the translation of brand words should follow and in turn reflect the basic principles of advertisement namely the \"KISS\" principle, the novelty principle and the readability principle. All these designing principles not only help fulfill the basic functions of brand words, but also can be instructive in the creativity and translation of brand words. The first principle \"KISS\" is short for\"Keep It Short and Sweet\" which is the most basic principle that brand words should obey.\"Short\" indicates that a brand word carries much information in just two or three words. If a brand word or its translated version is too long or complicated, nobody is willing to keep it in mind. So brand words and their translated versions should be easy and concise for people to pronounce and remember. \"Sweet\" refers to the aesthetic values of brand words. A sense of beauty should be contained in brand words, either in the form or in the content. The aesthetic value of brand words will attract the consumers' attention, please them and then bring them avorable associations in order to persuade them to make purchases.

2.3 Research Dynamic of Intercultural Trademark Translation

Since the 1990s, many scholars have explored the academic field of trademark translation with significant achievements. The achievements are revealed in the form of essays on academic journals, from which, for instance, the author collects 141 papers when preparing for this master thesis. These papers discuss trademark translation from different perspectives ranging from equivalence of function, Skopos theory, intercultural communication, aesthetics, principles, psychological features, wording features, cultural factors to existing problems etc. These papers provide readers with an overall view of trademark translation and are worth in reference. Overseas research on trademarks mainly comes from the UK and US. Active in the trademark field with pre-eminent achievements are John Murphy and Adrian Room in the UK. A trademark expert of Interbrand in the UK, John Murphy is quoted of his Brand Strategy immensely by scholars worldwide. Adrian Room, a linguist specializing in studying proper names including trademark names, published a dictionary of trademark names. Famous US brand experts include Ted Levitt, Kevin Keller, David Aaker, John P.Jones and Stephen King. They have made

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significant contributions to brand research, as in Strategic Brand written by Kevin Keller, What's In A Brand by John Jones, Building Strong Brands by David Aaker and Developing New Brands by Stephen King etc. These famous works are classics of brand theory and have laid a solid foundation of modern brand theory. The experts above are active in theoretical circles while other experts in practice also have contributed significantly to brand theory. David MacKenzie Ogilvy, Father of Advertising, founded Ogilvy Advertising, one of the world leading advertising companies, and has made significant contributions to brand image. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding written by Al Ries and How to Name Your Business and Product published by Kate Mcgrath are theoretical conclusion on brand by practice of advertising. In addition, other institutions engaged in brand research and practices have applied brand theory to practice. Among them there is US Name Lab, founded by Ira Brachrach who invents internationally-known brand names such as Compaq, Lexus and Acura. 3 Principles and Skills Applied to Trademark Translation 3.1 Principles Applied to Trademark Translation 3.1.1 Equivalent Effect Principle

An important theory that is traditionally adopted and highly appreciated in the translation of brand words is equivalence advocated by the famous American translation theorist Eugene Nida (Jin, 1992). The essence of this theory is that \"the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language\" (Nida&Taber, 1969:24). The quality of a translated text

thus is assessed in terms of its equivalence to the original text. In other words, a translated text, to say a brand word, is equivalent to its source language counterpart if it fulfils the same function. Yet, \"this functional equivalence is difficult to achieve because differences of the sociocultural norms have to be taken into account\" (House, 1981:204). Generally speaking, it is impossible for the receptors of a brand word in the receptor language to have substantially the same response as the receptors in the source language if the brand word is transliterated because different languages have their distinctively different sets of spelling systems. For example, \"Benz\" has a culture image of a famous person in German culture but the culture image of its

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transliteration“奔驰”is high speed in Chinese culture. How can the same audience response be gained?

Obviously, neither Yan's doctrine of \"faithfulness\\"elegance\" and \"expressiveness\" nor Nida's equivalence theory is adequate in accounting for the translation practice of brand words. Then is it that these theories are quite unscientific and unsystematic or the translation of brand words is among such a particular field which is inevitable to put the traditional translation theory into such an embarrassing situation? The complexity of this situation lies in the fact that the distinct feature of brand words is special in form and function.Morphologically speaking, brand words are among the simplest and shortest structures a language system has, for each brand word is condensed to one or a few words and sometimes even a few letters. Functionally, they are among the strongest of language signs because they are so expressive, informative and pervasive. 3.1.2 Relevance Principle

Sperber and Wilson construct relevance theory, which is a branch ofpragmatic theory based on Grice's maxim of relevance. They present the notion of relevance in their book, Relevance: Communication andCognition (1986: 260) as follows: An assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has contextual effect in that context.

The central claim of relevance theory is that human communicationcrucially creates an expectation of optimal relevance, that is, an expectation on the part of the hearer that his attempt at interpretation will yield adequate contextual effects at minimal processing cost. Relevance is produced when and only when an assumption has produced certain contextual effects on a context. Relevance is a relative concept, which depends on the interplay of contextual effects and processing effort. This fact is believed to be part of our human psychology, and is expressed in relevance theory as the principle of relevance:

Every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance (Sperber and Wilson, 1986: 260).

Human communication can create an expectation of optimal relevance, namely,understanding the an expectation that the speaker will yield adequate hearer's attempt at contextual effect at minimal processing cost. To put it in simple words, when a person begins a communication, he implicitly and automatically includes an

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optimal relevance for the hearer to find without unnecessary efforts. The search for optimal relevance will guide the hearer to the speaker-intended interpretation. This can be understood as that to infer a speaker's utterance correctly, the hearer must search for the optimal relevance. And according to relevance theory, when a person sets out to communicate, he or she automatically or subconsciously communicates with the supposition that what he or she is going to communicate is optimally relevant to the hearer. Therefore, optimal relevance can be regarded as something that makes the hearer arrive at the speaker-intended interpretation through inferring from the information already available with least effort. 3.1.3 Brevity and Concise Principle

As the previous Chapter has stated that trademark name features in brevity and conciseness, it means \"The translated trademark must be brief, concise, easy for reading, comprehension, identification and memory\"(商标命名的译语符号要简短、明快、易读、易懂、易识、易记).(朱亚军，2003: 210) For English trademarks, it generally consists of two to five syllables such as \"Tides\\"Lux\\"Apple\ \"Ford\ \"Colgate\ \"Pond's”，\"Revlon\ \"Nike\ \"Joy\ \"Beetle\" Mild-Seven\" and the like. For Chinese trademarks, it contains two or three Chinese characters such as“红豆’，，‘联想’，，“彩虹，，，“长虹，，，“海信，，，“新飞”，“中意”，‘华宝”，“健力宝”，“肤美灵”，“维维”，“三九”，“高乐高，，，“盖中盖”，“牧童”，“红塔山”，宋河，’，“红旗”and so on.

\"Hewlett-Packard\“休利特一帕卡德，，which has been replaced by short translated version“惠普.” \"Budweiserhe beer trademark, was once transferred to“百德威瑟”and now is revised to“百威.”The initial redundant versions embarrassed consumers in reading and memorizing it while the brief and concise translated versions strike a strong impression on consumers. Further examples are exemplified as follows:

Marlboro一万宝路(马尔波罗) Rolls-Royce一劳斯莱斯(劳尔斯·罗依斯)

Head& Shoulders一海飞丝(海伦仙度丝) Mercedes-Benz一奔驰(默塞得斯·本茨)

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3.2 Skills Applied to Trademark Translation 3.2.1 Transliteration

Transliteration means, according to the pronunciation of the original trademark,to translate it into similar Chinese version without specific meaning or negative meaning at least or translate it into English version by means of Chinese Pinyin. The application of this skill aims to convey to the consumers in the target market that this commodity is from foreign country and add more exotic flavours o the commodity. In addition, transliteration is adopted on the following occasions. Firstly, the original trademark is named after its inventor, founder, place,personal name and the like as it is difficult to find equivalent version in target language. Besides, these transliterated versions carry no specific meaning or give rise to no negative connotations. For instance,“李宁”is translated into \"Lining\" and \"Boeing\" is put into“波音”.

Secondly, the original trademark is directly translated into its equivalent version in target language, but its equivalent version is not appropriate to trademark naming or fails to convey the attributes of the commodity. Take \"Sharp\" (the trademark for a mobile) for an example, it means the mobile is advanced in the field and leads the industry, but when it is literally translated into“锋利”，“尖锐”，“陡峭’，“尖刻”，it conveys no information of the commodity and not appropriate to trademark naming. Take“春兰”，air-conditioner manufactured by China, for another example, Chinese characters“春”and“兰”arouse favourable associations to Chinese consumers, but it fails to find equivalent English version. The only method is to put it into Chinese Pinyin \"Chunlan\" without specific meaning or negative association to consumers in target market.

Thirdly, transliteration is adopted on the occasion that the translated version of the original trademark has been accepted by consumers in target market and doesn't give rise to negative associations. For instance,“功夫”，Chinese trademark for shoes, is rendered to \"Gongfu\" in Chinese Pinyin which has no equivalent meaning in English language. In the case of Chinese \"Wushu\"(武术)displayed in films and TV series, Chinese“功夫”(Gongfu) has been familiar to the majority people from European, North American and South-East Asian countries. Heavily loaded with Chinese culture, the Pinyin version \"Gongfu\" enables the foreign consumers to link it to culture of Chinese \"Wushu\" and adds exoticness to the trademark.

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3.2.2 Literal Translation

According to Peter Newmark's view towards literal translation,The S2― grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context\". (Quoted from Peter Newmark, 2001:46) If literal translation is applied to trademark translation, it must meet the demand that the pragmatic meaning, or \"content\" of the original trademark must be accepted by the consumers in target market. What's more, the translated version of the original trademark adapts to the consumers' customs, habits, values, beliefs, psychology, and other cultural elements in the target market without giving rise to negative associations. In this way, customers in different countries will exert the same feelings on the same commodity. For instance, \"Crown\" symbolizes nobleness, power, victory or reward in western world. Used as a car trademark, it brings favourable associations to consumers. When translated into“皇冠”it arouses the same feelings on Chinese consumers: nobleness, power, victory, higher status, noble quality and so on. Take“红双喜”for another example, Chinese characters“红”and‘嘻”mean auspiciousness, luck and happiness. For its translation,“红”is forbidden to be put into \"red\" due to cultural distance and is omitted, however,“双喜”is translated into \"Double Happiness\" which potentially means this commodity brings double happiness to consumers. No consumers will refuse to purchase this commodity since it brings double happiness to them. 3.2.3 Combination of Sound and Meaning

Combining transliteration and literal translation, this method not only keeps the pronunciation of the original trademark but also conveys the property, semantic meaning, as well as cultural image of the original trademark. For instance, \"Ca\" has similar pronunciation with“佳”and \"non\" pronounces similarly with‘能”.On the one hand, the translated version keeps the sound feature of the original trademark and pronounces loudly by means of Pinyin \"ia\" and \"eng\". On the other hand;“佳” means good, fine and beautiful and“能”means function and power. Therefore,“佳能”symbolizes that the commodity is powerful and fast, in addition, it conveys that the commodity is excellent and has wide range of functions. Take the medicine trademark \"Quick\" for another example, the translated version“快克”pronounces similarly with that of the original, what's more important, it arouses consumers' association that this

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medicine quickly fights the disease. 4. Conclusion

In this thesis, trademark translation is examined as involving disciplines such as translation, advertising and intercultural communication. From the perspective of advertising, translated trademark must be endowed with the informative, aesthetic, and vocative functions, the unique characteristics of trademark naming such as suggestibility, connotation conversion, and association. From the angle of intercultural communication, trademark translation is culturally bounded. Culture exerts great influences on trademark translation in various perspectives, such as core values, pattern of thinking, beliefs, religions, customs, consumer habits, political meaning as well as aesthetic values etc. C-E and E-C trademark translators have to well understand that the Chinese culture and the Western culture interact with each other. Trademark translation should always conform to the habitual use of the target language, the culture, the aesthetic psychology of consumers in the target market. From the point of translation, trademark translation plays an important role in combining the advertising features with its intercultural communication. It is significant for promoting commodity, improving the reputation and image of the enterprise, bringing profit for the enterprise. What's more important, trademark translation concerns the economic growth of a nation as well as its reputation and image. From this thesis, the following conclusions can be reached: First, suggestibility and association are the most unique characteristics of trademark naming, and trademark translators must take the two unique characteristics into full consideration. In addition, the informative, aesthetic, and vocative functions of trademark should be transplanted to the translated trademark. Second, trademark is heavily bounded with culture. To achieve communication with the target market and achieve the purpose of trademark translation, the culture in source country and the target country must be well understood and given priority in the process of trademark translation. Third, problems existing in trademark translation boil down to ignorance of culture in the target market. To solve the problems also depends on full awareness and consciousness of intercultural communication.

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