Problems of Today’s Trademark Translation and the Translation Strategies.doc

商标翻译存在问题分析及翻译策略problems of todays trademark translation and the translation strategiesabstract: with the internationalization of trademarks, their translations are of vital importance. trademark is a special kind of language signs. it is the concentration of commodities distinct characteristics, the core of commodities culture, and the powerful weapon for an enterprise to participate in international competitions. it is not only a logo, also a lure, the final goal of which is to attract customers and sell commodities. trademark translation conforms to the conception of sociology. a good trademark translation may bring an enterprise huge wealth, whereas a bad one may let an enterprise suffer great loss. therefore, an enterprises future is closely linked with trademark translation. with some examples analyzed, this essay focuses on aesthetics to explore the translation of trademarks. the article profits from and absorbs other translation methods, memorizing some translation strategies as well as proposes something to be paid attention to in view of the different strategies.key words: trademark; trademark translation; translation strategies摘要：随着商标的国际化发展其翻译方法至关重。商标是一种特殊的语言符号，是商品显著特征的浓缩，是商品文化的核心部分，是企业参与国际竞争的有力武器。它既是标识，又是诱饵，最终是要招揽顾客，出售商品。商标翻译具有社会性。好的商标翻译可以给企业带来巨大的财富；反之,糟糕的商标翻译可以让企业损失惨重，所以企业的生死存亡与商标翻译息息相关。本文列举了一些商标的翻译，其重点是强调发掘商标翻译的美学价值，并收集了一些典型商标，经过系统的分析，借鉴并吸收了一些翻译方法，重新总结归纳了一些商标翻译的策略，本文还针对不同策略的商标翻译提出了需要注意的事项。关键词：商标；商标翻译；商标翻译策略contents. introduction of todays trademark translation 1. problems of todays trademark translation .1 a. problems in chineseenglish trademark translation .21. trademarks without translation .22. improper translation .2a. abused transliteration 2b. improper literal translation 3 b. problems in english chinese trademark translation .41. cliche transliteration .42. lack of consistency 4c. suggested resolutions 4. aesthetic features of trademark .5 a. formal beauty .5 b. contextual beauty .6. translation strategies of trademarks .7 a. transliteration .7 b. free translation 9 c. literal translation.10d. creative translation methods11 1. the method of piecing together .112. the method of misspelling 123. the method of compounding words .12. conclusion 12works cited .13i. introduction of todays trademark translationthe translation of trademark belongs to the field of business translation and also has its own distinguishing features. with increasing globalization of the world economy, advertisements come to play a more and more important role for manufacturers to promote their products in the world market. as we all know, good trademarks are the best advertisements for commodities, while good advertising words are their eyes, from which customers can get a general idea of cultural connotation of the brand and the nature of the target commodity. those easy to read, understand and memorize can always motivate customers purchasing desire and bring companies a great success and fortune from what they are endeavor to sell. quite different from other translation style, the translation of business english is the combination of social culture, aesthetics, purchasing psychologies, economics, and advertising theories, etc. it is the same with that of trademark and ad-words. when translated into another language, the version should not only retain the original essence, but also as brief as the original one. to do this, much attention should be paid to methods of translation and the culture differences before an ideal trademark is produced. in many cases, we translate these trademarks through transliteration, and literal translation. furthermore, both methods should take great account for the culture of exported countries. ii. problems of todays trademark translationwith more and more foreign products flooding into china and chinese products exported abroad, trademark translation has become an increasingly significant part of marketing strategy. a well-translated trademark will attract customers and inspire their enthusiasm for purchase; while a trademark translated improperly sometimes will bring negative effects or even lead to spoilage of the image of the product. in todays market, we can find a lot of ingeniously translated trademarks, so we should also be aware of some problems in trademark translation. through analyzing those problems and giving possible suggestions, this paper holds that only a customer-oriented translation will succeed in the market. a. problems in chinese-english trademark translation it seems that many chinese manufacturers have not fully realized the importance of trademark translation. some translated trademarks of their products reflect the translators rashness and irresponsibility. they have not realized that with such an attitude they may lose many potential customers. 1. trademarks without translation english or pinyin version of trademarks will be useful in attracting foreign customers. surprisingly, many china-made products have no english version of their trademarks at all, even without pinyin, such as “步步高”, “两面针”, “脑白金” and “立白”. why these enterprises are so shy to put the english version on the products? how can this kind of products attract those foreigners who do not know chinese? 2. improper translation transliteration, literal translation and semantic transliteration are three most commonly used approaches in trademark translation. however, not all the trademarks translated into english or pinyin are successful. actually, some of them even cause negative effects rather than bring profits to manufacturers. a. abused transliteration comparatively speaking, transliteration is the easiest job for translators. in todays market, most of the chinese trademarks are transliterated , such as chunlan(春兰), meiling(美菱) and changhong(长虹). although transliteration maintains the original pronunciation of trademarks, it cannot convey the meaning of the original trademarks to customers. therefore, pinyin spelling is usually meaningless to those foreigners who do not know chinese at all. on the other hand, they are usually difficult to pronounce and remember. here are some typical examples of abused transliteration: “正大青春宝” is translated as “zheng da qing chun bao”, “云山复方鲜竹沥” as “yun shan fu fang xian zhu li”, “huang he lou” for “黄鹤楼”, and “shou xi hu” for “瘦西湖”. sometimes, a pinyin spelling may coincide with the spelling of an english word or a word in other languages. in that case, translators should be especially careful to avoid arousing misunderstandings of customers. a story about trademark translation in yangtse evening post (20022) is a good example，“卡卡”, the trademark of a kind of china-made biscuits, was translated as “kaka”. when the products arrived in russia, the russian loaders got shocked to find that all the boxes printed with “kaka”，because in russian, “kaka” refers to shit! another similar example is “马戏” playing cards, transliterated as “maxipuke”, which turn to be a funny english trademark, indicating “ to puke maximally”! “芳芳” is a beautiful chinese trademark of lipstick, but the pinyin “fang fang” turns to be terrible, because “fang” is also an english word, which refers to teeth of a wolf! b. improper literal translation different from transliteration, literal translation will help customers to understand the original meaning of trademarks while neglecting the original pronunciation. similarly, this approach is not suitable for all the trademarks.b1. long literally translated trademarks because of the conciseness of chinese, a trademark consists of only two or three chinese characters may include more english words after literal translation. for example, “宜而爽”, a famous brand of textile products, is translated as “a natural fit and comfort”. a well-known brand of napkin “心相印” is translated as “mind acts upon mind”. although both their meanings are closely equivalent to those of the original ones, the trademarks are too long to be good trademarks. b2. unfavorable association trademarks are usually favorably associative. however, because of the different psychology, tradition, custom, religion and history between chinese and foreign customers, a favorable-associative trademark will arouse unfavorable associations when literally translated into another language. for example, “bat” and “dragon” are usually positive and auspicious images in china, and they are often used in chinese trademarks such as “蝙蝠” and “华龙”. in the west, however, dragon and bat are often connected with negative images. dragon is an evil animal and bat is associated with ugliness and greed. therefore, “dragon” and “bat” are not suitable translations for the trademarks “华龙” and “蝙蝠”. “petrel” often occurs as the translated version of the trademark “海燕”. in chinese culture, it is a symbol of bravery and perseverance, but in the western world, people often associate it with a person whose existence excites discontentment and quarreling in a social group. more examples are following. “大白兔” (“rabbit”) is associated with “insecurity or a person who plays a game badly” (郭361); “喜鹊” (“magpie”) stands for gossipmonger in english; “鹅” (“goose”) is a synonym of foolishness; “孔雀” (“peacock”) symbolizes conceit and “仙鹤” (“crane”) is thought to be an ugly bird in english culture. sometimes, an improper translation would even cause vulgarism. probably most chinese people will still blush when they get to know what an embarrassing mistake they have made in translating “金鸡” as “golden cock”, because in english “cock” has the vulgar meaning. it seems that people have not learned the lesson yet. for another instance, the english version of “乌鸡白凤丸” is “black cock white phoenix pills”, together with an introduction of the product: “black cocks provide the vital tonic for women”. the translator must have not realized that he is actually destroying the image of the famous brand! b. problems in english-chinese trademark translation compared to chinese-english trademark translation, trademarks translated from english to chinese are more flexible and successful. among them, some classic ones get so popular that they have become household vocabulary, such as “可口可乐”(“coca-cola”) and “百事可乐”(“pepsi cola”). nevertheless, problems are also found in english-chinese trademark translation. 1. cliche transliteration transliteration, the common method in english-chinese trademark translation, often brings customers a kind of foreign style, indicating high quality of products. when those trademarks first occur in the market, they might inspire customers curiosity. since they are easy to read and remember, they became popular in china. however, having come across too many trademarks with a “foreign style”, customers will become less interested in them. nowadays, we have too many trademarks transliterated with such chinese characters as “特”, “斯” and “克”, for instance, “赛特”, “飞亚特”, “阿尔法特”, “迪斯”, “真维斯”, “高斯”, “伊莱克斯”, “别克” and “星巴克”. 2. lack of consistency due to the different cultural background in mainland and other areas, translations of trademarks often have different versions. for example, “head & shoulders” is translated as “海伦仙度丝” in taiwan; while in mainland, it is translated as “海飞丝”. the different translation versions of the same foreign trademark will cause inconvenience and confusion to customers. it is harmful for the manufacturer to establish a uniform image.c. suggested resolutions the problems mentioned above suggest that trademark translation is still not satisfying. one of the most important causes of those problems, in my view, is that both translators and manufacturers have not put response of customers at the first place. “a trademark has an existence separated from an actual product or service: it has a life of its own” (randall 4). the quality of translation of a trademark will directly influence the sales of the product. in my view, translators should consider “elegance” or aesthetic factors in trademark translation; while manufacturers, especially chinese ones, should try to internationalize their trademarks to better adapt to the market. aesthetic features of trademark a good translation is always supposed to follow the rules of “faithfulness, smoothness and elegance”, of which “faithfulness” is always regarded as the basic criterion. however, since the chief function of trademark translation is to attract foreign customers, the response of foreign customers (or receptors of translation), should be the most important criterion. in the eyes of customers, trademark translated in consideration of aesthetic factors are usually more attractive. therefore, both “faithfulness” and “smoothness” should be subjected to “elegance” in trademark translation. the priority of “elegance” will influence the adoption of different approaches. since the aesthetic values of customers include two parts: one is the aesthetic requirement for form and the other is the aesthetic requirement for content (王35). therefore, an “elegant” translation of trademark should include beauty in both form and content.a. formal beauty the formal beauty of a translated trademark mainly refers to its pleasant pronunciation. different pronunciation may arouse different psychological reactions (何117). many english-chinese trademark translations sound beautiful and clear in terms of pronunciation. for instance, “派克” (“parker”), “柯达” (“kodak”), “夏普” (“sharp”) and “捷安特” (“giant”). according to nida, translators should exploit the potentiality of the target language to the greatest extent. the chinese language has its own advantages compared to english. for instance, every chinese character is a phonetic and semantic combination. thanks to so many homonyms in chinese, translators have many choices of chinese characters for one pronunciation. thus, translators can select those chinese characters with the most suitable meaning according to different features of products. that is the approach called semantic transliteration, which is now regarded as “the best strategy in trademark translation” (包286). the most successful example is “可口可乐”(“coca-cola”). the translated version not only imitates alliteration like the original one, but also helps to arouse favorable associations of customers. the translated version has become even more successful than the original trademark. another example is “可伶可俐”(“clean & clear”), which also achieves satisfactory effects through the similar method. b. contextual beauty the meaning of a trademark includes two parts: referential meaning and associative meaning(谭176). a well-translated trademark should not only sound pleasant, but also convey beautiful “referential and associative meaning” to customers. a cosmetic brand “relvon” is rendered as “露华浓”, which is cited from a famous classic chinese tang poem by li bai: “云想衣裳花想容, 春风拂槛露华浓.” the translated trademark not only sounds similar to the original trademark in pronunciation, but also indicates that the cosmetic will bring beauty and elegance to women. another brand of detergent product called “safeguard”, is translated into chinese as “舒肤佳”, ingeniously indicating the feature of the product. in fact, many foreign trademarks are good examples, such as “飘柔”(“rejoice”), “高露洁” (“colgate”), “奥妙”(“omo”), “锐步”(“reebok”), “雪碧”(“sprite”), “潘婷” (“pantene”), “雅芳” (“avon”), “玉兰油”(“oil of olay”), “汰渍” (“tide”), “席梦思” (“simmons”), “奔腾”(“pentium”), “固特异”(“goodyear”), “佳洁士”(“crest”) and “强生”(johnsons). all those translations bravely break the bound of the original meaning. they cleverly combined phonetic transcription and semantic manipulation by exploiting the advantage of chinese characters to fit the different features of different products. some chinese trademarks are also well translated in the similar way. “瑞鹊”, a brand of plastic utensil has its english name called “richway”, which not only avoids possible unfavorable association aroused by literal translation, but also brings customers good blessings. some other chinese trademarks are also well rendered. for instance, “雅戈尔” is translated as “youngor”, “方正”as “founder”, “万家乐” turns to be “macro”, “海信” as “hisense”, “美的”as “midea”(a clever combination of “my idea”), “华帝” as “vantage”, “格力” is translated as “gree” (looking similar to “agree”), “西泠” as “serene” and “回力” as “warrior”. sometimes, according to different aesthetic values of different translators and various product features, the same trademark can be translated into different versions. for example, the trademark “best” have several versions like “百思特”, “百德” and “倍舒特” which are the trademarks for pagers, hot water heater and napkins respectively. “超级” (the brand of a kind of oatmeal) and “优博”(the brand of a kind of milk powder) are the different renderings of “super”. another example is “welcome”, which is translated as “卫康” and “胃康”respectively for the different products of contact lens and toothpaste. sometimes, translators will change the original meaning of trademarks in translation according to chinese psychology and logic (贾127). for instance, a famous french perfume called “poison”, is rendered into chinese as “百爱神”. “gold lion” is not literally translated as “金狮”, because in chinese, “金狮” sounds the same to “金失”, which means “to lose money”. it is translated as “金利来”, which turns to mean “to earn more money”. since “meaning can never be