The Characteristics of English Translation of The Trademark 浅析商贸英语中英语商标的翻译.doc

abstract trademark is a bridge connecting customers and products or services, which is a gold card of products. so it is very important to do it well in the translation of english trademark during business communication. in the circulation of commodities, the trademark is a symbol of their products. it has become an important way to advertise their products and establish a good corporate image. they use trademarks to develop the potential of their company and promote the trade in international market. preferring to some translation instances of english trademark at home and abroad, this thesis concluded some main characteristics, and talked about some principles in translating the trademarks to do the translation correctly, faithfully and accurately and enhance the competitiveness of goods and help enterprises to obtain good economic. a good trademark is to maintain the original cultural connotation of translation at the same times brings cultural differences to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding, to adapt to consumer psychology, left a deep impression to customers to achieve sales success.key words: english trade mark; translation features; translation method摘 要 商标是联系客户和产品或服务的桥梁，是产品的“黄金名片”，在商贸交流中，对英语商标的翻译具有极其重要的意义。在商品流通中,商标是代表商品的符号。借助商标宣传商品,树立良好企业形象,已成为各国挖掘国际市场潜力和促进国际贸发展的重要途径。通过观察研究国内外典型的英语商标翻译个案，本文总结了商标翻译的几种主要的特点，并探讨英语商标翻译的原则,以达到正确、忠实、准确的商标翻译,增强商品竞争力,帮助企业取得良好经济效益。好的商标翻译在保持原有文化内涵的同时应避免文化差异带来的不必要的误解，适应消费者的心理，给顾客留下深刻的印象，从而达到销售的佳绩。关键词：英语商标；翻译特点；翻译方法contents.introduction1.the properties of trademarks12.1 cultural properties of trademark12.2 the importance of trademark translation2iii. the characteristics of english translation of the trademark23.1 meet the products characteristics33.2 simple,easy to remember33.3 relevant to the products43.4 in accordance with its nationality5iv. commonly-applied methods in trademark name translation64.1 liberal translation64.2 abbreviation translation64.3 phonetic transliteration74.4 semantic translation84.5 phonosemantic translation8v. the development prospect9vi. conclusion10bibliography11acknowledgement12目 录第一章 引言1第二章 商标的特性12.1商标的文化属性12.2 商标翻译的重要性2第三章 英语商标的翻译特点23.1符合产品特性的特点33.2简洁、方便记忆的特点33.3 具有相关性43.4 民族性的特点5第四章 商标翻译的常用方法64.1 直译64.2 缩写64.3 音译74.4 意译84.5 音意兼顾8第五章 商标翻译的发展前景9第六章 结束语10参考文献11致谢12.introduction a trademark is a mark which is used to distinguish goods or services from others in the market by producers, operators or service providers. a trademark is just like a products name, which is the representative of the image of a company and the symbol of quality. the trademark plays an important role in which brings people to enjoy the beauty, to arouse consumers desire to shop, to bring the huge economic benefits, and even determine the survival of a company. trademark translation is not only a simple conversion from one code to another, but a clear intention of the cross-language commercial, a special cross-cultural communication activities. in the cognitive framework of pragmatics relevance theory, human communication behaviour will produce the best expectation to try to deal with minimal effort to obtain adequate contextual effects, to achieve commercial success.the properties of trademarks trademark is a symbol of a product, which is the result of economic development. the commodity producers or operators use a significant sign to make their manufacture and services different from others.5 a logo is a special language symbols, which is a core part of commodity culture, and a powerful weapon enterprises used to participate in international competition.2.1 cultural properties of trademarkculture is a complexity which is including knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and all the habit in human society (taylor)1.cultural have effects on the language, and also reflect the cultural development. language is the carrier of culture and also an important part of culture. each country has its distinctive cultural national identity, and through the carrier of culture -language to reflect, which also determines the national character. world culture has enriched the world culture, but it also creates a barrier to intercultural communication. language is the carrier of culture while translation is a cross-cultural bridge. because the trademark is a symbol used to convey information, and a special language with a specific significance, as well as a rich and profound symbolism. its changes and development links the countrys regional, national and ethnic culture. the original trademark have been infiltrated by the culture. culture occupy an extremely important position as a kind of social ideology permeating all levels in the word, and also very important in trademark. english trademark have obvious characteristics about western culture. for instance, some comes from the greek and roman mythology, famous writers, historical place names such as dupont (name), avon(shakespeare used to live in the avon river) and so on. china have a history of five thousand years of ancient civilization, rich cultural heritage, such as confusion house wine孔府家酒,heng fa chuen杏花村 and so on. there is a very rich cultural connotation, reflected in the mark, and also shows the strong oriental culture color.2.2 the importance of trademark translation a good name should be easy for consumers to remember, make the association, cause a good impression and promote the purchase, while saving communication costs. conversely, an inappropriate name express a bad business idea, waste a lot of communication costs, which greatly influent consumers choices. good trademark is meaningful, attractive, easy to impress consumers, therefore, the designer of the trademark should considerate and try to figure out the mind of consumers as possible to meet a wide range of consumers need. trademark is a bridge connecting customers and products or services. with economic globalization and chinas accession to wto, china and the worlds commodity exchanges has become even more widely. appropriate commodity trademark become a crucial part to enter the international market. trademark symbolized as a commodity, is a part of the advertisement. to some extent, whether the mark is good or not has a direct impact on the consumers desire to purchase the products. not difficult to find in todays society, many consumers refuse to buy a product, simply because they do not like the trademark. successful trademarks play an extreme important role in promoting sales of products. translation of trademarks should not be underestimated. therefore, how to translate trademarks well, how to meet the needs of consumers and cultural development, how to adopt a better way to translate to make the products acceptable brings huge economic benefits for countries and enterprises. therefore, the key of the translation is to convey the meaning of the products.iii. the characteristics of english translation of the trademark due to the environment, history, economic, religion, and other factors, there are huge differences between china and western culture, which make the peoples way of thinking, world view, and values various. based on the collection of specific trademark translation, i observed some successfully trademarks at home and abroad and combination with cases to think about the characteristics of translation, and make brief about the principles of the trademark translation.3.1 meet the products characteristics chen zhengdong has discussed that when translated trademarks, we should according to the linguistic features, combine with english and chinese characteristics, faithfully and accurately translate into the trademarks in accordance with consumers and achieve the effectiveness of promotional products to stimulate consumers desire to shop.6 in the translation process, we can use phonetic translation, semantic translation, or a combination of both and in accordance with the practice of trademark logo shape, which could make the translated chinese name decent, smooth and accurately interpreted the aesthetic characteristics of the original trademark and information, and meet people aesthetic taste and psychology. the characteristics of products not only distinguish from another matter or the basic structure, it also contains traffic ability performance. thus, in the process of translation, the translator should grasp the characteristics of goods, so as to promote the understanding of products for consumers, and quickly understood by the trademark of the products characteristics and effect. for example, a trademark of suit dress hope show was translated as red sleeves（红袖）, where sleeve the word instantly reflected in the products for the apparel category, so that consumers remember the straightforward type of goods, and red add more promotion of a happy and peaceful feeling to the goods, but also cater to chinese consumers and make products more depth reflect its characteristics. the role of trademarks is to allow consumers to clear the types and characteristics of goods. trademark itself is a most simple and effective advertising. trademarks of phonosemantic give consumers a more direct and easier impression than phonetic or semantic translation. therefore, to aim at strategies of phonosemantic, we should let the trademark translation reflect the products features better. such as: toothpaste trademark colgate, the trade name of its founders name, not expressing the products features, and with thephonosemantic translation colgate高露洁, a” clean(洁)word is not only that category of goods, but also highlights the product features. another example is procter & gambles antidandruff shampoo head & shoulders. trademark meaning hair and shoulder, want to express this with the shampoo, hair clean and dandruff will not occur in the shoulder. the translation of head & shoulders(海飞丝) means dandruff is disappear when washed, highlighted hair trace of distinct characteristics of the product fully. another two examples are liberal translation, sportsman bicycle and unlsports sports shoes, the former is translated as 斯波兹曼, the latter as 纽伦斯堡, if you are not familiar with the trademarks, who will associated it with their products? the former would be best translated as 健将 whichever is the meaning of health and quick, while the latter would be translated as 优跑 ,which both show the characteristics of goods.103.2 simple, easy to remembera good trademark should be easy to understand for consumers; a good trademark should be in accord with the consumers orientation of aesthetics , to arouse their desire to shop; a good trademark should be short and smart and impressed; a good trademark should be pronounced as rhythmical, readable and easy to remember, and use the word rich in content and produce a better association, had better to meet the psychological needs of good luck.7trademarks are the product of intangible assets. a familiar name is very important for company. today the well-known international trademarks coca-cola可口可乐 with its easy to arouse the chinese syllable rhyming positive good emotion and easy to read, increasing pleased imagination and memorable. another example is the cosmetics trademark clean & clear可伶可俐 which is rhythmical, filled with youthful beauty and graceful. the producers won the girls favourite. the soap safeguard translated as 舒肤佳.it is concise. above trademarks are the simple and easy to remember, simple yet gorgeous, not only contains the beauty, also attracts consumers.common words are easily impressed for consumers, and give designers to the imagination. common words conclude nouns, verbs, adjectives, numbers and other foreign words. for example: lucky, apple, camel, 555, 999, 7 - up, audi, xerox and so on. for the trademark of phonetic translation, only do it concise, easy to understand and remember and impress consumers. therefore, the chinese transliteration of trademark has no more than four words at most. if there are more than four syllables, some of which should be omitted . there are some english words with consonant together, the syllable maybe not many, with the original pronunciation very simple and easy to read. however, translating every pronunciation of the word will become long, stiff, and thus should be deleted as appropriate. such as: american beer budweiser translated as 百德威斯 and apparently 百威 is more simple, smart, and 百威make people feel that drinking this wine will be the spirit of times, the power of infinity. eyewear trademark bausch & lomb original translated as: 鲍希龙布.there is nothing wrong, but now 博士伦 which take the tone and meaning into account , as if the glasses will be able to put dr.(博士) as knowledgeable to make products more selling point.3.3 relevant to the products trademark is a gold card of products. a good trademark should let one know what the product is as soon as they see, which requires translation are relevant to the products features. when people shop, they would naturally link the products with the trademark, forming a wonderful association, which should be the success of both trademark translation and products itself. relativity of translation is also expressed out of tradition and dont follow rules. although there is no pattern about this translation strategy, the translation has always been associated with the products. you will be able to find some aspects of translation related to the products. such as: craven cigarettes, the original mark means coward, the chinese translation for black cat黑猫is in accordance with its trademark logo (designed as a cat) attributed to this. also similar to a kind of food in u.s. quaker, meaning jitter, the translator according to the christian quakers elders head in packaging named it 老人 . therefore, bizarre trademarks are still can not leave the goods, or else trademark translation does not make sense. 3.4 in accordance with its nationality language is a part of culture, also a carrier of culture. it reflects the characteristics of a nation, not only includes the nations historical and cultural background, also contains the national outlook on life, lifestyles and ways of thinking. trademark must meet certain social customs, habits, and respect for local religious traditions. 3different countries or nations have their own historical and cultural background and preferences and taboos, these differences will affect their shopping mentality. china is a multi-ethnic country, china should attach importance to trademark translation cultural and historical background, in order to be accepted by the public.10 when the translate trademarks, we should give attention to both consumers to cultural practices and aesthetic psychology, not simply use phonetic and semantic translation. trademark has become the threshold of globalization. due to lack of understanding of foreign cultures, some chinese international trademarks make an exhibition of us. for example: cosmetics trademark fang fang, translated as a trademark in a foreign country fang fang, and the fang in the english means poisonous snake teeth. so it is reasonable for cosmetics fang fang to fail. previous years, the translator considerate not much in the translation of trademark, so they translated the 白象 battery into white elephant. in consequence, there is no one interested in this product. because white elephant in english is useless things and burdensome.” moreover, in the east “dragon on behalf of the sacred while the representative of evil in the west generally. if there is dragon in the trademark, translators should be carefully considered. similarly, china petrel is a symbol of brave which is fighting in the storm, and in the west that specialized who provokes and stir up trouble in the social circles. china is a multi-ethnic country; china should attach importance to trademark translation cultural and historical background, in order to be accepted by the public. the following translation of trademarks suffered because of mishandling culture in the china: the french sanofi group china branch launched opium (鸦片) male fragrance trademark. saint laurent in 1977, the inventor of the trademark had been to china. he was inspired from the shape of the chinese snuff bottles. and tried to use opium, to make the chinese men addictive to this fragrance .but mr. saint laurent never imagined that opium means of insult to the opium war to chinese people. a strong sense of national pride made chinese people hate on opium. naturally, when the fragrance entered market in china, strongly criticized by consumers and, ultimately, was prohibited the sale for violation of chinas trademark law .imagine that if the translator the trademark make more attention about the cultural, they would not lost the big market.3 in chinas traditional aesthetics culture, good fortune is quite an important part of the characteristics. auspiciousness, joy must be an considerations when translate from u.s. beer brand budweiser translated as 百威,the japanese snack pocky translated as 百奇, because hundred is the number of chinese worship. chinese people not only want a stable life, but also live and work in peace and contentment. another example is drink hedy, the original trademark 7 up remind of the ups and downs ,ups in the this idiom, means good luck. the 7 up was translated into chinese 七喜, also gives good luck , the pleasant feeling, not only with the reached the english trademark in the sense of harmony and unity, but also in line with preferences of chinese traditional culture population.10consciously use of trademark the locals like, avo