（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）商标翻译中的文化因素.pdf

1 摘要 本文的写作目的是研究文化因素对商标翻译的影响 探讨商标翻译的特殊要求以 及有关的翻译技巧并阐述相关的翻译理论及其对商标翻译的指导意义 商标翻译是一种跨文化交流 涉及到语言 地域文化 消费心理和审美价值的差异 它绝不是将译入语转化成目的语直接的字对字翻译 而是一种需要准确理解两种语言的 具体词语和术语的语言转化活动经验和数据表明 成功的商标翻译可以产生巨大的经 济效益一个好的译名能够使销售额产生千百万美元的差异而不成功的翻译不仅给企 业和国家造成经济损失还会直接影响企业的形象和命运 产品宣传是国际经济竞争的重要手段之一 而商标的设计与翻译是商品促销的有效 办法它有助于一个国家开拓国际市场开发名牌产品基于以上考虑本文主要从语 言及文化的角度研究商标的翻译 本文分为六章 第一章引言由四节组成包括文化的定义文化与翻译的关系文化对译文质量 的影响本领域研究综述和本文的研究方法 第二章商标概述本章研究商标的定义商标与品牌的区别商标的功能及有关 的翻译标准 第三章是对中西文化差异的探讨具体而言包括地理环境差异对动物认知取向 的差异以及对颜色和数字偏好的差异 第四章的研究对象是出口商品商标的文化意蕴与翻译技巧 不同的国家具有不同的 文化传统和不同的民族心理比如有些汉语词语在英文中的对应词却表达相反的 甚至 是恶劣的涵义比如一个商标的简单缩写可能会暗示着某种政治方面的忌讳汉英文 化的微妙差异要求译者不但要精通英汉两种语言而且要了解两种语言的文化意蕴 第五章的内容关于进口商品商标的文化意蕴和翻译技巧 进口商品商标以外文表示 这里研究的是英文商标不可避免地带有西方文化色彩在中国市场上这些商品 将面对全新的消费者好的译名有助于国内消费者理解接受产品有时还会产生意想 不到的促销效果 第六章研究本文所述翻译技巧的理论基础并借用美国著名翻译理论家尤金奈 2 达的杰出思想功能对等和动态对等在这一理论指导下研究三种类型的对等及其对 商标翻译技巧的影响奈达先生的另一理论是归化翻译本文通过例证说明如何运用归 化理论进行出口商标和进口商标的翻译并对归化理论和语用等效进行了比较 本文的分析阐述遵循相似的逻辑顺序并给予充足的例证 关键词文化因素 商标 翻译 3 abstract this thesis is to explore the influences of cultural factors on trademark translation, to study the special requirements of the translation and the corresponding translating techniques and to expound the guiding effect of relevant translation theories on translating practices. trademark translation is a cross-cultural communication, which involves the study of languages, regional cultures, consumers mentality and aesthetic appreciation. it is not simply a word for word translation from source language to target language. rather, it is a kind of linguistic interchange that demands exact understanding of the cultural connotations of the specific words, phrases and special terms of the two languages. experiences and facts have demonstrated that successful translation of trademarks could yield significant economic benefits, while poor translation might not only cause serious economic loses to a marketer or a country but also directly affect their images. a well-translated term of trademark can make such a big difference of trade volume that it even values tens of millions of us dollars. product publicity is an important means of international economic competition. and trademark design and translation is an effective means of sales promotion. it is helpful for a country to explore international market and develop famous branded product. based on the above-mentioned consideration, this thesis will mainly discuss trademark translation in the context of language and cultures. the present thesis consists of six chapters: chapter one, introduction consists of four sections: the relationship between culture and translation, cultural influences on the quality of translation, survey of researches in this field and the research methodology for the exposition. in this chapter the reasons for choosing the subject, the achievements of the researches in this field are listed and introduced in detail. the topic of chapter two is a general survey of trademark, in which the discussion concerns the trademarks definition, the difference between trademark and brand name, the functions and the relevant translating criterion chapter three is the exploration on the cultural differences between china and occidental countries. specifically, the differences involve different geographical environments, different cognitive orientations toward animals and different preferences of color and numbers. in chapter four, the cultural connotation of exported product trademark and the translation 4 skills are being discussed. different nations have different cultural traditions and ethnic mentality. some chinese characters or phrases may convey meanings of adversity or wickedness in their english equivalents. also a simple english trademark abbreviation may indicate a taboo of political implication. this kind of subtle cultural difference between chinese and english requires that the translator not only have the proficiency in english and chinese, but also a good command of the cultural connotations about the two languages. chapter five is on the cultural connotation of imported product trademarks and the methods of translation. imported product trademarks are expressed in a foreign language (here, trademark in english is being discussed). they necessarily bear features of western culture. in the chinese market these products will face completely new consumers. a good chinese version of imported product trademark will make the product understandable and acceptable to chinese consumers and will bring unexpected promotional effects. chapter six expounds the theoretical basis of the translating techniques discussed in the thesis. brilliant ideas are borrowed from the translation theory of eugene a. nida, a distinguished american translation theorist. the specific theoretical views applied in the analysis include functional equivalence and dynamic equivalence-the guiding principles, under the direction of which, three types of equivalence for trademark translation are explored. another supporting theory is domestication. examples are given to show how the theory is applied in the translation of imported product trademarks and exported product trademarks. a comparison is made between domestication and pragmatic equivalence. in the thesis, the presentation and analysis follow similar logical orders and adequate examples are borrowed and analyzed. key words: cultural factors; trademark; translation 5 acknowledgements i am extremely grateful to my supervisor, professor yu lijun, for his valuable direction and suggestions, his generosity in spending his time discussing questions concerned in my thesis, as well as for his constant encouragement. his sincere and generous help is of great significance in the completion of this thesis. i am indebted to the professors who presided over the thesis proposal defense for their valuable advices on adjusting the composition structure of the thesis. their suggestions offered me much enlightenment in the writing process. thirdly, i am also grateful to all the professors and lecturers who taught me during the ma course, to all those who helped me in providing information and data needed, to the writers of the books and articles to which i made reference. last, but not the least, i am thankful to my wife and son for their support and understanding in the course of writing this thesis. 8 chapter one introduction the brisk development of science and technology and the acceleration of economic globalization have greatly extended the scope of international economic cooperation. economic and business contacts between different countries are becoming increasingly frequent. the development of chinas economy has been closely merged with that of the world economy. in 2004 the total volume of chinas import and export is 1,150 billion dollars, increasing by 35 percent than that in 2003. its position in the name list of the world trade powers has been raised to the third from the forth. with the growth of chinas foreign trade and economy and the increasing contact with other nations, china has become a worldwide trade power. facing with intensive market competition, most countries, especially developed countries are making much more efforts to expand international market and increase their market share through developing hi-tech products, improving product quality, creating famous branded products, setting up product distribution system, perfecting after-sale service and intensifying product publicity. product publicity is an important means of international competition and an effective way of promotion. it plays an important role in a countys expansion of international market and the development of famous branded products, and trademark translation is an integral part of product publicity. therefore, the translation of trademarks and brand names is of great significance to the development of international trade. a well-translated term can make such a big difference of sales volume that it even values tens of thousands of u.s dollars. trademark translation is a cross-cultural communication. it involves the study of languages, regional cultures, consumers psychology and different manners of beauty appreciation. simply, it is not a word for word translation from the source language to the target language, but involves the knowledge of linguistics, socio linguistics, psychological linguistics, economics and marketing. experiences and facts have demonstrated a successful translation of trademark or advertisement could yield significant business results, while a poor reference news march 25, 2005 9 translation may not only bring serious economic losses but also directly affect the image of a corporation or a country. this thesis will mainly discuss the translation of trademarks within the framework of language and culture. 1.1 the relationship between culture and translation “the word culture comes from the latin root colere,(to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor) in general it refers human activity.” in academic research “the term refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community.” “people living apart from one another develop unique cultures, but elements of different cultures can easily spread from one group of people to another.” this assumption shapes the possibility and necessity of cross-culture translation. although there are various means of cultural transmission and cultural exchange promotion, it is essential that people should depend on the use of language for cultural communication. language is the carrier, container and the instrument of culture. to perform the function of communicating bridge in the transnational, cross-racial and cross- cultural exchanges and to make the strange culture familiar to people in a foreign country, it is natural that people should depend on language to carry out translation. it is the translators that can carry out the translation through language. without language, it would be difficult to convert the cross-cultural communication goals to actions. as far as the function is concerned, translation is a bridge of communication and a language tool to link different cultures. chinese and english cultures are quite different from each other. both are embodied in their respective languages and expressed in a certain language. and the two languages work as the carrier and container of the two cultures. and on the other hand, the two cultures are the soil from which each of the two languages stems and develops. different languages produce different cultures. whatever culture it may be, once it comes into existence, it will be spread far and wide and exchanged with others. all this is carried out by language. the cultural sear can be seen everywhere especially in a spoken and written language. and in the same way, language is a means of translation, without language there would be no translation. afred, kroeber and clyde, kluckhoh, culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions 1952 deng yanchang, liu runqing, language and culture,1989 p3 afred, kroeber and clyde, kluckhoh, culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions 1952 10 translation begins with language and the translators way of thinking is embodied in language, different languages reflect different ways of thinking, and the translations read by readers are written in language. and therefore, in translation, it is an important issue to understand and handle the relationship between culture and language. susan bassnett, a contemporary english woman translation theorist attaches great importance to the function of language in translation. she compares language to the heart of cultural organism. in her opinion the translator is like an expert in treating heart disease who operates on the patients heart. to ensure the operation the surgeon cannot overlook the other parts of the human body. so when a translation is being conducted, culture cannot be separated from the speech context. it is known that translation is the process to render the meaning of a written or colloquial message in anther language. it deals with the conversion of the surface reference of linguistic notation in scientific style, but most important of all, it deals with the deeper cultural senses. in the process of translation the deeper cultural senses are transplanted from the source passage into the translated passage till mutual communication has been carried out smoothly in different languages. cultural sense comes from word reference, but word reference cannot be used to take the place of its cultural sense. unfortunately, it is a relatively usual case in translation practice. that is the cause why some translators often make mistakes in translation. they only do the translation according to the surface meaning of a word reference, but they dont know that the word reference has changed when the word appears in a context or in a passage of another language. as for the translators, it is necessary and meaningful to get acquainted with the cultural connotation, especially the attending cultural senses of the words and expressions of source language and target language. as wang zuoliang, a famous chinese scholar of translation theory and practice, once remarked, “ the differences between two different cultures are the greatest difficulty in translation. what he (the translator) handles are individual words or expressions and what he faces are two great cultures.” language and culture are interwoven and they are closely linked. the intercultural communication means nothing if the translator takes no notice of culture and the conversion of cultural senses. sussan, bassnett translation studies. london: routledge, 1994. 11 1.2 cultural influences on the quality of translation culture, as a question that the translators must first take into consideration, plays an active part in communication and translation, and it depends on and is closely connected with a language. the positive influence of culture on the quality of translation has been universally acknowledged. in translation theory and practice, cultural factors are increasingly drawing the attention of the people in the circle. it is known that translation is an equivalent substitution, the conveyance of meanings and information. it is the process to reproduce the same semantic meaning in a different language. simply speaking, translation refers to the meanings expressed in one language (under certain linguistic contexts) to be expressed in another one. not only is it an art but a science of systematic theory and wide scope of knowledge. findings show it has a very wide domain of contrastive linguistics, aesthetics, literary aesthetics, rhetoric, cognitive science and social semeiology. on the other hand, what a foreign language represents is the nation in which the language is used and it reflects the cultural characteristics of the nation and the thinking model of its people. in c-e or e-c trademark translation social, customary, and conventional differences cannot be neglected. what a translator faces are two completely different languages and two different peoples who speak them respectively. the translators task is to construct a bridge of communication between peoples of the two different cultures, to make the culture of the source language nation understandable and familiar to the readers of target language and to make the version, accompanied by the cultures, produce positive effects. the translator must try to reproduce the meaning of a trademark as is intended by the original designer. a faithful translation is not matching the words or grammatical structures of the two languages, but reproducing what the source language writer really intends to express. since comprehension and appreciation of the original text are fundamental to translating, the importance of text analysis needs to be emphasized to translators. if the translator realizes the importance to understand the source text correctly and precisely, failures in translating process can be avoided in advance. language is a part of culture. without adequate cultural knowledge of the two nations concerned no translator can complete the translation process, a cross-language transformational activity. in translation cultural factors play more important role than pure 12 linguistic differences do. experience shows that in trademark translation the most serious mistakes are made not because of verbal inadequacy, but of wrong c ultural assumptions. therefore, in determining the meaning of words or choosing the idiom to be used in a particular trademark, the translator must pay attention not only to their semantic content but also to the cultural context, for cultural context is the key to perceivinging the real intention of the trademark designer. without a thorough and elaborate study of the cultural context of the would-be used characters, the translator cannot produce appropriately translated terms at all. just as nida, a distinguished american translation theorist points out, “ for truly successful translation, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism, since words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which they function.” 1.3 a general review of researches in this field with chinas entry to wto, huge quantity of commodity moves into and out of the country with accelerating frequency and trademark translation becomes critically important for improving economic benefits. both businessmen and business english researchers and translators focus their attention on the issue. in this thesis the resear