英语论文The Naming and Translation of Chinese and English Trademarks.pdf

毕业论文(设计) 1 the naming and translation of chinese and english trademarks 1. introduction.1 2. literature review.2 3. the naming of chinese and english trademarks.5 3.1 origin. 5 3.2principles of trademark naming.9 3.2.1 embody the attributes of goods.9 3.2.2 easy for good associations.9 3.2.3 simple and easily-memorized.10 3.3 cultural effects.12 4. the translation of chinese and english trademarks.13 4.1 the necessity of trademark translation.13 4.2 problems in translating chinese and english trademarks.14 4.2.1 translation tendency based on its chinese pinyin of trademarks.14 4.2.2 the translation ignoring the different cultural backgrounds.15 4.2.3 the problems about english translation of longer chinese trademark names.17 4.3 the methods of trademark translation.18 4.3.1 transliteration.18 4.3.2 literal translation.20 5. economic value of the naming and translation of chinese and english trademark.21 6. conclusion.22 references.23 1. introduction with the development of the world economy, many products were produced and enter into the international market. how can a product get a footing in the international market which is full of keen competition? undoubtedly a well-known product should not only have high quality, but also have a famous name. a famous trademark can add value to a product in the marketplace because it has a potentially powerful influence on consumers behavior. 毕业论文(设计) 2 trademark in modern life is a very common word. it is because trademarks general application has already spread in the universe, based on its process of being born, the naming and the translation of trademarks are discussed, as it closely relates to the commodities we live on. whether a trademark is acknowledged as successful one depends on peoples acceptance to how beneficial the goods that the trademark represents have been. china is globalizing at high speed, while the translation of chinese and english trademark has been in a foundational work in the field of foreign trade(袁家麒: 2004). in the research, this article first reviews some achievements that the former researchers have made. secondly, it offers an analysis of trademark from cultural aspects on the basis of the review of the origin of naming trademarks and the naming principles and analyzes cultural effects and existing problems in naming trademarks through exemplifying many successful trademarks. from the perspective of cultural differences, this article then attempts to outline the origin of words and the characteristic of trademarks as well as the translation principles, explores several kinds of trademark translation methods, and meanwhile discusses the errors of cultural phenomenon in trademark translation. 2. literature review trademark is conventionally a distinctive sign of some kind, whether that sign comprises a name, word, phrase, symbol, design, picture, styling or a combination of one or more of these elements. a trademark is used by a business to identify itself and 毕业论文(设计) 3 its products or services to consumers, and to set itself and its products or services apart from other businesses. the essential function of a trademark is to uniquely identify the commercial source or origin of products or services, such this trademark is used to “indicate source” or acts as a “badge of origin” (朱亚军, 2003:24). as any sign which is capable of performing the essential trademark function may qualify as a trademark, the trademark concept extends to include a range of unconventional signs such as shapes (three-dimensional marks), sounds, smells, moving images (e.g. signs denoting movement, motion or animation), taste, and perhaps even texture, or a combination of two or more of these elements which a trader uses to distinguish his/her products or services from those of his/her competitors and serves to establish goodwill with the consumer ( 朱 亚 军 , 2003:24). however, the extent to which unconventional trademarks can be protected or even recognized varies considerably from country to country. several decades ago, from eastern to western countries, a number of symbolists, linguists, psychologists and consumer psychologists have committed themselves to the research on the naming and translation of chinese and english trademarks, and many western scholars have paid attention to. the naming of trademark is basically considered as common as persons name and placename. early in the two thousand years ago, confucius had elucidated the importance of naming in his the analects of confucius (朱亚军, 2003:20) - if names are not correct, they can not be properly used. if what is said is not proper, things can not be done successfully. in other words, we are living in a world that is covered with trademarks and their naming, without 毕业论文(设计) 4 which our production and daily lives cannot exist. especially in the omnipowerful brand, written by delano (1990), puts forward strategies of making trademarks omnipowerful and discusses some principles and the process of naming trademarks from a marketing angle. ingrid piller (1996) has classified the principles of naming trademarks from economics, linguistics and jurisprudence in his doctoral thesis american automobile names, such as metonymic names, metaphorical names and descriptive names and so on. basically, it should be said that the research of ingrid pillers is by far one of the best referential collections (朱亚军, 2003:27). there is a controversial argument whether translation tendency is based on its chinese pinyin of the brand and the translation ignores the different cultural backgrounds. in order to overcome this problem, american theorist e.a.nida advanced “dynamic equivalence” of translation and stressed on equivalent experience and equivalent reactions. meanwhile, famous english translation theorist peter newmark posted communication translation, focusing on the language expression and emphasizing on the depth of writing intent(e.a.nida:1986). in domestic, the great translator yan fu gave the form of the traditional translation standard “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”. the above theories, in terms of the theoretical contents and translation methods, worth our learning when we translate the chinese brand names. 毕业论文(设计) 5 3. the naming of chinese and english trademarks 3.1 origin the naming of trademarks emerges as a linguistic and cultural phenomenon with the emergence of trademark. trademark is a symbol of goods and an inevitable result of the development of commodity economy. in the natural economic period, the purpose of production is mainly for the needs of producers in itself, self-sufficient and there are no residual products, as a result, products would not need any markings. the excavated tripods during yin and zhou dynasties of china or other bronze vessels cast with characters and patterns, some of which are carved with posy and era name. however, they are only a way to memorize, decorate or represent the items that belongs to whom. this cannot be considered as trademarks. with the appearance of commodity production, trademark gradually comes forth. at the beginning, specific products were usually enchased with the symbol or the authors name, in order to differentiate the products from others when exchanging is on progress. brand (trademark) is a word means identification mark and soldering iron in itself, and this is a raw portrayal that ancient spanish horde branded their cattle to exchange goods on market. along with the further development of the commodity economy, the use of trademarks is extended in increasing numbers. the cultural relics of beizhou period (a.d. 556-580) contain tuding (rough 毕业论文(设计) 6 chinaware) that was named guo yan (郭彦). brocade, embroider, gauze and other textiles prevailing during western han dynasty (b.c. 206- a.d. 25) were attached birds and beasts, plants and other geometrical patterns, and some of them were embroidered lucky words like “延年益寿”, “长乐光明”. then in the song dynasty, thanks to an advanced development of agriculture, handicraft industry and commerce, with the variety of goods increased, the use of trademark became greater and border. dongjing menghua lu of men yuanlaos in song dynasty had presented a great deal of trademarks and trade names. the well-known trademarks, such as “丑婆婆药铺”, “曹婆婆肉饼”, “郑粉子”, “黑虎王医生”, also appeared in this book（朱亚军, 2003:24）.during that period, trademarks changed from some simple signs to more complicated ones that combined with graphics, characters or illustrations, which had formed relatively complete trademarks. the origin of foreign trademarks is substantially the same as that of china. what is worth mentioning that from the beginning of the 13th century, guilds in europe had been popular, almost every industry had been organized, in making a specific marker as a sign of products. their purposes were object to these: on one hand, it enhanced the supervision to the quality of products; on the other hand, it maintained the guilds monopoly of foreign firms. the guilds seemed to have become the backbone of the european economy, as their use of trademarks had a great impact. the history of trademark naming and trademarks emerged almost simultaneously. in the period of ancient greece and rome, manufacturers or operators often made their own names of other literal information on their wine bottles, metal products, 毕业论文(设计) 7 ointment, textiles and other goods in order to let the consumers identify or hold the responsibility for making and selling fake goods. strictly speaking, whether it is in ancient greece, rome, or spring and autumn and warring states periods of china, the naming of trademark is not in its true sense of naming trademarks, but a beginning of modern trademark naming. the true sense of the trademark naming came from the late 18th century and early 19th century, began after industrial revolution in europe, the important sigh of which stands for the weakened belongingness and strengthened advertising. adrian room (j. m. murphy.1987:14) clearly and distinctly classifies 19th century famous american naming of trademarks in a semantic anger. ( 朱 亚 军 , 2003:25) (1) personal names bakers coca, cooks tours, edison phonograph, hammond typewriter, ponds extract, postum cereal and jaeger underwear, these trademarks are all relative to the inventors, patent owners, operators or other names that have relation with the products. (2) place names columbia bicycles, new england mincemeat, pittsburgh stogies and so on, these ones are basically the producing areas or selling places of the products. (3) invented scientific names caligraph typewriter (漂亮书法), cuticura soap (皮肤保护), gramophone (速 记声音), sozodont dentifrice (牙齿护理) and other trademarks like these are made 毕业论文(设计) 8 on the base of latin and greek. it is because trademark is in an initiation to be representative of a product in nature, thus, the naming of trademark always becomes generic name like gramophone. (4) status names crown pianos, diamond dyes, gold dust, monarch bicycles, regal shoes, victor bicycles, camp coffee and so on; such these names are made of good words, and a symbol of a certain identity, status and class. (5) good association names good association obviously means beautiful association of ideas. such as ivory soap, quaker oats, sunlight soap, white label soups and so on, this kind of naming of trademarks is able to make people associate with purity and good health. (6)artificial names this sort of trademark naming suggests denominators create symbols according to their aims and principles of naming. the symbols like kodak, uneeda biscuit and so on. (7) descriptive names rambler bicycle (“悠闲”自行车), shredded wheat (“碎片”面包) and so on. a few trademark naming seems not very moderate to many people these days or even contrary to the laws of trademark though, a majority of semantic choice of modern trademark naming is still supported by normal form above. that is to say that the naming of trademark in 19thcentury has reached a fairly mature stage. 毕业论文(设计) 9 3.2principles of trademark naming 3.2.1 embody the attributes of goods as a trademark is a logo that stands for a product, it has to reflect the quality and function of a product as far as possible, meanwhile trademark denominators must combine the name of trademarks with the attributes of goods, and let both of them band together, in this way to build the image of trademark. for example, maxam (shampoo), safeguard (soap), both of these give us a clean and cool feeling; tide (washing powder), addition to its slogan “tides in, dirts out”, can further embody the function of this product; signal (洁诺), colgate (高露洁), crest (佳洁士), these three sorts of toothpastes and the washing powder “ 洁霸” all contain a character “洁 (clean)” which remarkably incarnates cleansing effect; reebok 锐步(sport shoe), the chinese trademark can make people associate with an imagination that a normal person can run as fast as fly into the sky. all of these trademarks have characteristics that accord with the features and functions of the products in a true sense. naming a trademark on the basis of a products attributes, through creating a good and healthy image, can promote and increase the sale of the product. 3.2.2 easy for good associations although trademarks cannot directly describe the concrete shape and quality of goods, they contain the attributes of goods. as a result, it must be cautious for the selection of trademark words so as to make people have a better association. for 毕业论文(设计) 10 example, clean rejoice (shampoo) make people associate with a gorgeous picture in which a length of soft and clean hair is dancing with wind, and this association impresses a lot of potential customers. a little different for goldlion (clothing), at the very beginning it adopted free translation to make a name of e-c translation-“金狮”, the pronunciation of “狮” is a little bit similar with “输” in cantonese, which sounds like that these clothes are made for losers, further more might hamper the sale. its chinese trademark was changed as “金利来”, which means gold and fame come together and also satisfy people with their desire for fortune and pursuit for luxury. from then on, this trademark has become a household name. it can be seen that trademark words should be selected according to traditional manners and customs, then the words that always make good associations. otherwise, the sale of goods will have a negative impact. 3.2.3 simple and easily-memorized as trademark is a part of products, its main function is to convey the products and their information, which has potential customers obtained the maximum information about the products with minimum delay in order to develop a yen and trigger off their action to purchase the goods. so it is necessary to make trademark words simple-spelling, fluent, and easy for memorizing and transmitting orally. people are always easy to remember something simple and familiar, for example, ibm, a famous computer manufacturer, international business machines for full 毕业论文(设计) 11 name. comparing with these two names, the former is undoubtedly easy for writing and memorizing. in addition, it can convey to others in good effects. imb is one of the worlds top 10 brands, there is no doubt that the naming of trademark is of great importance. almost all the well-known trademarks own easily-memorized words, such as pampers (diaper), ports (suit-dress), apple (computer), coco-cola (beverage) and so on, these trademarks are simple and can be read fluently. in this way, these trademarks are particularly easy to be filled in consumersmemory. with the influence of these simple words expanding, their image and popularity will be endorsed. d.aaker (1991) has illustrated the global famous trademarks of 1925 at the position of popularity in 1985, which is introduced in his article managing brand equity. producttrademarks in 1925position in 1985 baconswiftno.1 batteriesevereadyno.1 biscuitsnabiscono.1 breakfast cerealkelloggno.1 cameraskodakno.1 canned fruitdel monteno.1 chewing gumwrigleyno.1 chocolatehersheyno.2 flourgold medalno.1 mint candieslife saversno.1 毕业论文(设计) 12 paintsherwin-williamsno.1 pipe tobaccoprince albertno.1 razorsgilletteno.1 sewing machinesingerno.1 shirtsmanhattanno.5 shorteningcriscono.1 soapivoryno.1 soft drinkscoca-colano.1 soupcampbellno.1 tealiptonno.1 tyregoodyearno.1 to