The Aesthetic Expression in Translating Trademarks.doc

毕业论文(设计)Acknowledgements I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all those who have offered me their help and encouragement in this thesis. My thanks should also be given to all the teachers who have taught me my BA courses. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Mr Meng, whose careful reading and suggestions have been invaluable to me throughout my thesis writing. I have benefited a great deal for his great attainment, and patient guidance.Besides, I am grateful to my friends for their concern and great encouragement to me. In particular, I own a special debt of thanks to Vera and Anne, who have offered me much access to various international advertisements shows. And at last, this thesis would not have been possible if I have received nothing from the library and the reference room.Abstract The basic function of a trademark is to identify a product and attract customers. Trademark translation is actually a way of renaming on the basis of functional equivalence, whatever techniques are used; negative association of the target version should be avoided in order not to destroy the function of the trademark. A good trademark should compose three categories of a product: instruction, esthetic attraction and cultural information.Various translation principles have been proposed, such as the influential but controversial criterion of “faithfulness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance” as put forward by Yan Fu and the principle of functional equivalence proposed by Nida. Considering the features of trademarks, particularly the fact that they are mostly created to perform such functions as informative, aesthetic and vocative functions, the present paper will chiefly draw upon Nidas principle. Aesthetics tendency is shared in all human languages, so as trademark. The beauty of trademark can be represented by its pronunciation, spelling and its connotation. Successful translations should demonstrate the companys notion and products quality, in the consideration of the consumers psychology and the local traditions and culture. Sound beauty, simplicity beauty and connotation beauty might be illustrated by means of various translation techniques. Among those translation techniques, the author stresses on introducing and analyzing literal translation, transliteration, Transform, conjoint translation and adjustment.Key words: Trademark translation; Sound beauty; Simplicity beauty; Connotation beauty摘 要 商标的基本功能是标识一种商品和吸引消费者。商标词的美可以通过商标词本身的词汇意义,词汇的拼写形式以及其具备的联想文化等体现出来。好的商标应包括产品的性能说明、美感和文化内涵。在各种翻译标准中，严复的“信”, “达”, “雅”原则和奈达所倡导的“功能等效”最有影响力也最有争议。鉴于商标的信息性、审美性和宣传性特征，本文主要论述了奈达所倡导的翻译原则。趋美是人类语言的共性，商标同样如此。商标词的美可以通过商标词本身的发音、形式和词汇意义等表现出来。成功的商标译名需体现出企业的理念和产品的质量,尊重消费者的心理及其地方传统文化，灵活运用不同的翻译方法，体现商标的音韵美、简朴美和意境美。在各种翻译方法中，着重介绍和分析了音译、意译、半音半意、谐音双关等。关键词：商标翻译 音韵美 简朴美 意境美Contents Acknowledgements.iAbstract (English) .iiAbstract (Chinese) .iiiContents .iv1. Introduction.12. The relationship between Trademark and esthetic.2 2.1 Trademark translation.22.2 Aesthetic Interest.3 2.2.1 Sound beauty.3 2.2.2 Simplicity beauty.4 2.2.3 Connotation beauty.43. Principles for translating trademarks .5 3.1 Functional equivalence.53.2 Requirements of functional equivalence. 64. Trademark translation techniques.74.1 Literal translation.74.2 Transliteration .84.3 Transform .94.4 The technique of Conjoint translation.104.5 Adjustment.114.5.1 Additions or deletions114.5.2 Blending.114.5.3 Acronym .124.5.4 Purposive misspelling .124.5.5 Renaming.135. Conclusion13References.1417 The Aesthetic Expression in Translating Trademarks 1. IntroductionIn the modern world of commodity economy, as a special type of commodity, trademark has entered into public life. Trademarks contain rich cultural connotation, which baffles the way of understanding when many people encounter them. Trademark defined by The Oxford English Dictionary is that a mark (secured by legal registration or, in some countries, established by use) is used by a manufacturer or trader to distinguish his goods from similar wares of other forms, usually a distinctive device or figure, a fancy name or trade name, or the name of individual or firm, masked or impressed on the commodity or upon the package, etc., in or with which it is sold. A trademark is somewhat stand for a product. It has its own characteristics. A good trademark should compose three categories of a product: instruction, esthetic attraction and cultural information. Successful translations should demonstrate the companys notion and products quality, in the consideration of the consumers psychology and the local traditions and culture. Sound beauty, simplicity beauty and connotation beauty might be illustrated by means of various translation techniques.Aesthetics tendency is shared in all human languages. The beauty of trademark can be represented by its pronunciation, form and its connotation. Trademark translation and esthetic attraction are closely related with each other, no matter whether native trademark or foreign ones. The production and acceptance of trademark is actually a kind of communication of message. The equivalence between aesthetic interest and language that trademark need can arouse sense of beauty and kind. From the way of aesthetic interest, the function of good trademark is capable to attract people sincerely.2. The relationship between Trademark and estheticAesthetics tendency is a commonness of human languages, so as trademark. The beauty of trademark can be represented by its pronunciation; spelling and its connotation. The equivalence between aesthetic interest and language that trademark need can arouse sense of goodliness and beauty. From the way of aesthetic interest, the function of good trademark is capable to attract people sincerely. To all consumers around the world, some aesthetic interests are the same, others different. The English alphabet “s”, which usually accentuates feminine graceful figures, arouses the great interests of ladies, for both in western countries east ones, all like “beauty”. 2.1 Trademark and the translation A trademark or trade mark (represented by the symbol )1 or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to identify uniquely the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements.2 There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories. （Encyclopedia）The owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. However, registration is not required. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.The term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, particularly in the United States.3 Aiming to build, reinforce, and/or reposition consumers perception of a certain trademarks, trademarks have the following four functions: distinguishing products, providing information, ensuring guarantee and stimulating consumption. In order to build up a good image in the market and arouse favorable associations as well as purchasing desire in the minds of the consumers, trademarks always have the following major characteristics: short in length and sweetness, sonorous and distinct, elegant and apt, original and novel. Translation is a more complex communication than that within a single language as it involves two languages. (Jin & Nida, 1984:31) Given the uniqueness of trademark translation, the translator must be fully aware of the cultural awareness, aesthetic standards, and consumption modes of both SL and TL readers, and should keep in the mind the intention of the original so as to transfer its message (both linguistic and cultural) maximally, otherwise, “ a failure to reflect the spirit and dynamics of the source document is a mortal sin” (Nida, 1993) The translation of trademarks should strive for the following two effects: (a) the translated trademark should reflect the semantic features of the original one; (b) the translated trademark should have the same or similar function as the original one. The translated trademark should be delightful to the eye, pleasant to the ear, easy to remember, as well as be a perfect unity of sound, form, and meaning. In other words, the translated trademark should arouse the same interest and psychological empathy of the target consumers; stimulate their aesthetic enjoyment and consuming desire. Toward the end, the translations must serve as receptor of the message intended by the source sign and be the source of the message in the target language. (Jin & Nida, 1984: 31-50) 2.2 Aesthetic Interest2.2.1 Sound beautySound beauty means trademarks see also loud, rhythm clear and rich musicality, from which people can get more enjoyment of beauty. Some Rhetoric Jurists and Linguists once described, long syllables have the pleasure of comfortable, ease, quiet, leisure, general and pious, and short syllables have the imagine of rapid, dramatically, numerous, narrow and humor. Light syllables can arouse the association of “small, smart, quiet and weak. Heavy syllables can give the imagination of “big, much, blunt and dark”. Successful translation of trademarks can be easily understand and remember, sound musical and rich in rhythm.The phenomenon of monosyllabic in Bopomofo is the basic of sound beauty. For a character has a syllable, and vowel always come after consonant, Chinese can use four tunes to play different movement. At the same time, English word is polysyllabic, that is one word always has more than one syllable. Polysyllable has differentiates of light and heavy syllables, and the place of vowel and consonant is not fixed. Sound beauty in different language is sometimes dissimilar, therefore, these differences should be avoided in the translation of trademarks Some English trademarks with alliteration and rhyme used are formed by clangorous vowel and facile consonant, thus these trademarks are sounded cadence and rich in rhythm, besides, these pronunciation can arose different reactions in psychology, such as softness or harshness.For example, “Coca cola” is one of the successful translated trademarks in sound beauty. In the 1930s, when “Coca-Cola”, a world-famous trademark for soft drink, was plan to enter Chinas market, the trademark was translated into Chinese as “可口可乐”,which is generally recognized, to be as good as, if not better than the original. The original trademark sounds rhythmical as alliteration and rhyme area adopted. In the translated version, the effect of alliteration and rhyme is properly preserved. On the other hand, “coca” and “cola” mean nothing more than the names of two plants in English; the Chinese version of “可口可乐”, however, creatively embodies the feature of the product and conveys the pleasure that the product brings to the customers. As a result, the successful translation of the trademark has produced a considerable effect on the popularity of the product in the market of China.Similarly, alliteration are found in trademark translation such as “Tick-Tock” “淘淘”, “Pik-pok” “必扑”, “Clean&clear” “可伶可俐”; and “Kiwi” “奇伟”, “Kodak” “柯达”, “Omo” “奥妙” tail rhyme is used. Onomatopoeia is used to arise peoples image in translating Kodak and Pik-pok, Tick-Tock (淘淘) also shows childrens naivety and liveliness. Besides, these translations of the trademarks produce nice acoustical effect.2.2.2 Simplicity beauty Simplicity beauty means simple and clear. Generally, whatever how many syllable English trademarks have, they must be simple when translated to Chinese, usually two, no more than four Chinese characters. Surely when Chinese trademarks translated to English, they also should be simple in order to be remembered easily. For example, famous brand “美加净” is translated to “Maxam” instead of “Beautiful and Clean”. Compared with “Beautiful and Clean”, “Maxam” is simpler, and it sounds like “maximum”, which means the top. Both its first letter and last letter is “M”, besides, it use palindrome, that produces balance beauty in form, and make it more easily to be remembered.Car brand “ MercedesBenz”, once translated to “默塞得斯.本茨”， now translated to “奔驰”，which can describe the cars function and give people a good imagination. In fact, after the translation of trademark changed, the cars sold better than before.“Hewlett-Packard”, a computer hardware corporation, now is known in China as “HP” or “惠普”, instead of its long and complicated original brand.2.2.3 Connotation beauty Connotation beauty means that the translation of trademark fine in meaning, and can arouse nice association or bring aesthetic feeling to people. For instance, “Revlon”, the trademark of American cosmetics, was translated into “露华浓”. The Chinese translation version originates from Li Bais poem describing the beauty of Yang Yuhuan, “云想衣裳花想容，春风拂揽露华浓。” The translated version is similar in pronunciation to the original one, moreover, it arouses peoples association of Li Bais poem as well as the beauty of Yang Yuhuan (one of the highest-ranking imperial concubines in Tang Dynasty, also famous as one of the four most beautiful ladies in ancient China), so the Chinese translation version creates a powerful appellative effect as the trademark of cosmetics.Two paper towel brands, “Soft&Clean” and “Breeze” are translated as “洁柔” and “清风” literally. “洁柔” conveys the original meaning of the brand entirely and caters to peoples requirements for paper towel while “清风” arouses peoples association of the comfort brought by a breeze. “Bush and Lomb” a founder of a contact lenses company, also a trademark, because“博士伦”in Chinese and sales very well.“博士伦”catches the psychology of Chinese people who extremely uphold knowledge. 3. Principles for translating trademarks Various translation principles have been proposed, such as the influential but controversial criterion of “faithfulness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance” ( “信”, “达”, “雅”) as put forward by Yan Fu and the principle of functional equivalence proposed by Nida. Considering the features of trademarks, particularly the fact that they are mostly created to perform such functions as informative, aesthetic and vocative functions, the present paper will chiefly draw upon Nidas principle. 3.1 Functional equivalence A minimal, realistic definition of functional equivalence is stated as: “The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it.” (Nida, 1993:118) Anything less than this degree of equivalence should be unacceptable. A maximal, ideal definition could be defined as “the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did.” (Nida, 1993:119) However, this equivalence is rarely achieved in practice. This principle is obviously applicable to Chinese trademarks translation. Language has six basic functions: informative, vocative, aesthetic, expressive, phatic and metalingual (Newmark, 1988:39). The former three are more closely related to trademarks. As far as Chinese trademarks are concerned, functional equivalence means that the English renderings must perform these three functions to the same, or at least to similar extent as the Chinese trademarks do. For informative and vocative texts, Newmark (1988:47) proposes communicative translation, which “attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original.” (Newmark, 1982:39) Moreover, any translation without considering the function may lead to failure in communication. Both the meaning and functions of the source texts should be transferred in translation. Consequently, Nida claims, “Judging the validity of a translation can not stop with a comparison of corresponding lexical meanings, grammatical classes, and rhetorical devices. What is important is the extent to which receptors correctly understand and appreciate the translated text.” (Nida, 1993:116). 3.2 Requirements of functional equivalence Equivalence in informative function is required. This requires that the renderings must be able to inform people of the functions, characteristics and values of the products as the orig