Since the reform and opening up of the seventies of the last
century, especially after
China’s accession to the WTO, the volume of trade of China and
foreign countries is growing, the translation work in related
fields is becoming more and more significant. With the
strengthening of the trend of economic globalization and the
establishment of intellectual property rights, brand awareness is
deeply rooted, and so as a trademark of the brand logo and carrier,
its translation is also rightly valued.
Trademark translation is a kind of
cross-cultural communication activities, that is, the translation
is not only a conversion between language, but the conversion
between cultures. And the trademark translation has its own
characteristics and functions, in this complex translation process
we must take the pragmatic equivalence into account, namely, the
cultural appropriateness of the language, to avoid a pragmatic
failure. Therefore, this paper will analyze the influential factors
of English translation of Chinese trademark to pragmatic
equivalence from the principle of pragmatic equivalence, and then
make the feasibility study.
Key Words: Trademarks; Pragmatic equivalence; Influencing
factors; Method study
Introduction
With China’s further implementation of the open and reform policy
and development of economic globalization, Chinese trademarks are
becoming more and more international with the globalization.
Therefore, translating Chinese trademarks into English has played
an important role in promoting sales in the global marketplace and
has also been drawn great attention to by businesses, translators
as well as the public. As a well-translated trademark can add value
to the product and convey the implied meaning like
“Haier”(海尔), “Youngor”(雅戈尔), they have gained great success
because they make sense of the original text for the receivers in
the TL. On the one hand, they are easy to read and remember; on the
other hand, they are able to transfer the cultural connotations of
the SL or even create the positive associations in TL. While a
badly-translated trademark may evoke an unfavorable association to
customers and damage the business image due to the differences
between domestic markets and foreign markets, for
example,“四通”was once translated mechanically
into “Si tong” which sounds like Chinese“私通”,giving the receivers a negative
association. Trademark translation indicates a firm’s management
level to some degree and it is recognized that the better the
trademark translation is, the better the sales of products can be
enlarged. Hence, the study of trademark translation is of great
importance. And nowadays, researches and studies on the translation
of trademarks especially English translation of Chinese trademarks
are gradually becoming heated .It is necessary for us to offer the
guidance to trademark translation and find out some practical and
applicable measures to improve the current situation for English
translation of Chinese trademarks. This paper intends to make an
overall study of the current situation guided by pragmatic
equivalence theory so as to offer some methods and notices of
trademark translation.
This paper explores the study of English translation of Chinese
trademark words from the perspective of pragmatic equivalence
theory. The whole paper consists of five parts: Introduction,
chapter 1-3, and the conclusion. The introduction part makes a
general introduction to the introduction of trademark and the
significance of its translation. Chapter one takes a review of
the theory of pragmatic
equivalence. Chapter two deals with
the knowledge related to trademarks. Chapter three
studies how to achieve pragmatic equivalence and
provide ways to the translation of Chinese trademark words into
English.
Chapter One An
Overview of Pragmatic Equivalence Theory
People of the world
with the same earth have the same or similar life experience and
the thoughts and feelings, so any one kind of language in another
language will find the corresponding words. But, because of the
different nature and human environment, psychological structure,
social history and cultural values, the situation of not
corresponding or not equivalence between languages still exists
everywhere. Therefore, a good translation is absolutely to certain
translation standards for the premise and the guidance. The quality
of translation relate to the standard and requirement of the
translator to his or her translation.
1.1.1 Definition of Pragmatic
Equivalence
Pragmatics is the learning of understanding the
language, the use of language and also the knowledge to pay
attention to the appropriate and decent language (He
Ziran1998).That is, the pragmatic refers to the language skills
beyond the language itself. The pragmatic study is not the kind of
existing in words’ or sentences’ own static meaning, but the
dynamic meaning in certain context to reflect the behavior, namely
the pragmatic meaning of the language users in a certain context
words or sentences ... However, translation is a comprehensive
knowledge, the language has many vocabulary and expressions
containing pragmatic meaning, including the different nationality’s
cultural meaning language. The pragmatic knowledge can help the
translator thoroughly understanding the original text, and at the
same time the translated language reappearing the original text
still relays on the pragmatic knowledge. So what is pragmatic
equivalence?
Dr Nida puts forward “equivalence theory”
in his book The Translation
Scientific Research. “Equivalence theory”
mainly refers to the dynamic equivalence and functional
equivalence. Dynamic equivalence emphasizes the equivalent reaction
rather than the form of equivalence. The main service object of
translation is the readers, to judge the quality,
we should not only have to compare the form and content of the
original ,but what is the most important is the readers and the
original reader’s response, or whether the effect of the original
and the translated text is consistent. At the same time, he
explains, there are no substantial differences between functional
equivalence and dynamic equivalence. He believes that the
previously proposed dynamic equivalence only emphasizes the
consistence between translation and the original content in
preference to the form, easy to give a person a kind of impression
that the content and the form is in a situation of contradiction.
Therefore, dynamic equivalence is often misunderstood. However,
using functional equivalence can highlight the communicative
functions of translation to eliminate this misunderstanding.
Functional equivalence requires the translation and the original
not only equivalent in the information content, but also as far as
possible in the form. In contrast, functional equivalence is more
persuasive than dynamic equivalence. And pragmatic equivalence is
similar with Nida’s dynamic equivalence, that is, Nida’s dynamic
equivalence and pragmatic equivalence has the same function.
Pragmatic equivalence is functional equivalence, and not the
structure similarity between the original language and the target
language.
Social pragmatic translation refers to the
bilingual exchange service of equivalence translation across
languages and cultures. That is, the translator should take
understanding the source text as the foundation, according to the
context and cultural habits, making the target text appropriate for
the culture of the target language country to achieve the
translation equivalence. The trademark translation should explore
the principle of pragmatic equivalence, because the trademark
translation of bilingual language activities is not only the
language communication but also involves the spread of
culture.
1.1.2
Previous Studies
of Pragmatic Equivalence
Pragmatic
equivalence study is newly-arisen in the western translation
circles. Until now, not much attention have been paid to the study
of pragmatic equivalence, but with new findings of pragmatics
gradually applied in translation, more and more scholars and
translators call attention to the notion of pragmatic equivalence.
The structuralist Roman Jakobson is the first to use the word
“equivalence” in translation. He introduces the notion of
“equivalence in difference” and notes that “equivalence in
difference” is the cardinal problem of language. Catford regards
“textual equivalence” as a solution to translation equivalence and
claims that a textual equivalence is any TL text or portion of text
which is observed on a particular occasion. According to Nida, the
correspondence between the source and target languages has been
stated in terms of “equivalence” and he proposes two famous types
of equivalence, namely, “formal equivalence” and “dynamic
equivalence” and then he replaces “dynamic equivalence” with his
famous “functional equivalence” in 1993 in his book Language, Culture and
Translation. Functional equivalence put the key on the
equivalence between two kinds of effects, which is actually
emphasizing pragmatic equivalent effect. As for pragmatic
equivalence, it has been discussed from different points of view.
Mona Baker(Baker,2000)employs the pragmatic approach to translation
equivalence. She explores the notion of equivalence at different
levels and she divides equivalence into four types: equivalence at
word level and above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual
equivalence and pragmatic equivalence. According to Baker, the
condition upon which the concept of equivalence can be achieved is
pragmatic presupposition and a translator needs to work out the
implicature or implied meanings in translation in order to get the
SL message across, recreate the author’s intention in another
culture, enable TL-R to understand it clearly and finally accept
it.
Compared with study of pragmatic
equivalence abroad, the domestic study is relatively limited but
the study has gradually caught the scholars’ attention. Hu
Zhuanglin is the first to introduce “pragmatics” in China. He Ziran
is also the forerunner of pragmatic translation at home. He puts
forward the concept of pragmatic adequate effect in translation and
states that “the translator should take full account of differences
between the TL and the SL”(He,1998). He holds the view that
linguistic pragmatic equivalence is similar with Nida’s Dynamic
equivalence which gives emphasis to the correct understanding of
the pragmatic force of the original language form including
lexicons and grammars.
According to He Ziran , in order to
pragmatic equivalence in the process of translation, the translator
has to consider two basic requirements of the pragmatic
equivalence: pragmatic language equivalence and social pragmatic
equivalence.
1.2.1
Pragmatic Language
Equivalence
Pragmatic language equivalence refers
to shift the surface meaning and the connotative meaning of the
language to the translation. Language, of course, is easier to
understand from its conventional meaning. But, because the context
is different, language is not always to express its conventional
meaning. Both “speech act theory” and “conversational implicature
theory” show that the language has not only surface meaning, but
also implicit meaning. In the process of translating, the
translator has to understand the true meaning of the language,
namely the specific pragmatic meaning, and as far as possible
transfer this meaning completely to the translation. If you can’t,
translation readers will lose the information received from their
original readers.
Social pragmatic equivalence is to point to the
cultural level equivalence. Language is the carrier of culture, and
different languages have different cultural image, it’s possible
that the entirely different culture-oriented meaning is concealed
under the similar conventional meaning, which makes different
language users don’t understand the culture orientation while
communicating. And pragmatic equivalence is beyond the cultural
barriers to reach the culture communication, within the scope of
the receptor language.
Above two kinds of equivalence are the
basic requirements of pragmatic equivalence. In order to achieve
the real equivalence between the original and the translation, the
translator must realize the two equivalences. Now that
translation's goal is to let the receptors get the same feel as the
original readers, so from this point, in the process of
translating, Meaning is clearly greater than the form. If you
cannot find similar meanings and expression method of language
forms in the target language to replace expression in the original,
you can leave out the original language form, and chose the
expression of similar meaning.
Early
40 years ago, Larry Light, the famous advertisement expert in
America, came up with the future marketing competition is the brand
competition, which is to obtain the leading position for a brand.
The future enterprise and investors will regard the brand as the
most valuable assets. The market is more important than having a
business, and the only way to have the market is to have the brand
with leading position of the market .The core of brand is the
trademark, and the trademark is the product of the commodity
economy, in a time of the commodity economy highly development ,
trademarks’ functions are becoming more and more significant, which
relates directly to the efficiency of enterprises and the
competitiveness of their products, and can promote the development
of commodity economy orderly and healthily.
In the national laws, the definition
of the trademark is not exactly the same, but the understanding of
the trademarks’ essence in most of the countries is consistent.
Accoding to the relevant items of the Law of China, it is believed
that trademark is a kind of striking symbol, which is used by
commodity producers or operators, for consumers to identify the
source of the goods. Trademark’s design is made up of word, graph,
or the combination of them, it is labeled on the commodities,
commodity packaging and other promotional material in the form of
two-dimension or three-dimension.
First of all, trademark is a sign of
goods and business service. Trademarks associate closely with goods
and business services , it is a specific mark used in commodity
production management and business services, which distinguish from
the state, armed forces, political party, clubs, culture and sports
organization , as well as other pure art works unrelated to goods
and business services.
Secondly, trademark is a sign of
commodities or services that can distinguish different commodity
producers, operators or commercial service providers .Those marks
general used in commodity production or business services are not
the trademark, which indicate a certain property or quality of
goods, and cannot distinguish different commodity producers,
operators or commercial servers.
Thirdly, trademark is
a sign with remarkable characteristics, which mean that the use of
words graphs or their combinations should have the remarkable
characteristics, and easy to be identified.
A trademark is the product of the commodity
economy, in a time of the commodity economy highly development,
trademark’s functions are becoming more and more significant, which
relates directly to the efficiency of enterprises and the
competitiveness of their products, and can promote the development
of commodity economy orderly and healthily. And Its functions are
showed as the following:
(1) It can distinguish different
production enterprises and business departments of similar
products. This is the most essential and basic function of
trademark. In a national market, the same kind of goods usually has
been produced by many enterprises, and producers. And with the
trademark, operators can show the characteristics of their own
products and management, maintaining their legal economic benefit
through the exclusivity, specificity of registered trademarks.
Consumers also use trademarks to distinguish the different brands
of similar products and make comparison with different
manufacturers and selection.
(2) The quality of the
commodity can be ensured. The quality of the products labeled by
the mark is the foundation of trademark’s credibility. Labeling on
the products shows that the producers and operators are responsible
for the commodity quality.
(3) It is convenient for consumers’ purchasing
selection. The massive mechanized production in modern times opens
up a broad commodity market. With the speeding up of the pace of
life, it has not been possible that the consumers choose their
needed goods through comparing them one by one in the various
markets. The trademark performs a role of contacting goods and
consumers.
(4) Trademark’s advertising role cannot also
be ignored. Once the products get the consumers’ trust and high
praise with the excellent quality and unique characteristics, the
products have become brand products, and consumers will recognize
the brand to buy their trusted products according to their
subjective desires .Such trademarks here are acting as a function
of advertising.
(5) It can beautify the products. The
trademarks’ value and vitality depends on the use of the trademark,
the base of trademark use should be the originality and art
infection of a trademark. The success design of a trademark often
can adapt to people’s psychology of aesthetic appreciation, cause
the attention of people with the beautiful image, so as to enhance
the aesthetic feeling of products, improve the products’ value, and
expand the sale of the products.
(6) A trademark is the intangible asset of an enterprise. A
good, reputable trademark is hard-won, which is the condensation of
a few generations’ efforts, whose development requires a lot of
manpower and material resources. It is the wealth of enterprises.
And the reputable brand means good market, the good market is
effectiveness.
2.4
Previous Studies of Trademark Translation
Compared with the study of pragmatic equivalence, trademark
translation study has undergone a long history abroad and many
systematic theories have developed in this field, of which Peter
Newmark’s communicative translation theory, Eugene A. Nida’s
functional equivalence theory and Hans J.Vermeer’s Skopos theory
have been mainly applied into trademark translation. According to
Peter Newmark, communicative translation focuses essentially upon
the comprehension and response of receptors. Based on Newmark’s
communicative translation theory, in the process of trademark
translation, the translator is asked to take the culture into
account to solve the understanding difficulties for the target
receivers, which is the representative for the communicative
approach to trademark translation. Nida puts up that a text is
related to a social context and we should not only explore the
designative meaning of the text but also its associative meaning so
as to achieve the functional equivalence. Besides, Vermeer proposes
Skopos, which is a Greek word for “purpose” or “function”, and
states that the prime principle determining any translation process
is the purpose since “to translate” means “ to produce a text in a
target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target
circumstances”.
Many linguists have done extensive research on trademark
translation from different angles. After further observation and
analysis, study of trademark translation will be found more
profound abroad. When it comes to the brand name translation study
at home, it has undergone only a few years but quite a number of
scholars have devoted themselves to the study. He Chuansheng, for
example, is believed to be one of the most productive scholars in
this respect. In his book Brand Name English, he
systematically analyzes the features, motivations and formations of
trademarks and believes that they are closely related to the
culture, so trademark translation must accord with the culture,
codes of language and aesthetic psychology in TL. From the
perspective of sociosemiotics, Professor Li Shuqin believes that a
well-translated brand name should not only correctly transfer the
designative meaning but also properly convey the implicature so as
to attain the functional equivalence. Thus, trandmark translators
are supposed to be well aware of the linguistic and cultural
differences between the SL and the TL and at the same time be quite
knowledgeable about marketing, psychology and aesthetics as well as
full of imagination and creativity.
达的
As a type of intercultural communication activity, trademark
translation links up with linguistic knowledge, cultural psychology
and aesthetic standards and it has attracted many scholars to
conduct comprehensive studies. This paper will
introduce the factors influencing trademark translation from two
aspects.
3.1.1 Linguistic Factor
Both English and Chinese trademarks are short and easy to read
and to write, and can attract consumers’ interest in general.
However, due to the difference between English and Chinese,
English-Chinese trademarks also have a lot of differences as the
following:
English trademarks tend to use the personal names,
such as: Ford (car) from the company founder, Henry Ford's name;
And Chinese trademarks mostly use animal and plant names or place
names, such as: “Phoenix” bicycle, “Qingdao” beer, etc.
English trademarks often use fabricated
vocabulary, and pay attention to the pronunciation, like Kodak, a
famous trademark, “K” looks strong and full of energy; However the
Chinese trademarks always make full use of the existing vocabulary,
and pay attention to the semantic expression. Such as “jianlibao”
(drink) ,which means healthy and vitality.
English trademarks in the composition of
syllables are without any constraints and requirements , no less
than 1-2 syllables , as many as five or more syllables ,
showing a larger arbitrary , such as : Kent (cigarettes ) , Nike (
sports shoes) ; And the majority of Chinese trademarks consist of
two syllables , such as: “Haier” , “ Li By” ,etc.
Generally speaking, there are three
relationships between trademarks and their properties: zero
relation, direct relation and indirect relation. The relationship
between English trademarks and the product attributes is basically
any one of the above three relations, but zero relations are in the
majority, such as “Rejoice” (the name of the cleaning products),
which means “happy” .While mostly the relationship between Chinese
trademarks and the product attributes are the indirect ones, such
as “ Li by “ ( cleaning product ) ,which can give us a impression
of immediately becoming “clean” , and to stimulate people’s desire
to buy.
Although all the differences of Chinese
and English trademarks make English-Chinese trademark translation
difficult, as long as we can recognize the language and cultural
differences between them and deal them with flexible approaches,
you can get the same effect of translation of the original
trademarks.
3.1.2 Cultural Factor
Sociologists believe that trademark
is an expression of culture and a communication tool, and trademark
translation is to convert source trademark into the target
trademark. This translation is a kind of information dissemination
and exchange activities in two different culture backgrounds. So we
should be fully understand and know the preferences and taboos of
Chinese and various English consumers for color, figure , animal,
flower, design etc ,when translating to make the translation adapt
to the culture and custom in the countries of target language. Only
in this way will the target language be welcomed by their
countries. In this respect, the successful examples are:
“海信( Hisense)” comes from the “high sense”, meaning “highly
sensitive” ; “新飞(Frestech)” means “Fresh technology” (preservation
technology) .However, with no notice of the cultural differences
between English and Chinese customs, the failure examples are
everywhere, such as the trademark “芳草” (toothpaste) is translated into
Fang Cao, and “fang” in English is “the dog’s teeth” or “viper” ,
with so terrorist associations, who can take it to plug his or her
mouth ?
3.2
Common Methods of Trademark
Translation
A good trademark translation can add
much burnish for the original trademark and strongly stimulate the
purchasing power; while a bad trademark translation will give
consumers bad impression, leading to the product sales
plummet.
There are many methods of trademark translation, the common ones
are domestication and foreignization, this chapter will focus on
introducing some common trademark translation skills.
3.2.1 Transliteration
Transliteration is to translate the pronunciation
in the original language into the similar or identical
pronunciation in the target language, which can be divided into
pure tone transliteration and partial tone
transliteration.
Pure tone, also known
as direct transliteration, namely according to the pronunciation of
the foreign trademarks, to choose the same or similar pronunciation
of Chinese characters together, these phrases in Chinese often have
no meaning. This method retain the phonology beauty and vocative
function of the original trademark, such as
“Motorola摩托罗拉” (mobile), “Sony
索尼” (TV), “Kodak柯达” (film).
Partial tone is also called
homophonic pun, i.e. usage of homophonic words or phrases which can
arouse the consumers to imagine something good in the translation.
Because the Chinese has a lot of homophony words, so when
translating, you can be free to choose the words of loud sounds and
beautiful artistic conception. “Arche” ,translated as
“雅倩”,and “Pantene” ,translated as
“潘婷”, keep the original syllable’s
sonority and the choice of “倩”、“婷” shows the characteristics of cosmetics commodities.
3.2.2 Literal Translation
The literal translation can be
used when the meaning of original trademark is
harmonious with the culture of target trademark after translating
word for word. Such translation of Chinese trademark can be found
everywhere. For example, “蜂花, Bee flower” ( hair conditioner) means that people who have
used the product will be as pleasant as fragrant flowers, the
translation retains the speech and semantic aesthetic feeling of
the original , which is in line with the eastern and western
culture idea and logical thinking .
3.2.3 Combination of Transliteration and
Literal Translation
The combination of transliteration
and literal translation is the most ideal translation skill in the
trademark translation. Because the reflection of a trademark is in
common at home and abroad as well as the symbol meaning, this is,
of course, because the trademarks’ selection is very difficult so
that the quantity is not very large. In the brands we know ,
“金利来” fits this translation skill. The
English name called “Goldlion” (literal translation for golden
lion), in western countries, particularly in Britain, “the lion”
greatly accurately symbols the muscularity and braveness of
the male. And so, as a man’s brand, “JinLiLai” has a considerable
sale in the world.
Along with the development of the trademark, the
folk culture, the customs and habits, the diversity of language of
different countries, lead to the use of the trademarks in one
country not to be accepted by another country. In consideration of
tremendous difference between the Chinese and western culture in
language habits, cultural customs and so on, there will be
inevitably be improper translation of words in
the process of translating , which will become a big obstacle that
blocks our goods into the world market . So in the English
translation of Chinese trademark, the following points should be
paid attention to.
3.3.1 Simplicity and Proper Words
Usage
Only the trademark translation is
concise and clear, understandable and easy to remember can it cause
the resonance of the consumers and leave them a deep impression.
Specific to free translation trademarks, it is required to use
proper words, which is because that the free translation trademarks
are usually meaningful
words and phrases and contain the hope of the business to
using effect of the product. Such as the “飞鸽牌” electric bicycle on the English
translation is “FLYING PIGEON”. “Pigeon” is a small and weak bird,
and is used to be the objective of the hunters, while the dove is
normally used as a symbol of peace, also refers to the people who
love peace, therefore, if translated as “FLYING DOVE”, it is more
likely to let a person produce a fine association of “traveling,
spread the message of peace” , which not only embodies the
product’s characteristics, and expresses good wishes.
3.3.2
Proper Conveyance
of the Implicature
We should pay attention to the language
characteristics, folk tradition and culture background of the
target language’s market and so on, or you will make matters worse.
Such as “金鸡牌” alarm clock (gold cock), “cock” in
English also refers to the penis, which is not a polite language,
such English translation would give people the impression of
language impoliteness, and lackness of cultivation, to damage the
product’s and the enterprise’s image; “白翎牌” pen (white feath-er) goes
unattended in English-speaking countries , the reason is that in
English, “to show the white feather” means “to perke up a white
flag to escape”, and the white feather symbols coward. So we must
pay attention to the expression of the implicit meaning when
translating the Chinese trademarks into English.
3.3.3 Compliance with Product
Features
The Chinese brand trademarks often
base on culture and allusions to convey the good wish and stand out
product features. But many well-known trademarks use the method of
pinyin, however most of the English names of alternative pinyin
only have symbol function, which results in disappearance of the
good implication implied by the Chinese Brand Names and go against
potentially generating foreign consumers’ desire to buy, and
well-known trademarks in China to the world. Such as
“恒顺香醋(HENG-SHUN)” “万事利服装(WENSLI)” “喜盈门家纺(Xiy-ingmen)” , these English
translations can’t reflect the original Chinese trademark positive
meaning. In the translation process of trademarks, to accord with
commodity characteristics, the first thing is to
grasp the commodity characteristics and to get a multi-faceted
understanding, as the premise of the
precise translation of trademarks.
3.3.4
Proper Employment
of Translation Methods of Chinese Trademarks into
English
Good trademark translation cannot do without the choice of
translation strategy, as was said above, we have made a simple
introduction of some common methods of Chinese-English trademarks
translation. In the following, I will introduce few translation
skills on Chinese trademarks into English specific to the
characteristics of the English translation of Chinese trademarks
for reference.
Nida pointed out that “the relationship between the receiver and
the information of the translated text should be the basically same
as the relationship between the receiver of the original and the
original information” . The word “Dynamic” is to say that it is an
equivalence of two relationships: one is the receiver of the
original text, the other one is the receiver of the translated
text. The main principle of equivalent translation is to use the
same information with two sets of different language, and the
receiver is different, to produce the basic same effects. In
practical terms, equivalent translation’s goal is: although the
target text is quite different or even completely different from
the original in form, the readers can also successfully get the
same message. And the goal can be applied to all kinds of
translation.
Owing to the difference of the
language culture and so on, absolutely “equivalence” cannot be
reached. Trademark translation strives for the verve, and sometimes
it is necessary to get rid of the bondage of the original
trademarks’ literal meaning, to develop new ideas to create good
translation. In comparison, English is a phonetic language, the
dependence of the semantic expression is very small. English
phonemes may be free combined according to the rules of
pronunciation, so British and American people often made up some
vocabulary as brand name representing without any meanings, but the
freshness and originality of the brand name to leave the consumers
a deep impression so as to stimulate their purchasing desire.
Therefore the Chinese trademarks with specific meaning are often
translated into English trademarks words in coined vocabulary. The
so-called fabricated vocabulary, in essence, is “a method of using
all kinds of word-formation methods and motivations, according to
the characteristics, performance and efficiency of the goods,
combining the factors of language, culture, market, psychological,
aesthetics, and other, to create new words that never have been
existed, and put them as a trademark word.” Therefore, the
fabricated translation, especially such kind of fabricated
trademarks by using partial tone and English word-building is a
best way to the translation. Specifically, the following methods
can be referenced:
(1) Pinyin adjustment
Using the partial tone of Chinese pinyin
will make the brand names personalized and different. This is a
more common method to translate the Chinese trademarks into English
in our country at present. This kind of trademarks account for a
considerable part in the China’s famous brand products. Like
“科龙( Kelon) ,
格兰仕( Galanz) ,
邦杰( Banjie) ,
立白( Li-by) ,
德
塞( Desay ) ,
飞亚达( Fiyta) ,
海
尔
曼
斯( Hems) ,培罗成( Progen) ,
罗蒙( Romon)”etc. This translation is faithful
to the pronunciation of the original trademarks and it’s “vocative
function”. Besides, although these trademarks have no sense, they
are close to English, easy to read for foreigners and comply with
English reading and writing habits. And although the associative
meaning of the original trademarks is not reflected, because a
tendency of the contemporary western trademark is to pay attention
to the pronunciation and not the meaning of the sentence, So in the
case of not reaching completely combination of the loud sound and
meaning , the design of English trademarks can consider to
sacrifice the meaning to pay attention to the choice of the
pronunciation , which also accords with Nida’s “functional
equivalence translation”, saying again “functional equivalence”
principle.
(2) Variation of spelling
In the process of designing English
trademarks, we can take advantage of people’s preferences to some
words and rich variety of English fonts to create according to
their own experiences. Such as “Sast” (音响) from “Fast” . On the one
hand，
“Sast” is same to the associating meaning of
“lead, quick” expressed by the Chinese
trademark“先科” . And this way also uses the
variation of the letter “S” and the partial tone of
“先” . Meanwhile the original word is
often the vocabulary which people are familiar with, and when the
variation is read ,the reader can easily connect the original word
in mind, letting people to grasp text fantasy in the association ,
to deepen their good impression to the trademarks. Such as
“Youngor” is from “Younger”, “Gree” (electrical equipment) from
green, “Trands” (male suit) with association of the trends,
“Hol-ley”(electricity meter) with association of
the thought of holy, “ASA” (tiles) is the variation of
Asia.
(3) Spelling
Combination
Some English trademarks use translation of
spelling combination, namely to combine the original two words, or
to use the clipping to choose the first, middle or the last one of
them, and then to combine into a new
word. Such as “Hisense”(electrical equipment), “Midea” (
airconditioner), etc. Also can use word roots and affixes to create
trademark word, of which the most used is English, French and
Italian. Such as using the “sun” expressing the energy and health
as an affix to make combination is not only beautiful allegory but
pronunciation loud. Like “Wondersun” ( milk powder), “Sunvim”(towel
series). At present, more and more Chinese enterprises have used
the spelling combination of translation in the replacement of a
corporate logo. Spelling combination translation can minimize the
language barrier by using the partial tone, absorb the strengths of
the foreign language, and also retained a free space to create,
which can avoid cultural barriers. Such as the “le” of
“Legend
联想” comes from the original “Legend”,
inheriting the meaning of “legendary”; “Novo” is a very old Latin
roots, representing the new idea, innovation.
This paper tries to break through the
traditional study of trademark translation and discusses how to
reach translation equivalence from the perspective of pragmatics.
Considering the current studying situation, it attempts to offer a
special enlightenment and a new perspective to the study of
trademark translation, i.e. to apply pragmatic equivalence theory
to trademark translation.
Through careful analysis, the paper gets
access to the following findings (notices for Chinese trademark
translation): simplicity and proper words usage; proper conveyance
of the implicature; compliance with product features ;
proper employment of translation methods, which is inspired by
pragmatic equivalence theory, the paper mainly suggests the methods
of translating Chinese trademarks into English, as the paper has
just discussed in 3.3.4 of chapter three.
As the research on the perspective of
pragmatic equivalence in translation is rarely conducted before,
some statements on pragmatic equivalence may not be deep enough,
such as some other translation strategies and methods are not
mentioned, and theoretical discussions on pragmatic equivalence in
trademark translation should be analyzed more in the
further.
All in all, the study of English
translation of Chinese trademarks should not be limited to the
translated versions themselves. Neither a discussion on pragmatic
failure and pragmatic equivalence in trademark translation nor the
exploration of the pragmatic translation strategies and methods can
provide full guidance to the study of English translation of
Chinese trademarks. Therefore, trademark translation study is hoped
to be conducted from other aspects. Only in this way will English
translation of Chinese trademarks get more regularized and thus
increase the quality of such translation.
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