A Study of Brand Name Translation in China中国品牌名称的翻译研究.docx

A Study of Brand Name Translation in China1. Introduction With the acceleration of economic globalization and Chinas entry into WTO, more and more Chinese products are being launched into the international market. Consequently, translating Chinese brand names successfully into English has never been more imperative and vital than today. The translation of Chinese brand names is a kind of intercultural communication. It involves such factors as linguistic laws, cultural psychology, and aesthetic values. A successful translation of the brand name should not only transfer the information concerning the commodity or service, but also transfer its cultural significance to the audience in the target culture. This applies particularly to culture-loaded brand names that have different mental associations in different cultures. According to the principle of functional equivalence, the translated brand names should achieve a perfect linguistic unity among sound, form and meaning. This paper, taking Nida's functional equivalence as its framework, attempts to study the problems that are often encountered in translating brand names into English and suggest ways to solve them. 2. Brand names and the translation Brand name, an essential component of advertising, is the part of a brand that can be vocalized. It is “a name given by a producer to a particular product, by which it may be recognized from among alike products made by other producers.”(Longman Contemporary English-Chinese Dictionary English, 1988) Aiming to build, reinforce, and/or reposition consumers perception of a certain brand, brand names 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, brand names should 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 because it involves two languages. (Jin & Nida, 1984:31) Given the uniqueness of brand names 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 translator of brand names should strive for the following two effects: (a) the translated brand name should reflect the semantic features of the original one; (b) the translated brand name should have the same or similar function as the original one. The translated brand name 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. That is to arouse the same interest and psychological empathy of the target consumers, stimulate their aesthetic enjoyment and consuming desire. Toward the end, the translators 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) 3. Principles for translating Chinese brand names 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 brand names, 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 brand names translation. Language has six basic functions: informative, vocative, aesthetic, expressive, phatic and metalingual (Newmark, 1988:39). The former three are more closely related to brand names. As far as Chinese brand names 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 brand names 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 Firstly, 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 original brand names do. For example, “钻石” (watch) should be translated into “Diamond” rather than “Zuanshi” since “Diamond” hints to English-speaking people the value of this kind of watch as “钻石” does to Chinese people, while “Zuanshi” does not perform this informative function. Secondly, the renderings should create a sense of beauty either in form or in context to the same or similar extent to the original ones so as to achieve equivalence in aesthetic function. To achieve this purpose, the renderings should be as brief and sweet as the original. For instance, the literal translation of “报春花” into “Spring Reporting Flower” is not terse enough. It would be better to render as “Spring Flower” to keep the same aesthetic function. Since most Chinese brand names are pleasant in sound and image, their English rendering should also achieve the same or similar effect. Take “康王” for example, It is pronounced as “Kang Wang” in Chinese, which creates certain phonetic beauty by rhyming. Its English rendering “Kangking” sounds sweet and agrees to the mentality of the target audience. Cultural-specific items and is thus carriers of the source culture. “Words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which they function” (Nida, 1993:110). The core of the vocative function is the readership. The vocative function of brand names means that they can call upon the readership to act, think or feel, in fact to “react” in the way intended by the text. (Newmark,1988:41) The Chinese brand name “芳芳” (lipstick), for example, suggests to the Chinese readership a beautiful girl. However, when it is transliterated into “Fang Fang”, an unfavorable association will arise on the part of the target audience, because “Fang” refers to the poisonous tooth of a serpent. In this case, the vocative function is not realized. 4. Cultural associations of brand names and translating problems 4.1 Cultural associations The famous British anthropologist E. B. Taylor (1871) defines culture as “a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”(Danesi & Perron, 1999:3) The late German sociologist R. Fletcher defines culture in more detail: The social heritage of a community: the total body of material artifacts, of collective mental and spiritual artifacts (systems of symbols, ideas, beliefs, aesthetic perceptions, values, etc.) and of distinctive forms of behavior created by a peoplein their ongoing activities within their particular life-conditionstransmitted from generation to generation.” (See Bullock & Trombley, 1999:191) Since culture is often created by a people in their ongoing activities within their particular life-conditions, brand names, which obviously are part of the culture of a people (in this sense refers to “spiritual artifacts”), frequently trigger different aesthetic perceptions (or associations) and values in different cultures. From the viewpoint of lexicology, associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is open-ended and indeterminate. It is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education, etc. In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning (of which associative meaning is an essential part) refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning. For example, mother, denoting a “female parent”, is often associated with “love”, “care”, “tenderness”, “forgiving”, etc. These connotations are not given in the dictionary, but associated with the word in actual context to particular readers or speakers. (张维友, 1999:87-88) Translation means not only translating literally, but also conveying the same cultural associations. Thus translators should translate with regard to the TL culture and the SL culture. Failure to recognize and/or transfer cultural factors could lead to information loss. Most people buy with their emotions rather than their minds. Therefore, the functions of brand names depend far more on associative meanings than on conceptual ones. And associative meanings of brand names are closely linked to values and beliefs of a people. For instance, “黑妹” (toothpaste), which literally means “black sister” or “black girl”, is readily accepted by the Chinese. But the English version “Black Sister” or “Black Girl” could insult colored receptors. 4.2 Problems in translating Chinese brand names Owing to the cultural difference in geographical location, customs, religion and values, etc, people of different cultures often draw different associative meanings from one and the same word, which carries the same conceptual meaning. The major considerations and possible problems in brand names translating are discussed as follows: 1) Brand names with the same conceptual meanings but partially overlapping associative meanings. People worldwide love the scene of a blue sky and white clouds. However, the phrase “Blue Sky” “蓝天” (toothpastes) is associated with “bond that can not be paid off” in American English, so it should not be rendered into “blue sky” when the item is exported to America. 2) Brand names that abound with associative meaning in Chinese culture while suggesting none in English culture. For example, “厚朴”, a Chinese culture-specific item, is a famous Chinese brand name of toothpaste. We Chinese know about the traditional herbal plant by the name of “厚朴” (magnolia officinal). But if we translate it as “magnolia officinal”, the translation may mean nothing to the target readership. 3) Brand names with the same conceptual meanings but different or negative in associative meanings. In different languages and cultures, the same word may generate totally different associations. “凤凰” (bicycle) was translated into “phoenix”. The Chinese brand name “凤凰” is associated with such favorable connotation as “auspicious” or “good luck” while “Phoenix” symbolizes “rebirth” or “nirvana”. That is, it may generate the ominous implication of a narrow escape. Many Chinese brand names are named after animals and plants. However, many of them are failures because of their negative associations. The brand name“蝙蝠” (electric fan), “蝠” being homophonic to “福” symbolizes “luckiness, happiness and long life span” in Chinese culture. However, in western culture, “bat” is “an eerie creature believed to have become entangled in peoples hair” and in southern America, the bat is even the symbol of the bloodsucker vampire. For another example:“紫罗兰” is a beautiful flower with fragrance in Chinese culture. In English there are two equivalents, “violet” and “pansy”. The latter carries the negative connotation of “effeminate man; homosexual.” 4) Peculiar brand names in Chinese and western cultures. Owing to the striking differences between Chinese and western cultures, some Chinese brand names have no English counterparts (“cultural gap”). These brand names often derive from peoples names, names of places and characters of mythology. “江南” (air conditioner) is an ideal choice for the make of air- conditioners. As soon as the Chinese people see the brand name “Jiangnan”, a romantic place with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate will immediately flash before their eyes. But few westerners have a clear geographic concept of the place, the vast territories south of the Yangtze River in China. Therefore, it cannot bring the same mental association to its target audiences. 5 Criteria for an ideal translated brand name How to assess a translated brand name? Most marketing textbooks summarize the criteria for ideal brand names as memorable, distinctive, and positive and preferably suggestive of product attributes (Kevin Keller 1998: 131-132). These criteria also apply to translate brand names. In translating the original brand name into a new one, these criteria should be kept in mind. But translated brand names are the products out of their original names; they should share some relevance with their originals to some degree or by some manner. If they are completely irrelevant, and then the new names are re-created, not translated. In order to build a unified brand image across borders and to make consumers easy to associate the new names with the old names, it is advisable, from a marketing point of view, to translate with some associative relevance between them, while re-creation means the total loss of original brand assets and new expensive promotion of the new one. With this consideration and prerequisite, an ideal translated brand name should not only have the general criteria for brand names, but should also follow the following additional criteria: 5.1 Phonetic relevance The new translated brand name should sound similar, if not exactly the same, to its original name. Transliteration can well reach this criterion. Midea sounds like Mei-di, MAXAM sounds like Mei-jia-jing