Trademark promotion is an important means to promote goods and compete in the international market, and cultivating famous brand trademarks is an important step in further developing the international market. Therefore, the importance of trademark translation is self-evident. With the globalization of the world economic system and China's accession to the WTO, the import and export of products are increasing day by day, which has led to more and more attention being paid to the translation of trademarks, which has been continuously enriched and developed on the basis of translation theory and practice, especially more Pay attention to the cultural differences between China and the West. This article discusses the main methods of trademark translation from the perspective of the importance of trademark naming, cultural characteristics and language characteristics, and proposes that attention should be paid to the exchange of Chinese and Western cultural information during translation, so that the translated trademark name and the original product can be pronounced in the same way. , shape, meaning and beauty are a perfect combination, with different approaches but similar effects, and cultural exchanges can also be achieved while commodity exchanges.
The use of business English in trademark translation
Foreword
Trademarks are signs of goods and are used by producers to identify the goods they produce and sell. Sexual symbols, generally composed of words, graphics or symbols, are the image of the product and the symbol of the company, which can convey the corporate spirit and shape the corporate image. The role of a trademark is to "encourage and ensure the quality of goods, facilitate consumers' purchase, and safeguard the reputation and rights and interests of the trademark registrant." A good trademark helps enterprises promote themselves, promote the sales of goods, create brand effects, and thus bring benefits to the enterprise. to make huge profits. Therefore, manufacturers will rack their brains to achieve distinctive, impressive and pleasing effects in trademark naming, so as to achieve the purpose of promoting products and improving the market competitiveness of products. With China's accession to the WTO, China is joining the process of global economic integration at an alarming rate. The fields of economic and technological cooperation between my country and other countries around the world are also expanding day by day, and economic and trade exchanges are becoming increasingly frequent. How to introduce our products abroad? Introducing foreign products into the country and successfully selling them has become a major event related to the fate of the company. As an image representative of goods, a trademark must appear in the international market in another language, and naming a trademark in another language involves the translation of the trademark. Successful trademark translation is one of the important links in bringing products to the world, developing international markets and establishing international brands. How to carry out successful trademark translation is a vital event for enterprises.
1. The Importance of Trademark Translation
If a product wants to win in the market competition and gain a larger market share, in addition to its own quality, it must also The degree also depends on whether it can be understood and accepted by consumers, whether it can win their love and spread word of mouth, thereby impressing consumers and inducing them to buy. Therefore, an issue that cannot be ignored arises - trademark. A good trademark can bring huge wealth to a company; conversely, a bad trademark can bring heavy losses to the company. Therefore, the translation of trademarks is related to the life and death of an enterprise.
Trademark may still be a relatively unfamiliar concept to some people! Some people think that for their own company's own products, there is no need to worry about the translation of trademarks, as long as people buy my things! But everyone knows that in this era of information industry and strong brand awareness, how important trademarks are to enterprises!
When it comes to literary translation, everyone talks about translation standards. What is the level of translation and what is the standard? There has always been a popular saying in the translation industry in my country, which is called faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. A believer is loyal; an eloquent person expresses his ideas; an elegant person conveys the spirit. In other words, it means accurate, smooth and expressive. To put it more clearly, it is to be faithful to the original work, express the original intention, and convey its charm. The so-called charm refers to the style and charm of the original work, that is, the artistic personality and characteristics of the writer himself. The translation of trademarks should also be used as a reference. A trademark is a mark used by a commercial company to name its products and to distinguish similar products from other companies. A trademark is like a person's name, a symbol representing goods, and has become famous with the expansion of commodity exchanges.
Many internationally renowned trademarks have become intangible assets and huge wealth for enterprises, so businesses always try to tap the commercial charm of brand names from all angles. The "LiNing" brand sports goods series named after Li Ning, the prince of Chinese gymnastics, embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the company to use Li Ning's fighting spirit to change the backward situation of China's sports series products and pursue world-class products. For them, the "LiNing" brand is not only a trademark, but also an abbreviation of corporate spirit.
The famous brand "Goldlion" has now become a household name in the world, but the founder of its famous trademark also had a painful experience. Mr. Tsang Xianzi, the founder of the "Goldlion" trademark, initially named his tie brand "Golden Lion" and enthusiastically gave two "Golden Lion" ties to a relative of his in Hong Kong. Unexpectedly, the relative turned out to be She refused his gift and said unhappily: "Jin loses, gold loses, all the gold is lost!" It turns out that in Cantonese, "lion" and "lose" are homophonic, so naturally they are not popular. That night, Mr. Zeng racked his brains to change the name of "Golden Lion", and finally came up with a good idea: to change the English name "GoldLion" from free translation to a combination of free translation and transliteration, that is, "Gold" is still translated as "Gold Lion" "Gold", and "Lion" (lion) is transliterated as "利来", which is "金利来". When gold and profit come together, everyone will be happy to hear it. Thus, the "Goldlion" trademark was born. Mr. Zeng suddenly had a sudden thought: Chinese people rarely use brushes to write English. I use it to write. Isn’t it a very special glyph? So he wrote the words "GoldLion" with a brush, and then let the designers process it, which is the current English logo of "Goldlion". After the trademark change, it was quickly recognized by consumers and became a famous tie brand.
2. Cultural Characteristics in Trademarks
“A good name wins at the starting line.” Experts from the China Trademark Association described the importance of a good translated name for corporate marketing. The trademarks of many domestic brands have very good meanings in Chinese, but when translated into other languages, they often fail to "do as the Romans do", resulting in a decrease in brand competitiveness. The translation of trademarks must fully consider each other's cultural phenomena. Because the commodity itself is a cultural carrier, culture is spread through commodities, and commodities increase in value through culture, otherwise cultural conflicts may occur. Due to the different factors that constitute the cultural background of the East and West, such as geographical location, ethnic origin, natural environment, religious beliefs, and economic development, people have many differences in their conceptual traditions, customs, cognitive perspectives, ways of thinking, and value orientations. at. The characteristics of different languages ??and the differences in national cultures require the translation of trademark words to go through a process of assimilation, absorption, and transformation. This requires the translator to not only clarify the literal meaning of the word during the translation process of trademark words, but also to understand its cultural connotation to avoid cultural conflicts. Trademark translation, as a cross-cultural communication activity, the first thing that faces the translator is the acceptability of the trademark by the readers of the target language, that is, how to cross the gap of cultural background differences and translate the trademark maker's opinions as comprehensively as possible. intended to reach readers in different social contexts. In the process of translating trademark words, if there is a lack of cultural awareness and the bilingual conversion is carried out by just moving words across the paper without considering the corresponding conversion of the national cultural meaning contained in it, the translated name will rarely have cultural and associative meanings, and sometimes even It will also have unexpected side effects, making the product unsaleable and a complete failure.
The following is a detailed analysis and explanation with some examples. In China, East Wind brand agricultural machinery products are no stranger to everyone and are best-selling domestically. However, it is not popular in the UK. Regarding this translation, due to the different geographical environments between China and Britain, the "west wind" described by the British is a warm and lively wind, not the "west wind" in our country's "Last Night West Wind Withered Green Trees". Moreover, the west wind in Britain is equivalent to the east wind in China, and the east wind in Britain is the westerly wind or shoofeng in China. The translator did not understand this difference in geographical environment, so it is natural that his translation was not popular with the British.
There is a kind of lipstick in our country with the trademark name "Fangfang". This name is indeed very good in Chinese. When Chinese people see the word "Fangfang", they can't help but have beautiful associations in their hearts: not only does it seem like He saw a beautiful girl and seemed to smell the fragrance coming from her body. But the sound of this trademark is the Chinese pinyin of "Fangfang", and English readers can't help but feel a sense of terror in their hearts when they see it, because fang happens to be an English word, and its meaning is ①along, sharp tooth of a dog; ②a snake, poison-tooth (① Dog’s long fangs; ② Snake’s fangs) So what they imagined was not a girl with lipstick, but a vicious dog or snake with fangs and claws and venom splashing, just like the Chinese saw the green-faced ape. The "ghost" of teeth. Due to this failure in translation, it is probably not difficult to imagine the sales of lipstick.
The trademark of an exported dry battery is called "White Elephant", which is translated into English as "White Elephant", which should be said to be 100% correct. As everyone knows, a white elephant is a fixed English phrase, meaning "a heavy burden" (a burdensome possession) or "a useless and cumbersome thing" (useless). However, translating the "White Bear" trademark into "White Bear" is a success. Checking the "Chinese-English Dictionary" compiled by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the first English translation of "white bear" is Polar Bear, because this is a scientific name, and the second English translation is white bear. So the brand name was translated into Polar Bear, which seemed inevitable. However, with the changes in the international political situation in recent years. Polar Bear has another meaning. People tend to use it as a nickname to associate it with a political force in the world, so it is better to translate it as White Bear.
3. Characteristics of Trademark Language
In modern society, new and old products have appeared one after another, and the world is full of trademark language. Trademark language refers to all text information in word trademarks and combination trademarks. Including the name of the trademark, the Chinese characters or its variations on the trademark graphic, Chinese pinyin or its abbreviation, foreign language translation or its abbreviation. However, trademark language does not always enter the hearts of the audience. Some trademark language is easily accepted, and people follow its products closely; others turn a blind eye or ignore it. It can be said that without the audience, the promotion of product language will lose its meaning. Trademark language is a special language with distinctive characteristics. When translating a trademark, these characteristics must be taken into consideration in order to successfully translate the trademark.
1. Symbolic. The symbolism of a trademark has two meanings: First, the logo of the trademark must be highly cohesive and profoundly meaningful. The corporate image, corporate spirit, and characteristics of corporate products must be condensed into the trademark logo, which not only implies corporate image and corporate character, but also places the trust and hope of consumers. For example, the "LiNing" brand trademark mentioned earlier embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the company to use Li Ning's fighting spirit to change the backward situation of China's sports supplies and pursue world-class products. Second, the trademark logo has better communication ability. No matter what kind of media it is conveyed through, people can understand it at first sight. Only by condensing and condensing the corporate image and conveying the corporate spirit can a trademark truly represent the enterprise and truly function as a corporate mark.
2. Uniqueness. A sign composed of trademark elements is generally a word that does not exist before you use it. In trademark examination, this issue is called "distinctiveness", that is, uniqueness. Only when it is unique can a trademark give people a strong visual impact and appeal, and achieve the purpose of recognition and recognition. In fact, this means that there cannot be two identical trademarks.
3. Simplicity. Trademarks must be concise, which is an important element of trademark language expression and the minimum requirement for trademarks. Only trademarks that are concise, dignified, profound, novel and unique will be favored by entrepreneurs and the public and recognized by consumers.
The logos of many well-known brands are very simple and bright, making them easy for everyone to remember and spread, such as Nike's logo - a small hook.
4. artistry. The so-called artistry of trademark language means that it must have a certain sense of beauty in sound, shape and meaning, convey beautiful information to people, and enable people to enjoy beauty. The beauty of sound means catchy meaning, the beauty of shape means pleasing to the eye, and the beauty of meaning can only make people think of beautiful things. Only with a certain degree of artistry can a trademark enter the public mind.
5. Contemporary. Economic prosperity, intensified competition, changes in lifestyles, fashion trends, etc. require trademarks to adapt to the times. The creativity of trademarks must progress with the progress of society and develop ahead of time with the development of the times. As a result, trademarks must adapt to the development of the times and make reasonable adjustments at the appropriate time to avoid being eliminated by the times.
6. stability. Trademarks should also be stable, which may seem contrary to the times, but the two are actually not contradictory. From the moment a trademark is established, companies hope that the trademarks of their products will be remembered and loved forever, and then they will insist on buying them. . The trademarks of enterprise products will not change easily, especially those successful trademarks, which shows that the trademark should have stability.
4. Trademark Translation Methods
In order to make the translated trademark functionally equivalent to the original trademark, the translator needs to carry out creative translation like literary translation, use different translation methods, and strive to Maximize the actual effect of the target language, vividly and accurately reproduce the phonetic beauty, character (word) shape, meaning and historical and cultural connotation of the trademark, and integrate the thoughts of art and beauty throughout. The artistry and beauty of trademark translation are mainly reflected in the unique conception, harmonious and beautiful phonology, vivid and accurate diction, profound artistic conception, and the emotional resonance caused by breaking through cultural, psychological and geographical restrictions. The translated trademark should have a strong sense of music and dynamics, giving people a wonderful enjoyment of music, stimulating consumers' curiosity, impulse and desire to buy, and especially cultivating many loyal consumers from generation to generation. who. From the perspective of language and culture, trademark translation should highlight the organic combination of pronunciation, meaning and shape of characters. It should be concise and eye-catching, consistent with the name and reality, and the purpose, function and uniqueness of the product should be clear at a glance. It should be attractive and distinctive, and can be discovered at a glance among many brands. It is stylish and tasteful, and can easily arouse good associations among consumers, and can make people have the impulse to buy. The main translation methods of trademarks:
(1) English-Chinese trademark translation:
1. Transliteration method
The transliteration method is to translate the pronunciation in the original trademark The translation method into the target language with similar or identical pronunciation can be divided into two types: pure transliteration method and harmonious transliteration method. The pure transliteration method is also called the direct transliteration method, that is, based on the pronunciation of foreign trademark words, Chinese characters with the same or similar pronunciation are selected and combined together. These phrases often have no meaning in Chinese. The pure transliteration method retains the phonological beauty and calling function of the original trademark, such as Motorola (mobile phone), Sony (color TV), and Kodak (film). The homophonic translation method is also called the homophonic pun method, which means selecting homophonic words or phrases that can arouse good associations among Chinese consumers during translation. Because Chinese characters have many homophones, you can freely choose words with loud pronunciation and beautiful artistic conception when translating. Arche is translated as "Ya Qian" and Pantene is translated as "Panting", which not only retains the sonority of the original syllables, but also uses beautiful Chinese characters such as "Qian" and "婷" to express women, which highlights the product characteristics of cosmetics. For example, Benz is translated as "Benz" (car), Shampoo is translated as "shampoo" (shampoo), etc.
2. Literal translation method
Literal translation is to directly translate the literal meaning of the trademark. For common noun trademark words, if the original meaning is consistent with the meaning of the word in the target language, and can conform to the aesthetic and cultural psychology of the audience, and will not cause disgust or disgust, literal translation can be adopted. The advantage of literal translation is that it retains the original name and can accurately convey the information and emotion of the original name.
Such as "Jaguar" (sedan) - fast and fast, like a Jaguar; "Pony" (sedan) - small and fast; "Pioneer" (sound) pioneer - the pioneer of the audio industry . "Good Companion" (Cigarette) Good Friend-----Cigarette is your good friend.
3. Free translation method
The free translation method means that when translating a trademark, it does not translate according to its pronunciation or its literal meaning, but according to the characteristics of the product, giving full play to imagination and creating another meaning. For example, the shampoo and care product "Rejoice" is translated into Chinese as "Rejoice" rather than "happy", which indicates the purpose of the product. At the same time, it is artistic, conforms to the audience's aesthetic psychology, and reminds people of soft and elegant long hair. Another example is the translation of "Walkman" into "walkman", which is appropriate and natural, and has a more comprehensive meaning than its English trademark. It can be regarded as a successful trademark translation.
4. The phonetic-meaning translation method
The phonetic-meaning translation method refers to using a pronunciation similar to the target language when translating, but the meaning is not the meaning of the original name, but to satisfy The psychology of the audience requires a free translation method. This kind of translation can not only retain the exotic flavor by retaining part of the original sound, but at the same time it is full of the cultural color of the target language. For example, "Bausch & Lomb" contact lenses, in fact, the English trademark is just the name of the company's founder "Bush & Lomb". The translator translated it into "Bausch & Lomb" based on the Chinese people's shopping psychology and cultural environment, as well as people's admiration for knowledge. , It's really original. An American cosmetic "Revlon" is cleverly translated as "Lu Huanong". The word "Revlon" is taken from Li Bai's "Clouds think of clothes and flowers think of face, and the spring breeze carries Revlon." "This famous poem makes the translation full of Chinese cultural color, romantic and elegant, and makes people have infinite associations. The phonetic-meaning translation method is a superior translation method worth promoting.
5 .Sound reduction method
Sound reduction method is a translation method that deletes overly long sounds in English trademarks. English trademarks are often translated into two or three characters, with two syllables. It is in line with the aesthetic habits of the Chinese people and the development trend of the times; the three-character trademarks mostly originate from traditional Chinese time-honored brands, such as "Tongrentang" and "Quanjude", so it is necessary to delete the Chinese characters that are too long in the English trademarks. The translated name can reduce the multi-syllables of the original name to a two-character or three-character trademark. For example, the old transliteration of McDonald's is "McDonald's", which is not as catchy as the "McDonald's" after the syllables.
6. Add words. Method
The word-adding method is to translate the main syllables and then add the translation method that is consistent with the characteristics of the product. It is a word with key meaning to highlight the promotional nature of the product and attract consumers. One principle of adding words is that the added words should be consistent with the original trademark in terms of meaning and tone. Otherwise, it will be superfluous and inappropriate. For example: Colgate. Translated as "Colgate", the word "Jie" reflects the cleaning effect of toothpaste, and Pepsi is translated as "Pepsi-Cola", which are all translations of trademarks using the word augmentation method.
7. Not translated
Some trademarks are uniformly spread across borders as abbreviations, and such trademarks are often extremely stable and retain their original profound meaning in any era. These trademarks are usually not translated when translated. The method is to retain the original letters or Arabic numerals and symbols. SKII cosmetics, IBM computers, AT&T, etc. that we are all familiar with all adopt the untranslated method.
(2) Chinese-English trademark translation
Chinese-English trademark translation usually uses two methods: transliteration and free translation. However, the rules and many details of Chinese-English translation are completely different from English-Chinese translation.
1. .Transliteration method
The transliteration method is to retain the Chinese pinyin pronunciation and become its English trademark or to use words with the same pronunciation and positive meaning.
For example, the English trademark "Haier" of the "Haier" company is the same as the Chinese pinyin of "Haier", and the pronunciation of "Haier" is also the same as the pronunciation of the English word "higher" (higher). It is intended to express that "Haier" products will achieve better and better results in overseas markets such as Europe. There is also Bo's famous clothing brand "Younger", whose English trademark name is the English letter combination "Younger" with the same pronunciation. This pronunciation reminds people of the word "younger" (younger). It expresses the connotation that wearing "Youngor" makes you younger.
2. Free translation method
The free translation method is also very common in Chinese-English trademark translation. It directly uses the English meaning of the Chinese trademark as the English trademark. For example, the English trademark of "Dynasty" wine is its English meaning "Dynasty". The "history" meaning expressed by this word attracts consumers to buy it. The English trademark "Forever" of Shanghai "Forever" bicycles also expresses the excellent quality of the brand's products.
However, this method of translation may cause some brands to encounter unexpected problems. For example, the translation of East Wind brand agricultural machinery products and White Elephant brand dry batteries mentioned in this article has brought difficulties to sales.
5. Summary
Trademark translation is not only a language translation, but also a cultural translation. The Chinese and English translation of a trademark is not a simple replacement of two languages, but the integration of two different languages ??and cultures from a cross-cultural perspective. A trademark is the unity of language and national culture. It has been closely linked to culture since its naming. Therefore, a translation that does not consider culture at all is not a good and appropriate translation. In addition to following the translation principles and rules of the two languages, accurate trademark translation must also pay attention to the cultural factors related to the two languages, especially the cultural factors of the target language country. Only by overcoming the cultural barriers of the target language and successfully handling cultural adaptation in cross-cultural communication can we translate a trademark that meets consumers' aesthetic tastes and psychological needs, so that the brand can gain cultural recognition in the target market and achieve success.