The Application of Business English in Trademark Translation
order
Trademark is a symbol of goods, and it is a symbolic symbol used by producers to identify the goods they produce and sell. Generally, it consists of words, figures or symbols. It is the image of the product and the symbol of the enterprise, which can convey the enterprise spirit and shape the enterprise image. The function of a trademark is to "ensure the quality of goods, facilitate consumers to choose and buy, and safeguard the reputation and rights of trademark registrants." Good trademarks help enterprises to promote themselves, promote the sales of goods, create brand effects, and then bring huge profits to enterprises. Therefore, manufacturers will rack their brains to achieve distinctive, impressive and pleasing effects in trademark naming, so as to achieve the purpose of selling goods and improving the competitiveness of the commodity market. 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 China and other countries are also expanding day by day, and economic and trade exchanges are becoming more frequent. How to introduce our products to foreign countries and how to introduce foreign products to China and sell them successfully has become a major event related to the fate of enterprises. As an image representative of commodities, trademarks must appear in the international market in another language, and naming trademarks in another language involves the translation of trademarks. Successful trademark translation is one of the important links for commodities to go global, explore international markets and establish international brands. How to carry out successful trademark translation is very important for enterprises.
First, the importance of trademark translation
If a commodity wants to win in the market competition and gain a larger market share, in addition to its own quality, it also depends to a great extent on whether it can be understood and accepted by consumers, whether it can win their love and be passed on from mouth to mouth, so as to impress consumers and induce them to buy. As a result, a problem that cannot be ignored has emerged-trademarks. A good trademark can bring great wealth to enterprises; On the contrary, a bad trademark will bring great losses to the enterprise. Therefore, the translation of trademarks is related to the life and death of enterprises.
Trademark may still be a strange concept to some people! Some people think that there is no need to pay more attention to the translation of trademarks for their products, as long as someone buys my things! But as everyone knows, in this era of information industry, in this era of strong brand awareness, trademarks are so important to enterprises!
When it comes to literary translation, everyone is talking about translation standards. What is the level of translation and what is the standard? There has always been a popular saying in translation circles in China: faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. Believers, loyalty; Within reach, within reach; Elegant and vivid. In other words, it is accurate, fluent and expressive. To put it more clearly, we should be faithful to the original work, express the original intention and convey the charm. The so-called verve refers to the style and verve of the original, that is, the writer's own artistic personality and characteristics. Trademark translation should also take this as a reference. Trademark is a symbol used by commercial companies to name their products and distinguish similar products from other companies. Trademarks, like people's names, are symbols representing commodities and become famous with the expansion of commodity exchange. Many internationally famous trademarks have become intangible assets and huge wealth of enterprises, so merchants always try to tap the commercial charm of brand names from all angles. The "Li Ning" brand sporting goods series named after Li Ning in Prince of gymnastics, China, embodies Li Ning's enterprising spirit of striving for world-class products and changing the backward situation of sporting goods series in China. For them, "Li Ning" brand is not only a trademark, but also the abbreviation of enterprise spirit.
The famous brand "Goldlion" is now a household name in the world, but the founder of its famous former trademark also had a painful experience. Mr. Ceng Xianzi, the founder of "Goldlion" trademark, originally named his tie brand "Golden Lion" and gave two "Golden Lion" ties to a relative in Hong Kong with great interest. Unexpectedly, relatives refused his gift and said unhappily, "Gold is lost, gold is lost, gold is lost!" " It turns out that in Cantonese, "lion" is homophonic with "lose", which is naturally unpopular. That night, Mr. Zeng racked his brains to change the name of Golden Lion, and finally came up with a good idea: changing the English name of Golden Lion from free translation to a combination of free translation and transliteration, that is, "Gold" is still translated as "Gold" and "Lion" is transliterated as "Lilai", that is, "GoldLion" and "Jin". Thus, the "Goldlion" trademark was born. Mr. Zeng had another whim: China people seldom write English with a brush, but I do. Is it a special font? So he wrote the word "Goldlion" with a brush, and then let the designer process it, which is the English symbol of "Goldlion" now. After the trademark change, it was quickly recognized by consumers and became a famous tie brand.
Second, the cultural characteristics of trademarks
"Good name, win at the starting line." Experts from China Trademark Association described the importance of good translation to enterprise marketing. However, the trademarks of many domestic brands have good meanings in Chinese, but after being translated into other languages, they often can't do as the Romans do, which leads to the decline of brand competitiveness. The translation of trademarks must fully consider each other's cultural phenomena. Because commodity itself is a kind of cultural carrier, culture spreads through commodity, and commodity adds value through culture, otherwise cultural conflict may occur. Due to the differences in geographical location, ethnic origin, natural environment, religious belief and economic development, people have many differences in concepts, traditions, customs, cognitive perspectives, ways of thinking and value orientations. The characteristics of different languages and the differences of national cultures make the translation of trademark words go through a process of assimilation, absorption and transformation. This requires translators to understand not only the literal meaning of words, but also the cultural connotation of words to avoid cultural conflicts. Trademark translation, as a cross-cultural communication activity, is faced with the acceptability of trademarks to target readers, that is, how to cross the gap of cultural background differences and convey the intention of trademark producers to readers with different social backgrounds as comprehensively as possible. In the process of translating trademark words, if there is a lack of cultural awareness and only the words are turned on paper for bilingual conversion, without considering the corresponding transformation of national cultural meaning, the translated names rarely have cultural and associative meaning, and sometimes even have unexpected reactions, which makes the products unsalable and a complete failure.
The following is a detailed analysis with some examples. In China, Dongfeng brand agricultural machinery products are familiar to everyone and can be described as best-selling in China. However, it is not popular in Britain. For this translation, due to the different geographical environments between China and Britain, the "West Wind" written by the British is warm and full of commercial flavor, not the "West Wind" in China's "The West Wind withered the green trees last night". And the west wind in Britain is equivalent to the east wind in China, and the east wind in Britain is the west wind or north wind in China. Translators don't understand this difference in geographical environment, and it is natural that their translations are not popular with the British.
There is a kind of lipstick in our country, and its trademark is Fangfang. This name is really good in Chinese. When people in China see the word Fangfang, they can't help but feel beautiful associations: they not only seem to see a girl with a beautiful face, but also smell the fragrance emanating from her whole body. However, this trademark sounds very much like the Chinese pinyin fangfang, and English readers can't help but feel a sense of terror at first glance, because Fang happens to be an English word, which means ①along, the fangs of a dog; ; 2 snakes, fangs (1 long teeth of dogs; (2) The fangs of snakes) So, what they imagined was not a girl wearing lipstick, but a vicious dog or a poisonous snake with its teeth bared, like a "ghost" who saw the teeth of a green-faced ape in China. Because of the failure of this translation, the sales of lipstick is probably not difficult to imagine.
A trademark for exporting dry batteries is called "white elephant", which is translated into English as "white elephant", which should be said to be 100% correct. As we all know, the white elephant is a fixed English phrase, which means "a burden" or "useless and burdensome". However, translating the trademark "White Bear" into "White Bear" is a successful pen. Looking up the Chinese-English dictionary compiled by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the first English translation of "White Bear" is polar bear, because it is a scientific name, and the second English translation is White Bear. So I translated the brand name into polar bear, which seems to be no problem. However, with the changes in the international political situation in recent years. Polar bear has another meaning. As a nickname, it is easy to be associated with a political force in the world, so it is better to translate it into white bear.
Third, the characteristics of trademark language
In modern society, new and old products emerge one after another, and the world is full of trademark language. Trademark language refers to all written information in word mark and combined trademarks, including trademark name, Chinese characters or their variants on trademark graphics, Chinese Pinyin or its abbreviation, foreign language translation or its abbreviation. However, not all trademark languages can enter the hearts of the audience, and some trademark languages are easily accepted and closely follow their products; Some trademark languages are ignored and turned a deaf ear. It can be said that without the audience, the promotion of commodity language will lose its meaning. Trademark language is a special language with distinctive features. When translating trademarks, these characteristics should be considered in order to successfully translate trademarks.
1. Symbolic. The symbolic meaning of a trademark has two meanings: first, the logo of a trademark must have a high degree of cohesion and profound meaning. Trademark recognition should condense the characteristics of enterprise image, enterprise spirit and enterprise products, which not only implies enterprise image and enterprise character, but also places trust and hope on consumers. For example, the "Li Ning" brand trademark mentioned in the previous article entrusts the enterprise with the spirit of striving to change the backward situation of sports products in China and pursue world-class products. Second, the trademark logo has good communication. No matter what kind of media is used to convey it, people get the information at first sight. Only by condensing and concentrating the corporate image and conveying the corporate spirit can a trademark truly represent the enterprise and have the function of corporate identity.
2. unique. The logo composed of trademark elements is generally a word, which does not exist before you use it. In trademark examination, this issue is called "distinctiveness", that is, uniqueness. Only when a trademark is unique can it give people a strong visual impact and appeal, and achieve the purpose of identification and recognition. In fact, that is to say, it is impossible to have two identical trademarks.
3. simple. A trademark should be concise, which is an important element of trademark language expression and the minimum requirement for trademarks. Only simple, dignified, profound, novel and unique trademarks will be favored by entrepreneurs and the public and recognized by consumers. The logos of many well-known brands are very concise and lively, which is convenient for everyone to remember and spread, such as Nike's logo-a small hook.
4. artistry. The so-called artistry of trademark language is to have a certain aesthetic feeling in sound, form and meaning, to convey beautiful information to people and to make people enjoy beauty. The beauty of sound means catchy, the beauty of form means pleasing to the eye, and the beauty of meaning can only remind people of beautiful things. Only when a trademark has certain artistry can it enter the public's psychology.
5. Time magazine. The prosperity of economy, the intensification of competition, the change of lifestyle and the trend of fashion all require that trademarks must adapt to the times. The creativity of trademarks must advance with the progress of society and the development of the times. So that trademarks must adapt to the development of the times and make reasonable adjustments in time to avoid being eliminated by the times.
6. stability. Trademarks should also have stability, which seems to be contrary to the times, but it is not contradictory. When the enterprise establishes the trademark, it hopes that the trademark of its product can be remembered and loved forever, and then insists on buying it. The trademarks of enterprise products will not change easily, especially those that are successful, indicating that the trademarks should be stable.
Fourth, 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 beauty of pronunciation, font, meaning and historical and cultural connotation of the trademark, and run through artistic thoughts and aesthetic thoughts. The artistry and aesthetic feeling of trademark translation are mainly embodied in unique conception, harmonious and beautiful phonology, vivid and accurate rhetoric, profound artistic conception and emotional excitement caused by breaking through cultural, psychological and geographical restrictions. The translated trademarks should have a strong sense of music and sense of movement, give people wonderful music enjoyment, stimulate consumers' curiosity, impulse and desire to buy, and especially cultivate loyal consumers from generation to generation. From the perspective of language and culture, trademark translation should combine harmony, meaning and form. It should be concise and eye-catching, worthy of the name, and the purpose, function and uniqueness of the product should be clear at a glance. To be attractive and distinctive, you can find it at a glance from many brands. With style and taste, it is easy to arouse consumers' good association and make people have the impulse to buy. Main translation methods of trademarks:
(1) English-Chinese trademark translation:
1. transliteration
Transliteration, that is, translating the sounds in the original trademark into the target language with similar or the same pronunciation, can be divided into pure transliteration and homophonic. Pure transliteration is also called direct transliteration, that is, according to the pronunciation of foreign trademark's words, Chinese characters with the same or similar pronunciation are selected and combined. These phrases are usually meaningless in Chinese. Pure transliteration retains the phonological beauty and calling function of the original trademarks, such as Motorola (mobile phone), Sony (color TV) and Kodak (film). Homophonic translation, also known as homophonic pun, is the choice of homophonic words or phrases, which can arouse the good association of consumers in China. Because there are many homophones in Chinese characters, you can freely choose words with loud pronunciation and beautiful artistic conception to express them in translation. Arche is translated into "Yaqian" and Pantene is translated into "Pan Ting", which not only retains the loudness of the original syllables, but also expresses women with beautiful Chinese characters such as "Qian" and "Ting", highlighting the commodity characteristics of cosmetics. For example, Mercedes-Benz translates into "Mercedes-Benz" (car), shampoo translates into "shampoo" (shampoo) and so on.
2. Literal translation
Literal translation is the direct translation of the literal meaning of a trademark. For trademark words of common nouns, literal translation can be used if their original meaning is consistent with the meaning in the target language, can conform to the aesthetic and cultural psychology of the audience, and will not cause disgust and disgust. 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" (car) Jaguar-as fast as lightning, like a jaguar; Pony (car) pony-small and fast; Pioneer-the pioneer of audio industry. "Good companion"-cigarettes are your good friends.
3. Free translation method
Free translation means translating a trademark not according to its sound or literal meaning, but according to the characteristics of the commodity, giving full play to the imagination and creating another meaning. For example, the shampoo and hair care products are "supple", which is translated as "supple" rather than "happy" in Chinese, indicating the use of the products, and at the same time, they are artistic, in line with the aesthetic psychology of the audience, and remind people of supple and elegant long hair. Another example is the translation of "Walkman" into "Walkman", which is natural and more comprehensive than its English trademark, so it is a successful trademark translation.
4. Phonetic parataxis translation
Phonetic paratactic translation refers to choosing a pronunciation similar to the target language in translation, but the meaning is not the original meaning, but a free translation method that meets the psychological needs of the audience. This translation method can not only retain the exotic flavor by retaining part of the original sound, but also be full of the cultural color of the target language. Such as "Bausch & Lund" contact lens, in fact, its English trademark is only the name of the company's founder "Bush & According to China people's shopping psychology and cultural environment, as well as people's admiration for knowledge, the translator's translation of Lomb is really original. Revlon, an American cosmetic, is subtly translated into Revlon. The word Revlon is taken from Li Bai's famous poem "The clouds are full of flowers, and the spring breeze blows Revlon", which makes the translation full of China culture, romantic and elegant, and makes people have unlimited associations. Parataxis translation is an excellent translation method worth advocating.
5. Attenuation method
Subtraction, that is, the translation method of deleting long sounds in English trademarks. The translation of English trademarks into Chinese is often in the form of two words or three words, and the two syllables conform to the aesthetic habits of China people and the development trend of the times; Three-character trademarks originated from traditional time-honored brands in China, such as "Tongrentang" and "Quanjude". Therefore, it is necessary to delete the long sound in English trademarks. Chinese translation of polysyllabic words can be simplified to two-character or three-character trademarks. For example, the old transliteration of McDonald's is "McDonald's", which is not as catchy as McDonald's after the holiday.
6. superposition method
Adding words refers to adding a smug translation method that is consistent with the characteristics of goods after translating the main syllables. After translating the main syllables of the original name, words that meet the characteristics or key meanings of the product can be added as needed to highlight the publicity of the product and attract consumers. One principle of adding words is that the added words should be commensurate with the original trademark in meaning and timbre. Otherwise, it will gild the lily For example, Colgate translates into Colgate, the word "clean" embodies the cleaning function of toothpaste, Pepsi translates into Pepsi and so on. , all belong to the translation of trademark words.
7. No translation
Some trademarks sometimes use abbreviations to spread uniformly across borders. Such trademarks are often extremely stable and always maintain their original profound meanings. When translating such trademarks, the method of no translation is usually adopted, and the original letters or Arabic numerals and symbols are retained. SKII cosmetics, IBM computer, AT & amp； T at&t and so on. All of them are non-translated.
(B) Chinese-English trademark translation
Chinese-English trademark translation usually adopts transliteration and free translation. But Chinese-English translation and English-Chinese translation are completely different in rules and many details.
1. transliteration
Transliteration refers to keeping the pronunciation of Chinese Pinyin as its English trademark or using words with the same pronunciation and positive meaning. For example, Haier's English trademark "Haier" is the same as Haier's Chinese pinyin, and its pronunciation is the same as the English word "higher" (higher). Products intended to express "Haier" will achieve better and better results in overseas markets such as Europe. There is also Bo's famous clothing brand "Younger", whose English trade name is the English letter combination "Younger" with the same pronunciation. This pronunciation reminds people of the word "young". It expresses the meaning that wearing Youngor makes you younger.
2. Free translation method
Free translation is also common in Chinese-English trademark translation. It directly uses the English meaning of Chinese trademarks as English trademarks. For example, the English trademark of "Dynasty" wine means "Dynasty" in English, and the "history" expressed by this word attracts consumers to buy. The English trademark "Forever" of Shanghai "permanent" bicycle also expresses the excellent quality of brand products.
However, this translation method may lead some brands to encounter unexpected problems. For example, the translation of Dongfeng brand agricultural machinery products and Baixiang brand dry batteries mentioned in the article has brought difficulties to sales.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) abstract
Trademark translation is not only language translation, but also cultural translation. The Chinese-English translation of trademarks does not simply replace two languages, but integrates two different languages and cultures from a cross-cultural perspective. Trademark is the unity of language and national culture, which is closely related to culture from the beginning of naming, so it is not a good and appropriate translation to completely ignore culture. Accurate trademark translation should not only follow the translation principles and laws of two languages, but also pay attention to the cultural factors related to the two languages, especially the cultural factors of the target country. Only by crossing the cultural barriers of the target language and successfully handling the cultural adaptation in cross-cultural communication can we translate the trademarks that meet the aesthetic taste and psychological needs of consumers, and make the brand gain cultural recognition in the target language market and succeed.