References 10

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background 

Apparel brand is the representative of apparel product image, the brand translation is directly related to the selling of the product in the target market. Appropriate principles and strategies of apparel brand translation must be concerned before it can meet the demands of consumer’ s psychology and be competitive in the consumer market, at the same time convey the culture of the apparel brands. Since China has been the member of WTO and has played a more important role in the world, Chinese domestic apparel has enhanced its reputation. And the present Chinese First Lady, Peng Liyuan is dressed decently and gorgeously when she pays state visits overseas, which arouses the world’s attention of Chinese domestic apparel. 

Moreover, many Chinese domestic brand names convey the brand culture as well as Chinese traditional culture, for instance, 紫澜门. But the translation version “ZI LAN MEN ” seems fail to deliver both of them. This shows that domestic brand name translation is not given the durable focus. And it is hard to change the situation of “ Made In China ” if Chinese apparel enterprises do not be aware of the significance of brand names along with the translation of them. 

Nida’s functional equivalence is often considered and applied by numerous translators from various professions through the process of translation. The author thinks that functional equivalence can also be applied in the process of Chinese domestic apparel brand translation and explores the strategies of translating them.

As the considerable part of exported products, apparel is no longer as simple as the primary demand of our daily life. Apparel brand name translation is not purely a matter of finding equivalent expressions in the target language but have magnificent influence of the psychology of clients. Thus, the study of apparel brand name translation especially Chinese apparel brand names has considerable significance of accelerating the domestic economy and communication with other countries.  

1.2 Research Methodology

    This thesis mainly focuses on the problems and strategies of Chinese domestic apparel brand name translation through reviewing and analyzing the current well-known Chinese apparel brands. And this thesis will adopt the method of document and method of induction to discuss the problems and to explore strategies. Numerous examples will be cited in this thesis. Moreover, the comparison will be made between different versions of brand name translation.

1.3 Thesis Structure

This thesis consists of five parts:

Chapter 1 is an introduction of the whole thesis that is composed of research background and structure of this thesis.

Chapter 2 is the literature review of brand name translation which consists of the current study of brand name translation and translation guided by Nida’s functional equivalence from home and abroad.

Chapter 3 is the current situation and existing problems of Chinese domestic apparel brand name translation including meaningless translation and grammar-mistake controversies. 

Chapter 4 introduces Functional Equivalence Theory of E.A.Nida and explores the strategies of translating Chinese domestic apparel brand names from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory which includes transliteration, liberal translation, creative translation and non-translation.

Finally, chapter 5 presents the conclusion of the whole thesis and points out the findings, limitations and suggestions.