跨文化商标翻译对市场营销的影响Trademark Translation(4)

菜单

1.3.1 Transliteration
Transliteration is a rendering approach which converts the original language to target language directly based on the pronunciation, which is the most succinct and easiest translation way. As the advance and evolvement of translation, transliteration as a simple and incomprehensive procedure has gradually been replaced by increasingly elaborated and intricate express techniques, which can convey the trademarks’ intentions and cultures. However, when converting some trademarks with lamprophony and poetic traits, particularly in the situation that no proper word matches the initial trademark, transliteration is the best alternative with unparalleled advantages. Transliteration is an indispensable rendering process, generalizing with the progress of renditions. The most common case of transliteration is the world-known online shopping website: Taobao.com, which transliterated the Chinese trademark directly through its pronunciation.

1.3.2 Paraphrase
Paraphrase is a counterpart translation mean to transliteration, which concentrates on the internal meaning of the primary version and output the target language with an ideal illustration of the implication and it is known as explanation. Compared with transliteration, paraphrase facilitates consumers to appreciate the nature of the brand to a great extent, leaving a strong impression and sparkles interests among the consumers. It should be noticed that paraphrase requires the translator to equip with bilingual capability. For instance, the renowned cosmetic brand “Avon” is converted to Chinese as “Ya Fang”, which is dissimilar to the original one in pronunciation. However, the Chinese version represents more implication as a beautifying brand considering the Chinese characters “Ya Fang” is the word to express the exquisiteness of women.

1.3.3 The combination of transliteration and paraphrase
Evidently, this is a special tactic which amalgamates both transliteration and paraphrase. The strengths of the procedure are not only that the pronunciation is similar to the genuine trademark but also empowers the trademark far-reaching in the significance. It is a conversion that is evidently demanding and challenging. Nevertheless, practice has proved that the rendering strategy is fruitful and effective because it retains the phonetic element of the trademark and provides an attractive image to the product. For instance, the translation of ‘Ge Li’ electrics in English is ‘Gree’ Electrics. Gree is a Chinese major appliance manufacturer headquartered in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. It is the world's largest residential air-conditioner manufacturer. The translation is great since ‘Ge Li’ is not really meaningful in Chinese thereby transliteration is the most suitable. Besides, it sounds like green, meaning environmental friendly, which is neat for an appliance manufacturer whose main products are air-conditioners. This trademark conversion incorporates the translation method of transliteration and the paraphrase, enabling the trademark to be pronounced like the original one, meanwhile, bearing more meaning.

1.3.4 Addition and subtraction
This improved rendition approach, adding or abstracting the pronunciation, allows the source language becoming further unambiguous and understandable. In spite of the benefits of the combined approach, translators ought to acquire an all-embracing mastery of the regional culture and the essence of the trademark, or else it may cause the loss of trademark information and misunderstanding. For this reason, using the addition and subtraction has to guarantee the completion of grammatical structures and the full delivery of products’ trademark. There are plenty of international companies adopt this method. With regard to the addition method, some of the Chinese enterprises use the character “Long (Dragon)” to show the power giving the fact that the “Long” in China is a very formidable animal while when these enterprises enter into the foreign market they choose to add “Chinese” before Dragon since dragon represents the evilness and misfortune in western countries. In addition, the instance of subtraction is the world-known express company DHL came into Global market as the abbreviations for the name of the company instead of the full name (Dakey, Hiublom and Lynn). So does the Calvin Klein, a popular garment company, that subtracted the trademark into the acronym of Calvin Klein (CK), making itself simple and catchy.