|
Ⅰ.Introduction Trade mark defined by The Oxford English Dictionary is that a mark is used by a manufacturer or trader to distinguish his goods from similar wares of other forms, usually a distinctive device or figure, a fancy name or trade name, or the name of an individual or firm, masked or impressed on the article or upon the package, etc. in or with which it is sold. In the translating profession of auto brands, dynamic translation methods, which call for equivalences on both cultural statement and on linguistics, are of great importance and help in practice. So this paper is going to research the mutual translation methods and principles of auto brands between English and Chinese. Family-cars, while China stepping into affluent society, and of which regarded as a symbol, especially since we had taken an essential role in WTO, national tariff of automotive industries continuously reducing, multinational automotive industrial fabrics widening their co-operation with China, is increasing rapidly. There are more automotive consumers, more autos on road, therefore even more brands and various types of vehicles which are not yet known. When planning to buy a car, or talking about cars, people seem to be puzzled or confused by those brand names, especially those from aboard. Home-made autos have various kinds of names, holding rich and far connotations, which are quoted from ancient Indo-European fables, while autos from aboard or made by joint ventures also need native and common names, when they want to be Chinese-oriented. Translated terms seem to be a significant catalyst in sales and acceptances of automotive products. As a result, these translated terms and names, which come from long term researching into domestic Chinese & English-spoken culture and customs, advanced analysis and particular observation, even with uncountable times of modifications before confirm, have a vivid epochal characters and simultaneously reflecting popular angle of aesthetic appreciation and attitude of dialects. This paper holds, those brand names, contain meaningfulness. Ⅱ. Differences of Auto Brands between English and Chinese Facing so many foreign products, customers begin the first impression with their names. Beyond the names, we are actually touching an exotic culture and national excellence. Translators bear the responsibilities to introduce the foreign products inward from a very beginning—the translation of differences in languages. Also they equip our national products with appropriate brand names in foreign languages. A brand names may attract the consumers, promote a product, support a cause, or even damage the products’ image, do less consuming, and keep the consumers far away. 2.1 Denominate Features and Cultural Implications of Auto Brands From the lay of languages, compositions of brand names are simple constructed. Auto brands are not affected in translation, for their not origin from sentence, paragraph, section and chapter. However, restricted by its idiosyncratic function, brand name or exactly trade mark, when demanded in business and need to be translated, which that requires for complex works in certain degree. The fact is that necessitate for system of translating theories, methods and principles. The most in common applied, in which frequently and apropos, is the principle of equivalence. That means the relationship between target language receiver and the original language is equivalent to that between translator, interpreter and original language. It is a relationship of dynamic state. That calls for two criteria, to the first is the original term must posses with mercantile form and function. Then the second is, translated term must posses with resemble linguistic function as the original’s. It is said that, translated and original term ought to be mutual unified, no matter in tone, form, meaning and spelling. Simultaneously, translated term must step over cultural discrepancies and cultural obstructions, and in accordance with esthetic sentiment and consume psychology of nations with target language. In the following the writer is going to present some denominate features and cultural implications of auto brands. There are several specifics: Exclusive names: for the peculiarities of the exclusive names, they are borrowed to be the using names and to be the auto brands. Some of the automotive fabricants’ names were extracted from their founders’, for example, Mercedes-Benz, Henry Ford, and Enzo Ferrari and Ferdinand Porsche. Similarly is, there are some auto brands which taken from historical personages. For example, the series Lincoln of Ford. There are also some exclusive names in Chinese brands. Such as FAW, First Automobile Workshop and JAC, Jianghuai Automobile Company. Natural phenomenon: for example, German auto fabricant Volkswagen is fond of naming from the winds. Such as the strong wind Santana from California valley; Scirocco, the monsoon blowing from Sahara to Sicily of Italy; and Passat, which means trade winds in German. There is a brand name in China call Cherry, which from Province HuBei, for the reason of the inland province rich in cherry. Astronomic vocabularies: some of the auto brands or their series names are puzzled, while those words or vocabularies imitated from astronomy. Such as, Zodiac, Taurus, Capri and Subaru. Common vocabularies: adopting the most common words which contain a nice moral, aiming to express a positive meaning and wish, and certainly, the fabricants had drawn the characteristics and peculiarities of their products directly. Such as the series Family from “Ha/Ma”, the name in order to express the idea for families. Loan words: by using the loan words will be define as the most special phenomenon of the modern Japanese automotive fabricants. And naming their products with the loan words, conveying those products created with unusual attribute and attitude. For example, Toyota’s Crown, expressing luxuries; Ford’s Mustang, carry out the character of American muscle. Concocted words: according to the traits, performances and functions, utilize various kind of word-building, psychology, marketing and cultural theories, integrating with languages, culture, market and aesthetics, fabricants concoct words never been seen, heard and even wrote, then use them as the brand names or series names. Such as, FIAT, Range Rover, Elise, Luxury and etc. 2.2 Differences of Auto Brands Trade marks and brands, as the representations of enterprises, are facilitating them to boarding into international marketplace. On the other side, as peculiar signs and languages, they contain and reflect stated cultures. Human culture has common characters. However, more extrusive, it presents its particularity, for different languages imply different tradition, values, customs, and faith, mode of thinking and even from geographical conditions. These differentiae will also give the same words and expressions differential emotional colorings in dissimilar cultural context. So when a prosperous auto brand has been built, it requires not only considering on consumers’ psychological needs, but also giving attention to the cultural background of the consumer groups. Simultaneously in bringing-in products and in selling exported brands we have to put emphasis upon aesthetic feeling of translated terms while their cultural connotations, especially on misunderstanding and ambiguous. From the following two examples we can easily understand that what cultural differences brings. When Rolls-Royce was selling its Silver Mist to Germany, the merchants received terrible sale status, for its name “Mist” in German means excretion. And Chevrolet of General Motors had once put a series name call Nova, same result for the “no va” in Spanish means unavailable, so they changed the name into Caribe, means “caribou”. So in English we have to avoid the brand names contain or involve ambiguities, but in Chinese, for the language was structured on base of inflectional morphemes, not only require for spot-on and accurate words and phrases, but also need propitious implications. For example, Brilliance Auto, in Chinese is “华晨汽车”, which means it leading to a brilliant perspective for China; Geely Auto, “吉利” means propitious and lucky; JAC(江淮汽车), Chana(长安汽车) and Ha/ma(海南海马汽车), they all show where the fabrics located. And Landwind(陆风汽车), who produces big SUVs and jeeps, shows their products were assembled with terrific performance. And Cherry(奇瑞汽车) means fancy and auspicious, which is well cohere with the Chinese ancient traditional thoughts. 2.3 Advertising Effects on Auto Brands Advertising effects on auto brands are dominantly on the aspect of slogans, which make their brand names easy to be remember and in eminence. Automobile is one of the most special merchandises in our society. Unlikely to the common commodities, automobile owns its features. An auto does tell people that nearly all information about its owner, such as age, financial and social status. And on another side, it reflects the taste, aesthetic feeling and artwork-create abilities of the figure designer and the engineering designer. Early in 19 century, automotive products are not widespread, so in those years fabricants do not need any advertisements. After Henry Ford built his factories and promoted his Ford Model T, Model N, Model R and Model S, as Henry’s promise, he had realized the fact that every workshop worker can afford to own a car by salary. Since then, auto became popular merchandise which had drawn in fierce competitions and automotive advertisements. Once the advertisements were drawn in, more and more fabricants needed to set up their own unordinary images to help consumers to tell apart among the same ranks of autos. And in which we have seen in daily lives, advertising slogans are the best advantages to show what the “cars” are.#p#分页标题#e# 2.3.1 Advertising Slogans So it is clear that in the slogans below, practically, all the fabricants will make sure their slogans focusing on performance, design and driving feeling. Someone like Porsche has even used a definitive tone to tell the consumers about the advantages of the Porsche’s quality. The writer can not deny that advertisements became more convictive then salesperson. Nearly 75% of auto consumers who had received questionnaire survey by Top Gear from B.B.C., had admitted that their original purposes on auto consume were conducted by advertisements on newspaper, TV-Ads, through radio and even by posters. The result had shown again that some of the consumers have no choices on what type of vehicles they would like to buy or actually they need until they were guided by the advertisements. It should be defined that in future, the sales turnover depends on the advertising industry. Here the writer will introduce some slogans in publicity: Mercedes-Benz’s slogans: Unlike any other. Mercedes-Benz. The Future of the Automobile. Engineered to move the human spirit. Honda’s slogans: The Power of Dreams. It must be love. Honda. First man, then machine. Technology you can enjoy Acura’s slogans: The True Definition of Luxury. Yours. Acura. Precision Crafted Performance. Fiat’s slogans: Alfa Romeo. Beauty is not enough. Power for your control. Volvo’s slogan: Volvo. For life. Subaru’s slogans: Subaru. Think. Feel. Drive. Driven By What's Inside When You Get It, You Get It The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive Ford Vehicles’ slogans: Ford. Feel the difference. Ford. Bold moves. (USA) Built for life in Canada. (Canada) Built for the road ahead. Ford. Designed for living. Engineered to last. Have you driven a Ford lately? Infiniti Vehicles’ slogan: Infiniti. Accelerating the Future. BMW’s slogans: BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine. BMW. Sheer Driving Pleasure. The Ultimate Driving Experience. Buick’s slogans: Dream Up. Buick. It's All Good. Isn't it time for a real car? Buick. The spirit of American style. SAAB’s slogans: Welcome to the State of Independence (USA campaign) Saab. Move your mind (European campaign) Find Your Own Road. Porsche’ slogan: Porsche, There is No Substitute. Toyota’s slogans: Today Tomorrow Toyota. (Europe) Toyota. Moving Forward. The best built cars in the world. Get the Feeling. Toyota. Drive Your Dreams. The car in front is a Toyota. I love what you do for me - Toyota! Your new experience of motoring. Lincoln’s slogans: Travel Well. What a Luxury Car Should Be. Ⅲ.Translation Methods of Auto Brands between English and Chinese Following let us discuss some mutual translation methods of auto brands. With a look into some famous auto brands at home and aboard, we find some general properties of them: (1) Brief; (2) Easy to be remember; (3) A favorable association. The translating process of auto brand names involves marketing, advertising, consumer psychology, aesthetics and communication between cultures. It is complicated but never a mechanical work. 3.1 Literal Translation In the common ground in eastern and western cultures there are some definitions and information on brand names, which allowed free translation. Free translation requires on the premise of keeping original meaning and sentence structure, and obeys the language standard of translating target language or leads to any ambiguity. It refers to the original article. Meanwhile progenitor was of fineness and grace as well as free translation was faithful to the original work, the translated term will contain the same features. Such as Toyota’s Crown, we translate it into Chinese call “皇冠”, in order to show its transcendence and luxurious feeling, means the masterwork of automobiles. And as to show the performances of Blue Bird from Nissan, we put it into Chinese as “蓝鸟”. The Volkswagen Beetle also translated as “甲壳虫” for its shape like a beetle, however it was once named by Adolph Hitler “Kraftdurchfreude” with poor sales condition. Also, “奇瑞汽车” translated as Cherry, which means blossom and thrive, absolutely cohere to the propitious meaning in Chinese. And “北京福田汽车” Fotton sounds like futon, can easily makes people remember the comfort. When the brand needs to be translated into Chinese, we have to pay attention to the rhymes and tones, first to obtain its own foreign feelings; another is aiming to arouse the desire of the consumer. Again, when we meet the personal names or location names, we should try to concoct homophones, especially possess with lucky implications. 3.2 Transliteration Transliteration is frequent methods in translation from original language to target, for many brands were named by their founders’ names. It calls recreation and imagination from the translators. For example, the Ford, transliterated as “福特”; Cadillac, in commemoration of the French royal marshal Antonio Cadillac, for his contributions in building the City of Cars, Detroit, in year 1101. And in another aspect, Cadillac contains the same imply meaning in both languages, translated as “凯迪拉克”, also means “the best one”. The British noble brand Rolls-Royce, translated as “劳斯·莱斯”, is named for the engineer Henry Rolls and Strat Royce. The famous brand Bentley is named from the founder Walt Owen Bentley, then we transliterated it as “宾利”, not only takes consideration on its luxury but also on its royalty. Lexus is transliterated as “雷克萨斯”and in Hong Kong we translated it by Cantonese as “凌志”. No matter which one, also express the abstruse meaning of forging ahead. And a large caravan from Ford call Transit in China it named “全顺”, wishes the owner finishing the works smoothly. Transliteration is focus on equivalency with the original language term. When some brands can not be free translated of liberal translated, it needs to be transliterated. Using the simplest words instead of long phrases as the names, we only need to create another expression to explain the original meaning and verve. Breaking out from the literal restriction and show it in direct viewing. 3.3 Free Translation Free translation also called creative translation, which is considered as supplementation to the conventional methods. According to the merchandises’ pronunciations and qualities, then give reasonable associated ideas; shake off the shackles of literal meanings; and vest the commodities names with nice cultural value. It aims on dynamical equivalence, in function and in structure. The most typical example is the BMW. When Gustan Otto built up the brand, he aimed to produce aero plane engines. But for the BMW is nonsensical in German, it can not be translated into any words or expressions of Chinese. That requires for the pronouncing letter “B” and the consonant [b]. Then we can find “宝[bau]” in Chinese are fitted to [b], which presents precious and value. After that we came towards the letter “M”. And it is the first consonant in “马[ma]”, horse. It performs what a great horsepower that BMW given and lifelike, while horses role before auto in history. So horse means vehicle and the precious “宝[bau]” shows nobly. Strong and vigorous horse running rapidly with thousand miles a day and emerge the performances thoroughly. It has provoked the consuming desire. Another example is the Legacy from Subaru. Once it was literally translated, it does not correspond to the propitious thoughts of Chinese. And so far it is translated as “力狮” with the meaning of vigorous lion. And for “Family” from Mazda, we do not name it literally as “家庭” but “福美来”, to show it would bring a fortune and luck to its owner. Nowadays more and more fabricants like to create meaningful and euphonious names, which are easily to remember and connotational, intend to sell their products and occupy the market share before the consumer considering and their purchase. It is a good method affluent by the publicity on advertisements. 3.4 Combination of Transliteration and Free Translation Actually in practical the translation work requires for re-creation. Translators have to exert their own imagination and creative abilities to excavate the common features between target language and the product-brand. With the greatest utmost, approaching the translated term to the target culture meanwhile keeping the original verve and style. It is demanded to combine the advantages from methods, transliteration and free translation. For example, Acura borrows the lexical meaning from “accurate”, stands for the accurate operation in driving. In China it was translated as “讴歌”, means eulogize by using the transliteration and free translation. In Chinese Pinyin “讴歌” pronounce [ou gə ], similar to Acura. And in another hand it was given the same meaning as eulogize, fully manifest the outstanding performance of this brand. And other examples which we have to mention like Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Mercedes was the given name of the famous Austrian businessman Emil Jellinck’s daughter Mercedes Jellinck. In Austrian German, Mercedes means genteel, auspicious and refined. For the prototype of Mercedes-Benz was inelegant, Karl Benz named his masterpiece with his friends name, conveyed Benz’s greatest wish and destination of career. The other is Hummer. We are clear that hummer produce loud sounds. It symbolized that the jeeps Hummer will impressed the clients deeply, with its masculine style and American muscle. The analogous are Bora from FAW-Volkswagen named “宝来”(treasure comes). Brilliance Auto, from the lexicon “bright”, “brilliant” and “Chinese”, means the founder wishes his enterprise would be the best in China, like the rising sun in dawn. So it is called “华晨”, the dawn of China.#p#分页标题#e# Ⅳ.Translation Principles of Auto Brands between English and Chinese Auto brand names are a mirror of societies because it is business involved. Merchants concern not only individual purchasing psychology and behavior but also certain needs and activities of cultural communities. Therefore an analysis about translating principles of auto brands is of great value. Translation does not mean to translate the source language mechanically; it may add or omit something elegance and briefness serve as the translation principles. 4.1 Brand-creators’ Intension and Enterprises’ Culture Not for all brands were built to remember somebody of some significant events and incidents. But summarize from real examples, the writer believes through some paths they could be unveil, the reason why or for what the brands were called as today. Or we had conclusion that the founders had implied their real intensions in brands, and the culture of enterprises. Brand development, especially for higher priced products or services, needs to consider two dimensions—present and future. Firms develop brands for current consumption by accurately identifying and selecting target markets that are willing and able to purchase the products or services marketed under that brand name. But at the same time, they also realize that a brand name represents future investment in emerging markets among potential consumers who do not currently have the ability or means to purchase the brand name products or services. For many globally oriented firms, brands represent major market investment in both present and future markets. 4.1.1 Historical Meanings and Founders’ Names Many of the auto brands are created from some real histories and stories, or some famous and dedicative people in every field of work. These sources from the entire society are not only need to be memorized, but also enhancing details of automotive culture. In order to commemorate the great inventor Karl Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, who invented four stroke engines, and became the global biggest auto fabricant at that time, the later generations formed up the Daimler-Benz Corporation. And Cadillac was in remembrance of Antonio Cadillac (1657-1730), the French colonic protectorate in North America the one who built free markets in Detroit and auto fabrics and shaped the city. In translation of the very kind of auto companies we have to follow the original purposes and the enterprises’ culture, using the methods of transliteration and free translation. Such as the Chana Auto, it named Chana that this fabric located and built in Xi’an, where holds thousand-year history and called Chang’an in dynasties. It was the origin of the ancient Chinese culture. So the fabricant using the homophone of Chang’an, aiming to express the established history and civilization the products contain. 4.1.2 Affluences from Literary Articles Some of the auto brands come from the well-known literary articles. These lexicons represent the nice thing and peculiar artistic conception. They let the consumers to experience the very emotion and the idea of design which the brand and products convey. Such as the typical example, British brand “Zephyr”. Where Britain located facing the Atlantic and receives the west wind there from. In literary it is equivalent to the so-called east wind in China. As what Shelley’s Ode to the west wind, with his passionate sensation to eulogize the west wind, “It’s a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds’ cries.” The brand borrowed the poem to deliver the literary accomplishment of the product and the owners’. The theme Zephyr embodied abundant literary intension and function. So when it translated into Chinese we should not as the fabricant did, not “西风” west wind, but just right as “东风”, east wind, in Chinese. 4.1.3 Represents from Local Characteristics and Histories A number of the auto brands are named from the native customs and ancient histories. For example, the Americans, with the nickname of “nation on the wheels”, it is an auto-dominant nation. The United States, with its vast meadow, splendid mountains, deep valleys and the mysterious Indian culture, born to be the unique country on earth and culture of deploitation, they have the character of rough, straightforward, heroic and brave. Obviously, cars born in this land will be gift with the character of manhood. For those explorers crossing the mountains and rivers, overcoming vary kind of hardness and arriving to the west, settled down and began their new life, that was the spirit. Their intrepidity was inherited and learnt by the later generation. So numbers of fabricants according to the American spirit, like conquers, ranger, tracer, touring and etc. Another one is the Fiat Weekend from Nanjing Auto Corporation. In the lexical meaning it is weekend, however, in Chinese the translator add a Chinese character “风”. It makes the Weekend imply that, the car could bring the happy entertainments to the entire family, like a happy wind, bringing the family to outing. 4.2 Readers’ Perceptual Acceptance From a marketing perspective, brands are developed around four fundamental concepts: (1) potential consumers must be aware of the brand, (2) they must become loyal to it, (3) they must identify with it, and (4) they must accept the quality that the brand projects in the market. Each of these brand attributes must be built into the brand. In some new markets, brand awareness must be systematically and progressively cultivated among potential customers. In other markets, clear and direct communication with potential consumers is sufficient to trigger consumer acceptance of the new brand. Loyalty to a new brand must be introduced early in brand introduction. Loyalty for a new brand is generated early on the basis of perceived future economic, social, or psychological value that is built into the brand itself, its products or services. Innovators and early adopters of the brand need to be able to communicate their loyalty to the brand to others in the market. By being loyal to the brand, consumers begin to identify with it. This means that not only are they willing to discuss their loyalty to the brand, but that they are also willing to overtly support it. 4.2.1 The Purpose of Auto Brands According to the researching above, the paper holds that the dominant translation method is transliteration. It reserves the original information and closes to the old names. At the same time, the transliterated brand names endow with foreign colors and sounded peregrine, which makes them easily to be accepted by the readers and consumers, therefore, they can absorb more shares of the entire market. It feeds quite a number of consumers in their values. That means, comparing to the domestic automotive products, the imported are well-accepted, such as PRADO has been changed its name in China from “霸道(King of the road)” to “普拉多(Pu Laduo)”, and Lexus, which is synchronous changed from “凌志” to “雷克萨斯”. The explanation from Toyota said, no matter in which country, since it is produced by Toyota, it should have the united and international names. Not only have the imported autos had the very methods, using the foreign names to meet the psychological needs of the consumers, but also the domestic brands, such as Safe(塞弗) from Great Wall Motor, Uliou(优利欧) from Geely and QQ from Cherry. Their names melt the fashion, popularity and amiable together. Some consumers support a brand by organizing their life styles around it and openly wearing the brand image or, depending on the quality of a brand in the case of luxury goods, consumers may communicate about a brand by projecting visible signs or images such as clothing styles or their general demeanor. The quality assembled into a brand must reflect the nature of the target market initially identified and selected for the brand. 4.2.2 The Symbolic Meaning of Auto brands from the National Angle If an automotive fabricant wants to sell his products aboard, it requires creating an acceptable image. And the image must be able to cater the target market for aesthetic psychology and emotional needs. So imported autos must inosculate our Chinese culture and the exported do the same. There are too many lessons of cultural violation. Concerning to the localization of the auto brands, on one aspect, some free translated brands are well-popular because their auspicious meaning, such as the Lotus Elise, Nissan Bluebird, Nissan Sunny and Suzuki Swift. And still, there is no rigid in some names. Some of them had been translated into Chinese far beyond, and had been added elements of auspice. Such as Buick Excelle, originally the word excel has the meaning of beyond and excellent. Then according to the official explanations, Excelle means excel and triumph. Another one is the Fiat Weekend from Nanjing Auto Corporation. In the lexical meaning it is weekend, however, in Chinese the translator add a Chinese character “风”. It makes the Weekend imply that, the car could bring the happy entertainments to the entire family, like a happy wind, bringing the family to outing. There are still some translated terms which contain none relationships with the original names. We build the new Chinese names for them, for example, Rio from Korean KIA named “千里马”, Epica from Chevrolet called “景程” and NF from Peking Hyundai translated as “御翔”. Ⅴ.Conclusion Brand names are considered as a bridge between commodities and consumers across Chinese and English cultures. However this kind of bridge has to embody different components, cultural and linguistic connotations. Being aware of cultural differences between Chinese and English speaking countries is certainly the first step in avoiding misunderstandings and ambiguities. Moreover, the appropriation of translation for the internationalization of auto brands needs proper and effective methods to prevent the wrong comprehension of international auto brands. Then in the guide of the improvement of translators’ English and the globalization of culture, it can be generalized that from the angel of cultural awareness precise translations will preclude misunderstandings of auto brands connotations between Chinese and English speaking countries.#p#分页标题#e# Translation works on brand name translation is the indispensable step. It is important for the enterprise in setting foot in global market. No matter transliteration, literal translation or free translation, a successful translating method and proper translating principle is needed. Brand name translation is none of an automatic, mechanical decoding; it is actually a multi-cultural process and practice. At the very ending of this paper, the writer would like to express the persuasion to the readers. Being a translator, we have to consider every aspect of the translating object, choosing the proper methods and follow the correct principle that the only path to the goal. As the global automotive industries growing thrive, the auto brands are not only acted like trade marks, but also partially demonstrate its cultural effects and functions. Products of excellent quality and given euphonious names will side reflect the histories and culture of the enterprises and even the entire nation. It is important for the auto fabricants in occupying the share of market. Therefore dig out the values of the brand names has been an emerge requirement to the fabricants and surely irritates the profession of translation. In the view of that, this paper is in the purposes of researching translation methods and principles between English and Chinese. |
 |
|||
| 网站地图 |
