奈達功能對等視角下的體育品牌商標翻譯

【摘要】本研究從奈達功能對等的角度入手探討體育品牌商標的翻譯，討論在其指導下如何運用翻譯方法使譯文與原文達到對等性。 現(xiàn)今，中國與世界各國的貿(mào)易交往日趨頻繁。為了幫助體育產(chǎn)品在國內外市場上迅速被接受，首要的工作之一就是打造知名品牌。一個完美的體育品牌及其譯名能為產(chǎn)品創(chuàng)造極大的利潤，像“Nike”耐克這樣的商標譯名已被公認為體育品牌翻譯的典范。因此，商標的翻譯顯得越來越重要。美國翻譯理論家奈達的功能對等理論自問世以來，在國內外翻譯界都產(chǎn)生了深遠的影響。

【關鍵詞】功能對等；體育品牌；翻譯

【作者簡介】褚騫（1992-），男，俄羅斯族，山東龍口人，碩士在讀，西南民族大學， 研究方向：英語翻譯口譯。

Introduction

With the rapid development of international trade and economic globalization， brand name translation has become an essential market strategy to most business. The great success of London Olympic Games and people’s love in sports make the sport industry has a promising future. In order to promote the sales of products to foreign markets， brand name translation is gaining greater and greater importance.This paper， by giving a detailed account of translating sport brand names between Chinese and English， attempts to study the practice and theory of translating sport brand names from a cultural， psychological and marketing point of view， under the guidance of functional equivalence theory.

In this thesis， the writer hopes to increase translator’s understanding of the brand name translation and to discuss on a theoretical base that can help them make decisions when translating brand name into another culture.

The significance of the study mainly lies in several aspects. Firstly， the writer advocates that the theory should combine with practice and guide practice instead of talking about the theory only. Secondly， the writer introduces Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and analyzes the methods of applying this theory to brand name translation by examples.

1. Literature Review

Brand name translation plays a vital role in establishing the international brand image of a company. In recent years， brand name translation has received wide attention. By reading the related documents available and surfing the websites of international advertising companies， name companies， etc， the author finds that from the 1990s， many scholars both at home and abroad have devoted themselves to brand name translation under the guidance of different theories. The following are some examples：

While， Li Zhiyuan explored the approaches for brand name translation through analyzing the brand name formations and its characteristics， he concluded that when brand names can find the equivalent word in target language， communication can bring the vocative effect to the brand name translation.

2. Functional Equivalence Theory

Eugene A. Nida is a distinguished American translation theorist as well as linguist. His translation theory has exerted a tremendous influence on translation studies in western countries. It shows that he has made great contributions to the field of translation studies. His influences go beyond the translation of the Bible and the borders of the nations. His theory has guided translation practice of various kinds， not only the U. S， but also in many other parts of the world. He himself has also become one of the most frequently quoted authors in the field of translation.

3. A Brief Introduction of Brand Names

Since “Brand name translation is in connection with both the source culture and the target culture” （O’Guinn， Allen and Semenik 22）， to get the target brand name coherent not only with the source culture but also with the target culture， the translator should know something about the features of the brand names. Almost all the successful brand names have the following features， which should be taken into consideration in translation.

a. Brevity

“When choosing a brand name for its products， a company wants a name that will be easily remembered， recognized by the customer”， and “short brand names have been found to have greater impact in customers than long ones” （Mason， etal. 163）. Brevity means that the brand name should be kept short and sweet in the process of naming and translating.It should be also kept in brand name translating. In order to achieve brevity， certain syllables of less importance have to be omitted in translating longer brand names.

b. Novelty

A brand name should be as novel and unconventional as possible in wording， pronunciation， meaning and other aspects， so as to arouse the interest of the customers and leave a deep impression on them. The brand designers try every means to make the brand name unique by employing figures of speech， adding humorous element， or coining new words. The novelty of the brand name should help to strengthen the merits of the product， and thus help the readers to understand the nature of the product， and thus help the readers to understand the nature of the product.

c. Readability

Readability indicates that a brand name should be easy to read and not likely be mispronounced or misunderstood. A brand name is， after all， for the eyes of the broad masses of consumers. If uncommon characters are used， undereducated consumers will fail to recognize them or will mispronounce them， which will inevitably impair the effectiveness of the brand name in use.

4. Functional Equivalence in the Translation of Sport Brand Names

4.1 The Factors to be considered in the Translation of Sport Brand Names

Global sport branding is complicated by the diversity of languages， nationalism， product attributes， and culture. Developing a world brand is not an easy translation exercise， as meanings vary greatly across norms， attitudes， beliefs and cultures， so all factors should be taken into consideration to get a good translation from English to Chinese， and vice versa.

4.2 Cultural Factors of the Target Consumers

Culture is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject. It embraces almost everything in the world， material and spiritual. It includes： all the products of manufacture， various systems and the theories that support them， such as social systems， religious systems， ritual systems， educational systems， kinship systems and language， people’s mentality and behaviors， their thought patterns， beliefs， conceptions of value， aesthetic tastes， etc.

Translating means “to express in another language or in simpler words”. （Oxford Dictionary， 1997） In fact， the translation of one language into another is far more complex than this definition.

（1） Catering； to Target Consumers’ Appetite

The world well-known sport brand Nike is an good example. The word “nike” means victory and propitious in its English origin， and is translated into“耐克”in Chinese. The brand name are loved by Chinese people， the word “耐”reflects the products are durable and “克” means defeat the enemy and win victory. In this way， the target receptors feel the same way toward the name with the original readers， and the selling is good， so it is a successful translation.

（2） Avoiding Target Consumers’ Taboos

In Chinese tradition， many brand names are named after fowls and animals. But different nations hold completely different feelings of likes and dislikes toward the same fowls and animals. For example， in Chinese culture，“喜鵲”is the “reporter of spring”， the “messenger of good luck”； while in English cultures， magpie reminds people of nagging and tortuous， if it is a word for word translation in the brand names， the meaning of brand names is lost. （Guo Shangxing， 1995：30）

The above instances show that the relationship between culture and communication is complex， and good translation of brand names should always take culture factors into cautious consideration. Culture influences communication， and vice versa.

4.3 Translation Strategy of Sport Brand Names

4.3.1 Transliteration

Transliteration method is an ideal method in the translation of sporting brand names because it not only reproduces the beauty of pronunciation of the original name in form， but also reflects the characteristics of the product in its content. Transliteration means to select the propitious words which are homophones so that it makes the translation approach to the original name in pronunciation but also has of commendatory in the meaning which can satisfy consumers’ psychology. Therefore， more and more translators adopt transliteration method in the translation of cosmetic brand names. Let’s look at an example： the translation of “Nike” is a successful case. It is translated into “耐克”. From the perspective of transliteration， “耐克”is close to the pronunciation of the original name. The two words are loved by Chinese people， the word “耐”reflects the products are durable and “克” means defeat the enemy and win victory. “Adidas， Kappa， Giant， Anta， Li Ning” are translated into “阿迪達斯、卡帕、捷安特、安踏和李寧”. Others like “Peak， Columbia， Star， Wilson， Head， Avia and Voit are translated into “匹克、哥倫比亞、世達、海德、愛維亞和沃特”. “八哥” is a Chinese sport brand， its English translation is “Bage” which means brave age. These translations not only successfully conveys the beauty of pronunciation of the original name， but also vividly and lively transfers the sports features of the brand and arouses forceful imaginations so that it can stimulate purchasing desires of consumers and achieve the translation purpose.

4.3.2 Literal Translation

Literal translation means to translate according to its literal meaning. It maintains the referential meaning of the words and makes the content matches up the form under the condition of not violating the culture traditions. The number of adopting literal translation to translate the sporting brand names is rare. Only when the original name is special， meaningful and is welcomed by consumers， literal translation is employed. For example， “Jordan” is translated into “喬丹”by using literal translation， since Michal Jordan is a famous basketball player in the world. “Double Star” is translated into “雙星”literally. The same goes to “Double fish雙魚” “Double Happiness 紅雙喜” “Victor 勝利” “Butterfly 蝴蝶” “Train火車頭” “Prince 王子” and “Savage 野人”. Thus， the skillful use of literal translation can bring better imaginations and perfect feelings.

4.3.3The Combination of Transliteration and Literal Translation

Since many transliteration or liberal translation cannot do the job alone， we can use the combination of transliteration and liberal translation to translate sporting brand names. A good translation of a brand name should not only be similar to the original sound but also reflect the connotation of the original. The combination of transliteration and liberal translation may achieve dual purpose， as the message of the brand name will be more vividly reflected so that it will be more impressive to guide consumption. And by using this method， it can achieve a closer effect to Nida’s functional equivalence since a maximal， ideal definition could be stated as “The readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did. Many cases choose this method. Such as “Reebok”， which translated into “銳步”； “Puma” is called by “彪馬”； “Lotto”， its Chinese version is “樂圖”； “Decathlon” is translated into “迪卡儂”. Others like “Deerway”， “Warrior”， ‘Teloon”， “Mizuno”， “Toread” are named by “德爾惠”， “回力”， “天龍”， “美津濃”， “探路者”. In same circumstances， the method of the combination of transliteration and liberal translation can be adopted to achieve the best effect in the sporting brand name translation.

5. Conclusion

A tentative study has been made in this thesis on the topic of sport band names translation， which is a relatively new genre in the field of translation. Actually it is a science as well as an art. It is a comprehensive process， which covers cultures， consumer’s psychology， commercials and translation studies. Sport brand name translation has its own unique function and purpose， which is to attract attention， arouse interest， stimulate desire and get action.

Undoubtedly， the application of functional equivalence theory to sport brand name translation can help to choose proper strategies on different occasions. Based on functional equivalence theory， the commonly use translation strategies for sport brand name translation can be listed as follows： literal translation， transliteration and the combination of transliteration. In sport brand name translation， the translator should cautiously and flexibly adopt these translation strategies according to different situation. Because none of these methods almighty in all situations.

In a word， sport brand name translation is a complicated work which involves linguistics， translation theory， marketing， psychology and culture， etc. As economic globalization keeps on developing， further and detailed studies on sport brand name translation form the perspective of the Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory need to be carried on to meet the new challenges in this field.

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