On The Dynamic Functioning Of Cultural Adaptation In Brand Name Translation

Despite its importance, brand name translation had hardly drawn any attention from the Chinese translators until around 1994, when really significant studies on this topic began. The thirty essays relating brand name translation published in the three leading translation journals and a few other academic journals in the past ten years fall into five categories in terms of their focuses. Seventeen have been dealing with the principles and methods of brand name translation; two have been devoted to the translation of brand names when used in different parts of speech; eight have touched upon the importance of culture in brand name translation; one has proposed applying socio-semiotics to brand name translation; still two have criticized the present brand name translation studies in China. Briefly, the present studies on brand name translation in China are far from being satisfactory: most of the studies are based on a mere descriptive analysis of examples rather than on a theoretical foundation, and although culture has been discussed repeatedly, recent linguistic theories have scarcely been applied to the discussion.The originality of the present research is its inquiry into brand name translation in the light of the Theory of Adaptation (Jef Verschueren, 2000:13) and its exploration of the dynamic functioning of cultural adaptation in brand name translation from a pragmatic perspective.To begin with, the paper reviews the previous studies on this topic and introduces the present study. Secondly, the concepts of brand and brand name are introduced, followed by a discussion of the importance of brand name translation and the commonly used methods in brand name translation. Thirdly, the relationship between language, culture and translation serves as a starting point for the present study, functional equivalence provides an effective way of evaluating good translations of brand names, and the Theory of Adaptation is exploited to facilitate the understanding of brand name translation as a process ofcontinuous adaptation to various factors. Fourthly, the paper concentrates on cultural adaptation in brand name translation. With the help of numerous real examples of brand name translations, an in-depth analysis is conducted on various cultural correlates with which brand name translation should be adaptable. The word "culture" is used in a broad sense, referring to almost everything in human life ranging from national traits to purchasing psychology. Finally, the paper investigates the way in which cultural functions, seeing dynamics as one characteristic of cultural adaptation in brand name translation. Through the above analysis, the paper comes to the conclusion that the functioning of cultural adaptation, which is a dynamic process, is crucially important in brand name translation. This research aims at achieving a better understanding of brand name translation process and can help to overcome the cultural barriers to successful translations of brand names.