Translation Of Brand Names In Perspective Of Reception Theory

Nowadays, Chinese economy is undergone dramatic development. With the perfection of market economy, Chinese enterprises will further associate with the outside world and more and more Chinese commodities are entering into the world market and competing with overseas goods. Therefore, brand name translation plays a more and more crucial role in international communication. However, brand name translation hasn't been significantly valued in China. As an important part of advertisement translation, brand name translation has its own inherent laws, which require a systematic research. This paper probes into a brand-new perspective to guide brand name translation, referring to translation principles, techniques and effects, for the sake of facilitating the improvement of brand name translation and building good brand images for enterprises.Reception Theory originated from a type of literary criticism theory. It is an important school of contemporary western literary theory. As a new-typed paradigm and a newly-rising methodology in literary research, it was born in the University of Constance in the south of Germany in the middle of 1960s and soon it swept across the whole European and American literature circle. Reception Theory, established relevantly on the basis of hermeneutics and phenomenology, lays emphasis on readers-centered idea, their horizon of expectation, and fusions of reader's expectation with that of the original text, and has a practical significance for brand name translation. It is compensation for pure linguistic theory, which ignores reader's reception psychology and aesthetic elements as well as a basis of Functional Equivalence Theory in translation. In Reception Theory, translator should comply with three principles: principle of consumer-centeredness, principle of faithfulnessand principle of fusions of two horizon and flexibly adopt four methods of translating brand names: transliteration, literal translation, adaptation, and combined translation to deal with the differences in culture and aesthetics. On one hand, brand name translation should preserve and transfer original information and image, and on the other hand it should take readers' acceptance ability into consideration and broaden the horizon of expectation for them.The following is a brief explanation to the organization of this paper. The paper mainly consists of four chapters, in addition to introduction, which makes a general survey of the researches done in the past related to brand name translation, pointing out there are a number of limitations in them, and conclusion.Chapter one explains the theoretical framework of this paper, which mainly derived from Reception Theory proposed by two most important representatives, Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser, and serving as the basis of Functional Equivalence Theory.Chapter two discusses the concepts of brand and brand name, the difference between Chinese and English brand namings and highlights the importance of brand name translation.Due to the great trouble resulted from the difference between English and Chinese brand namings, Chapter three puts forward three principles: principle of consumer-centeredness, principle of faithfulness and principle of fusions of two horizon, which guide the process of brand name translation.Based on the above-mentioned principles, Chapter four elaborates four methods of translating brand names: transliteration;literal translation;adaptation;and combined translation. Adopting these methods, translators should try to achieve the effects of realizing the informative, aesthetic, cultural and commercial value of brand name translation.The conclusion points out the limitations of this research. Butgenerally speaking, this article brings forward a new perspective of brand name translation, which is in great favor of the improvement of brand name translation, as well as the internationalization of brand naming design.