A Functionalist Approach To The Study And Translation Of Brand Names

With the rapid development of international trade and economic globalization, the translation of brand names in commercial trade is gaining greater and greater importance.As is known, brand name is a bridge linking a product and its consumers. A good one should be a perfect combination of sound, form and meaning and capable of impressing readers by its effects of beauty and easy memory. Thus, brand name translation is not the simple transfer of one language into another, but a complex process, involving various fields such as linguistics, culture, marketing strategy, consuming mentality, etc., which calls for systematic research.The dissertation tries to explore the translation of brand names from a new angle, namely, the functionalist perspective. Functionalist translation theory regards translating as a communicative action and holds that different text functions require different translation strategies, and it also stresses that the transcoding in translation should be based on the target language and serve the target-culture audience, and that the translator has the right to choose the most appropriate translating strategies that can realize the original expected functions. Functionalist translation theory provides a new angle for translation theory research, and functions well as a feasible solution to some practical translation problems like advertising and brand name translation. As its theme, the theory focuses upon the realization of the source-text functions in the target text and regards it as the major norm of evaluating translation. Unlike other forms of translation that involves the whole context, brand name translation is conducted on the basis of limited context of the source text of a single word or few words, thus having its own characteristics in text type, function, and language.In the thesis, the author analyzes in great detail the functions, and linguistic and textual features of brand names. As presented in the paper, linguistically both Chinese and English brand names must be simple, unique, novel and easy to remember. In addition, as Chinese and English belong to different language families and have their intrinsic structures, brand names must meet the requirements of their own linguistic features. The text of brand names is mainly informative and vocative, having limited context, and its chief functions are conceptual and vocative aiming at prompting customers to buy. Taking the distinct features discussed above, the author explores the norm and strategies for brand name translation from the functionalist perspective, and puts forward some proper approaches: transliteration, literal translation,...