Brand Names And Cultural Adaptation In Their Translation

As a considerably essential component of advertisement, brand name plays a more and more important role in the society. People come to realize the importance of good brand names and their proper translations in the process of promoting sales and cultivating foreign markets. Thus, it is not only necessary but urgent for people to make study on brand names and their translation.This thesis is to explore the influence of cultural factors on brand name translation, to study the special requirements of translation and the corresponding translating techniques and to expound the guiding effect of theories on translating practice. The thesis is built on Verschueren's theory of adaptation—cultural adaptation to approach the effects on cultural elements to translation criteria and translation research. The author indicates that brand name translation is a process of adaptation. In the thesis the definition of brand name, other related terms and function of brand name are introduced. Then the common used methods of brand name translation are reviewed. Subsequently the author explores the necessity and the process of cultural adaptation in brand name translation, then focus on cultural adaptation to various cultural elements with the help of numerous real examples. A conclusion can be drawn that the Theory of Cultural Adaptation provides an effective way of accomplishing good translations.