On Translation Of Brand Names From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Brand is the result of economic development. With the economic globalization, a growing number of domestic products are exported to western countries and foreign commodities imported to Chinese market. During this trading process, people come to realize the important role of brand name in stimulating the consumption. Furthermore, brand naming is taken as a crucial strategy by the produces in promoting the product and opening the international market. But brand name translation is a complicated art, in that it concerns many fields, such as linguistics, translation theory, psychology, aesthetics, marketing, and intercultural communication. Thus, appropriate and successful brand name translation is a big challenge for translators.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces the purpose, the research questions, the methodology, and the structure of this thesis.Chapter Two is the part of literature review, which summarizes the relevant studies on brand name translation from many perspectives:relevance theory, Skopostheory, the domestication and foreignization strategy, the importance of cultural differences.Chapter Three gives a detailed presentation of brand names, including the definition of brand and brand name, the evolution history of brand name, and the characteristics and functions of brand name. Having a good command of basic knowledge about brand name is necessary for successful brand name translation.Brand name translation is a target-oriented translation and must conform to the cultural characteristics of the target market. In Chapter Four, a lot of English brand names and Chinese brand names are analyzed to demonstrate the influences of cultural factors on brand name translation. The cultural factors involved include: values, customs and habits, consumer psychology, aesthetics, and different associations of animal words and plant words.In Chapter Five, the author puts forward Nida's functional equivalence theory, which is the theory ground of the present thesis. He presents the problems existing in brand name translation and gives some suggestions accordingly, and then illustrates the application of Nida's functional equivalence to brand name translation and the principles of brand name translation. Based on analyzing a great number of brand name examples, the author puts forward six main brand name translation strategies under the guiding theory of functional equivalence:1) transliteration; 2) literal translation; 3) free translation; 4) sound-meaning combined translation; 5) creative translation; 6) zero-translation. In brand name translation practice, the translators should adopt the translation method, to achieve the purpose of "making the translated brand name have the same function of the original brand name:attracting the attention of the target consumers and then stimulating their purchasing desire.'In conclusion, the author systematically studies brand name translation from the functional equivalence approach. And he hopes it can offer some guidance for improving the quality of English and Chinese brand name translation.