An Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphors In The Chinese-English Brand Name Translation

The quality of a brand name plays an important role in marketing. There is a need forenterprises to take certain metaphors into account when naming their products and service in orderto meet consumer behavior trend and gain a competitive advantage. Also, cross-culturalcommunication activities are becoming greatly increased as a natural result of rapid economicdevelopment of China. Then, one essential hint can be taken from these two statements that whetherthe market of their products at home and abroad can be successfully exploited greatly depends uponwhether or not conceptual metaphors are perceived as well as whether or not good translations ofbrand names are produced. As yet studies of brand name translations are mainly concerned withaspects of translation strategies, translation principles and application of translation theories;however, studies from a metaphorical perspective are scarcely touched.Consequently, this paper attempts to inquire into whether or not those chosen examples ofChinese brand names have gained successful translations with resort to the conceptual metaphortheory. Three situations are firstly classified according to whether or not metaphors are entailed andwhether or not metaphors in the original conform with that in the translated version, i.e. (a)metaphors cannot be found in the original brand names but appear after translation; (b) metaphorsare entailed in original brand names but disappear after translation; (c) metaphors can be both foundin the original brand names and in the translated versions, in which metaphors before and aftertranslation can be or not be in conformity with each other. One hypothesis about the percentage ofthose chosen examples each situation might account for is thus proposed and then verified throughquantitative analysis, which offers Chinese enterprises a clue to the naming and translation of theirproducts, i.e. much attention needs to be attached to the conceptual metaphors entailed.This study has made its contributions in the following two aspects. From the perspective oftheoretical significance, this paper exploits the conceptual metaphor theory to make quantitativeanalysis of Chinese brand names and their translated English versions and thus proving therationality of the combination of the conceptual metaphor theory and brand names. Besides, it alsoconcludes some conceptual metaphors generally entailed in brand names, furthering thedevelopment of the conceptual metaphor theory. From the perspective of practical values, this paperprovides enterprises with feasible clues to the naming of products and translation of brand names,and also with enlightenment that the acquisition of the best translated brand names relies on thecooperation of these clues and translation strategies. In such a way, markets at home and abroad canbe exploited effectively. In addition, this study accords with the developing tendency of China embodied in“let the world know China”and“let Chinese enterprises go outside”.