"(?)dídás?","Little Red Hat" And "Precious Horse":A Study Regarding The Perception Of Various Translation Methods Using The Example Of The Translation Of Brand Names From The German-speaking World Into Chinese

This study seeks to determine certain criteria that contribute to a "successful" translation regarding the German-Chinese language pair.For this purpose,the paper analyzes which translation method produces the most positive response,using the example of six different ways of transferring brand names from German-speaking countries into Chinese.Additionally,four hypotheses are being put forward to help illuminate the reasons for a successful translation.The first hypothesis(HI)proposes that disyllabic words with a high-pitch ending and a modifier-modified structure,as well as frequently used characters with a low number of strokes contribute to a favorable perception.The second hypothesis(H2)states that positively rated names either contain a concrete meaning with reference to the brand or product(attributes)(H2a)or imply special lucky words or numbers(H2b)in relevance to the Chinese culture.The third hypothesis(H3)suggests that among all strategies,the purely phonetic translation induces the most negative response,and the fourth hypothesis(H4)proposes that the brand distribution has a significant impact on the perception of the translation,regardless of whether the preferred features covered by H1 and H2 are being implemented or not.Accordingly,the brands Lufthansa,Adidas,Siemens and Volkswagen,which are widely spread in China,should be among the translations perceived as successful.To answer the research question and to validate the hypotheses,a quantitative collection of data was conducted in the form of an online survey aimed at native Chinese speakers.By means of the app???(Wenjuan wang),a list of 47 brands has been compiled,whose names were to be evaluated on a four-tier scale from"????"-'not good at allp'to'???-'very good'.Additionally,the respondents were given the option"??"qita,"other"to justify their selection.The brands can be assigned to one of six different translation methods:acquisition and dual translation,phonetic translation,semantic translation,creation,phono-semantic translation without,as well as with reference to the product or brand.A total of 78 valid answers were generated.These have shown that the phono-semantic translations with(1st place)and without(2nd place)reference to the product or brand received the highest ratings.No significant difference was detected in the ratings of the semantic translation(3rd place),the acquisition and dual strategy(4th place)and the phonetic translation(5th place).The method of creation(6th place)achieved the lowest score.The hypotheses were confirmed or disproved as follows:H1 was confirmed only in terms of high tone and the use of characters with a low stroke count.No preference was observed for disyllabic names with a modifier-modified structure containing frequently used characters.H2 was confirmed as the majority of the positively rated brand names were related to the product and/or comprised positive connotations.H3 was disproven,as the phonetic translation did not receive ratings that were considerably lower than those of the other methods.Except for Lufthansa,H4 was confirmed as Adidas,Volkswagen and Siemens were among the positively rated brands.The study has shown that regarding brand name translation,the most successful methods are those that pursue the transfer of a specific,positively connoted term,preferably in relation to the brand or product.Although it is generally recommended to take into consideration certain criteria in morphology or phonetics,it is not mandatory.Finally,based on the level of awareness of the brand within the target market,an extralinguistic factor may be evidenced that would affect the perception of brand names.