Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Name’s Translation 英语专业毕业论文.doc

Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Names Translation一、 课题(论文)提纲0.引言1.语言、文化及商标名称翻译间的关系1.1 文学综述1.2 语言和文化1.3 文化及商标名称的翻译2.商标名称翻译中文化差异的表现2.1 文化空缺2.1.1 词汇的不足2.1.2 语义的不足2.2 商标名称翻译中的文化冲突3.影响商标名称翻译中的文化因素3.1 不同的价值体系3.2 不同的消费心理3.3 不同的风俗习惯4.商标名称的翻译4.1商标名称翻译策略4.1.1直译4.1.2 音译4.1.3意译4.1.4 创造性翻译4.2 商标名称翻译策略之评论5.结论二、内容摘要英语和汉语是目前世界上的两种主要语言，两种不同的语言也反映出两种不同的文化。众所周知语言不仅是文化的一部分，还是文化的载体。语言离不开文化，它只有在相应的文化中才有意义；同时文化也离不开语言，文化的发展也受语言的限制。然而，中西方文化存在着很大的差异，译者通常会遇到文化差异所带来的障碍。本文在分析商标词翻译中的中西方文化差异的基础上，主要分析两个不同方面：文化空缺和文化冲突，同时也分析了文化对商标翻译产生的巨大影响，并提出了在翻译过程中如何更好地解除文化背景的障碍，有效地采取相应的翻译策略来迎合消费者的消费取向的建议。三、 参考文献1Bloch, B. and Trager, G. Outline of Linguistic Analysis. Baltimore: Waverley Press.1942:5.2Charks Hockett. A Course in Modern Linguistics. New York: Macmillan.1956.3Larry, A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter. Communication between Cultures. Thomson Learning Asia and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.2000.4Leech, G. Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Great Britain: the Chaucer Press. 1981.5Nida, Eugean A. Language, Culture and Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.2002:146.6Samovar, Larry A., Porter, Pichard E. &Stefani, Lisa A. Communication between Cultures.2000:120.7Taylor, Edward B. Primitive Culture. London: John Murray.1871:36.8包惠南.文化语境与语言翻译.北京：中国对外翻译出版，2001:274-287.9林大津.跨文化交际研究.福州:福建人民出版社，1996:185-188.10吕叔湘,丁声树等.现代汉语词典.北京：商务印书出版社，1983:37311潘惠霞,李辉.汉译英过程中文化空缺现象探索，1（2000):74-77.12王秉钦.文化与翻译.天津：南开大学出版社，3（1995）:110.Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Names Translation Abstract：English and Chinese are two of the major languages in the world, reflecting two main cultures. It is well-known that language is a part of culture and is the carrier of culture as well. Language and culture cannot be separated from each other. Language would be meaningless without culture and the development of culture would be restricted by language. At the same time, translation is not only the bridge between different languages, but also the inter-cultural communication between different cultures. However, translators often encounter some barriers which are caused by cultural differences in the process of cross-cultural translating. This thesis attempts to explore the cultural differences and the cultural impact on brand names translation between Chinese and the Western countries through analyzing the characteristics of brand names translation. At the same time, the author gives more attention to the main factors of cultural differences: cultural vacancy and cultural clash. Furthermore, the author analyzes the great influence of cultural factors in the process of brand names translation. When translating, translators should adopt some proper and useful strategies to avoid the barriers caused by different cultural backgrounds. Keywords ：language; cultural differences; cultural vacancy; cultural clash; brand names translationIntroductionAs the increase of international communication, the exported products have become one of the important windows to show the national culture to the other countries in recent. However, brand names translation involves language and culture, it as a very important cultural communication way, the brand names translation is closely related to cultural factors. However, during the process of translation, translators always encounter some difficulties caused by cultural differences. For instance, the translators can not find the equivalents in the target culture, or the translators often encounter some barriers that the connotative meanings of quite a lot of words in source language are in conflict with the connotative meanings of their equivalent words in target language. Then, the aim of this thesis is to probe the differences between the two cultures according to quite a lot of examples of brand names translation.Cultural vacancy and cultural clash often lead to a lot of difficulties in the process of brand names translation. And if translators can not deal with the difficulties caused by cultural differences, the consumers in the target market often misunderstand the connotative meanings of the brand names. On the contrary, effective brand names translation can help people from the entire world to intercommunicate freely. At the same time, brand names translation can make our culture richer and more vivid, so good brand names translation plays an important role in introducing cultural information between two different cultures. In order to find whether the brand names at present market are translated properly or not, this thesis makes a systematic research on cultural differences in brand names translation. The study can improve the future intercultural translation into a higher level.Generally speaking, Chinese culture is greatly different from English culture. Due to striking differences between Chinese culture and English culture, barriers often occur in brand names translation. This thesis is to study cultural differences in brand names translation between China and the Western countries in order to make people realize the important role of culture and help translators to obtain successful brand names translation.The developments of the thesis are as follows: first is an introduction to the thesis. After introduction, the first chapter analyzes the close relationship among culture, language and brand names translation. Language is shaped by culture, and language carriers culture, spreads culture and helps to develop culture. And culture is learned by language. Language and culture are dependent on each other. The second chapter analyzes the cultural differences between Chinese culture and the Western culture which include cultural vacancy and cultural clash. The third chapter explores the impact of cultural differences on brand names translation, which includes different value systems, different customs and habits, and different customer psychology. The fourth chapter is a problem-solving section, which explores the practices of brand names translation. Last is conclusion. From the analysis of previous chapters, it emphasizes again that brand names translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication. Owing to the close relation between culture and translation, it is impossible to study brand names translation without culture. the Relationship among Language, Culture and Brand Names Translation1. 1 Literature ReviewAs international trade expanded, the effects of culture are becoming more and more important. Chinese culture and English culture belong to two different systems. This thesis gives more attention to cultural vacancy. The definition of “vacancy” was first proposed by American linguist Charks Hockett in 1950s.He used “random holes in patterns” to describe the language phenomenon when contrasting grammatical patterns of two languages.In China, there exist two main definitions about “cultural vacancy”: Wang Bingqin (1995:110) remarks that “vacancy” refers to the cultural vacancy resulting from unintelligible things in SL that will be easily misunderstood at all by target culture receptors. Pan Huixia and Li Hui(2000:74-77)give this definition that “vacancy” refers to the unique phenomenon of language and culture which is specific to a nation while does not exist in another culture.Although these definitions are expressed in different words, they reflect one fact that cultural vacancy refers to the linguistic and cultural facts which exist in one national culture but default in another due to cultural differences.The author divides the cultural vacancy into two aspects: lexical gap and semantic gap. Since lexical gap is closely related to language and culture, it is basically manifested at the word level and more specifically, to the denotation and connotation of a word between two languages. When mentioning lexical gaps, Professor Lin Dajin uses the term of “Psychological-associated meaning” in Intercultural Communication Studies(1996:185-188)to distinguish the following five types: total absence of psychological association, the same denotation but different connotations, the same denotation but absent connotations, the same connotation but different denotations, different denotations and different connotations. Semantic gaps resulted from the non-equivalents are manifested in the denotation and the connotation of the words. Some words have less or more connotations in English than in Chinese, or, some words in both languages appear to refer to the same thing on the surface, but actually refer to quite different things. Since the “cultural turn” in the 1990s, translation concerns not only the transferring between languages, but also the transferring between cultures. The main difficulties in translation come from the fact that some words in source language cant always have their equivalent words in target language. So, during the process of translating, the problem how to deal with the cultural differences is a meaningful task for our study.In terms of translation principles, Bao Huinan studies C-E brand names translation from the perspectives of language and culture. He advances this principle: translators must respect the national psychology and grasp the associative meaning. The chosen words should be simple, brief, and catchy (Bao Huinan, 2001:274-287). Bao Huinan (2001:274-287) agrees that culture plays an important role in brand names translation, stresses the importance of an appropriate conversation of cultural meaning and clearly puts forward the opinion that ignoring cultural differences may cause pragmatic failures in brand names translation.According to the studies of other scholars, the author attempts to discuss cultural differences in C-E brand names translation.1.2 Language and CultureLanguage is a social phenomenon which satisfies human beings needs to express culture and create culture. The basic distinction between human beings and animals is that human beings have the ability to make use of language. Language is the central part of peoples social activity. Without language, the literature, sciences and economical systems can not exist. Bloch and Trager (1942:5) have a definition of language that a language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human beings. And Samovar(2000:120)noted that “A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate two without losing the significance of either language or culture.”Culture is a very complex concept. It is the product of the people through their creation work and it plays a significant role in peoples life. It is a system in which people share beliefs, values, customs and behaviors. Many definitions about culture have been given from different fields. The most important definition of culture was given by Edward Tylor, a British scholar in 1871. This definition was widely accepted over a hundred years ago. In the book Primitive Culture, he defined culture as “a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society(Tylor,1871:36).The fact is that language and culture are closely related to each other and the two factors cannot be separated at any time. And it is generally agreed that it is because of the existing of language, culture can be transmitted from generation to generation through leaning. Therefore, if people want to learn a language, they must know well about the culture, and if people want to know the culture, they must study the language. On the other hand, any change in a culture often embodies corresponding change in its language, and gives rise to new brand names. For instance, when Chinese people are influenced by the Western culture and accept it, some new words in Chinese language appear. Many Chinese words are from the Western religious culture, economical culture and so on. For example, the brand name“奔驰”is translated from the brand name“Benz”.At the same time, it is easy for people to notice this phenomenon that as more and more new brand names appear in Chinese market, language has developed. So, if people are eager to understand a language, they must know well about the culture and the customs of the culture in which the language is spoken. It is very quite reasonable to say that learning a language is to learn the culture and leaning a culture is to lean the language. Therefore, it is very accurate for Nida (2002:146) to conclude that “language and culture often combine in a kind of symbiosis.” Chinese culture and English culture are different. Owing to the differences in the social environment, history, religion and region, cultural differences will be embodied in language. Take “regional cultural differences” as an example. China is a country based on agriculture, and the majority of the people make a living by farming. So, there are many words and expressions which are related to“牛”, such as, the brand name“红牛”.However, most Westerners do not like to use the word “bull”as the brand name. It is the reason that“牛”has different cultural meanings in the minds of the Westerners because of the different regional cultures. Cultures differ from one another, and each culture is unique. As cultures are diverse, so are languages.1.3 Culture and Brand Names TranslationIt is common to assume that cultures differ from each other and each culture is unique. Nevertheless, in the age of globalization, cultural boundaries are blurred. Translation leads to exchange of cultures between the Chinese culture and the Western culture. From the relationship between language and culture, it is obvious that translation is not only the process of transferring the source language into the target language, but also the process of a mutual communication and exchange of the two different cultures. The main purpose and characteristic of translation are to exchange ideas and cultures. Translation can also be called a “cultural translation”, because culture factor is taken into consideration. The differences between the source culture and the target culture are the main headaches for translators or theorists to bridge the cultural gap. The translation case of“White Elephant”(translated from the Chinese brand name“白象”) is a typical example to indicate the mistranslation between different cultures. Then, translators should be sensitive to cultural differences.Culture is of great importance in brand naming, for the main usage of a brand name is to attract consumers to purchase, or satisfy the consumers needs. A successful brand name will bring benefits to the producers. Today, translators not only face the consumers from the same cultural background, but also consider the needs of consumers from different cultural backgrounds. It is imp