文化差异与商标品牌名称翻译的关系_中英文化差异背景下英语商标的汉译

　　摘 要：商标是商品的标志，它是商品显著特征的浓缩，是商品文化的核心部分。商标的翻译是由解码到编码的逆向转化过程，融入了不同文化间的思想感情、知识水平、文化修养、宗教信仰、生活环境等各种因素。好的商标翻译能传神地译出原商标的名字、特色或者内涵，有利于提高产品知名度，打开销路，加强市场占有率。特别是在经济全球一体化不断深入的今天，世界各国贸易空前繁荣，而一国的产品想要成功地打入目标市场国，品牌贴切的目标语翻译就成为了关键。本文就是在此背景之下，以中英商标的文化差异为切入点，对英文商标进行了探讨，借以找出正确的翻译策略，以利于促进中外经济文化交流的进一步发展。
　　关键词：英语商标；文化差异；翻译
　　[中图分类号]：H059 [文献标识码]：A
　　[文章编号]：1002-2139(2012)-16-0-02
　　1 Introduction
　　A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a certain entity or person. The translation of trademark is a very practical translation action with high commercial value. It also transmits the culture from the source language to the target language. The ultimate purpose of translating trademark is to persuade the consumers in the other countries to buy the products and earn commercial benefit. Above all, the effective translation of trademarks may be urgent and necessary.
　　Based on this, this paper discusses the English trademarks and attempts to help promoting the economic and cultural exchanges with other countries by using appropriate translation tactics.
　　2 The Disparity between the English and Chinese Cultures in Trademark
　　The differences between English and Chinese cultures may be obviously reflected in the use of trademarks.
　　English is a typical phonetic language and compared with Chinese, most of the English trademarks are just designation code for commodities, without any function of instructing product quality characteristics, which is quite distinct from Chinese ones. Since there is a tradition of pursuing good fortune and avoiding disaster in Chinese culture, more emphasis is put on the reference meaning of the Chinese trademarks. So in Chinese culture, choosing proper words is very crucial, so is for Chinese trademarks.
　　“Transformers”, quite popular in the U.S., is a very famous toy. If the trademark is literally translated as “变形”, which means “distortion”, it can hardly be accepted by Chinese consumer, because it is only an illustration for the function of the toy, without any connotative meaning. However, the Chinese translation is skillfully attached “King Kong”(金刚)--- a quite unique Chinese name for a person who is very strong and powerful--- after the original trademark, fitting to the mind of eager expectation from parents to their children, making it a great success.
　　Another example is the world renowned automobile “Benz”, whose full name is “Mercedes-Benz”. This trademark is composed of two parts, both of which originally are names of people. “Mercedes” is a girl’s name, whose father is a diplomat and very successful businessman in Austria. “Benz” is the car’s first name and it comes from its producer Karl Benz. As one world top car “Benz” is translated as “奔驰” in the mainland of China, which is a vivid description for its high quality and superior property, just like a strong horse galloping on the way. Besides its good connotative meaning, “奔驰” also resembles its English version in pronunciation, which helps it be a quite popular car in China. From “Benz” to “奔驰”, the disparity between the two cultures can be seen obviously.