Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Name’s Translation浅论汉英商标名称翻译的文化差异

Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Name’s Translation一、课题(论文)提纲二、内容摘要三、参考文献Cultural Differences in Chinese-English Brand Name’sTranslationAbstract：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 name’s translation between Chinese and the Western countries through analyzing the characteristics of brand name’s translation. At the same time, the author gives more attention tothe 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 name’s 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 name’s translationIntroductionAs the increase of international communication, the exported products have become one of the important windows to show the national culture to the ot her countries in recent. However, brand name’s translation involves language and culture, it as a very important cultural communication way, the brand name’s 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 name’s trans lation.Cultural vacancy and cultural clash often lead to a lot of difficulties in theprocess of brand name’s 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 name’s translation can help people from the entire world to intercommunicate freely. At the same time, brand name’s translation can make our culture richer and more vivi d, so good brand name’s 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 name’s 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 name’s translation. This thesis is to study cultural differences in brand name’s 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 name’s 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 br and name’s 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 dependenton 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 name’s 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 name’s translation. Last is conclusion. From the analysis of previous chapters, it emphasizes again that brand name’s translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication. Owing to the close relation between culture and translation, it is impossible to study brand name’s translation without culture.Ⅰ. the Relationship among Language, Culture and Brand Name’s 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 a bout “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 allby target culture receptors. Pan Huixiaand 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-associate d 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 1990’s, translation concerns not only the transferring between languages, but also the transferring between cultures. The main difficulties in translation comefrom the fact that some words in source language can’t 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 Huinanstudies C-E brand name’s 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 name’s 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 name’s translation.According to the studies of other scholars, the author attempts to discuss cultural differences in C-E brand name’s 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 people’s social activity. Without language, the literature, sciences and economical systems can not exist. Bloch andTrager (1942:5) have a definition of language that a language is a system of arbitraryvocal 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 signi ficance 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 people’s 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 Cu lture, 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 t ranslated 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 embod ied 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 Name’s TranslationIt is common to assume that cultures differ from each other and eachculture 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”, b ecause 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 t o 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 impossible for all consumers from different cultural backgrounds to accept the cultural information which is loaded in brand names. On the other hand, culture is transmitted through brands. Brands, as an important carrier of culturalinformation, indirectly or directly show or influence the cultural meanings of their own nation. Brand name’s translation is regarded as a kind of cross-communication between different cultures.2. Two Aspects of Cultural Differences in Brand Name’s TranslationOwing to the close relationship between culture and language, brand name’s translation is closely related to culture. However, the striking different cultures often bring a lot of difficul ties in the process of brand name’s translation. So, cultural differences are the inevitable problems that translators must consider. To a large extent, cultural differences in brand name’s translation mainly include cultural vacancy and cultural clash.2.1 Cultural VacancyOwing to cultural differences in historical backgrounds, religious beliefs, social culture, value systems, customs and habits, many expressions in source language have no their own equivalents in target language. This phenomenon has brought great barriers in the process of brand name translating. One of them is about “cultural vacancy” which is the main barrier in our cross-cultural translating. Cultural peculiarity is the main factor leading to cultural vacancy, which is the basic exampl e of cultural differences. 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” byWang Bingqin(1995:110), “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 point out that “The unique phenomenon of language and culture which is specific to a nation while does not exist in another culture”(潘惠霞，李辉,2000:74-77).It is easy for people having the same cultural background to understand the omitted part, but it is very difficult for people from different cultural backgrounds to understand the cultural connotations entailed in brand names. For example,“红豆”in Chinese culture is a symbol for love and missing. But “red bean” in English culture is just for a bowl of red bean stew in a story. Another example is about vocabulary vacancy between the Chinese language and the Western language in brand name’s translation. The following brand names have no equivalents in the Western language, such as“王老吉”(drink)and“稻花香”(alcohol). In this thesis, the author mainly studies cultural vacancy from the following aspects: lexical gap and semantic gap.2.1.1 Lexical GapOwing to the close relationship between culture and language, cultural differences naturally lead to the differences in the aspect of lexicon. China has a long history about 5000 years. And some words which are related to the Chinese long history have rich cultural information. However, most words have no equivalents in the Western language. Therefore, these words cannot be literally translated into the English language. But, as people have strong feelings aboutthese words, these brand names can arouse a good impression on Chinese consumers, such as, “同仁堂”,“王麻子”(scissors),“王老吉”(tea),and so on. Lexical gap may be a major barrier in intercultural communication, and this thesis divides lexical gaps into two main aspects: non-equivalent concept and non-equivalent expression.Non-equivalent concept refers to the fact that a concept which exists in source language is absent in target language. This expression conveys the idea that a term in English or Chinese does not have an equivalent in the other language. In traditional Chinese culture, many words which denote special cultural information have no equivalents in Western cultur e. For example,“淑女屋”(clothing)---(from Shi Jing《诗·周南·关》---窈窕淑女，君子好求),“嫦娥”(moon cake)---(from a mythology--嫦娥奔月),“长城”(electric appliance)---(a symbol of China)are all bestowed with positive culture images. Besides,“粽子”is a very famous traditional food in Ch ina, but there does not exist equivalent of the word“粽子”in the Western language. On the other hand, some English words reflecting the Western culture may be difficult for Chinese people to understand their meanings, as no equivalent lexical words are avail able in the Chinese language. For example, “Jetta” is the brand name for car. Its Chinese name is“捷达”,which means convenient and swift reaching.“Mcdonald”is translated into“麦当劳”,which is a kind of fast food. Apart from these, there exist many examples about non-equivalent concept between English-Chinese brand name’s translation, such as Golf（高尔夫），Hamburger(汉堡包)，“Giordano”（左丹奴）,“Coca-cola(可口可乐）,and“Pizza”(比萨).Non-equivalent expression indicates the fact that the expression of an existing concept is absent. Some word is easy to grasp the meaning of the expression, but it is difficult to translate it into Chinese. This phenomenon occurs in Chinese-English brand name’s translation. For example, in Chinese traditional culture, the term“状元”symbolizes a person who is the best in a national test. Before the emergence of the expression“状元”,we believe that there also exist some words in the Western language which have the same meaning as the word“状元”,such as the words“Champion”and“Number One Scholar”,whereas in the We stern language, there has no word to name these. New expression always enters with a new name, but it really takes time for the natives to get familiar with the new term.2.1.2 Semantic GapIn the 1970s, British linguist Geoffrey Leech published his book Semantics which put the study of meaning in an entire social and cultural framework. He recognized the importance of cultural circumstances in language use and brought semantics into closest contact with people’s cultural life. Due to the close relationship between culture and language, cultural vacancy is the root of semantic gaps. Some words in the source language have no cultural equivalents in the target language. This phenomenon is called semantic gap. In this thesis, semantic gaps between Chinese and English are divided into twogroups: the same denotation, but the different connotations and the same denotation, but the absent connotations.Since human beings contact with animals and plants frequently, we can notice that a lot of names of animals and plants are used in Chinese and English brand names. However, because of different cultures, the connotations of animal words in one language do not necessarily coincide with those in another. The cultural images of animals have many differences in different countries, which affect translation. According to the Bible, “sheep” refers to the kindhearted person. On the contrary,“goat” is compared to the malicious person. Even lamb has its special religious connotation, which is the image of Jesus who suffered a l ot for people. While in the Chinese language, these animal words don’t have such religious meanings. And“羊”(yang)is similar to“祥”(xiang)in pronunciation, so“祥”in the Chinese language indicates good luck. In addition,“玫瑰”and“rose”symbolize“love”in both Chin ese culture and the Western culture, the connotative meanings are different in other aspect. In English culture, the word “rose” used in a certain expression indicates the connotation of“silence” or “secret” ,such as, “under the rose”.So, we can conclude that the non-equivalent in meanings shows this fact that the cultural gap between the Chinese language and the English language exists. During the process of inter-communication of brand names between two cultures, it is inevitable to avoid the cultural gap.2.2 Cultural Clash in Brand Name’s TranslationOwing to the different historical and social development China and English-speaking countries, culture is always nation-specific. So, cultural clashes are inevitable problems which translators have to face. Since language is the carrier of culture, the clashes between Chinese culture and the Western culture are reflected by the clashes between the two different languages:the conflicting denotations, or the conflicting connotations and the same denotation, but conflicting connotations.Because of the differences between the Chinese culture and English culture, people have different value systems and different beliefs. For the same word, people in different cultures may have different associative meanings. Conflict of word meaning is often caused by the abundant cultural connotations of words. For example, in Chinese culture,“白象”is a brand name of batteries. The word“白象”will gives people the feelings of“clean”and“lovely animal”.When“白象”is used to be the brand na me, it was soon accepted by most people. However, in the English culture, “white elephant” symbolizes something useless. If it is translated into“白象”literally, it is certain that the consumers in the English-speaking countries will not be fond of it.As the Chinese culture and English culture belong to two different systems, the associative information of brand names is sometimes contrary to each other. Take the word “dragon” as a typical example. In the minds of Chinese people, “dragon” indicates good luck and fortune in future and symbolizes power. “龙”is even a symbol of China and Chinese people are calledthe “descendants of the Dragon”. It is easy for us to find many expressions related to the word“龙”,such as“真龙天子”,“望子成龙”,“龙腾虎跃”and“生龙活虎”.While in English-speaking countries,“dragon”is regarded as a threatening animal. In the Bible, Satan Devil is compared to “the great dragon”, while those who have killed dragons are called heroes. And the idiom “to show dragon’s teeth” means “to sow the seed of misfortunes”.3.Cultural Impact on Brand Name’s Translation3.1 Different Value SystemsValues are a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts. “These rules teach us what is useful, good, right, wrong, what to strive for, how to li ve our life, and even what to die for” (Samovar, Porter & Stefani,2000:60).In other words, the value system includes people’s opinions about the world, people’s beliefs and so on. In one word, the value system is playing a basic role in deciding people’s b ehaviors and thoughts. Thus, the value system of culture is a very important factor affecting brand name’s translation, for different nations have different behavioral standards.Since individualism is regarded as an important factor of value systems in Western culture, individualism plays a basic role in the establishment of relationship among human beings. Even the Bible carries examples of individualism.The author takes some brand names as examples to prove this phenomenon. Producers support many products or services for consumers topurchase freely, such as“classic Coke”, “King Coke”, and “Diet Coke” .Apart from these, individuals hope to get great achievements, and then they will be thought as the important valuable persons. To meet this value of consumers, there exist many brand names, such as “Pilot”,“Commander” ,and “Hp”.However, individualism is not the driving force in all cultures. The Chinese equivalent of“individualism”is“个人主义”，which is，on the contrary, a negative concept. According to《现代汉语字典》(The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary)，“个人主义”has the following explanation:“一切从个人出发，把个人利益放在集体利益之上,只顾自己,不顾别人的错误思想.”(吕叔湘、丁声树,1983:373).Chinese culture put emphasis on social relationships as opposed to Western culture emphasizing on individuals. Obviously, Chinese culture is greatly affected by the thoughts of Confucianism which guide Chinese people to do something properly.3.2 Different Consumer PsychologiesDifferent cultures shape different psychology reaction to the same object. So, same brand names bring about different results in English and Chinese consumer psychology. Consumers’ different cultural environments can in a great degree decide his psychological response to the connotative meanings of a brand name. For instance,“水仙花”(narcissus)in China is esteemed as the flower with such noble characteristics as being neat and graceful that many manufactures would like to adopt it in their brand names. In contrast, the Western consumers are likely to associate it with the images of beautiful youthor self love or excessive self-admiration because the word “narcissus” originates from Narcissus, who was a beautiful youth in Greek mythology. It was said that the beautiful youth fell in love with his reflection in water, died and was turned into a flower with his name. So it is the representative of excessive self-admiration. Now, we can imagine who will buy a product that is quite self-admired.A Chinese enterprise produces a type of toothpaste named“黑妹”,delivering the message that even a girl with black teet h can turn her teeth white if she uses the toothpaste. We can image what response the product would meet if it is translated as“Black Sister” ?It is not only the symbol of disaster but also an offense to the Blacks.Thus, it is highly important to know the psychology structure of the target customers and their psychological response in order to avoid target customers’ misunderstanding of the different psychological structure of the source culture.3.3Different Customs and HabitsIt is well-known that custom is the way of life in a community, and custom includes many aspects, which concerns all kinds of field of social life. Different nations have different customs and habits. People are inclined to purse good luck, which can be reflected in brand names. In China, people often use the numbers“六”,“九”,and“双”to express good luck. Besides, Chinese expression“红喜”refers to getting married, celebrating birthday, giving birthhappily. And the word “红”are frequently used to be brand names to arouse the feelings of happ iness and success on consumers. The brand names“红旗”（car）,“红双喜”(shoes),“红塔山”(cigarette),“红蜻蜓”(shoes)are commonly seen in Chinese market. Death is considered as white happiness, as white is frequently the color of mourning in China. Although weddings and funerals can be translated into Chinese“红白喜事”,cultural connotations are lost. If English speakers do not know much about Chinese culture, they can still understand the meaning of“红喜”with the aid of red-letter days, and they will be most surprised at the funer al referred to as“白喜”,which is peculiar to Chinese culture.Different customs and habits may also result in different cultural connotations. Chinese people have special feelings about some animals, especially“龙”.“龙”is the symbol of noble spirit of the nati on and the system of the ancestor or the king of the nation. At the same time, Chinese people take the dragon as the symbol of the Chinese five-thousand-year civilization. In their minds, the dragon will bring good luck to them. That is why Chinese consumers like to purchase the products named after“龙”，such as “金龙鱼”“龙牌”,“飞龙”,“红金龙”.While in English culture,“dragon”does not have this good reputation as it does in China. When the Westerners see the name, they will associate a fierce monster with it. So “dragon” is seldom used as brand name in the English-speaking countries.From the above analyses we can see that correct treatment of the。