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1、A Cultural Approach to the Study of Brand Names从文化角度对商标名称的研究AbstractThis paper adopts cultural approach to the study of brand name. The author has collected many domestic and foreign brand names appeared in Chinese market. Brand is not only the mark of the commodity, a notion in economic field, but
2、is also with rich cultural connotation, is a social cultural phenomenon.This paper introduces the definition, the classification and characteristics of brand names and discusses their reflection in various aspects such as, social history, customs, religion, morality and so on. The author points out
3、that translation of brand names should give much attention to commodity information and cultural information contained in original brand names. It is sure that translation can not arouse cultural conflict, arouse unfavorable association, thus result in the failure of the selling. Brand names should
4、be internationalized on the basis of striving to contain the national characteristics. Thus brand names can live up to the names of cultural messengers. Key words: brand names, culture, translation of brand namesi摘 要本论文是从文化的角度对商标名称的研究。作者广泛收集了中国商场上所出现的许多国内外商标。商标不仅仅是单纯的商标标记，是经济领域的概念，而且具有丰富的文化内涵，是一种文化现
5、象。本论文介绍了商标名称的定义、分类和特点，研究了商标名称在社会历史、风俗习惯、宗教、道德规范、地域文化等各方面的反映。提出了商标词汇的翻译要尽量兼顾商标词汇在原语中所蕴涵的商品信息和文化特色，更要注意商标词汇是否会产生文化冲突，引起消极联想，从而导致产品滞销。商标词汇在力求保持民族特色的基础上，走国际化的道路，是商标词汇不愧文化使者的身份。关键词：商标名称；文化；商标翻译iiContentsAbstracti摘要iiContentsiiiIntroduction11. Introduction to brand names21.1 Definition of brand names 21.2
6、 Classification of brand names 21.2.1 Proper name brand names31.2.2 Common name brand names31.2.3 Coined word brand names41.3 Characteristics of brand names 42. Brand names and ethnic cultural characteristics52.1 Historic reflection 52.2 Legendary and mythological reflection62.3 Natural and geograph
7、ical reflection72.4 Religious reflection72.5 Social customs and habit reflection 82.6 Public morality reflection 9iii3. The translation of brand names93.1 The importance of translation of brand names 93.2 The ways of translation103.2.1 Literal translation103.2.2 Transliteration13Conclusion15Bibliogr
8、aphy17Acknowledgement18ivIntroductionIn the beginning of the 20th century, the creation and perfection of advertising and marketing stimulated the prosperity of the world economy. With the development of advertising and marketing, as the mark of the commodity, brands began to draw the attention of t
9、he scholars and a new special commercial behavior called branding formed. A brand ,in a broad sense, is “a distinguishing name and/or symbol ( such as a logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate tho
10、se goods or services from those of competitors.”1 To some extent, it is brands that play a crucial role between producers and customs. “A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a consumer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A p
11、roduct can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.” 1 The ingredients in a brand constitute the product itself, the package, the brand name, the promotion and the advertising. Brand name, as the linguistic component of brands, is the major subject for discussion here. This paper argues
12、that brand name should be culturally conducted since brand name is the messenger of culture, it reflects culture.This paper is devoted to the study of brand names from the cultural approach. The structure of this paper is as follow: firstly, it is a brief introduction to this paper. Then chapter 1 o
13、ffers an introduction to brand names. In this part, the definition, the classification and the characteristics of brand names are dealt with. Chapter 2, is the most significant part, discuss brand names and ethnic cultural characteristics. As the messenger of culture, brand names reflect various asp
14、ects of culture. Chapter 3 discusses the translation of brand names. Finally, it is the conclusion.1. Introduction to brand names1.1 Definition of brand names Brand is commercial term. First of all, we should distinguish brand and brand names. According to the view of American economist Richard Hise
15、, “A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of them that sells who makes it or who sells it ,distinguishing that product from those made or sold by others. A brand name is that part of brand that can be vocalized.”2 So brand name is the name of a certain brand, refers to the pa
16、rt of brand that can be expressed in words.1.2 Classification of brand namesWhen words appeared, words appeared along with the signs as the marks of products. In the first stage, almost all brand names came from the name of the inventor, the runner of the business, the place of the production. In th
17、e second stage, with the development of technique, more producers of the same kind of goods also rose. The producers began to adopt common words for the brand names. In the third stage, scientific technology developed with a lightening speed, the productions are even faster, brand names are also pro
18、sperous. Brand design plays a critical role in the selling of the products. And thus the design of brand names has transferred to the use of coined brand names. It combined the fundamentals of language, culture, market, aesthetics and so on.1.2.1 Proper name brand namesFirst, proper name brand names
19、 come from persons names. Names of producer and inventor could increase the confidence of the products. And thus promote the selling of the products. In our daily life, these companies depend highly on the consumers trust in them. For example, Benz Mobile Karl Benz Ford Mobile Henry Ford LINING Spor
20、tswear LiNing Walt Disney Entertainment Walt Disney Second, proper name brand names come from place names. Names of this group are the names of production, scenic sports and literary works. For example, Mao Tai Wine Great Wall WineEden Diary Bible1.2.2 Common word brand namesCommon words provide the
21、 brands designers much space for creation and choice. Common words can imply more information concerning the products, and can give the purchasers more association. For example, Apple Computer delicious fruit and excellent computer Diamond Watch solid, durable and accurateRejoice Shampoo soft and gr
22、acefulSafeguard Soap guard your body 1.2.3 Coined word brand names Coined word brand names are created by considering the characteristics, functions and qualities of the products. By examining the western brand names, we can see most lexicological rules are used in coining new brand names, shortenin
23、g, compounding, blending and so on. For example, Intel Computer International Pepsi Soft drink Pepsin IBM Computer International Business Machines KFC Fast food Kentucky Fried ChickenBody Flower Soap making the body full of fragrance of flower Skinice Soap skin + nice 1.3 Characteristics of brand na
24、mes From the classification of brand names, we can see brand names as special vocabulary, have certain linguistic features. The goal of a brand name should aim at setting up a good image in the market, arousing consumers favorable association and purchasing desire. Brand names have the following maj
25、or characteristics: brevity, distinctness, elegance, aptness and novelty. Brand names like Coca-Cola(可口可乐),Benz(奔驰), 7-up(七喜), Apple(苹果) leave a deep impression on consumers.2Brand names and ethnic cultural characteristics Culture is investigated by scholars from several different fields. To them th
26、e scope of culture is different. According to WangZhenya, “Culture is human specific. Culture is a social phenomenon. Culture is a national phenomenon. Culture is also a historical phenomenon. Culture is general and abstract.”3 According to HuWenzhong, “Culture is refers to the total pattern of beli
27、efs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community.”4 Brand names of different peoples, different societies and different countries have different symbolic characteristics. This is decided by the social cultural types. So brand names can reflect diffe
28、rent cultural characteristics. Such reflection can be shown in many aspects. For example, history, religion, customs and habits, natural and geographical conditions, social morality and so on.2.1 Historic reflectionOne function of culture is to record history. History belongs to ethnic culture. Bran
29、d names can reflect different ethnic historical culture.In our history, there are a lot of brand names that show our specific Chinese history. After the foundation of our new China, there are a lot of brand names that have great political color to show their happiness of victory and the support of o
30、ur Party and policy. For example, there are “工农”, “胜利”, “红旗”, “五星”etc. After the ,“Cultural Revolution”, there is a tendency of politicalization in brand names . Such brands as “东风”, “红卫”, “向阳”can be seen everywhere. Since the policy of reformation and opening, more and more foreign commodities come
31、 into our market. And our domestic products have been exported to the overseas market. In order to better participate in the international commodity competition, there is a tendency of designing brand names with exotic flavor. For example, “Haire”, “Konka” and “Acer”.Western brand names can also ref
32、lect the specific history of certain country. Lets take American car brand names for example. In America there are a lot of brand names of cars reflected the American specific social history. For example, “The May Flower : the ship in which a group of British Puritans (often referred to as Pilgrim F
33、athers) sailed to America in 1620.”3 “May Flower” just reflected the history of the first immigrants who were Puritans and came to this new land by “May Flower”. And later in American history there was an important “Frontier Movement”. That period of history reflected American pioneering and enterpr
34、ising spirit. So we can see brand names of cars as these, “Mayflower”, “Frontiersman”, “Conquers” and so on.2.2 Legendary and mythological reflectionThe legend and mythology are strongly folksy. This cultural property has been carried down from generation. These are used to indicate the virtue of th
35、e products or arouse the customers favorable association. Because people are quite familiar with them, the brand names get from these legends are most effective.In Chinese culture, there are so-called “gods” and heaven places. And they are elected in the brand names .For example, “月中桂”, “玉兔”, “奔月” a
36、re from the legend of “The goddess Change flew to the moon”.While in European and American brand names, we can also find a lot of brand names coming from the Greek or Roman mythology. Since these mythologies dominate the European and American culture. So we can find such brand names as “Apollo”, the
37、 son of Zeus, a robust handsome youth ,symbolizes “youth and energy”. “Venus”, the goddess of beauty, symbolizes “youth and beauty”.2.3 Natural and geographical reflectionIn China, we are familiar with the brand name of a car “东风”. And there is also a similar cars brand name in England “Zephyr” (西风)
38、. These two kinds of wind in different culture have different associations. Just as the difference in natural and geographical condition, in Chinese, zephyr, the west wind, is very cold. For example, MaZhiyuan has written “古道西风瘦马”, XinQiji, “东风夜放花千树”. On the hand ,England has Atlantic on its left si
39、de and faces the European continent in the east, the west wind in England is sent to the island of Great Britain by the north Atlantic warm current. So the West wind in England is just like the east wind in China. That is why Shelley wrote in his Ode to the West Wind, “Its warm wind, the west wind,
40、full of birds cries.” West wind, zephyr has rich cultural connotation in English culture.2.4 Religious reflectionDifferent country may have different religious domination. Religion can be viewed as the cornerstone of the social culture. Different religions have different have different religious sys
41、tems. Generally speaking, the religious belief in China is not universal, so brand names can hardly reflect Chinese religious belief. While in foreign countries, most countries have their national religion. In European and American countries, most of them believe in Christianity. In Arabic countries
42、, people believe in Islam. Thus, in the European and American brand names, we can see some images appeared in the Bible, for example, “angle”, “Adam”, “Eve” and so on.2.5 Social customs and habit reflectionDifferent living conditions, different national history and cultural tradition all result in t
43、he different social customs and habits. Therefore brand names must meet the demand of different people, different social customs and habits in order to attract more customers.Animals, plants and figures in different customs may have different association. These words are heavily customs-loaded words
44、, so in brand names, this group of words always causes misunderstanding. Therefore this group of words belong to conflict words. In China, “peacock, symbolizes beauty, happiness. But the English treats it as birds that bring bad luck. “crane” in China symbolizes “long-life span”, but in France, it i
45、s the symbol of “foolish man”. The Indians avoid using bulls, the Japanese avoid using lotus, the Italian avoid chrysanthemum. For our exported products, brand names of Chinese Pinyin is often used, and sometimes there is a coincidence that the Chinese Pinyin may be just an English word, for example , “FangFang”, the brand name of cosmetics, in Chinese, has the connotation of “fragrance”. While, in English “fang” means snakes poison tooth with unfavorable association. Therefore, the kind of cosmetics sells worse in English-speaking countries.As for colors, different regions and different
