论文总字数：23574字

摘 要

1. Introduction 6

2. Literature review 7

2.1 Introduction to the brand name 7

2.2 Previous study on skopo theory and brand name 8

2.3 Introduction to the skopo theory 9

2.3.1 Definition of the skopo theory 9

2.3.2 Basic rules of the skopo theory 9

3. Application of Skopo theory in Cosmetic Brand Name Translation 11

3.1 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Skopo rule 11

3.2 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Corherence rule 12

3.3 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Fidelity rule 13

4．Conclusions 14

References 16

Acknowledgements

I want to express my appreciation to many who supported my efforts in writing this paper during the past few months.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the teachers who have taught me and offered me advice during my four years study at college. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisor. He has been available at all times with a helpful advice and a helping hand. I must say that I am really moved by his careful and patient work when reading my thesis and correcting the mistakes. I am grateful for his valuable instructions for the improvement of my thesis.

Finally, I would like to thank the authors and researchers, who have given me much valuable ideas and materials that contributes to the completion of this thesis.

Abstract

In the recent years, as economic globalization intensifies and economic reform deepens, China expands its international to almost every corner of the world with numerous international companies and foreign products flooding into the China’s market at the same time. But nowadays how to make the products stay competitive in the market and accepted by consumers is a problem that almost companies have to confront. There is no doubt that good quality of a product is the necessary factor in its sales. However, a unique brand name plays a more important role in the promotion of it; that is to say, an appropriate translation of its brand name has a great influence on the image of manufacturers and sales on the products.

Nowadays, many industries have been aware that it is necessary to connect the cosmetic brand names with the national culture, economy and even politic, which has already been an indivisible part of human life and filled every corner in our society. From the analysis of this thesis, skopo theory has provided the strong theoretical support for cosmetic brand name translation. And “skopo rule” is the leading rule in skopo theory, which means the end determines the methods. This article aims to give a comprehensive explanation of the cosmetic brand name translation by applying skopo theory. With the gradually exploration of three rules in cosmetic brand name translation, it is known that the cosmetic brand name translation must take the “Skopos rule” as the dominant principle so that it can ultimately reach the commercial function of cosmetic brand name. It can be seen that this theory not only provides a strong theoretical support but also supplies a basis for the cosmetics brand name translation.

Key words: skopo theory cosmetic brand name three rules

中文摘要

在最近几年，随着经济全球化的加紧和经济改革的深化，中国和国外许多国家发展了国际性贸易。于是大量的国际化公司和外国产品不断地涌入中国市场。但是如何使产品在市场上具有竞争性和轻易被消费者接受是目前大部分公司所面临的问题。不仅仅是产品的质量，独特的品牌名称在市场上也发挥着重要的作用。所以翻译在产品的制作和销售方面有着重要的影响。

如今许多企业意识到将化妆品名称翻译和国家文化，经济和政治相联系是很必要的，这早已成为了人们生活中的一部分且存在于我们社会每一个方面。从文中的分析来看，目的论为化妆品品牌翻译提供了强有力的支持，目的原则是目的论中主导原则，也就说是从目的去决定方法。这篇文章旨在通过目的论对化妆品品牌翻译进行综合性解释。随着不断地对在三原则角度下进行化妆品品牌翻译研究，我们可以知道在翻译中必须要以目的原则作为主要原则，这样才能实现化妆品的商务功能。由此可见，这个研究不仅提供了理论支持，还为化妆品名称翻译研究提供了基础。

关键词： 目的论 化妆品名称翻译 三原则

1. Introduction

In the recent years, as economic globalization intensifies and economic reform deepens, China expands its international to almost every corner of the world with numerous international companies and foreign products flooding into the China’s market at the same time. But how to make the products stay competitive in the market and accepted by consumers is a problem that almost companies have to confront. There is no doubt that good quality of a product is the necessary factor in its sales. However, a unique brand name plays a more important role in the promotion of it; that is to say, an appropriate translation of its brand name has a great influence on the image of manufacturers and sales on the products. Thus the high quality of brand’s translation not only interests consumers and increases the amount of purchase, but also plays an important role in improving the company’s popularities.

In the face of this competitive world, especially the developed countries are creating high quality products to open up international markets and expanding international trade. Nowadays the brand name translation seems to have been a part of the marketing strategies and gradually gains the increasing attention. The high quality of brand name translation will leave a deeper impression on consumers, which can stimulate their imagination and increase their purchase desire. Consumers start their exchange with the dealers or manufacturers by the translation of brand names. It also serves as a special way to connect the products with culture. Thus it requires translators to have a deep insight of the cultural similarities and differences. Although the brand name research has a long history, it owes much more careful and thorough research concerning the cosmetics brand name translation. And this thesis aims at discussing the Chinese Version of the Brand Cosmetics from the perspective of Skopos.

2. Literature review

As we all know, the studies in brand name translation have been done by many scholars and their opinions have gotten the extensive attention in the society. In this chapter, it focuses on making a review on the brand name translation and skopo theory.

2.1 Introduction to the brand name

In our daily life, we are surrounded by many brands of various labeled goods. As the world economy moves, forming a kind of product’s international brand name is the most important thing before it enters into the china’s market. Moreover, most consumers would like to purchase the commodity whose brand is familiar to everyone. That is to say, an impressive brand name with attractive image plays an active role in advertising the product. The definition given by Longman Contemporary English一Chinese Dictionary is,“a name given by a producer to a particular product, by which it may be recognized from among like products made by other producers.” And the American Marketing Association defines the brand as“a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.”

A brand can have both a brand name and brand mark. A brand name usually refers to the specific feature, interest and service, and the brand mark is often designed as a logo of a brand, which is always unique in order to be identified easier than other brands. In order to attract the consumers’ attention, manufacturers spare no effort to create the brand name with distinctive design and unique name. In today’s market, some brands only have brand names, and some brands have brand marks only or include both at the same time. Translation is an action involved in language. Thus a good brand name translation can not only represent the features of these products, but also attract consumers and bring more benefits to business.

2.2 Previous studies on skopo study and brand name

In Vermeer’s approach，translation is a form of translational action based on a source text．Translation is also an intentional，purposeful behavior happening in a given situation. Justa Holz—Manttari，one of the most professional translators，goes one step further than Vermeer．In Holz-Manttari’s model，translation is defined as “a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose．The purpose of translational action is to transfer messages across language and cultural barriers by means of message transmitters produced by experts.

In the field of translation, the topic of brand name translation has been a hot issue. Nowadays more and more people think that cosmetics are a necessity. And the colorful cosmetics brand names attract more attention, so does the translation of cosmetic brand name. The scholar Liu Dandan focuses her attention on the translation of cosmetic brand names in her thesis A Probe into Cosmetic Brand Name Translation from the perspective of Functional Translation Theory. She concentrates on analyzing the linguistic structures and cultures. Until now there are more than one hundred articles and books focusing on the translation of brand names. He Chuansheng (贺川生)analyzed the characteristics, motivations and formations of English brand names systematically in his book Brand Name English 《商标英语》 in 1997. He put forward some advice on considering the culture customs in the formation of brand name. And Zhu Yajun’s (朱亚军) The Research of Brand Naming 《商标命名研究》 made a research on the factors and suggested some new translation methods. Both of them have an opinion that a favorable image in brand name will contribute to the popularity of the brand.

There are many academic works concerning brand name translation in China, but only a few focuses on the cosmetic brand name translation. An analysis of Translation of Cosmetics Brand Names from Social Characteristics by Yu Xiaoji and An Kunwei explores cosmetics brand name in the social linguistics. That thesis offers us some information about the influence of age and culture on cosmetics brand name translation. And it also tells us some ways of translating cosmetics brand names from English to Chinese.

By the analysis of brand names and skopo theory, we can see that it is a suitable method to translate the cosmetic brand name. In order to attract the consumers, almost sellers try their best to form good images of the products by cosmetic brand name translation. The receiver takes a decisive part in the translation process, which is especially true in cosmetic brand name translation. And the consumers are the potential receivers who will affect the business interests. Thus it is necessary for the translator to consider many different factors so that leaves the consumers a better impression.

2.3 Introduction to skopos theory

2.3.1 Definition of skopos theory

Skopos is a Greek word, which was introduced by Hans Vermeer and then brought it into the circle of the translation theory in the 1970s, and the other names for it are purpose, function, aim and intention.

The Skopos is the highest determining factor influencing the translator’s decisions. All acting is goal-oriented. Translating is acting and a goal-oriented procedure carried out by the translators.

2.3.2 The basic rules of skopos theory

Skopos is said to be a synonym of purpose. Translators should consider the purpose of their translations and certainly helped to shift the focus of theoretical thinking away from equivalence towards other relevant factors and agents which affect the translation process. It has thus helped, perhaps paradoxically, to make translation theory more realistic. And it has prompted some of us to ponder more deeply what we mean by a theory. There are three main rules which are skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule.

Skopos refers to that it stands for “aim” or “purpose”. The crucial regulation for any translations is definitely the “Skopos Rule”, which means that a translation action is determined by its Skopos; that is, “the end justifies the means” by Reiss and Vermeer (1989). The main idea of Skopos theory can be understood as “the translation purpose justifies the whole translation procedures”. Vermeer also stresses on many occasions that the Skopos rule is a general rule, and translation strategies and methods are determined by the purpose and the intended function of the target text.

The coherence rule means that the target text “must be interpretable as coherent with the target text receiver’s situation”. In other terms, the target text must be translated in such a way that it is coherent for the target text receivers, given their circumstances and knowledge. With regard to coherence rule, the source text is no longer of most authorities but only part of the translation belief. It is only a provision of information for the translator, who in turn picks out what he considers to be meaningful in the receiver’s point.

Translation is a kind of information presentation. It is expected to attach some relationship to the relevant source text. Vermeer calls this relationship “intertextual coherence” or “fidelity”. This is postulated as a further principle, referred to as the “fidelity rule” by Reiss and Vermeer in 1984. The fidelity rule only denotes that there must be coherence between the translated version and the source text.

3. Application of Skopo theory in Cosmetic Brand Name Translation

Basically in this thesis, descriptive and analytic methods will be adopted with some case studies. After collecting and analyzing many cosmetic brands, including both foreign and domestic brands, it is easy to find that the rule of skopo theory is a suitable method to translate cosmetics brand name. All through the thesis, the skopo theory plays an important role in the cosmetic brand names’ translation.

3.1 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Skopos Rule

Skopos rule, the most important and top-ranking rule of skopo theory. As far as Vermeer is concerned, each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. That is to say, for the cosmetics brand name translation, we have to attain a purpose, which is to meet the consumer’s requirements for the beauty, especially when translating foreign cosmetic brand name into Chinese. The reason of that is the culture difference.

Under the influence of Chinese beauty culture, a woman of gentleness, meekness, mildness, moderateness is usually regarded as the traditional qualities of beauty, to the contrary, most western women consider hot, or exotic, or sexy or healthy woman is beautiful. For this reason, Chinese products or translators frequently incorporate these words in the translated names of their cosmetics products, such as “柔” means gentle, “雅” means elegant, “芳” means fragrant, “纤” means slim，“娇” means sweet. And the purpose of using these specific characters is to arouse a sense of beauty in the minds of Chinese women.

For instance, in the beginning, Maybelline is a combination of two words Maybel (name of a girl) and Vaseline (a material). And later it is translated into Chinese “美宝莲”, “美” represents beauty and charm while “莲” in Chinese stands for purity since there is an old saying goes “出淤泥而不染”. A brand name that can arouse people’s aesthetic feelings and satisfy people’s demands is important for the sale of cosmetics. And Maybelline is a successful example which is widely regarded as one of the most famous foreign brands.

3. 2 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Coherence Rule

The second rule is the coherence rule, which means a translation should be accepted and it is coherent with the receivers’ situation. During the process of translation, what the translator can do, and should do, is meaningful to the target-culture receivers. This means the receiver should be able to understand and accept it.

Take “Revlon” for example, it is translated into“露华浓”. In the ancient, a Chinese famous poet named Li Bai wrote “春风拂槛露华浓”. Li Bai is a brilliant and remarkable poet in Tang dynasty and his most classical verses leave deep impression on Chinese. Thus this brand name reflects Chinese traditional culture which can better win the preference of Chinese consumers. In this case, it takes little effort for consumers to memorize it. In the other words, it is easy for consumers to remember it. In addition, Chinese consumers have a chance to make an association with the celebrities.

What’s more, “Clean Clear” “可伶可俐” is also an example which gives a vivid demonstration on skin products for young girls. In Chinese, “伶”and “俐” indicate smart and lovely. “可伶”and “可俐” is a perfect match which has met the psychological needs of Chinese young consumers successfully and it not only expresses the beauty of sound but the image as well. This brand name is accepted easier for young girls. In addition, safeguard is translated into “舒肤佳” . In this brand name, “舒”gives the consumers a fresh and comfortable feeling, “肤”indicates that it is a skin product; and “佳” shows the function and result of the product. “舒肤佳”makes itself a good translation by corresponding the consumers’ satisfaction with Chinese culture. To the extent, this translated brand name maintains the original sound, product’s features and qualities and enrich its Chinese meaning so that can be accepted by consumers easily.

As we can see, it is very common for the translator to apply this kind of rule. The example, “纳爱斯” “nice”, “Pantene” “潘婷” , both explain the combination of three rules--skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule.

3. 3 The analysis of cosmetic brand name under the guidance of Fidelity Rule

Generally speaking, fidelity rule usually deals with the relationship between the source text and the target text. A translation is an offer of information and it is expected to bear some kind of relationship with the corresponding source text.

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