Abstract

Brand name, a significant component of advertisement, is endowed with rich cultural connotation and plays a crucially important role in social life. It is a commodity’s distinctive mark that has become our first window to get to know the goods, determining consumer's first impression on the goods. However, with the development of economic globalization and the ever-increasing exchanges between China and the West, brand name needs a proper translation process. Translators need to achieve the goal that remains the cultural connotation of the brand name as much as possible. In this process, metaphors are supposed to be involved frequently. In the light of the Metaphor, this thesis introduces the cultural characteristics and elementary functions of brand names. A large part of this paper is devoted to brand name translation from the perspective of metaphor.

Key Words：Brand name; brand name translation; metaphor

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-１

2. Literature Review-１

2.1 Previous studies on brand name translation-２

2.2 Previous studies on metaphor-３

3. Cultural characteristics and functions of brand names-４

3.1 Cultural characteristics of brand names-４

3.2 The elementary functions of brand names-５

3.2.1 Information function-５

3.2.2 Aesthetic function-５

3.2.3 Attraction function-６

4. Brand name translation from the perspective of metaphor-７

4.1 Brand name translation from the perspective of the generality of metaphor-７

4.2 Brand name translation from the perspective of the creativity of metaphor-８

4.3 Brand name translation from the perspective of metonymy-８

5. Conclusion-９

Works Cited-１１