1、語文學刊(高教外文版)2007年第02期BrandNameTranslationfromthePerspectiveofCognitiveSchemaLiYinmei(ForeignLanguagesDepartment,BeihangUniversity,Beijing,China100083)AbstractTranslatingprocessisdeeplyconcernedwithschematheory.Thispaperaimstousetheschematheorytoanalyzebrandnametranslation.Becauseofthedifferentculture

2、backgrounds,schematainthesourcebrandnamesmaybecontradictorytothoseofthetargetlanguage,whichchallengestranslators.Becauseofthespecialcharacteristicsofbrandnames,somethinktranslatedbrandnamesshouldkeepandpreservethereaders schemata.paperarguesthatnow2adaystherearemoreandmoretranslatedbrandnamesaimingt

3、ochangethealienationstrategycanalsopromotethesalesoftheproducts.Keywordsbrandnametranslation;cognitiveon中圖分類號H31519A167228610(2007)0220057204tics.Asearlyas1932,BartlettsaidinhisbookRe2membering,“theobserverfillsupthegapsofhis.IntroductionWiththedevelopmentofinternationaltrade,man2ufacturersaretrying

4、theirbesttoexpandoverseasmar2ket.Inthatcase,brandnamesneedtobetranslated.Wengsaid,“Brandnameshaveadvertisingrole”.Theyaretherepresentationandthetokenoftheprod2ucts.Sohowtotranslatethebrandnamesisthefirststeptocapturethepotentialcustomers.Thisarticleaimstoseetherelationshipbetweenthebrandnamestransla

5、tionandtheTL(targetlanguage)readers sche2matahowbrandnamesaretranslatedinordertopre2serveandreinforcetheschemataexistinginreaders minds,inwhatwaytranslatedbrandnamescanrefreshthereaders schemata,andwhentranslatorsshouldusethestrategiesofthedomesticationandalienation.1perceptionbytheaidofwhathehasexp

6、eriencedbeforeinsimilarsituations,orbydescribingwhathetakestobefitorsuitableforsuchasituation”.The1970switnessedtherevivalofschematheory.WiththedevelopmentofAI(artificialintelligence)schemathe2oryarousedpeople sinterest.TherepresentativesareMinsky,RumelhartandSchankandAbelson.Cookusedschematheoryind

7、iscourseanalysisinhisbookDiscourseandLiterature.Hethoughtdiscoursecouldnotonly“reinforce”and“preserve”,butalso2“refresh”thereaders schemata.Thusheproposedtheschemaasadynamicthingwhichcanbechanged.BrownandYule3alsousedschematheorytotalka2InChina,somepeoplebeganboutdiscourseanalysis.andreading.Theoret

8、icalBackgroundSchemaisthebasisofcognition.Thedevelop2touseschematheorytohelptheteachingoflisteningSchematheoryhasalsobeenusedintranslation.Belltalkedabouttranslationprocessinthefollowingway,“theprocessoftranslatingtakesplaceinbothshort2termandlong2termmemorythroughde2mentoftheschematheoryisduetothec

9、ontributionofpsychology,artificialintelligenceandcognitivelinguis2作者簡介李銀美,女,北京航空航天大學外語系研究生,研究方向:認知語言學。57TRANSLATIONLiYinmei/BrandNameTranslationfromthePerspectiveofCognitiveSchemavicesfordecodingtextinthesourcelanguage(SL)andencodingtextintothetargetlanguage(TL),viaanon2language2specificsemanticsrep

10、resentation”.4readers schemataaredifferentfromthetexts ,theycanbechangedtonewones.Thisisrefreshingofschema2ta.2.TheDifficultiesinBrandNameTranslationGuan7These“non2language2semanticrepresentation”isinfacttheschemataexitinginhumanmind.RecentlyChinesetranslatorsbegantousetheschematheorytostudythetrans

11、lationprocess,suchasPeng.Butun2tilnowinbrandnametranslation,wehavefewarticlestotalksystematicallyabouttheuseoftheschematheo2ryintranslatingbrandnames.Ifany,itjustmentionedthepreservingandreinforcingofschemataratherthanrefreshingofschemata.III.CognitiveSchemaandBrandNameTranslation1.TheRelationshipof

12、SchemaandTextThereisadynamicrelationshipbetweenschemaandtext.Ononehand,theexistenceofschematacanhelppeopletounderstandthenewknowledge.Ontheotherhand,textcanpreserve,reinforcethereaders schemata.Cognitiveschetheonofconventionalacquiredpreviously.Whenpeoplemeetsomethingnew,theywillusetheschematainthei

13、rmindstounderstandit.Schemahastheroleoforganizingknowledgeaboutspecificstimulusdomainsandguidingboththeprocessingofnewinfor2mationandretrievalofstoredinformation.Ontheunderstandingofthenewknowledge,schemahastwocontradictoryeffects.Oneispositive.Theotherisnegative.People sschematacanhelpthemtounderst

14、andthenewinformationiftheyhavethenee2dedschemata.Buttheexistingschemataarenotalwaysconsistentwiththenewinformation.Inthatcase,theschematawillbarriertheunderstandingofthenewin2formation.“Inthestrongview,schemataareconsid2eredtobedetermining,topredisposetheexperienceinafixedway.”365mentionedbrandnames

15、aredifficulttotranslatebecauseoftwodistinctivefeatures.Oneofthemisthat“brandnamesaretheepitomeofonecountrysculture”.Brandnamesbeartheweightoftraditionalcultureandsocialdevelopmentfeatures.Forexample,inChinawehavethewell2knownbrandnames,“永久”,“幸福”,“光明”,and“中華”.AllofthosebrandnamesreflectthecustomofChi

16、nesefondnessofluckandfortune.Inwesterncountries,brandnameslike“Apollo”,“Nike”,“Robust”and“Crown”reflectwesterncultures.Translatorshavetomakeachoice,thatschematatheyshouldTLreaders one.Thusnamesisareallydifficultjob.StrategiesfromPreservingandRe2inforcingtheReaders SchemataOneofbrandnames functionsis

17、toattractthecustomers.Sothetranslatedbrandnamesshouldtrytocatchthereaders attention,andhavethefunctionofpersuadingthemtobuytheproducts.Basingonthisconsideration,translatorsusuallychoosetopreserveandreinforcethereaders schemata,evenwithoutcon2formingtotheoriginalones.TakeanEnglishbrandnameforexample.

18、“Gold2lion”enjoysagoodreputationinChina.ButwhenitfirstcameintoChinesemarket,it snotsowellaccept2ed.Atthattimeitwastranslatedinto“金獅”,whichsoundslike“盡輸”,“今失”,“盡失”,“今尸”inChinese.Sothistranslationmayproducesomebadas2sociativemeanings.Lateritwaschangedinto“金利來”,whichcorrespondstoChinesepursuitofluckand

19、fortune.Thatistosay,itpreservesandreinforcesChi2nese sschemata,soitcanbeeasilyunderstood.ThusitoccupiesalargemarketinChina.Thisexampleshowsthatwhentranslatingbrandnames,translatorsshouldknowthereaders schemata.Thisseemstobethechoicemadebymosttranslators.Thusmanytranslatedbrandnamesmaychangetheirimag

20、eaccordingtothereaders schemata.AsCook8Textcanalsohavesomecounteractiontopeople sschemata.AccordingtoCook,ithasthreefunctionstothem2preserving,reinforcingandrefreshing.Whenthetexts schemataarethesameasthereaders ,theycankeepthereaders knowledge.Andthroughreading,readers schematacanbereinforced.Butwh

21、enthe58語文學刊(高教外文版)2007年第02期mentionedthatdiscoursefirsthasthefunctionofpre2servingandreinforcingthereaders schemata,thistranslatingmethodjustfollowsthisrule.withoutarousingtheirrejection.Thistranslationstrategyiscalleddomestication.ItarguesthatthetranslatedtextsshouldstandontheTLreaders sideandtrytoa

22、rousethesameresponseamongtheTLreadersastheSLreaders.Itwillconcealthedifferencesoftheculturesandsocieties,andpreservethereaders schemata.Thiscanmakethereaderseasytounderstandthebrandandbuytheproducts.Infactwiththisstrategyalotofgoodtranslatedbrandnameshavebeenproduced.Forexample:Safeguard舒膚佳Head&

23、Shoulders海飛絲Canon佳能Robust樂百氏Nike耐克Avon雅芳Ittriestokeep,preserveorreinforcethereaders schemata,combinedwiththeexperienceofaparticularpieceofdiscourse,leadstotheconstructiveprocessedinmem2ory.”3Inreality,peopleneedtorefreshtheirsche2matabecauseeverythingischanginganddeveloping.Weneedtoadoptourselvestot

24、hechangingworld.Becauseoftheculturalandsocialcommunication,peoplehavemoreopportunitiestotouchtheforeignthings.Asaresult,people sschemataarebeingchanged.Thefreshschematacanbegraduallyaccept2edbythereaders.Sothereaders schematagetre2freshed.Basedonthispoint,thetraditionaltranslationstrategycanbechange

25、dintoalienation.Moreandmorebrandnamesaretranslatedinthisstrategy.Forexam2ple,Kodark柯達Casi卡西歐Rolex勞力士摩托羅拉NOwe美特斯邦威ediagramtoanalyzetherelation2schemaandthetranslatingstrategies:樂凱lucky昂立一號OnlyOne4.DynamicSchemaandTranslatingRefreshingReaders SchemataSchemaisnotjustmen2tionedthattranslatorstranslateth

26、ebrandnamestopreserveandreinforcethereaders schemata,thisdoesnotmeanthereaderswillhavenoopportunitytochangetheirschemata.Schemachangehaslongbeenconsideredbythetwomajorschematheorists,BartlettandSchank.Bartlettwasawareoftheschemachange:“Anorganismhassomehowtoacquirethecapacitytoturnrounduponitsownsch

27、emataandtoconstructthemafresh.Thisisacrucialstepinorganicdevelop2ment”2.Cooksummarizedthediscourseseffectsonthereadersschemainthefollowingdiagram:IV.ConclusionBrandnamestranslationisgreatlyrelatedtocog2nitiveschema.Therearetwotranslationstrategiescon2cerningtotheTLreaders schemata.Oneisthedomes2tica

28、tionway,inwhichthetranslatorschoosetopre2serveandreinforcetheTLreaders schemata.Theoth2Wecanconcludethatschemaremains“active”and“developing”.“Itisthisactive featurewhich,eristhealienationway,inwhichthetranslatorschoosetorefreshtheTLreaders schemata.Traditionally59TRANSLATIONLiYinmei/BrandNameTransla

29、tionfromthePerspectiveofCognitiveSchemabrandnamesareusuallytranslatedpreservingtheTLreaders schemata,becausethiscaneconomizereaderstocatchtheassociatedandimpliedmeaningsofthebrandnames.Butwiththedevelopmentofthesocietyandthecross2culturalcommunication,moreandmorebrandnamesaretranslatedaimingtorefres

30、htheTLreaders schemata,becausethisisnew,novelandin2teresting.Andtheseproductsareespeciallyfavoredbytheyoung.Alienationstrategywillbecomeatrendinthenearfuture.3Brown,Gillian&Yule,George.DiscourseAnalysisM.Beijing:ForeignLanguageTeachingandResearchPress,2000:247,249.4Bell,RogerT.TranslationandTranslating:TheoryandPracticeM.Beijing:For