Abstract

Studies of trademark translation have a two-fold significance. For one thing, it broadens the research scope of trademark naming and linguistics. For another, excellent trademark translation brings enormous wealth to companies. Based on cognitive metaphor theory, this paper starts with the literature review of English trademark translation in recent years after introducing the essence of trademarks and the distinct features between Chinese and English trademarks. Then it elaborates the concept of cognitive metaphor theory from several aspects: definition, universality, classification, and working mechanism. Finally it discusses four ways of applying cognitive metaphor into the translation of English trademarks. They are: complementary translation, transliteration, literal translation and creative method.

Key words: cognitive metaphor; English trademark; trademark translation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. On English Trademarks-1

2.1 Brief Introduction to Trademarks-1

2.2 Studies on Different Perspectives of English Trademark Translation-3

3. Cognitive Metaphor Theory-4

3.1 Introduction to Cognitive Metaphor-4

3.2 Working Mechanism-5

4. Application of Cognitive Metaphor to the Translation of English Trademarks-7

4.1 Complementary Translation-7

4.2 Transliteration-9

4.3 Literal Translation-10

4.4 Creative Method-11

5. Conclusion-13

Works Cited-15