School of Foreign Languages,Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University,Jilin,China Email:477009792@qq.com

Liyuan Liu

School of Foreign Languages,Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University,Jilin,China Email:1264564688@qq.com

[Abstract]Under the background of economic globalization,various clothing brand cultures have gradually integrated into people’s lives.This paper tries to analyze the creative translation in business brand slogans with specific translation examples,and clarify its usage and effect,and discuss the application of creative translation method in business English major,aiming at promoting the application and research of creative translation method in business English translation.

[Keywords]business English;creative translation;clothing brand

Introduction

Translation is more than simply converting one language into another.If you think that translation is to replace the text of another language with the text of one language,then it is redundant.A competent and experienced translator not only provides the content of word-for-word translation,but also makes high-quality and creative efforts.Under the situation of rich and diverse forms of translation,creative translation pays attention to the overall layout of the article and considers the mode in all directions,which has strong representativeness and high research value.

The concept of creative translation and its significance

The concept of creative translation

Creative translation is to recreate and reprocess on the basis of translation.It combines the original text with the target language to convey the information in the original text in a concise,fluent and attractive way.In the process of translation,the target language is used for document writing,picture selection,font change,etc.to meet the recipient’s information needs.Creative translation is a kind of creative language activity,which makes the original text adapt to the culture of the target language.It may be quite different from the original text,but it is extremely suitable for the culture of the target language.Creative translation should not only translate the existing materials,but also fully understand the product,market and original creative background,and effectively convey the original information to achieve the purpose of marketing and publicity.

The significance of creative translation

Through creative translation,marketing materi als presented in various ways can quickly enter the target market and interact effectively with the target audience in content.Without additional marketing resources,enterprises can better control global activities and match the special situation of local market and the needs of customers and users.Through creative translation,the trademark,brand and product line of the enterprise can be better accepted by the target market,thus directly driving the increase of product sales and the promotion of the overall image of the enterprise.Creative translation works deliberately create a consumption culture and life concept,which has a higher impact on the overall image and brand of the customer enterprise than on specific products.

The application of creative translation in clothing brand translation

Example 1:FIRS Brand

The transliteration method adopted by Shan Shan aims to make the local target audience receive the brand name more intuitively,so that people can remember it at a glance.And the translation of‘FIRS’is taken from Chinese fir tree‘CHINAFIRS’.The purpose is to adapt to the language habits of consumers in other countries so as to play a better role in propaganda.‘FIRS’is a noun from nature.On the one hand,it symbolizes that enterprises are as energetic and endless as nature.On the other hand,it is to promote the brand style of young,healthy and fashionable products,and at the same time implies that the products have passed the safety guarantee of green environmental protection certification,in this way,it can bring psychological suggestion to consumers that goods are safe and reliable,and finally achieve the purpose of making consumers spend many times.

Example 2:HODO Group Brand

Taking creating a national brand as its own duty,taking‘common prosperity and industry serving the country’as its mission,the brand takes red as its main identification color,and the design of HODO fonts is simple and international.National culture is the foundation of Hongdou Group.‘Red Bean’is taken from the Tang poem“when those red berries come in springtime,flushing on your south land branches? Take home an armful,for my sake,as a symbol of our love.”The connotation of red bean culture includes loyalty to love and yearning for a better life.‘Hong Dou’is loud and fresh,with rich national cultural connotations.Red,prosperous and good luck;Beans,vigorous and strong vitality.But translating it directly into‘REDBEAN’obviously can’t make the human body in other countries realize its meaning.Therefore,taking half of the pinyin of two Chinese characters,plus the red background of the trademark Logo,shows the warmth and touching of‘Hong Dou’.

Example 3:SAINT ANGELO Brand

The trademark figure of SAINT ANGELO Brand is a joyful‘magpie’outlined by abstract silhouette lines.The loud singing of magpie is regarded as auspicious sign,which is a Chinese folklore and a symbol of good fortune.SAINT ANGELO Brand inherits the brand culture of‘Oriental Emotion and Western Rhyme,Ancient Style and New Law’.Through the cooperation of design team,it is based on international fashion and uses Chinese elements locally to form a noble,elegant and refined product style.Its slogan is“The sky is high,let me fly”,which means that the bird of good news is willing to accompany modern successful men to soar freely in their career and life,which fully reflects the broad mind and fashion sense of modern successful men.Therefore,their trademark translation‘SAINT ANGELO’means noble angel,which is more conducive to international operation and promotion.

It can be seen that creative translation is not limited to traditional word-by-word translation,but also different from transliteration and free translation.Creative translation can better express corporate culture and core concepts.Through the design of letters and images,the target consumer groups can accept it more quickly,and feel the connotation of corporate culture through trademark and pattern design.Furthermore,it is beneficial for enterprises to publicize and sell their products,and finally achieve the goal of making profits.

The standards of Business English translation

There is no specific definition of business English at present.Chinese scholars have given different definitions of business English according to China’s special national conditions.For example,Weng Fengxiang(2009)thinks that business English is English that people often use in international business activities and is involved in international business disciplines.To put it simply,business English is general English+international business English.Chen Zhunmin and Wang Lifei(2009)think that business English refers to the language used in various economic,official and social activities around trade and investment,including trade,management,finance,marketing,tourism,news and law.

To sum up the above viewpoints,the word“business English”mainly refers to two concepts:(1)the concept of English language used by people in international business activities;(2)the professional concept of business English.When‘Business English’refers to the English language used by people in international business activities,it is actually a communication tool and a language carrier for transmitting knowledge and information in international business activities.According to the aforementioned concept of‘business’,we can define‘business English’as“the English language used by profit-seeking organizations and individuals in international business activities of buying and selling goods or services”.To put it simply,all the English concepts you come into contact with in business activities can be called business English.

The translation criteria of business English put forward by Mr.Liu Fagong are faithfulness,accuracy and consistency(Liu,2002),which are considered to be the three principles to be followed in business English translation.

Principle of Faithfulness Loyalty to the source language is required in any translation.This is equivalent to the so-called faithfulness to the original text in other translation theories,but the degree and form of faithfulness to the original text depends on the purpose of the translation and the translator’s understanding of the original text.Loyalty to the original text is not limited to translating the original text according to the script.Transliteration and free translation,which we are familiar with,are faithful to the source language.E.g.“It is asserted that...;It is believed that....”This kind of structure,if literally translated,is neither fish nor fowl.Free translation means not sticking to the form of the original text,but focusing on correctly expressing the content of the original text.For Example:“Do you see any green in my eyes?”A sentence like this can only be translated freely and translated into“Do you think I am gullible?”O(jiān)f course,free translation does not mean random translation,and random translation does not conform to the translation standard of“faithfulness”.In the specific translation process,we should adopt flexible methods.Both literal translation and free translation are desirable as long as they conform to the translation principle of“faithfulness and fluency”.

Correct understanding of the original text is the basis of accurate translation,including grammar and semantics.Grammar is the foundation of a language,so everyone knows the importance of grammatical accuracy.On the semantic side,it mainly depends on the translator’s understanding of the translated version,and different understanding will lead to different quality of the translated text.However,words are often polysemous,which requires the translator to choose the one that is the most consistent and close to each other from many meanings according to the language environment of the works.Such as“What an exceptional flower!”“The quality of the beer was exceptional.”Both sentences contain the same word“exceptional”,and it is obviously inappropriate to translate the words appearing in these two different sentences into“unparalleled”.However,one-sided translation is generally not desirable,and translators need to work out the writing background and scene environment of the work according to the context of the work,so as to achieve the accuracy of translation.

The principle of unification means that we should follow the conventions.In the process of English-Chinese translation,“the translated names,concepts,terms,etc.should be unified at all times,and it is not allowed to change the translated names of the same concepts or terms at will”,so as to avoid misunderstanding and information inequality.Sometimes the principle of unity needs to be recognized by the authority.For example,the Chinese government in the mean time,has signed agreements of investment promotion and protection with Sweden,Romania,federal,Germany,Denmark,the Netherlands;agreements on investment protection with Canada,U.S.A,Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Alliance,Finland,Norway,Thailand,Italy and Austria;agreements of double tax prevention with Japan,U.S.A,France,Federal Germany,Britain,Belgium and other countries.China is a member of the Paris Convention on Industrial Property Protection(including assignment of technology).Here,translation in many places violates the principle of unity of translation.Some professional nouns have a fixed professional translation.If you translate them according to your own,foreigners will receive wrong information,and at the same time,it will have some bad influences on ourselves.

The application of creative translation in Business English translation

Scholars in business English usually encounter various texts that need to be translated.For example,contracts,orders,correspondence specialized terms more commonly in translation,usually adopted literal translation or liberal translation.There are some marketing and promotional materials,advertising title,slogan,marketing,product name,company name,company building copywriter,book introduction,etc.Most of them adopt the creative translation method.Creative translation can not only effectively convey information,facilitate the purchase and spread the brand image,but also requires the translator to have a solid language foundation(proficient in bilingual)and certain professional knowledge of advertising and marketing as well as rich writing,creative translation experience,positive communication and thinking ability.Be able to communicate and confirm with customers in combination with brand style,and impress customers.

For example,a simple trade name only contains the core part of the trade name,or is the same as its trademark,such as Canon Canon Company(Japan); Canon’s name is derived from the same pronunciation as the Japanese vocabulary‘Guanyin’.Using the same pronunciation as‘Guanyin’is to hope that Guanyin can show mercy and help it realize its dream of making the world's highest-end camera as soon as possible;In other companies,the trademark is simple and intuitive,using the name of the founder of the company,such as Procter & Gamble(P& G).There are also some trademarks that use some place names as trademarks,such as Avon(the name of the river where Shakespeare’s hometown is located)and Olympus(the mountain where the gods live in the Greek).

There are also some creative translation methods used in the translation of advertising slogans.e.g.advertising slogan of M&M chocolate.‘Melt in your mouth,not in your hand.’“melt”reflects the silky characteristics of chocolate,and the phrase“in your mouth”uses the second person’s name to narrow the distance with consumers and convey consumers is God’s emotion.Sentences with symmetrical structure will leave a deep impression on people.

For example,from the advertisement words“Maotai—a vintage liquor.A VIP treat which differences the finest aroma.A national favor that won a 1915 diploma.”,we can know that Maotai has a long history and a pleasant taste,and is a good wine certified by the state as well as give consumers a feeling that Maotai is noble.

In order to spread English advertising language smoothly in China,translators usually choose suitable words of Chinese culture.For example,Chinese four-character idioms or famous sentences of Chinese classical poetry.In the practice of business English translation,increasing or decreasing the amount of words is also an important translation skill.In the process of translation,according to the meaning,logical relationship,syntactic features and expression habits of the original text,words that do not appear literally in the original text but are included in the actual content are sometimes added in translation,or words that exist in the original text but are not needed for language expression in the target text are subtracted.

Separate translation refers to translating an original sentence into two or more sentences,so as to express the meaning more clearly.Co-translation refers to the expression of two or more sentences in the original text in a single sentence or complex sentence.Part-of-speech translation refers to the conversion of words in the original sentence in order to make the translation conform to the expression,methods and habits of the target language.Specifically,in terms of parts of speech,nouns are converted into pronouns and adjectives,verbs into nouns,adjectives and prepositions,adjectives into adverbs and phrases,and so on.In the process of translating foreign trade business English,some sentences can be translated word by word,while some sentences cannot be translated because of the different expressions between English and Chinese.Only by changing parts of speech can Chinese translation be smooth and natural.

In addition,understanding the meaning of words by using context must be in a certain situational context,and the context of business English discourse,that is,the objective world involved in business discourse narrative description,defines and clarifies the meaning of words.Passive voice is also widely used in business English.

Implications and Conclusions

To sum up,creative translation is used in business English translation,which is flexible and changeable,breaking the inherent translation mode of translation theory and method,so that the target audience can fully understand the information value,cultural value,aesthetic value and commercial value conveyed by commodities and some slogans by changing language information.So as to attract consumers and influence consumers’ideas.Moreover,with the development and progress of social culture,new languages and expressions emerge one after another,and the creation of translation methods will be more rich and vivid in the future.

Acknowledgements

Liyuan Liu is the corresponding author of this paper.This paper is the final paper of the project of Science and Technology Innovation for College Students of Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University.The whole project is called:Exploring the Development Prospect of Multi-Brand Joint-type Clothing O2O Offline Experience Store.Project No.[2019016].