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A Study on Types of Translations of Trademarks Written in Korean Chinese into Chinese English

  • 인문논총
  • 2014, 35(), pp.257-277
  • Publisher : Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Published : October 31, 2014

Kim, Hyun-Tae 1

1경남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study looked into types of translations in relation to how these trademarks written in Korean or Chinese would be translated into Chinese or English, respectively. The study proceeded with itsinvestigation targeting a total of 41 trademarks of South Korean cosmetics that have advanced intoChina and these other 129 trademarks of Chinese cosmetics as well. First of all, among the 41 SouthKorean cosmetics trademarks, 22 (53.7%) of them which was more than the half of the total turnedout to be phonetically translated. Next, eight (19.5%) of the total were observed to be literallytranslated while six (14.6%) of the South Korean cosmetics trademarks have been translatedsemantically. It was also found out that five (12.2%) of all those trademarks adopted two differenttranslation methods but there, the phonetic translation was dominant. In terms of the 129 Chinesecosmetics trademarks, 82 (63.5%), the absolute majority, of them appeared to be phoneticallytranslated. The study, then, confirmed that 32 (24.8%) of the total were semantically translated whilenine (7%) of all those trademarks were literally translated. Six (4.7%) of the Chinese cosmeticstrademarks were understood to be translated with this new integrated method of two differenttranslations but again, the phonetic translation was adopted as the main method. What is consideredunusual regarding translating the Chinese trademarks with the English phonetic translation methodis that the method has been much more detailed and segmentalized as the method would adoptChinese phonetic alphabets (Chinese Pinyin) as they are , use initials of Chinese phonetic alphabetsonly as well as pronunciations of dialects and Wade Giles system and lastly, works on thetransformed orthography of Chinese phonetic alphabets. However, what the study has learned therewas that when it comes to the South Korean cosmetics trademarks that are translated into Chinesephonetically, they are enjoying this preference for their being foreign made but not domestic-made,but in case of those Chinese cosmetics trademarks which are translated phonetically into English, itappears that they would not achieve such result. As far as the study understands, the latter has thatkind of difference because this Chinese phonetic alphabets are basically used to translate most of thetrademarks phonetically which would eventually bring about these bizarre shapes of Romanalphabets, and that would make it difficulty for foreigners to figure out what those translatedtrademarks would mean. In the light of that, the study believes that translating Chinese cosmeticstrademarks into English is not reaching anything but rather violating much of the informationfunction, the aesthetic function and the appeal function that a trademark would perform. The study,now, hopes that what has been discussed so far becomes a help not only to the South Korean cosmetics companies that are preparing to enter the Chinese market but also to these Chinese cosmeticscompanies that would target overseas markets when both companies try to translate their trademarks.

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