Abstract:Trademark is somewhat a bridge across commodities and consumers as well as Chinese culture and English culture. However, this kind of bridge is not always easy to build as it contains many different or even complicated components — history, culture, customs, aesthetic interest etc.. Plus, if producers want consumers understand what his product and trademark mean, he may as well use the tool of translation which has two skills we can apply, i.e. domestication and foreignization. Besides, manufacturers who want to expand their enterprises tend to have the plan of marketing his goods in the native country, so he has to present the translation version which can be understood by customers in the target market. In order to achieve this goal, the writer suggests the theory of domestication, taking target culture into consideration and making the connotation hidden in the trademark understood.
In this essay, the writer explores the mistakes committed in the English-Chinese trade-mark translation and suggests some rectifications through domestication. In the first part, the writer gives an introduction of trademark to the readers. Then, five factors influencing the accuracy of the translation are brought up to lay a basis for putting forward a typical translation way — literal translation, which is analysed in the third part and a rectification — domestication, which is explained in the fourth part. Besides, in order to convince the readers more, the last but one part brings the readers some examples that are translated or corrected by applying domestication. In the end, the writer concludes that the approach of domestication is helpful for solving the problems above.
Key words: Trademark; literal translation; domestication; foreignization
