Abstract:Through the analysis of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory, the purpose of this paper is to interpret its application in the translation of brand names so as to explore the fundamental principles for translation. According to Nida, “the translated text should produce a response to readers in today’s culture that is equivalent to the response to the original receptors.” It will be transferred into the equivalence of the conception of a product or the core value of a company in the translation of brand names. After the translation, the consumers, regardless of their nationality or culture, should be able to understand the concept. That calls for grasping the psychology of consumers as well as maintaining the connotation of brand names. Therefore, it is very important to know how to maintain its functions and characteristics in terms of business and linguistics, being aesthetic, informative and persuasive. With the increasing number of brands, every company focuses on putting plenty of connotations onto their brand names. We find it more and more difficult to translate brand names only depending on the Functional Equivalence Theory. Thus, in the end, this paper points out that when the Theory cannot help us to translate a brand name with so many connotations, what methods should we adopt to keep the accuracy to achieve the equivalence from other perspectives.
Key words: Functional Equivalence, translation, brand names, application
中文摘要: 本文旨在通过对奈达功能对等理论的分析，浅释其理论在商标翻译中的运用, 从而揭示出商标翻译的基本原则。按照奈达（Eugene A. Nida）的翻译对等理论: 所谓翻译，是指从语义到文体在译语中用最贴近而又最自然的对等语再现原语的信息。目标语对接受者产生的影响要与源语言对读者产生的影响对等，即动态对等。当把此理论运用到商标翻译上，即表现为原商标在设计时的理念。翻译的目的是把同样的影响力传给目标语使用者—消费者。既要保持原有商标的内涵，又要满足消费者的心理。因此，在功能上如何保持商标原文的商业特征和语言学特征，即美学特征、信息特征和说服性特征是非常重要的。现在的商品越来越多，各商家都在商标翻译上下功夫，将众多意义、理念集于一身。于是，给予这种社会变化，在本文结尾部分中指出，当仅借助功能对等理论不能解决所以问题时，我们该采取什么措施以确保翻译的准确性，从另外的角度达到功能对等。
关键词：功能对等、翻译、商标、应用
