Abstract:With the rapid development of the automobile industry in China, the automobile trademarks play a significant role in merchandise trade. Only having a successful automobile trademark translated name can it attract the Chinese consumers and stimulate their purchasing desire. 

 In this thesis, it has reviewed the perspectives of translation research, and reviewed the previous studies of trademarks and automobile trademarks. And they will provide some theoretical basis for the study of automobile trademarks translation.

This research is studied by the quantitative analysis according to observation and analysis data. And then it will apply the cultural theoretical knowledge to analyze the cultural features of the automobile trademark names in China.

Finally, it concludes that according to analyzing the representative examples of automobile trademark names, the foreign automobile trademark names can be translated into Chinese by transliteration, free translation, combining transliteration with free translation, and conversion. And based on the main cultural original features of the automobile trademark names and the cultural features of trademark names, we can choose the most suitable method to translate them. Due to the limitation of my study ability, study time and the analysis data, the analysis does not study in a deep-going way.

Key words: automobile trademark names; original features; culture features;  translation methods

Table of Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 The reasons of the research-1

1.2-The significance and the objectives of the research-1

1.3-The organization of the thesis-1

2. The Literature Review-2

2.1-The perspectives of the translation research-2

2.2-A review of cultural perspective-2

2.3-Previous translation studies of trademark-2

2.4-Previous studies of automobile trademark-3

2.5 Previous studies of automobile trademark names’ original features-3

2.5.1 Originated from the proper nouns-3

2.5.2 Originated from the common nouns-4

2.5.3 Originated from the foreign loanwords-4

2.6-Summary-4

3. The Theoretical Framework-5

3.1-Working definition of automobile trademark-5

3.1.1-Previous definitions-5

3.1.2-Working definitions-5

3.2 The theories of the cultural perspectives-5

3.2.1 The cultural features-6

3.2.2 The cultural ideology-6

3.2.3 The language culture-6

3.3 Framework of this study-7

4. Cultural Features of Automobile Trademark Names-8

4.1 Features of Chinese nationality customs-8

4.2 Features of Chinese aesthetic sense-8

4.3 Features of vocabulary cultural connotation in China-9

5. The Translation Methods of Foreign Automobile Trademarks-10

5.1-Transliteration and examples-10

5.1.1 Definition of transliteration-10

5.1.2 Examples-10

5.2-Free translation and examples-11

5.2.1 Definition of free translation-11

5.2.2 Examples-11

5.3-Combining transliteration with free translation and examples-12

5.3.1 Definition of combining transliteration with free translation-13

5.3.2 Examples-13

5.4-Conversion and examples-13

5.4.1 Definition of conversion-14

5.4.2 Examples-14

6. Conclusion-15

6.1-Major findings and limitations-15

6.2-Suggestions for further studies-15

References-16

Acknowledgements-17