摘 要

国家形象对于国家的国际声誉有着直接的影响。国家形象在国家的各个层面都有体现，包括国家的经济实力，文化影响力，科技创新等因素。随着中国的经济建设取得举世瞩目的成就，奥运会、世博会相继在中国举办，中国已经具备一个大国的经济实力。随着越来越多的外国友人来到中国投资、旅游、学习，公示语一方面为它们提供生活上的便利，发挥着指示、提醒、警告的各种功能，另一方面也成为他们了解中国文化的一个窗口。本文将中文公示语的翻译与文化输出相结合，通过具体的公示语案例分析，总结公示语翻译中的典型的错误类型，提出消除错误，正确翻译的一些基本规则。在此基础上，寻求尽可能的体现中国文化特征的公示语翻译技巧，让中文公示语的英译体现中华文化特色、反映汉语言的美感、展示中国人名爱好和平的形象，最终让公示语发挥文化输出的作用，为文化强国的建设发挥积极作用。

关键词：国家形象、公示语、翻译、文化输出

Abstract

National image has a direct influence on the international reputation of a country. National image is reflected in every aspect of the construction of a country, including the economic strength, cultural influence and technological innovation. While remarkable achievement has been realized in China’s economic construction, it is time for the whole country to attach importance to the construction of culture and to present the image of a peaceful and friendly China. With the huge increase in the number of foreigners who come to China for investment, tourism and study, the translation of public signs becomes more and more important. On one hand, public signs provide convenience for them and function as instructions, reminders and warnings in different locations; on the other hands, they are the windows of Chinese culture. This paper combines the translation of public signs and culture output to explore the principles in the translation of public signs and the translation techniques to retain Chinese characteristics in translation.

Key words: national image, public signs, translation, culture output

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Public Signs and Culture Output 3

2.1 Public Signs 3

2.2 Culture Output 4

3 Relations between Culture Output and the Translation of Public Signs 6

3.1 Public Signs as the Window of Culture Output 6

3.2 Influence of Chinese Culture on Translation 6

4 Cace Studies on C-E Translation of Public Signs in China 8

4.1 Samples of Improper Public Signs 8

4.2 Problems in the Translation of Public Signs 9

5 Solutions to the Existing Problems in Public Sign Translaiton 12

5.1 Simplicity 12

5.2 Standardization 12

5.3 Appropriate Tone 13

6 Translation Tequniques to Retain Chinese Characteristics 15

6.1 Alienation 15

6.2 Combination of Annotaion and Translation 15

6.3 Application of Figure of Speech 16

7 Conclusions 17

References 18

Acknowledgements 19

On the C-E Translation of Chinese Public Signs from the Perspective of Culture Output

1 Introduction

National image, which has a direct influence on the international reputation of a country, plays an important role in the soft power of the state. While remarkable achievement has been realized in China’s economic construction, it is time for the whole country to attach importance to the construction of culture and to present the image of a peaceful and friendly China. Cultural exchange is an effective way in cultural construction. However, different from the countries with great cultural influence all around the world like America and Japan that paid great attention to culture output, the strategy of China was to bring in the cultural works from other areas rather than to output its cultural achievement for a relatively long time. According to the research of Wang Yuechuan from Peking University, the amount of English –to-Chinese translation was 100 times the amount of Chinese-to-English translation in the 20th century. On account of this, recently, cultural output is frequently mentioned in China which has become a significant strategy.

So far, the researches on cultural output mainly focus on cultural industry, which includes publishing and copyright, movie and television and other kinds of cultural entertainment services. This paper discusses cultural output from a new perspective: the public signs, which are often ignored but influential. Opposite to the culture works that the foreigners can initiatively select, public signs are the factors that foreign friends cannot avoid when they walk on a Chinese street or travel in a Chinese tourist attraction. On one hand, correct and concise translations of Chinese public signs can provide an accessible and intimate environment for the foreign travelers and investors and leave them with the image of a meticulous and friendly China; on the other hand, innovative advertisements and some slogans with Chinese characteristics can elucidate the traditional Chinese values to the ones who come to China.

Of the many problems that limit the openness of China, inaccurate translation of Chinese public signs stands out as a serious one. This thesis will discuss the accuracy of the translation of Chinese public signs, classify the common mistakes into several categories and explore the potential reasons that cause these cases of mistaken translation.

Scholars who have already researched the translations of public signs have put forward various methods and techniques. Some researchers focus on skopos theory, which believes that translating should primarily take into account the function of both the source and target text. Some applies Nida’s functional equivalence, which emphasizes the content rather than form and puts reader’s response to an important position. While trying to guarantee the variety of the translation, this thesis will try to endow those translations with connotations and Chinese characteristics in order to convey the values of China and achieve the purpose of cultural output.

2 Public Signs and Culture Output

2.1 Public Signs

2.1.1 Definition of Public Signs

Public signs are the texts or icons which appear in public and function as instructions, reminders, restrictions or warnings. They are the most common practical language and are designed for some kinds of special communicative purposes.“Signs are anything from the simplest wayfinding or information ‘marker’ to the technically sophisticated communication of a message. Signing affects everybody—travelers, shoppers, visitors, drivers, etc.，whether in the course of business or pleasure.” asserted by Grey, the committee chairman of ISO (International Standard Organization).

Public signs are widely used in our life and can be recognized in nearly every place. Billboards, shop signs, promotional language and tourist profiles all belong to public signs. They are important parts of the language environment and humanistic environment of cosmopolitans and international tourist destinations. Because of the significance of public signs in people’s everyday lives and the rapid development of tourism, any misuse or abuse of public signs will lead to negative consequences. Any mistranslation will cause inconvenience to foreign travelers and damage the image of a city, an area or even a country.

One of the most obvious characteristics of public signs is the use of phrases and word groups, which reflect their language feature –simplicity, objectivity and informativeness.