论文总字数：43371字

摘 要

随着全球化的发展，世界各国之间的联系越来越紧密。 同时，公示语在许多方面给外国人带来了很多帮助，它的重要性也伴随着中国日益提高的国际化程度而得到提高。

迄今为止，公示语方面的研究已有很多。但是，公示语英译这个领域仍然存在着一系列的问题。本文旨在结合纽马克的奇偶及翻译理论分析当前公示语英译中所存在的一系列的问题，从而从理论，语言和文化这三个方面总结出对应的翻译策略。

本文将从交际翻译的角度，结合公共标志语的实例对当前公共标识语的英译问题进行分析并尝试总结出对应的翻译策略。 本文共分里六个部分来论述：首先说明了研究背景和意义；其次对前人的研究做以综述并对理论框架进行介绍。然后研究方法以及资料的收集进行称述。结合公示语实例，再对当前该领域存在的问题进行分析归纳和总结。然后针对上述问题，本文从语言和交际的角度提出一些列的翻译策略。最后简要总结本文并提出进一步改善研究的意见。

研究表明，公示语的翻译问题不仅存在语言层面，翻译的简介性，翻译文本类型的混淆以及认知问题等这一系列的问题也应该得到重视。在翻译公示语的时候，各方面的因素都需要考虑在内。

本文最后号召大家积极加入公示语的研究，提高中国的国际形象，呈现给世界一个完美的国家形象。

Table of Contents

Acknowledegments ii

Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter Two LITERATURE RRVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 3

2.1 Definition of Public Signs 3

2.2 An overview of Researches on C-E Public Signs Translation 4

2.3 Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation 5

2.4 Problems in the Previous Studies 6

Chapter Three METHODOLOGY 8

3.1 Research Design 8

3.1.1 Research method and model 8

3.1.2 Research procedures 9

3.2 Sample-collection of Public Signs 9

Chapter Four CAUSE AND EFFECT OF PROBLEMS IN C-E TRANSLATION OF PUBLIC

SIGNS 12

4.1 Linguistic Translation Errors 12

4.1.1 Spelling errors 12

4.1.2 Grammar errors 13

4.1.3 Wrong diction 14

4.2 Communicative Translation Error 14

4.2.1 Problems about clarity 15

4.2.2 Unclear Classification of Public Signs Based on Text Typologies 16

4.2.3 Cognitive translation problems 17

4.3 Effect of Those Errors 18

Chapter Five SUGGESTION FOR PUBLIC SIGNS TRANSLATION 18

5.1 Suggestions from Linguistic Aspect 19

5.2 Suggestions from Communicative Aspect 19

Chapter Six CONCLUSION 21

6.1 General Summary 21

6.2 Limitations and Suggestions 21

References 22

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

With the development of globalization, the world is becoming more and more smaller which strengthens the relations between different countries. Because of the deepening reform and rapid economic development, China’s degree of internationalization has greatly improved. As one of the important components of the society, public signs are the notices, tips, display, warning and marking that are closely related to life, production, statement, ecology and industry showing with the form of text or graphics. Besides, public signs are involved in various areas, such as public facilities, public transportation, tourist attractions, tourist service, street district, foreign institutions and so on. (Lv, H. F., 2006). It is not only a window for the world to know China, but also a symbol which reflects overall cultural quality, moral and spiritual outlook of the whole social group. (Tan, X. N., 2008). There is no doubt that public signs has brought lots of convenience to foreigners when they are in China. While, at the same time, the public signs of our country also confuse foreigners a lot due to various problems in translation. Therefore, public signs play an important role in this kind of situation.

So far, a lot of studies have been done to investigate the translation situation of public signs during these years.(Lv, H. F., 2006; Tan, X. N., 2008; Yang, H. X., amp; Zeng, H., 2009; Zhen, H., 2008; Zhou, L. M., amp; Meng, Q. S.) Most of these studies have found out that the most important problem of public signs translation is the factor of language or culture. While, there are fewer findings yielded in analysis of public signs translation from the perspective of theory combined with both language and culture. As a result, research needs to be carried out combined with Newmark’s theory of communicative translation and factors of language and culture would be take into consideration so that the situation of China’s public signs translation would be improved.

The present study is aimed to analyze the situation of public signs translation with Newmark’s communicative translation theory and explore some specific strategies of public signs translation in three different aspects: theories, language and culture.

Chapter Two

LITERATURE RRVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

With the improvement of globalization and internationalization, the public signs translation has drawn a lot of attention from the academic circles. And in this chapter, the research is mainly about the definition of public signs.Then, empirical studies about public signs translation will be analyzed. What’s more, theoretical foundations and the problems in the previous studies will be discussed.

2.1 Definition of Public Signs

In the New Dictionary of the English Language, a public sign is interpreted as “an inscribed board, plate, space, or the like providing information, guidance, or advertisement, as on or in front of a building or place of business or along a street or road.’’

According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English (2001), a public sign is referred as that sign is publicly displayed offering information or instruction in a written or symbolic way.

As the interaction between different countries is becoming more and more close, more and more people have been aware of the importance of public signs. Therefore, many scholars have been tried to define public signs and translation strategy for public signs. It is said that there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. According to the definition (Lv, H. F., 2006) written in Chinese English Dictionary on Public Signs Translation, public signs are the notices, tips, display, warning and marking that are closely related to life, production, statement, ecology and industry showing with the form of text or graphics.

What’s more, Professor Dai Zongxian and Professor Lv Hefa (2006) defined public signs as following, public signs are characters, words and graphic information that are closely related to people’s life, environment and business, and intend to have the functions of notifying, directing, displaying, warning and labeling to the public.

Professor Yang Quanhong (2005) put forward that a public sign is ‘a special language style frequently used in public places’. Based on former studies on public signs, Zhang Li (2009) defined public signs as ‘ the information provided by government, community, or individuals, etc. Used in the public places to notify, direct or alert the public and is usually in the form of board in her thesis.

Although different experts define “public sign” differently, in fact, they are described the the same term just with different words. After taking various definition into consideration, the author adopts that public sign that is used to tell the public information or direction with the form of words, graphs, etc..

2.2 An overview of Researches on C-E Public Signs Translation

According to the previous studies, we could find that the history of public signs translation in China is not very long. It was not until the last decade in 20^th century, some scholars began to notice the significance of public signs translation and the existing problems in this area. In 1990, a professor of Beijing International Studies University named Dai Zongxian went over the public signs shown in such institutions involving foreign affairs and public places in Beijing. It was the first time when public signs translation had its own standard.

In 1993, a book named How to help Foreigners Know China (Duan, L. C, 1993) arose many people’s attention to the translation. Mr. Duan said that the public signs that help foreigners understand China better are closed connected with China’s international image. Therefore, much more importance should be attached to the translation of public signs.

Afterwards, many scholars tried to define public signs and find the translation strategy for public signs. Based on former studies on public signs, Zhang Li (2009) put forward in her thesis that there were a lot of problems existing in public signs translation because public signs have not been divided clearly according to their different functions. And cultural difference ignored was also an important factor which was connected to public signs translation closely.

Indeed, a lot of problems exist in the translation through a lot of work has been done to this area. Fortunately, many people have started to take immediately action to search for solutions. Wang Yinquan (2004) focused on mistranslation of the public signs in Nanjing in his series of papers. After collecting a lot of public signs, he analyzed the translation and concluded the solutions by consulting the dictionaries and many reliable resources. Finally, he draw the conclusion that aspects of pragmatics, grammar, manner and cultural difference arose many issues in public signs translation.

Zhao Xiang (2004) explored the public signs translation from the perspective of cultural difference combined with pragmatics theory. She found that cultural difference was most important reason to cause confusion in public signs translation.

Just as Wang Yinquan, an another scholar Wang Xiaojuan(2008) who discussed the public signs translation by analyzing the signs of Nanjing. She concluded the translation problems under the guidance of functional theory. The conclusion was that spelling mistake, improper word-use, part of speech and grammatical voice were serious problems in public signs translation.

Pang Bo (2013) analyzed the situation of public signs translation combined with functional equivalence theory. He found that lexical mistake, grammatical mistakes, cultural misunderstanding and Chinglish were the common errors in public signs translation.

Wang Xiaojuan (2008) inquired into the public signs translation from the perspective of functional theory and she concluded that spelling mistake, incorrect tense, misused words etc. caused most of the errors in public signs translation. Nowadays, there are more and more people pay attention to the translation of public signs.

2.3 Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation

Peter Newmark is a famous British translation theorist and educator who has made great contribution to translation area by combing translation and language functions. Peter Newmark divided the text into three forms: expressive text, informative text and vocative text (Newmark 2001a:47-48).

According to Newmark’s theory, when the text with vocative function is being translated, the communicative translation should be applied. Because the communicative translation attach much importance to the readership, the target text and its effect. In another world, reader is the center. Besides, the target text should be concise and understandable to make the target text has the same effect on the reader as the source text. Public signs translation should meet all these requirements above to plays its functions well. And communicative translation is mainly recommended by Newmark to use in the informative and vocative text. Public signs fall into the vocative text type, so the author applies communicative translation to C-E translation errors.

According to the book named Approaches to Translation written by Peter Newmark, in general, communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original (Newmark 2001a:39). Communicative translation addresses itself solely to the second reader, who does not anticipate difficulties or obscurities, and would expect a generous transfer of foreign elements into his own language where necessary. But even here the translator still has to respect and work on the form of the source language text as the only material basis for his work.

In other word, communicative translation is social and functional. Therefore, it is usually applied in translating non-authoritative materials like product instructions, tourist brochures, advertisements and so on. Naturalness and readability are always attached more importance in this translation approach to make the content be suitable and understandable for the readers. According to Newmark’s theory of communicative translation, the translation should not only be with clarification but also with the adaption. Besides, when we translate the text the typology should also be taken in to the consideration. Last but not least, we should also remember to avoid the cognitive translation problem.

2.4 Problems in the Previous Studies

From the previous studies, we could easily learn that a lot of work has been done in this area, but there are still no unified and standardized rules to solve the existing problems in public signs translation due to the imperfect system of translation application. ( Yang, X. H., Zeng, H., 2009) Most of them are just listing the typical wrong examples without giving convincing argument or adequate analysis. Sometimes, they analyzed the translation of public signs from the aspect of culture or grammar and drawn some conclusion but no standard on how to translate and how to embark on the bilingual signs of translation has been set up. Therefore, this thesis would analyze the public signs translation form the perspective of Newmark’s communicative translation. Newmark put forward that translation task should focus more on translator’s purpose, the nature of readership and text typology. He said that communicative translation, where translator attempts to produce the same effect on TL readers was produced by original on the SL readers and which is appropriate to any text. By combining with this theory, many errors in public signs translation could be avoided such as cultural difference, misunderstanding, Chinglish and so on.

To sum up, more qualitative analyses are needed to have a better acknowledge of errors in public signs translation and to find proper translation strategies. In this case, a unified and standardized system will be built to promote the development of public signs translation and to improve our international image greatly.

Chapter Three

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

3.1.1 Research method and model

As I have mentioned, the most largest problem existing in C-E public signs translation is that there are still no unified and standardized rules to solve the existing problems in public signs translation due to the imperfect system of translation application. Most scholars cloud not analyzed the translation problems of public signs by taking various factors into consideration. Therefore the author wants to combine the qualitative analyses with some theories to find proper translation strategies and promote the development of public signs translation and to improve our international image greatly.

The methods adopted in this study are mainly documentary, comparative, analytical and experience sum-up. Most of the samples are recorded by taking photos, taking notes and then transcribed by the author during various trips. In addition, some of bilingual public signs are collected from through papers writer by other researchers in the translation studies. What’s more, some public signs which have bee photographed and sorted by netizen are also used in this thesis.

At first, public signs as the source text are given together with the translated version as target text. Combined with the way of comparative and analytical, the translated version will be analyzed under the guidance of Newmak’s theory of Communicative Translation. Thirdly, the author will summary the adjustment strategy of public signs by adopting experience sum-up method. Finally, the conclusion is reached after all comprehensive studies and some newly emerged ideas are included in this regard.

For example, in the tourist spot, there is a public sign as following:

Chinese: 警察提醒您：请保管好您的财务，以防被盗。

English: The police remind you to take care of your things lest they be stolen.

A public sign is usually used to cause people’s awareness or attach their attention with its informative or instructional function. It is suggested to use phrase instead of sentence, to use the short sentence rather than long sentence for the reason about clarification and emphasis. According to Newmark’s Communicative translation, the communicative translation is likely to be smooth, simpler,clearer, more direct, more conventional, conforming to a particular register of language, tending to understandable, i.e. To use more generic, hold-all terms in difficult passages. ( Newmark, P., 2001 ) Therefore, clarification is necessary in translation the public signs. With the reference to the other translation versions of the same public sign we may see in our daily life, the revised version is “ Beware of pickpockets!” Finally, the examples will be transcribed with the following formation:

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