Normative Research On English Translations Of Public Signs

Translation of public signs represents the image of the initiator, the city, and even the whole country. Facing the serious situation of translating this kind of term as well as the urgent need to communicate with English speakers, translators should find a way out for regulating the translations of these terms.Combining the Receptors’Response in Nida’s Dynamic Equivalence Theory and the other translation theories, like German functionalism, and Chinese scholars’opposition to using "xin, da, ya" as the translation criterion, this thesis tries to analyze the translation of public signs from a new aspect. With examples of translated terms, the typical errors of translation are classified into linguistic, cultural, and pragmatic ones. Next, examples show that different way of translation and different usage may lead to the coexistence of versions without any error, which also contributes to the nonstandard translations. In fact, these problems are more or less caused by ignorance of receptors’ response. Therefore, administrative measures as well as translation methodology is presented as the feasible way to reduce the improper translated signs. Since administrative measures include the establishment of translation norms and the removal of the improper translated terms, they may mostly rely on few people in power. That can be a gospel as well as disaster for the cause of public signs standardization which actually should be operated on the basis of receptors’response. As for translators, in order to perform high quality translation, it is the premise to have a good command of translation methodology and being familiar with both source and target language. Hence,"borrowing","imitating", and "creating" are advised as three major translating methods to insure the quality of translation. When it comes to the translation course for college students, it is suggested to strengthen their ability in translating these practical texts by operative tasks and arousing awareness of receptors among them. Only when administrative and translation methods are playing their roles, can the nonstandard translations be regulated and the language environment be optimized.