C-E Translation Of Public Signs:a Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

With the rapid development of economy and the intensification of reform and opening up to the outside world, China is becoming increasingly active in cultural exchanges and economic cooperation with other countries. And meanwhile many foreign people are coming from all over the world to China for work, for study, for tourism or for other purposes or reasons. With the aim of promoting international communication and facilitating foreign people’s daily living in China, bilingual public signs are provided in the public places of many big cities and tourist resorts. As the quality of the English translation of public signs directly concerns foreign people’s daily living in China as well as China’s international image, C-E translation of public signs has aroused great interest and close attention on the part of language scholars and experts and thus has become a research focus of great practical significance. The present research attempts to explore C-E translation of public signs from the perspective of the Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren, aiming at seeking a theoretical framework of practical significance to guide C-E translation of public signs and hoping to provide some valuable suggestions for C-E translation of public signs both in theory and in practice.Verschueren assumes that using language is a process of making linguistic choices with various degrees of consciousness to make dynamic adaptation to linguistic structure and context. Linguistic structure and context involve linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that may exert great influence on the language user’s linguistic choices. As a linguistic communication involving code switching and culture transfer, C-E translation of public signs is a process of using language and also a process of making linguistic choices with various degrees of consciousness to make dynamic adaptation to linguistic structure and context for satisfying certain communicative needs. In C-E translation of public signs, while the translator is choosing code, style and even text structure, his/her linguistic choices are bound to be affected by cognitive, social and cultural elements outside the language. Therefore, when translating public signs from Chinese to English, the translator should take into account both the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors affecting his/her linguistic choices and make dynamic adaptation to the linguistic structure and context. In the light of Verschueren’ Adaptation Theory, the present research probes into various linguistic and extra-linguistic factors affecting the process of C-E translation of public signs on the basis of analyzing and comparing the source texts and the target texts of a large quantity of translation examples and it suggests that the translator should make adaptation to the linguistic structure through adaptation to the linguistic reality of the target text and to the context through adaptation to the target readers’social world, mental world and physical world.The present research on C-E translation of public signs from the perspective of Adaptation Theory can help the translator better understand the translation principles and employ translation strategies. Moreover, the present research can also provide guidance for people in evaluating the quality of the translation in C-E translation of public signs.