SOCIO-Semiotic Approach To The Translation Of Public Signs

Economic globalization makes it possible for the spreading of English and its influence on people’s daily life; the multilingual or bilingual translations of public signs are one of the most typical examples. As a type of practical texts used in public places, it is the accuracy and conformity with norms that determine the degree of the effectiveness of the Chinese-English translation of public signs. However, the Chinese-English translation of public signs in China are far from the standards for the present, and the translation errors of public signs can be seen everywhere. As a social symbol, it is not only helpful for us to comprehend the social functions of signs through analyzing the stylistic features of public signs but also helpful to enhance the accuracy and the degree of conforming to the norms of the Chinese-English translation of public signs through researching their functions.Although there are now many scholars, translators and experts carrying out studies on translation of public signs, these studies mainly focus on the function, features and language styles of public signs, the majority of which concentrate on the correction of the specific mistranslation. As a result, they failed to study the translation of public signs in a systematic and integral manner and to propose a universal principle and criterion. Under this background, the author analyses how the semiotic meanings can be perfectly transferred, trying to meet the criterion of the socio-semiotic translation:"correspondence in meaning and similarity in function".As for the theoretical framework, the author absorbs and integrates Nida’s "dynamic equivalence", Morris’"three sign meanings" and Chen Hongwei’s socio-semiotic approach to translation. It holds that any symbols, either linguistic or non-linguistic, are meaningful. Translation is the translating of meaning, including referential meaning, linguistic meaning and pragmatic meaning. Socio-semiotics is comprehensive in dealing with meaningful relationships and focuses primarily on the function of language and how these relate to codes. Moreover, semiotics (study of signs) and public signs are both closely related to "sign"; therefore, it is reasonable and feasible to apply socio-semiotic approach to the translation of public signs.This thesis takes the translations of public signs in Changsha and Xi’an as examples and analyzes the translations under the guidance of socio-semiotics, so as to achieve the accuracy and conformity with the norms in the Chinese-English translation of public signs.