On Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs Based On Skopostheorie

With the rapid growth of economy and the increased influence,the communication between China and other countries has been promoted.As the main component in the foreign-oriented publicity in China,public signs translation plays a significant role.Whether the function of public signs translation can be realized directly influences the outlook of urban cities and the international image of China.The appropriate Chinese-English translation of public signs would provide convenience for foreigners while the wrong one results in problems.In this thesis,the author aims at analysis of errors in the translation and relative strategies to improve the quality of bilingual public signs.The theoretical basis of the thesis is Skopostheorie,which is the center of German functional approaches.Skopostheorie is put forward and developed by Vermeer.According to Vermeer,the function or purpose of the target text determines translation methods and translation process.So in the translation process,translators should focus on the four functions of public signs(directing,prompting,restricting and compelling).Skopostheorie includes three rules for translation: Skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule,all of which guide translation process.Therefore,Skopostheorie is employed in this thesis in making a study of pubic signs translation.The present study is devoted to making a review of the basic points in Skopostheorie and public signs.With many examples,the author classifies the errors of linguistics,pragmatics and culture with the help of Nord’ s classification of translation errors.The author finds that not all the three rules of Skopostheorie were obeyed of varying degree while translating,which leads to the nonstandardization of public signs in China.Based on the findings above,the author comes up with some strategies.From a microscopic angle,the author focuses on the methods like back translation,omission,borrowing,euphemistic tone,transliteration etc.From a macroscopic angle,the standardization should be achieved and the translators should be more professional in order to perfect the bilingual conversion.