A Functionalist Approach To C-E Translation Of Poetic Quotations In Tourist Texts

Tourism is an emerging industry in China that has been gaining growth momentum especially in the past decade. It has been playing a very significant role in China's ongoing efforts to emerge as a major power in the world. Tourist texts play a vital role in attracting foreign tourists. More often than not, English is the only medium in international tourism activities. Therefore, the C-E translation of Chinese tourist texts is of great significance if China ever wants to attract more international tourists.There are great disparities between Chinese and English tourist texts, with the large presence of poetic quotations in Chinese tourist texts being the most prominent one. However, traditional translation methods, either free translation or literal translation, fail to bring out desired rendering in most cases as far as the translation of poetic quotations is concerned. Therefore, this dissertation tends to find out the best method to translate the poetic quotations in Chinese tourist texts in light of German functionalist approaches.With Nord's documentary translation and instrumental translation as the framework, this dissertation explores how these two translation methods can guide the translation of poetic quotations in the three major types of Chinese tourist texts, i.e. scenic spot introduction, tourism advertisement and tour commentary through case studies. The dissertation finally comes into a conclusion that documentary translation is applicable to the translation of poetic quotations in Chinese scenic spot introduction, instrumental translation is applicable to the translation of poetic quotations in tourism advertisement, and both documentary translation and instrumental translation can be used in the translation of poetic quotations in tour commentary.The dissertation is divided into six chapters (excluding introduction and conclusion):Chapter I offers a brief introduction to functionalist approaches, highlighting Reiss's text typology and Nord's documentary translation and instrumental translation. Chapter II outlines tourist texts and their functions. Chapter III briefs the features of Chinese tourist texts and the disparities between Chinese and English tourist texts. This chapter also discusses the differences between the translation of Chinese poetry and the translation of poetic quotations in Chinese tourist texts in light of text typology. Chapter IV gives an analysis of the application of documentary translation in the translation of poetic quotations in scenic spot introduction. Chapter V makes a discussion about the application of instrumental translation in the translation of poetic quotations in tourism advertisement. Chapter VI launches a probe into the application of both documentary and instrumental translations in the translation of poetic quotations in tour commentary.In the conclusion part, apart from a summarization of the whole dissertation, the author also lists limitations of the thesis and gives some suggestions for future studies.