The Translation Of Chinese Public Signs: A Study From Translation Variation Perspective

With the successful holding of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and World Expo Shanghai 2010 in China, the international exchanges become more and more frequent and significant in many aspects such as politics, economy, culture and tourism. No matter what kind of activities people from abroad do in China, pubic signs are regarded as the window for them to know about China. Therefore, the translation of public signs has great significance to China's cultural exchanges and economic cooperation with other countries. However, the quality of the translation of public signs is far from satisfaction, which will absolutely hinder the daily lives of foreigners in China.Therefore, this thesis makes a tentative exploration of applying translation variation theory into the C-E translation of public signs both theoretically and practically. Theoretical guidance for the C-E translation of public signs is proposed under the translation variation theory based on the fulfilment of public signs'functions. Two prominent elements of the theory are considered as the major guiding lines while translating public signs, that is, the comprehension and acceptance of target readers and translators'subjectivity. As to practical level, various translation variation strategies are applied in translating public signs. Especially, the application of the eight appropriate translation variation strategies has quite realistic significance in the practice of C-E translation of public signs.In the study, the author first discusses the classification, functions and characteristics of public signs in detail, which lays foundation for the translation of public signs.Then the problems and causes of public signs'translation from linguistic, cultural, aesthetic perspectives are analysed to find out the appropriate translation variation strategies. The creative parts of this thesis lie in that through the analysis of the eleven translation variation strategies proposed by Professor Huang Zhonglian, it is found that three strategies such as summarized translation, reviewing translation and reference translation, which are more suitable to bigger basic units such as articles and books, are inappropriate to be applied in translating public signs; while the other eight translation variation strategies, namely, selective translation, edited translation, translation and narration, condensed translation, translation and comment, adaptation translation, explanatory translation, translation and writing, can be applied according to specific situations. Then the thesis makes a further analysis of actual application conditions of these eight translation variation strategies one by one. It is also found that compared with other strategies, adaptation translation is the most frequently used one in translating public signs. Conforming to the international standard and idiomatic expressions of English public signs should be considered as the priority in the translation of Chinese public signs. All in all, under the premise of considering the target readers'special needs, it is the translators who should put their subjectivity into full play by adopting various kinds of translation variation strategies to fulfill the functions of public signs.Besides, the thesis is only a tentative study of the practical application of the eight translation variation strategies in the translation of public signs. Future study can also be made to see whether it is possible to explore suitable variation strategies according to different types of public signs. Moreover, how to set quality assessment standard for the translation of public signs is also explored.