On Text Functions And Translation Strategies Of Tourism Brochures

Eugene Nida and Peter Newmark once studied translation from the perspective of linguistic approaches; afterwards, German Functionalist School of translation has long been regarded as the pioneer and navigator in modern translation practice. Theories such as Skopostheorie, typology and translational action have made great impact on translation circle. These theories have been applied to the translation of a large number of literary texts and practical texts. Though many other factors related to the context of translation, including the intention of the translator, translation purpose and the readers'competence, will affect or cause constraints to translation of practical texts, the regularity of text functions is best portrayed in practical texts'translation, for example, tourism brochures. The translation of practical texts emphasizes the content and effect of information conveyed. Almost all practical texts have strong informative and appellative function, and are characterize by practicability and normalization. As a type of text, tourism brochures take on informative, expressive, appellative, phatic and some secondary functions of practical texts, among which, appellative function is the most important, while other functions are subordinate or serve the appellative function. In accordance with the scope and features of tourism brochures, the author suggests relevant translation strategies and lists plenty of examples both from home and abroad. In turn, translation of these brochures verifies the rational and applicability of the theories adopted. The thesis combines the text functions of tourism brochures with proper translation strategies, which elaborates the guidance of theories to practice.Getting to know the function of a text is necessary for translation, because that's the basis for selecting translation strategies. To some extent,"text function"is not only the premise of translation strategies, but also the parameter for the quality of translation work. Incorporating the theories of Czech scholar Roman Jackobson, British translation theorist Peter Newmark, German translation theorist Christiane Nord and Katharina Reiss, the thesis concludes text function as four major functions. Meanwhile, under translation strategies of scholars mentioned above, on the basis of text functions, in accordance with sufficient evidence and examples from both home and abroad, the thesis takes tourism brochures as targets and aims at dwelling on strategies and skills for translation of such a compound text. The theoretical basis of the thinking is the stable connection between text functions and translation strategies. Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy, Chinese tourism has experienced a continuous prosperity. But the translation research in this field is far more behind. China has closer relations with other countries in economic and cultural exchange. The thesis, not only offers effective strategies for tourism translation, but also brings about implications for translation teaching and practice of tourism translators.