An Error Analysis On Chinese-English Translation Of World Heritage Interpretations

With China's reform and opening to the outside world, its gorgeous landscapes, splendid culture and age-long history have attracted more and more overseas tourists. The sceneries inscribed on the World Cultural and Natural Heritage List by UNESCO are especially favored by both Chinese and foreign visitors. The Chinese-English translation of the heritage interpretation therefore plays a very important role in helping foreigners know better about these heritage resources as well as the Chinese culture. The thesis attempts to summarize all kinds of errors in the C-E translation of heritage interpretations and suggest effective translation techniques. The framework of the study is a functionalist approach, Skopostheorie, which doesn't emphasize the total equivalence of the target text and source text, but asserts translators should fully analyze the target text and source text and choose appropriate translation techniques according to the intended purpose or function of the target text. In this theory, the equivalence of the target text and source text is no longer the only factor taken into account in the translation practice, a great importance is also attached to the function of the target text, target readers'response and target culture. Many features of the Chinese and English heritage interpretations provide solid evidences that a great disparity exists between their functions. The Chinese heritage interpretation is formal and refined, stressing expressive function besides the dominant informative function. While its English counterpart impresses readers as a typical informative text type, which is based on concrete facts and features plain language. In the author's opinion, different aesthetic values of Chinese and westerners give rise to different writing conventions, which in turn result in their different functions. During translation such differences should be fully considered. Based on the functionalist definition and classification of translation errors, the author analyzes the common linguistic translation errors and cultural translation errors and suggests improved translations and relevant techniques.