A Study Of Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs-From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

The translation of public signs is an important part of building a good international language environment as well as a window for foreigners to know China. However, the inadequate translations of Chinese public signs have both failed to serve the foreign visitors with convenience and somehow tarnished China's international profile. We are convinced that it's a matter of urgency to understand how we should conduct the problematic translation of public signs.Drawing on Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory as the theoretical foundation, this thesis views the Chinese-English translation of public signs as a process of continuous making choices and adaptation.A contrastive study of English and Chinese public signs is conducted in the fourth chapter of this thesis, exploring their similarities and differences in both linguistic and cultural features. The study shows that while Chinese and English public signs bear some similarities (i.e. conciseness), they are of significant differences at the lexical, syntactic, rhetoric and cultural levels.Based on the results of the contrastive study and in combination with the contextual correlates of adaptability and structural objects of adaptability, the fifth chapter of this thesis reveals that during the Chinese-English translation of public signs, the translator should not only make linguistic adaptation at lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels as well as at the level of the conciseness of public signs, but also make extra-linguistic adaptation motivated by the target readers' cognitive, social, and cultural elements.