Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs From The Perspective Of Functionalist Theory

Public signs serve as practical texts. They are intended to offer useful information to the public, make reasonable proposals, and regulate people's behavior. To a certain extent, the improvement of quality of Chinese-English (C-E) translation of public signs could be an important part of our effort in creating a favorable cultural environment. However, the current quality of the C-E translation of public signs is not good enough to efficiently reach the goal. In this situation, this thesis will try to give a theoretical and practical analysis of C-E translation of public signs from the perspective of functionalist translation.C-E translation of public signs is a new field in translation studies. According to the functionalist theory, translators should draw attention to the functional factors in the translation of public signs, including: text type, intention and translating action. The author will analyze pragmatic, cultural, linguistic and text-specific translation errors and suggest some translation strategies based on the functionalist theory. "The end justifies the means", as the core idea of functionalist translation, means that the translation strategies and methods are determined by the acceptability and effectiveness of translation. To summarize, this thesis illustrates the translating strategies and practical methods proposed by the author.