Public Sign Translation: A Functionalist Approach

Public signs refer to the language intended for the public which offers public information for the purpose of instructing them or facilitating their lives. They include signs, indicators, way-finding boards, slogans, public notices and warnings, etc. The directions seen in tourist sites are also one important branch of public signs; in addition, the general simple directions on the packages of food, beverage, medicine, and cosmetics also belong to public signs. Therefore, public signs play an indispensable role in public life. This notwithstanding, even in a cosmopolitan city like Beijing, public sign translation is still non-standard, even full of mistakes. In view of this, the present author collects some non-standard public sign translations and employs the functionalist approach advocated by Germany scholars to suggest some better solutions. Generally speaking, skopos rule and loyalty rule are the two pillars of functionalist translation theory, the former meaning that the purpose to be achieved by the translation act determines the entire translation process and translation methods. Reiss and Vermeer argued that skopos rule is the overriding rule. Put in their words, it means "The end justifies the means". Loyalty rule means that the translator should "respect the author of the source text and coordinate the purpose of the target text with the intension of the source text author." (Zhong Weihe, 1999:3) Namely, the translation should achieve agreement with the intention of the source text author, never running too far from it. This thesis mainly employs a qualitative manner, collects a large number of public signs and adopts functionalist theory to propose some ideal translations, thereafter discussing the guidance of functionalism for public sign translation.As a special practical genre, the importance of public signs in the daily production and life of the public is self-evident. It is precisely this highly practical nature that makes functionalism have remarkable guidance for public sign translation. As is said before, the top principle of functionalism is skopos rule. Consequently, this thesis, based on the skopos rule of functionalism, proposes ideal translations. Besides, public signs have their distinctive features, namely, simple in meaning, concise in language and proper in style. To understand the characteristics of public signs is helpful for the work of translators. This thesis, with the help of a vast number of examples, analyzes the respective characteristics of Chinese and English public signs and in accordance with these characteristics, tentatively suggests some strategies for pubic sign translation: target language orientation and recreation on lexical, syntactic and rhetorical level and target culture orientation and recreation.My thesis is divided into six parts. The first part is concerned with the aim and significance of this thesis, as well as the source of data, and methodology. The second part is devoted to the introduction to the translational studies of public signs in and outside China, the existing problems, and a brief introduction to functionalism. The third part deals with the definition, types and characteristics of public signs. The fourth part mainly discusses some basic strategies of public sign translation in terms of functional equivalence. The fifth part elaborates on the significance and advancement of functionalism for public sign translation in comparison with formal equivalence, and puts forward the requirements for translators in translating public signs. The last part constitutes the conclusion of the paper, pointing out the findings and limitations of this paper and putting forth some suggestions for future studies.