Functionalist Approaches To Chinese-English Translation Of Tourist Attraction Introductions

As a significant breakthrough for the traditional "equivalence theory", the German functionalist approaches emerged during the 1970s-1980s have provided a new perspective for the study on tourist translation. Within the framework of the functionalism, this thesis will assess the translation quality of introductions to tourist attractions in Zhejiang and probe into the effective principles as well as strategies suitable for translating this kind of texts into English.According to the functionalism, translation process depends on the text function or translation purpose. Meanwhile, it is also influenced by translation brief or the main participants (the initiator, the translator, the TT receiver, etc.) of the translational activity. Hence, the author first conducts an analysis of tourist attraction introductions from these aspects. The result of the discussion is as follows:1) Tourist attraction introductions belong to a compound text type. Their predominant function is appellative (operative), the informative and expressive functions playing an auxiliary role.2) The translation of tourist attraction introductions is a purposeful activity. It aims at publicizing Chinese tourism resources and culture, attracting potential foreign tourists and promoting the development of our country's tourism.3) During the process of translating Chinese tourist attraction introductions, translators should not only act as "cultural messenger" but also take such factors into consideration:the demand of initiator, the expectation of TT receiver, the medium, etc. Then, referring to the functional hierarchy of translation problems presented by Nord, the author carefully studies the collected data and points out that the translation quality of tourist attraction introductions in Zhejiang is far from satisfactory. Due to some translators'poor command of English or their neglection to TT receivers, TT function, etc., pragmatic or linguistic translation errors commonly exist in these publicity materials. The problems will certainly become a serious barrier to persuading foreigners into visiting the destinations, which is disadvantageous to the development of Zhejiang inbound tourism.Taking the above theoretical and practical study as basis, the author tentatively presents that in order to adequately fulfill the appellative function or purpose, the translation of Chinese tourist attraction introductions should be TL-tourist-oriented. Under this overall principle, four rules are to be abided by.1) The translator should make the TT comprehensible by fully considering the cognitive power of the intended receivers in China's socio-cultural background.2) The TT should provide necessary and practical information for the would-be foreign travelers, omitting those unnecessary contents.3) The TT should be free from linguistic errors.4) The TT should convey the cultural elements in attractions to foreign readers. These rules will jointly direct the translation of Chinese tourist attraction introductions.Finally, guided by the functionalism and these principles, the thesis puts forward several strategies for the C-E translation of tourist attraction introductions, namely, amplification, omission, generalization, cultural substitution, adaptation of discourse pattern, etc.It is hoped that the present study can contribute to improving the translation quality of Chinese tourist attraction introductions.