Chinese-English Translation Of Interpretation Texts In Museums-from The Functionalist Approach

A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, which acquires, conserves, researches and exhibits the tangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. Owing to the profound history and splendid culture of the Chinese nation, the museums in China attract a host of audiences at home and abroad with their unique glamour.However, there are great differences between China and the West, due to the dissimilarity in geography, history and politics. The cultural differences become the biggest barrier for intercultural communication. In order to make a better introduction to Chinese history and culture, help museums play a better role in disseminating the Chinese culture, the translation of the interpretation texts in the museums becomes necessary.Although some books concerning the interpretation of cultural relics were published in recent years, and the English interpretation began to appear in museums of different levels in China, the English interpretation is far from satisfactory as a result of various reasons. There are still many researches needed to be done to fill the theory blank.This thesis, adopting the functionalism as the theoretical basis, conducts a systematic study of the interpretation texts translation in the museums by way of comparison, case study and induction. It is composed of six parts:the introduction, four chapters as the main body and the conclusion.Chapter One is the literature review. The author first gives a brief introduction to functionalism. Then its major principles in light of the theory of action and the key concepts are introduced in details. At last, the overview of previous studies on C-E translation of interpretation texts is given.Chapter Two lays stress on the explanation of the interpretation texts and their translation. Basic information of interpretation text is introduced at the beginning, including its definition, category, function and the characteristics of interpretation texts. The status quo of interpretation translation and the reasons for this are then analyzed.Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the key parts of the thesis. Through a comparative analysis of the contents, structure, culture and information density of Chinese and English interpretation texts, differences between them are discussed, as well as the root causes—linguistic and cultural elements.Chapter Four applies functionalist approaches to the C-E translation of the interpretation texts in the museums. Some flexible translation skills are put forward on the basis of the analysis in chapter three, which is the key point of this chapter and even the whole thesis. In addition, it is also very important to enhance translation supervision and improve translator's competence and responsibility.Conclusion summarizes the whole paper and points out its creative aspects and shortcomings.