Park Introduction Translation

It has been a common practice in China to have public signs and some public information translated into English in many public places, including airports, train stations, shopping centers, restaurants, and places of tourist interest, for the benefit of English speaking visitors and residents in China. Parks are typical places in which public signs need to be translated. Due to some special features of the Chinese language used in park introductions, the translation presents unique challenges and creates a number of problems for translators. This thesis will discuss the linguistic and logical features of park introductions, examine problems found in the English translation, and propose possible solutions from the perspective of the functionalist approaches, especially Vermeer's skopos theory and Reiss'text type theory. The study is based on real examples from Heping Park (in Shanghai) introduction. It is hoped the findings and suggestions of the current thesis may help to improve the quality of English translation of park introductions in China.