Analysis Of Museum Texts Translation From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

As an emerging popular tourism destination, museums attract more and more tourists home and abroad to visit; therefore, the translation of museum texts is vital to the impression of foreign travellers on museums. Besides, since museums carry the responsibilities of promoting the Chinese culture, the translation of commentaries plays an important role in helping visitors abroad to understand Chinese history and culture.At present, English translation of museum texts is available in almost all major Chinese museums. However, mistakes can be found in these English translations even in National Museum of China and The Palace Museum. These mistakes include inconsistency in choice of words and form, deletion of information, word-for-word translation of some commentaries. These mistakes leave visitors confused. Therefore, a lot of work should be done in studying museum texts translation thus improving the current translation in museums.This thesis attempts to explore translation strategies of museum texts by analysing translations of museum texts from the perspective of the skopos theory. Skopos, coming from Greek language, means "aim". The skopos theory suggests that skopos of translation define principles and strategies adopted in translation. The skopos theory holds that three rules should be applied to translation, namely skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule. According to the definition given by the ICOM in Copenhagen in1974, the aim of museum texts is to teach visitors how to appreciate displays and to promote cultures to visitors. Translation of museum texts should choose proper principles and strategies in order to fulfill this aim.This thesis first compares museum texts from foreign museums and Chinese ones through examples in terms of their differences in contents and language styles. Examples used in this paper mainly come from The British Museum, National Museum of China and The Palace Museum. The thesis then analyses ways used by foreign museums in handling cultural items, such as objects containing cultural background, dynasties and reign titles. Then principles and strategies adopted in C-E translation of museum texts are concluded afterwards in the thesis. These strategies include addition of cultural background information, deletion of redundant information and adjustment of structure.