Translation Of Public Signs From The Perspective Of Functionalist Theory

With the celebration of Xi’an International Horticultural Exposition2011andthe increase of China’s international impact, the standardization and felicity ofpublic signs is becoming more and more important. However, public place such asscenic spots, commercial places, museums, etc. are flooded with erroneous,nonstandard English signs, which not only confuse and mislead the foreigners, butalso mar the image of the our country. This paper attempts to analyze public signstranslation with functionalist theory proposed by German translation theoristKatharina Reiss. The skopostheorie under functionalist theory has three rules,namely, skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule, of which skopos rule is themost essential one. Being function-oriented, public signs adopt a literary formaiming at informing people of something, thus public signs translation shall alsotake function as its focus. By analyzing functionalist theory, the paper attempts toprovide some suggestive strategies in public signs translation in the hope ofimproving the language environment, facilitating international exchange andimproving our country’s image.This paper is divided into7parts. Chapter One introduces the researchbackground, significance of the research, data collection and research methodologyof Chinese-English public signs translation.Chapter Two reviews the previous researches and achievements in functionalisttheory and Chinese-English public signs translation as reference for this paper.Chapter Three is an overview of public signs, which mainly includes definition,linguistic features, applied scope and applied functions of public signs.Chapter Four traces the theoretical origin of functionalist theory, including thebasic concepts of functionalist theory and the representatives of functionalist theoryduring its respective development process and introduces the basic process oftranslation as well as functionalist theory as guidance in public signs translation.Chapter Five lists the commonly seen problems in public signs translation and theirpossible causes. Chapter Six offers some strategies for public signs translation andrules to be followed in Chinese-English public signs translation. The last chapterelaborates on the findings of public signs translation and the limitations, and offers some suggestions for the future study of Chinese-English public signs translation.