On Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs In China

Public sign, as a very important practical writing style, is widely used in and influences almost all aspects of people’s daily life. Bilingual public signs not only express our humanistic care to foreign friends, but also help our country integrate with the world and enhance our international image. Therefore, it’s of great importance to study the C-E translation of public signs, which has both the social significance and practical value.Regarding its great significance, the thesis chooses this issue as the research topic. Based on the current situation of C-E translation of public signs, the definition, classification, function and language features of public signs, this thesis lists a great many public signs, which come from periodicals, books, theses and translation websites. By comparing and analyzing the original and English versions of public signs, the author attempts to find out the common errors existing in current C-E translation of public signs and proposes some effective and useful strategies and methods of their translation for reference. Through the study of those commonly used public signs, the author hopes a much better effect will be achieved in arousing people’s attention to this issue.This thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter one is introduction, in which the background information of C-E translation of public signs is given and the objectives and the significance as well as the methods are explained.Chapter two is an overview of public signs, including the definition, classification, functions and linguistic features. Public signs can be divided into static public signs and dynamic public signs according to the information function. And it bears four basic functions, that is, directing, promoting, restricting and compelling.Chapter three identities the common errors existing in the current C-E translation of public signs, which is mainly classified into three categories, that is, linguistic errors, cultural errors and pragmatic errors. The linguistic errors, mainly including Chinglish, spelling errors, grammatical errors as well as lexical errors while cultural and pragmatic errors are mainly caused by translators’ unfamiliarity or ignorance of different thinking modes and cultural differences. Chapter four proposes some specific strategies and methods in the English translation of Chinese public signs, based on the linguistic features of public signs, including substitution, formulated translation, shift of perspective, imitating, omission, restructuring and zero translation. When necessary, back translation should also be applied so that some typical errors may be found promptly. Meanwhile, the writing standards of English public signs should be followed as well.Chapter five is the conclusion part of the thesis, including summary, limitations of the paper as well as suggestions for further study.This thesis suggests that translators should reproduce the function of original ones and make the English versions as concise as possible based on the linguistic features of public signs while doing translation. Besides, the methods of omission and restructuring are also frequently used in C-E translation of public signs for conciseness. What’s more, there is absolutely no need of translation for those public signs that are completely set for our native Chinese. In actual translation practice, translators should adopt methods flexibly according to the specific functions of different public signs. As for current translation errors, it is quite necessary to strengthen supervisions, qualify translators and introduce unified standard.