Translation Of Chinese Tourism Public Signs From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As China is deepening its reform and opening-up, the number of foreign visitors coming to China to visit the scenic spots is growing. In order to serve them better and spread Chinese culture, bilingual and multilingual public signs have been provided in many scenic spots. Idiomatic translation of Chinese tourism sings can facilitate the tourists’ travel, promote the dissemination of Chinese culture and enhance China’s image in the international community. However, the fact is that there exist plenty of errors in the translation of public signs in the scenic spots. Therefore, it is essential to make a systematic study of C-E translation of tourism public signs.This thesis, first of all, gives a general description of the definition, classification, features of Chinese and English tourism public signs based on the tourism public signs mainly collected from Changsha scenic spots by the author. Next, the main concepts of Relevance Theory are introduced, such as informative intention, communicative intention, mutual cognitive environments and principle of relevance. Additionally, relevance translation theory is also mentioned in this paper. Under this framework, the common errors of C-E translation of tourism public sign collected by the author are analyzed. The errors can be categorized into four groups, namely inaccurate expression of informative intention, insufficient conveyance of the communicative intention of the original author, incomplete creation of mutual cognitive environments and a lack of relevance with target readers. Based on the analysis of the translation errors, the author tries to propose three principles for C-E translation of tourism public signs, namely conveying the communicative information; achieving mutual manifestness; pursuing optimal relevance. In the last part, the author proposes some translation methods from the angle of relevance theory. As to the referential tourism public signs without cultural information, direct translation approach is preferred. Concerning these referential tourism public signs with cultural connotation, indirect translation approach should be given priority. The translator has to choose proper translation techniques such as adding explanatory notes to create mutual cognitive environment so as to let the target readers obtain similar contextual effects. Regarding the appellative signs that have equivalents in the target language culture, the translator can borrow them directly or follow the familiar formula to achieve optimal contextual effects. As to the appellative tourism public signs, indirect translation approach is a good choice. This is especially true of the translation of indirect appellative tourism public signs. The translator should, in compliance with the expectation of the target readers, omit the less relevant information or rearrange the information to enable the target readers to understand the original author’s intention, thus obtaining similar contextual effects.