An Analysis Of Chinese-English Translation Of Tourism Signs In Chenzhou

With the reform and open policy, more and more foreigners come to China for a tour, which rouses a great demand of the correct and idiomatic C-E translation of tourism signs for the convenient service of tourists abroad. In the past few years, a watchful eye is being kept on the Chinese-English (C-E) translation of tourism signs, which resulted in some valuable theoretical achievements and great improvement of the Chinese-English (C-E) translation of tourism signs. Too much of this progress only studies the C-E translation of tourism signs from the perspective of the present situation of public signs. There is a great need of a systematic analysis of the mistakes in public signs translation. Guided by Skopostheory, taken the C-E translation of tourism signs in Chenzhou, the author of this thesis divides the existing mistakes in the C-E translation of tourism signs there into three kinds:linguistic errors, pragmatic errors and cultural errors. By analyzing those mistakes, the author puts forward the correspondingly corrected versions. The translation techniques of C-E translation of tourism signs are discussed.Translation is a translational activity based on an original text. There are three main rules in Skopostheory. The chief rule is "Skopos rule", which states that in the translating process, both the translation activity and the translation methods are decided by the translation purpose. The other two rules in Skopostheory are "coherence rule" and "fidelity rule". The former means there should be intertextual coherence in the target text. And the target-text receiver can understand it. The later means that there should be intratextual coherence between the original text and the target text. Skopostheory also points out that the translator should adopt the relevant translation strategies in terms of different translation purposes. The translator should know that in the original text, what can be reserved, what should be adjusted and what should be revised. Abided by Skopostheory, linked with the examples of C-E translation of tourism signs taken by the author on spot, this thesis analyses the mistakes in the C-E translation of tourism signs in Chenzhou from the three rules in Skopostheory. Only by following the Skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule, can the C-E translation of tourism signs in Chenzhou avoid the linguistic errors, pragmatic errors and cultural errors. The communicative functions such as informative function, expressive function and vocative function cannot be violated.The main body of this thesis is made up of three sections. In the first chapter, there is an overall introduction to tourism signs, with its concept, function and language features included. Skopostheory, the theoretical basis of this article, will be discussed in Chapter Two. In Chapter Three, the author lists some typical mistakes in C-E translation of tourism signs in the city of Chenzhou and gives their correct English translation versions. The errors can be classified into linguistic errors, pragmatic errors and cultural errors. The linguistic errors of tourism signs in the city of Chenzhou are much easier to be found. According to the author’s on-spot observation in some tourism sites in Chenzhou city, and from the hint of Skopostheory, linguistic translation errors can be classified into graphological errors, grammatical errors and semantic errors like errors of use of unsuitable words, errors of English mixed with Chinese Pinyin and errors of Chinese Pinyin instead of English. Pragmatic errors are also not difficult to be found in the C-E translation of tourism signs in Chenzhou, in which the typical is Chinglish. The common existing form of Chinglish is word-for-word translation. Compared with the linguistic errors and the pragmatic errors, the cultural errors do not so obviously exist. Their typical kinds are errors of impoliteness and errors of unacceptability. Then translation techniques are put forward for the C-E translation of tourism signs in the city of Chenzhou, including borrowing available English tourism signs, supplementation, deletion, order adjustment and choosing suitable mood.