Comparative Study On The Translation Of Hotel Menus From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Along with the development of Chinese economy，the tourism of China isexpanding rapidly, thus many international starred hotels are opening in many citiesof China. In this case, hotel menu is not only a way of serving the guests, but alsoprovide a media for the exchange of catering culture between Chinese and westerncountries. Therefore，an appropriate translated menu can not only improve the imageof hotel but also promote the catering culture exchange between Chinese and westerncountries. Actually, menu translation is not exactly a new topic, especially becauseduring the2008Olympics, the government published the Chinese Menu in EnglishVersion, and standardized a lot of Chinese dish names into English. However, thiskind of research is mainly about summarizing the practices and lack of theoreticalbasis. Therefore，in this thesis, the author does a comparative study between Chinesemenus and western menus from the perspective of Skopostheorie and tries to providereference for the further study on menu translation.According to Skopostheorie, menu, as source text, provide the translator withcertain information, and translation is the process in which a translator choose certaininformation from source text and form a target text in order to achieve the expectedtext function. As for text type, menu, as a independent text, is both informative andoperative, that is to say, expect for the function of providing certain information asingredient, cooking method and taste, etc., a menu should also be able to persuade theguests to order.The author has collected suiffcient authentic menus from international starredhotels both in Chinese and English as the materials for the study. And based on thecomparative analysis of those menus together with the difference between Chineseand western catering culture, the author summarized features of Chinese and westerndish names accordingly. Chinese dish names frequently use rhetorical devices, andpursue a perfect combination of form and meaning. On the contrary, English dishnames are much simpler, they aim at passing dish related information and pay lessattention on form. Other from that, Chinese menus and western menus are different onmany other aspects such as ingredients, cooking method and menu layout, etc..Therefore，as a translator, we should always keep in mind the different culturebackgrounds, and choose certain information from the source menu to form a target menu which could achieve the expected functions of menu. In other words, aneffective translated menu should be able to provide the dish related information,persuade the guests to order and exchange catering culture with western countries.In this thesis, by the adoption of empirical analysis, the author also summarizedseveral kinds of translation errors and analyzed the reason behind these translationerrors. In the last part, some suggested translation strategies and methods are providedbased on the theory of Skopostheorie as the reference for the further study on thistopic.