A Functionalist Approach To English Translation Of Chinese Tourism Websites

This thesis is to discuss English translations of Chinese tourism websites, a less discussed topic in the circle of translation with, however, numerous problems. The research is conducted on the basis of tourism texts under the guidance of German functionalist theories of translation in the hope of improving informative and appellative functions of later translations of the same kind and thus to enhance our enterprise of tourism.In this thesis translation brief of tourism websites is proposed to make clear the translation purposes and specifies functions of the target text, target visitors of tourism websites, prospective time and space, communication media and purposes of translating Chinese tourism websites. Translation purposes determine the whole process of translation and it depends largely on target readers. Considering that target readers of Chinese and English tourism websites are so different in language and culture, features of websites both in Chinese and English are made clear through comparison, as language is the carrier of culture, and cultural differences will surely be reflected in language.Based on previous studies and Nord’s instrumental translation theory, translation procedures with the translation purpose at the core have been put forward. The first step is to deal with the source texts. Translators may adopt the approaches of addition, deletion and reconstruction. Of course translators are expected to understand the texts and the information to be translated should be updated according to the features of websites. The second step is to transform the source texts into English. Translators should avoid spelling mistakes, wrong usage of verbs, and inaccurate use of punctuation or fragment sentences. Due to language differences between Chinese and English tourism websites, translators are expected to keep translation concise, handle lexical gaps well, and keep English semantic focus. Translators should strive to accomplish the function of publicity so as to attract more foreign visitors.