| Lijiang is the only prefecture-level city which has been listed in the “WorldHeritage” in China, namely, the World Cultural Heritage Site (The Old Town ofLijiang), the World Natural Heritage site (The Three Parallel Rivers of YunnanProtected Areas), and Memory of the World Register (The Ancient Naxi DongbaLiterature Manuscripts). Lijiang has developed into a well-known tourist city both athome and abroad. By2012, the domestic and international tourists going in and out ofLijiang respectively reached to15,990,000and847,000person-time, and tourism inLijiang has been developing rapidly in recent years. In order to achieve the goal ofbecoming one of “The Best Tourist City” in2020, bilingual public signs have becomean important part in city construction of Lijiang.Public signs are widely used in every field of our life, such as at scenic spots,supermarkets, banks, hospitals, on communal facilities or roads, and so on with thefunctions of directing, prompting, restricting and coercing. Public signs not onlysymbolize social development but also reflect the cultural qualities, moral cultivationand spiritual presentation of the society. Furthermore, it plays an important role inpublicizing a country or a city to outside world. Lijiang is an international touristdestination, so the translation of public signs affects the travelling of overseas tourists;it also influences the cultural qualities and the image of Lijiang as one of the TopTourist Cities in China, or even affect the international image of China. Therefore,whether the translation of public signs is good or bad plays a key role in constructionof the image of a city or even that of the country. The author of the thesis made asurvey of public signs in three main scenic spots of Lijiang in July2013. The resultshowed that there are various kinds of mistakes and problems needed to be solvedurgently in the translation of public signs in Lijiang.From the perspectives of functionalist Skopos theory, the thesis will make ageneral introduction to Skopos theory and explain the definition of public signs. Bydoing a field survey of Chinese-English(C-E) translation of public signs in somescenic spots of Lijiang, the author collected a great number of samples of public signsby photo-taking. Based on the data being collected, the author classified, compared and analyzed all the samples of C-E public signs. The author further made an analysisof the current situation of English translation of public signs in those scenic spots,with a focus on the various errors and the causes for mistranslation. Then, the authorput forward the strategies of C-E translation of public signs from the perspectives ofSkopos theory, and finally proposed measures to improve the current situation of C-Etranslation of public signs in Lijiang.The thesis is composed of eight parts. The introduction mainly focuses on thebackground, objectives and significance of the research, and introduces the structureof the thesis. Chapter One offers a brief review on the theoretical framework and theSkopos theory through an introduction to the formation and development of thefunctionalist translation theory, and focuses on the core theory and translation rules ofthe functionalist translation. Their applications in the C-E translation of public signsare also discussed. Chapter Two studies public signs in detail: its definition, languagefeatures and functions. Chapter Three introduces the procedures and approaches ofdata analysis. The samples of public signs are analyzed in this chapter. In ChapterFour, errors in the translation of public signs in the three scenic spots are analyzedfrom the linguistic and pragmatic perspectives. Chapter Five proposes some C-Etranslation strategies of public signs in Lijiang from the perspectives of the Skopostheory. Chapter six concludes the potential causes of the present problems in the poorC-E translation of the public signs in Lijiang, and proposes some solutions. The lastchapter summarizes the whole thesis and points out the limitations and implications. |
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