Translating Public Signs In The Frame Of Reference To Speech Act Theory

Xianyang city, as an important city in promoting the construction of Xi’XIAN (Xi’ancity and Xianyang city) New Area and the focus of the Xi’an international metropolis,welcomes Chinese and foreign guests with a new look. However, the English translation ofthe public signs in the city has not been in line with the image of Xianyang city. Thereexisted many translation problems related to linguistic, pragmatic and cultural aspects andtranslation errors in them. Therefore, the thesis attempts to analyze the translation errors inthe data collected in this research from the perspective of the speech act theory. The speechact theory belongs to a branch of pragmatics, which studies the language in use.Meanwhile, public signs are regarded as a kind of practical texts.So the research findingsof the speech act theory entail a new orientation to study the English translation of thepublic signs. The theory stipulates that translation should focus on the “illocutionary force”.Bearing this in mind, the thesis analyzes the translation problems and errors in the Englishtranslation of the public signs in Xianyang from linguistic, pragmatic and cultural aspects,especially the illocutionary force the translation should produce; Also, the thesis putsforward three procedures to translate public signs in the hope that the English translationsof the public signs in Xianyang city can be widely understood, accepted, standard andauthentic to establish a new image of the city itself, and more importantly to make foreignvisitors feel at home.