Translation Of Notice To Visitors From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

The booming international tourism industry in China has attracted manyforeigners to travel to China thus prompting the Chinese-English (C-E) translation oftourism texts. However, present studies of tourism translation are mostly limited to thestudies of scenic spot introductions or simple sentences of tourism public signs andrarely refer to notice to visitors, which is presented in textual form. As a kind oftourism public signs, notice to visitors, which covers the description of some ruleswhile visiting, has played an important role in avoiding disputes, protecting visitors’property as well as ensuring their safety. This thesis aims at studying the C-Etranslation of notice to visitors by employing the Skopos theory, specifically Vermeer’sthree major rules. Based on Vermeer’s three major rules, by way of rich examplescollected from the author’s translating practices, this thesis gives a detailed analysis ofthe notice to visitors, including the definition, classification, functions, characteristicsand differences between Chinese and English notice to visitors. Through thecomparisons, it is unveiled that though they are intended to display the same ruleunder the same situations, both Chinese and English notices to visitors carry their ownfeatures ranging from diction, grammar, collocations, syntactical structures to stylesand cultural characteristics. It is these differences that cause various discrepancies intranslating. Finally, the author produces proper and better translating methodsincluding borrowing, amplification, omission and rewriting based on the study above.