On Chinese-English Translation Of Chinese Halal Cuisine Names From The Perspective Of Communicative And Semantic Translation Theory

As a primary tool of communication in restaurants, high quality menus serve tonot only further the dissemination of Chinese cuisine and the culture, but they alsopromote the development of the food industry. Therefore, a study on the translation ofChinese halal menus is of great importance. The halal cuisine of China comprises animportant and distinct segment of Chinese cuisine tradition; however, the study on thetranslation of Chinese halal cuisine names has been ignored. After collecting Chinese-English menus from halal restaurants, the author studied the translation of halalcuisine names using a qualitative research method.Newmark concludes the functions of language: informative, vocative, expressive,and aesthetic. Based on this language function theory, Newmark concludes that thereare three basic types of text: informative, vocative, expressive. For the translation ofdifferent types of text, Newmark put forward the method of communicative andsemantic translation. In Newmark’s opinion, communicative translation is used forinformative texts and vocative texts; semantic translation is used for expressive texts.Most Chinese halal cuisine names are named in descriptive way. Some of themare named in rhetorical devices. Apart from this, there are special Chinese-featuredcuisines. They carry culture elements but do not provide much information about thecuisine. There are also cuisine names that are named after places or persons related tothe origin of the cuisine. After finding out the characteristics of Chinese halal cuisinenames, the author concludes that the Chinese halal cuisine names have informative,vocative, cultural, expressive, and aesthetic functions.The author tried to find out the existing problems in translating the halal cuisinenames and the reasons behind by analyzing the English cuisine names that she hascollected. There exist various translations for the same cuisine name, and Englishtranslations of many Chinese cuisine names fail to deliver the information in the cuisine names, or they do not express the culture behind the cuisine names. Thereasons for these problems include the lack of standardization of the translationprinciples for halal cuisine names and the lack of the language competency or culturalawareness of the translator. After finding out the problems and the reasons for them,the author tries to give solutions by suggesting the translation methods ofcommunicative and semantic translation theory.The author also holds that Chinese halal cuisine names are informative, vocative,and expressive text types. Descriptive halal cuisine names can be translated in acommunicative way to deliver information. Rhetorical cuisine names andChinese-featured cuisine names can be translated in a semantic way to preserve thecultural background and language feature in original cuisine names, and then anexplanation can be added in order to offer information. Halal cuisine names that arenamed after a place or person can be translated by using both communicative andsemantic translation methods. The author concludes that the application ofcommunicative and semantic translation theory to the translation of halal menus inChina will make the translated cuisine names more accurate, more effective, useful,and much more interesting.