A Holistic Research On The Translation Of Public Signs In Scenic Areas

Public signs of scenic areas are an important medium of communication to serve as a functional and cultural guide for international tourists.Problems and errors/mistakes,which still exist in bilingual English/Chinese public signs in many key scenic areas in the Chinese mainland,have resulted in language and culture barriers.This thesis aims to explore both holistic guiding significance and set functions of the German functionalist theory in applying it to translating public signs in a representative scenic area like Mt.Putuo and realizing cross-cultural communication.In the functionalist theory,the source text is regarded as one "dethroned",serving as an offer of information.Instead,however,the situational and cultural context,the Skopos,the translator,the target text addressees,the dynamic relations between the source text and the target text should be given due attention.Therefore,translating public signs in scenic areas is to realize the function of providing practical information and transmitting cultural information.The translator should be both tourist-oriented and Skopos-oriented in understanding the function of target text and rendering the source text into a text in line with the cultural context of target language.In concrete rendering,however,problems often appear that the misunderstanding of the Skopos and target text addressees gives rise to the arbitrary or unreasonable uses of such translation methods as omission,simplification,amplification and adaptation.Considering these problems and basing on the integrated reorganization of functionalist theory,the Author addresses both the license and restrictions for the translator in adopting various strategies and methods and achieving the Skopos of cross-cultural translation of public signs in scenic areas.Furthermore,by selecting Mt.Putuo as a case study,the Author carries out a functionalist analysis of existing translation problems and errors of the English signs while offering workable solutions to translation problems and re-translation strategies and methods.Meanwhile,the Author proves the feasibility of functionalist theory in its guidance on the holistic study of public sign translation,into which it is necessary to integrate the criterion of landscape interpretation,parallel text analysis and tourist-based empirical research.