The Study On C-E Translation Of Public Signs In Xi'an Tourist Attractions From The Perspective Of Reiss' Text Typology

With the development of the globalization,China goes global,meanwhile,there are more and more foreigners coming to China.Public sign is called "city card" which is an important way for foreigners to enjoy their visiting and learn about the culture of the attractions.The English translation of Chinese public signs plays a significant role in intercultural communication and economic cooperation.As is known to all,tourism is one of the major industries of Xi'an.Every year,a large number of foreign tourists come to Xi'an for visiting and studying.Therefore an in-depth study on the C-E translation and function realization of public signs in Xi'an tourist attractions should be done.According to Reiss' text typology,public signs can be put into three types:informative,expressive and appellative public signs.Different types of public signs have their own forms and should be translated with different translation methods.One hundred and seventeen pieces of public signs are used in this study.Based on Reiss's text typology,the collected public signs are put into three groups.There are forty six pieces of informative texts,sixty eighty pieces of operative texts and three pieces of expressive texts.Literature induction and contrast analysis have been carried out to study the language features,translation methods and function realization of the each text type.It's found that "literal translation" and "pinyin+literal translation" are mainly used to translate informative text;"free translation" and "literal translation" are mainly used to translate expressive text and "literal translation" is mainly used to translate operative text.It's also found that factor influencing the function realization of public signs mainly include language errors and cultural errors.Based on the analyses and Reiss' text typology,some translation methods have been put forward.The translation methods"loan translation" and "commutative translation" are suggested to translate informative public signs,"semantic translation" are suggested to translate expressive public signs,"loan translation" and "calque" are suggested to translate appellative public signs.The study result can be a guidance in solving public sign translation problems in Xi'an tourist attractions.