A Study On C-E Translation Of Tourism Publicity Materials In Leshan From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

During the four decades after reform and opening up,China has successfully become a world tourist great nation.After successfully hosting the 2008 Olympic Games,China has gained more influence in the world and it has become a hot destination for tourists from all over the world.In order to attract more overseas tourists,a large number of tourism publicity materials have been translated into English.Therefore,the English version of the tourism publicity materials plays a crucial role in publicizing tourism resources,attracting foreign tourists and exploring the tourism market.However,the quality of the translation texts of tourism publicity materials is far from satisfaction and even may not achieve the expected functions.The tourism publicity materials discussed in this thesis include guidebooks,attraction introductions,public signs,attraction names and others.Tourism publicity materials mainly have two functions: the first is information transmission and the second is action guidance.They are a kind of publicity texts which have strong purposes.The purposes of their English translation texts are to provide foreign tourists with useful tourism information,to attract them to travel to China and at the same time,to promote the dissemination of Chinese traditional culture.However,since Chinese and English languages belong to different language families and there are also huge cultural differences between Chinese and English cultures,the standard of “equivalence” in traditional translation is hard to be realized in the translation of tourism publicity materials.The skopos theory provides a new theoretical basis for the translation of tourism publicity materials.Skopos theory is the core theory of German functional school,it holds that the most important factor in the process of translation is the purpose of the overall translational action,namely the purpose determines the process;the translation strategies used by translators must be determined by the expected purposes or functions of the translation texts,namely the “skopos rule”;while paying attention to the communicative functions of the translation texts,this theory also emphasizes the readability of them under the target language environment and the intertextual coherence between the translation texts and source texts,that is,the “coherence rule” and the “fidelity rule”,which must obey the “skopos rule”.This theory breaks through the shackles of traditional theories and its opinions are especially suitable for guiding the translation of the texts which have explicitly expected purposes,such as tourism publicity materials.It also emphasizes that skopos rule is the primary principle during the translation of tourism publicity materials,meanwhile,the fidelity rule and coherence rule are the subordinate principles.Therefore,this thesis thinks that the translator in translation practice should improve the quality of translation and achieve its expected purposes through carefully analyzing the purposes of tourism publicity materials and choosing appropriate methods of translation.On the basis of skopos theory,this thesis attempts to make meaningful exploration about the Chinese-English translation of Leshan tourism publicity materials.It takes Leshan tourism publicity materials as examples and studies through the qualitative approach,including literature review,contrastive analysis and case study.This study mainly explores the positive and effective guiding significance of skopso theory and the three rules of it on the translation of Leshan tourism publicity materials,and proposes the concrete and feasible translation methods combining the text type.Chapter One firstly analyzes the development of tourism industry in China and the importance of the quality of translation of tourism publicity materials;secondly points out the necessity of studying the translation of Leshan tourism publicity materials;and then makes a detailed statement about the overall framework of the thesis.Chapter Two analyzes and states the research of Chinese-English translation of tourism publicity materials at home and aboard.Chapter Three firstly reviews the formative background and development history of skopos theory and summarizes the main ideas of the main representatives in each stage;and then expounds the guiding significance and practical value of this theory in Chinese-English translation of tourism publicity materials.Chapter Four firstly contrasts the cultural differences between Chinese and English tourism from the three aspects of manners and customs,tourism aesthetic standards and religious beliefs;and then discusses the language differences between Chinese and English tourism publicity materials through specific examples from the aspects of vocabulary,sentence structure,writing style and text function.Chpater Five mainly analyzes the translation of Leshan tourism publicity materials.This chapter firstly introduces the main tourism resources of Leshan;secondly analyzes the text functions of Leshan tourism publicity materials according to the text type;and then points out the errors in the translation of Leshan tourism publicity materials from the aspects of the errors of linguistic translation and the errors of cultural translation.Chapter Six puts forward the translation principles guided by skopos theory and proposes the translation methods of omission,simplified translation,explanatory translation,translation amplification and borrowing by studying a large number of authoritative translation examples and combining the text type.