A Report On The English Translation Of Chinese Dish Names From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Nowadays China's comprehensive power has been enhanced greatly.Especially,with the proposal of “One Belt and One Road”,a growing proportion of foreign people shows much interest in Chinese culture.Chinese cuisine,as the essence of traditional Chinese culture,draws much attention from the world.Thus,the English translation on Chinese dish names plays a significant role in spreading Chinese culture.However,up till now,there is no comparatively formal translation model for Chinese dish names.Therefore,it has become an urgent task to make a research on better translation methods for Chinese dish names.In this report,the author aims to apply Skopos Theory into translating Chinese dish names and propose comparatively formal translation methods for Chinese dish names.In line with Skopos Theory,the aim of translation activity can determine the translation methods and strategies employed in the target texts.The activity of translating Chinese dish names has its clear aims — informing foreign customers of the Chinese dish information accurately and spreading traditional Chinese culture to the outside world effectively.In order to realize the aims,the report has experienced the following steps: firstly,the author translates a number of dish cases,studies the functions of dish names and then points out the existing problems in the English versions of Chinese dish names.Secondly,Chinese dish names are categorized.With the above tentative practice and studies,finally,the author suggests six comparatively formal translation methods for Chinese dish names based on Skopos Theory.For the dish names including basic information such as ingredients,tastes,cooking methods and cutting methods,literal translation is adopted.For the dishes with unique Chinese characteristics and the dishes named after people's names or place names,transliteration,which can maintain national culture as much as possible,is encouraged to be used.Free translation,as a flexible translation method,is applied into dealing with the abstract or semi-abstract dish names including rhetorical devices like metaphor,personification and exaggeration.Furthermore,the method of transliteration+annotation+appendix is recommended to tackle the dishes named after allusions,legends and historical events.As for the dish names containing four-character idioms,auspicious words and homophones,the method oftransliteration+explanation+annotation is used.In terms of the dish names containing culturally dislocated images,the author proposes the method of literal translation+explanation+annotation.At last,some relevant translation strategies for herbal cuisine are also discussed briefly.