On The Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs In Geoparks From The Perspective Of Functionalist Skopos Theory

Chinese tourism industry has been quite prosperous in recent years.Geoparks in China,with their beautiful scenery,unique cultural connotation and profound ecological significance,are attracting more and more international visitors and have become the window for exhibiting China and Chinese culture.Thus,the translation of public signs in geoparks is playing an important role in the tourism industry.However,the Chinese to English(hereafter abbreviated as C-E in this thesis)translation of pubic signs in some geoparks is far from being adequate.Mistranslating or inadequate translations might cause misunderstandings or frustrate tourists' experience of these parks.There is almost a dearth of scholarly attention to these translation issues,for there are only 10 papers found in CNKI focusing on "the translation of public signs in geoparks".As one of the global geoparks in China,Ningde Geopark is well-known and is visited by millions of tourists all over the world every year,of which oversea visitors tend to increase consistently.Unfortunately,errors and inaccuracies in its C-E translation of pubic signs may lead to misunderstanding of inbound tourists.Until now,in CNKI there is only 1 paper referring to "C-E translation of pubic signs in Ningde Geopark".Few scholars have done a systematic and comprehensive research on the current C-E translation of public signs in Ningde Global Geopark.Skopos theory regards translation as an activity with an aim or purpose,focusing on the intended addressee or audience of the translation and is often regarded as a good criterion for evaluating translation of some text types,such as public signs,tourist guides and advertisements.Previous research on improving the C-E translation of public signs in some scenic areas under the guidance of Skopos theory has proved insightful and is conducive to the present research.Hence,this thesis seeks to conduct a sustained research on the current C-E translation of pubic signs in Ningde Global Geopark from the perspective of Skopos theory.First,it discusses the development of inbound tourism in China and the importance of C-E translation of pubic signs and proposes the research question to be addressed in the paper.Second,based on the definition and classification of public signs,the author offers a literature review of research on public sign translation and explains the rationale for choosing the C-E translation of pubic signs in Ningde Global Geopark as the research object.Following an overview of the development ofSkopos theory and the related concepts to be used in this thesis,namely,the three basic rules of Skopos theory,translation brief,text typologies,functionality and loyalty,and documentary&instrumental translation,this thesis focuses on the exemplification of errors and inadequate translations in current C-E translation of public signs in 3 scenic areas of Ningde Global Geopark,analyzing how and where the Skopos Rule,the Coherence Rule and Fidelity Rule are violated and what strategies can be adopted for the improvement of the translation on the linguistic,pragmatic and cultural plane.It argues that aside from the improvement of translator's competence and responsibility,attention to accepted and standardized norms,successful public sign translation in geoparks also calls for relevant institutional and governmental supervision.A case study aiming to promote the inbound tourism business in Ningde by improving C-E translation of public signs in Ningde Global Geopark,this thesis will,hopefully,offer some insight for the C-E translation of pubic signs in other geoparks of China.