Report On The Translation Of Us Geographical Names: A Functionalist Approach

Geographical name(GN)is the name and sign of a geographic entity.As an important product of social culture and historical development,it contains rich connotations.In recent years,with her national strength and international status markedly improved,China is more closely connected in various fields with other countries around the world.In the process,as one of the vital media,the geographical names play an indispensable role in communications at all levels.Much importance has been attached to the establishment of a complete and well-functioning national toponym system of translated Chinese geographical names.The present report is based on the author's practice in the US Geographical Names Project launched jointly by the Department of Geographical Names of the Ministry of Civil Affairs(MCA)and Xi'an International Studies University.The paper takes altogether 45,000 US geographical names as the research object with focus on the three major translation problems in the project,namely,the problems in 1)generic terms;2)names of reserves,historic sites,and scenic resorts;3)country names as specific terms.The report puts forward functionality as the macro guiding principle,and proposes consistency,conventionality,and acceptability as the translation rules,under which the corresponding translation solutions are designed.The author understands that the US Geographical Names Project is only the first phase of the Multilingual Geographical Names translation Project of the MCA.The solutions and theoretical reflections presented in this report,therefore,are expected to provide practical examples for subsequent translation of more English geographical names from other countries,and hopefully will shed light on the improvement of standards and norms of translation of English geographical names into Chinese.