中美英文公示語(yǔ)對(duì)比【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　　（20_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)</b></p><p><b>　　英語(yǔ)</b></p><p><b>　　中美英文公示語(yǔ)對(duì)比</b></p><p>　　The Compare

2、 between China and American Public </p><p><b>　　Signs</b></p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　公示語(yǔ)是一種特殊的應(yīng)用文體，近年來(lái)，我國(guó)公示語(yǔ)翻譯研究發(fā)展迅速，越來(lái)越多的研究者對(duì)

3、其進(jìn)行了多方面的探討，并取得了可喜的成績(jī)。但是在公示語(yǔ)翻譯方面仍舊存在很多問(wèn)題。本文關(guān)注于一些常見(jiàn)問(wèn)題，并提出一些可行性建議，期望為今后公示語(yǔ)翻譯研究的發(fā)展提供一些思路。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：公示語(yǔ)；漢英翻譯；錯(cuò)誤分析；建議</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　Public sign is a sp

4、ecial kind of application style, in recent years, the research of public signs in our country is developing very fast, more and more researchers join in, and find out many things, get some achievements. But there still e

5、xist some problems. This paper focuses on the problems and throws out some suggestions, hope it can make some help for other research.</p><p>　　Key words: Public signs; C-E Translation; Error analysis; Sugge

6、stions</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　AbstractIII</p><p>　　1 Introduction1</p><p>　　1.1 Definition of Public Signs1</p><p>　　1.2 Literatu

7、re review1</p><p>　　1.3 Function of public signs2</p><p>　　1.4 Methodology employed in this study3</p><p>　　2 Analysis of the errors in C-E translation of public signs3</p>

8、;<p>　　2.1 Phenomenon analysis3</p><p>　　2.2 Errors classification3</p><p>　　2.2.1 Spelling error3</p><p>　　2.2.2 Grammar error4</p><p>　　2.2.3 Lexical error

9、4</p><p>　　2.2.4 Culture background differences6</p><p>　　3 Strategies for public sign translation6</p><p>　　3.1 Meaning clarity7</p><p>　　3.2 Stress on intercultur

10、al communication8</p><p>　　3.3 Proper word choice9</p><p>　　4 Conclusion9</p><p>　　Bibliography10</p><p>　　Acknowledgements11</p><p>　　1 Introduction&

11、lt;/p><p>　　With the development of globalization, more and more foreigners come to China to study, work and tour, and therefore English has been increasingly used in daily life．</p><p>　　Public si

12、gns are related to the city’s “face”, reflecting the cultural and educational level of a place. Incorrect or non-standard public signs translation will seriously affect the image of cities and countries, which is not goo

13、d for China’s opening up and probably it will lead to an international joke.</p><p>　　1.1 Definition of Public Signs</p><p>　　Search with the “Baidu”, we can get the following explanation which

14、said by Barry Gray who is the chairman of the 145 Technical Committee of ISO: “Signs are anything from the simplest way finding or information “maker” to the technically sophisticated communication of a message. Signing

15、affects everybody, like travelers, shoppers, visitors, drivers etc, whether in the course of business or pleasure.” </p><p>　　Sign is a broad term, it is widely used in public occasions or before a building,

16、 room, shop or office, which covers a wide range from travelling, catering, accommodation, recreation, shopping to medical service, educational institution and financial service. It includes words of caution, public noti

17、ces, bills, posters, slogans, outdoor advertisements, traffic notices and so on. Specifically speaking, it covers environmental communication signs, street signs, traffic signs, road signs, road mark</p><p>

18、　　1.2 Literature review</p><p>　　In western countries, the history of study on translation of public translation is very long. On the contrary, in China, the translation of public signs is later than western

19、 countries and the work is not good enough. Nowadays, more and more people show interest in the research of public signs. In September 2005, the first seminar of national translation of public signs was held is our co

20、untry. Huang Youyi(2005) states that our translation works still have many inadequacies that we can not ig</p><p>　　1.3 Function of public signs</p><p>　　Public signs are used in our daily life

21、and they have a direct impact on every aspect of our lives. Public signs have their own features and perform the following four basic functions: indicating, promoting, restricting and compelling. Actually, there is no pu

22、blic sign that perform only one function. Generally, public signs are multifunctional, but in this paper, will only discuss their predominant four functions.</p><p>　　Indicating as its meaning suggests, indi

23、cating is to indicate or guide readers. Signs as such are also called instructive/directive/guiding notices which give readers detailed information with no prohibition and restriction. Indicating is the most basic functi

24、on performed in sign language. Indicating signs generally give readers relevant information about what it is and what service it provides.</p><p>　　Promoting has no striking difference from indicating except

25、 that the former carries the tone of warning. It aims at reminding readers of paying considerable attention to signs.</p><p>　　Restricting unlike the two functions mentioned above, signs that perform restric

26、ting function put restrictions and constraints to readers, who are expected to abide by certain rules in the interest of public. Restricting signs are to keep or confine within limits.</p><p>　　Compelling to

27、 put it simple, compelling signs have great power and potency to induce action or brief. With its tough tone, negative words and comparatively uniform sentence structures, there is slight possibility of any alternatives.

28、</p><p>　　1.4 Methodology employed in this study</p><p>　　This paper is a qualitative study. This thesis aims to find out the problems existing in C-E translation of public signs and provide app

29、ropriate solution for them. The First and foremost, we should be familiar with the basic knowledge concerning public signs. Through the analysis, the author finds four kinds of problems for improper translation of public

30、 signs, and the author collects many examples, most of which can easily find in our daily lift, to prove that these different kinds of problems </p><p>　　The focus of the paper is to analyze C-E translation

31、of public signs with the comparative method, and propose some translation principles for public sign translation. Based on the analysis, three translation principles are proposed. The first one and the important one is t

32、o make meaning clear, the second one is to strengthen intercultural communication, and the last one is to pay attention to words appropriate.</p><p>　　2 Analysis of the errors in C-E translation of public si

33、gns </p><p>　　2.1 Phenomenon analysis</p><p>　　China’s transparency level has risen steadily in pace with advancement of its internationalization process. Therefore, many foreign tourists come t

34、o China for sightseeing. As a result, many kinds of English public signs are created to help foreign tourists with their traveling and living in China easily. But owing to the limitation of our English knowledge, there a

35、re many errors in the translation, among which the main types are spelling error, grammar error, lexical error, and the mistake cause</p><p>　　2.2 Errors classification</p><p>　　2.2.1 Spelling e

36、rror</p><p>　　Spelling mistakes in public signs translation are easy to see. Most of these mistakes will not lead in serious misunderstanding on part of the readers, but they may leave them a negative impres

37、sion. And sometimes those spelling mistakes hinder the effective communication. Usually these mistakes are owing to carelessness of translators and printers. Such mistakes not only make the foreign readers confused, but

38、also show that the translators or printers are irresponsible and careless when producin</p><p>　　Such mistakes can be found at many places, and they can be divided in two types. One is wrong spelling and the

39、 other is misspelling of capital letters.</p><p>　　Wrong spelling:</p><p>　　(1) Ants and Crafts(工藝品) </p><p>　　You may feel confused with this phrase if you are not in the spot and

40、see the real objects with your own eyes. It is found before the arts and crafts department in a sale in Wenzhou airport. It should be Arts and Crafts.</p><p>　　Misspelling of capital letters:</p><

41、p>　　This is a very common problem in spelling mistake. But people pay little attention to it. </p><p>　　(2) 24 hour self-service Bank</p><p>　　The word “hour” and “self-service” must be capit

42、alized in the rules.</p><p>　　2.2.2 Grammar error</p><p>　　A good or comprehensible translation should conform with the grammatical rules of target language. This is the basic requirement for a

43、high quality translation. And the translation of public signs is with no exception. However, various and serious grammatical mistakes can be found in the English versions of public signs. Most of these mistakes which are

44、 very simple and can easily be found out. Translators should improve their working attitude and English knowledge, or it will cause some troubles</p><p>　　Take the following as an example. </p><p&

45、gt;　　(3) 男士服裝：Man’s wear; </p><p>　　(4) 請(qǐng)帶好隨身物品：Please bring your belonging with you. </p><p>　　Obviously man here is plural form, it represents all men. Belonging is also not proper. The transl

46、ator doesn’t take their part of speech into account. So it should be corrected as follow:</p><p>　　(3) Men’s wear;</p><p>　　(4) Please bring your belongings with you.</p><p>　　2.2.3

47、 Lexical error</p><p>　　These mistakes are more serious than the above mentioned two in terms of readers’ comprehension of the signs. Lexical mistakes will often lead to misunderstandings on part of foreign

48、readers. Such kind of mistakes shows the translator’s poor ability of English, especially the vocabulary, which is a big obstacle in correctly rendering Chinese public signs into English.</p><p>　　A word is

49、the smallest unit of meaning or language its own. So the appropriate translation of a word is the basic step for a high quality version. When we translate the public signs, we should choose the proper word to produce the

50、 translation based on accurate understanding of the source text. A Chinese word may have several English synonyms, like “珍寶” can be translated as “treasure”, “jewellery”, “gem”. These words are all listed under the entry

51、 of “珍寶”, but in the different situation they will</p><p>　　For example:</p><p>　　(5) 司機(jī)休息室：Restroom for Driver;</p><p>　　(6) 防火區(qū)：Fireproofing Area;</p><p>　　(7) 小心碰頭：T

52、ake care of your head;</p><p>　　(8) 出站口：Exit.</p><p>　　In fact, we can see that public signs are misunderstand by some translators who do not care about word using if it is appropriate or not fo

53、r the actual meaning and context, they always use the most frequently words or just selecting words randomly. Maybe the Chinese meaning is right, but it is not the correct usage of English. To avoid such mistake, the tra

54、nslators, when doing the translation, we should take into account the exact meaning of selected English words. Back translation is sometimes </p><p>　　(5) Staff Room or Common Room for Drivers;</p>&l

55、t;p>　　(6) Fire Warden;</p><p>　　(7) Watch Your Head or Mind Your Head;</p><p>　　(8) Way out.</p><p>　　This mistake I have been discussing is called pseudo-equivalents, and there

56、is another mistake called lexical redundancy. </p><p>　　Redundancy refers to the words or phrases with similar meanings, but public signs’ feature is simple and concise. So it doesn't need unnecessary or

57、 useless words. </p><p>　　Any words, which have no useful function in the translation and add nothing to the meaning, should be cut out. These unnecessary words can be any part of speech, nouns, numerals, ad

58、jectives, adverbs, and so on in order to achieve conciseness.</p><p>　　For example:</p><p>　　(9) 用您的愛(ài)心保護(hù)公園環(huán)境: Use your love to protect the park environment.</p><p>　　“Use your love”

59、, this expression is very common in Chinese context, but in English context are redundant words, it violate the habits of English readers, as the key points of translation is conveying the intention of communication, it

60、is unnecessary to be excessively slavish and detailed, so it can be deleted, and translated “Protect the Environment”.</p><p>　　2.2.4 Culture background differences</p><p>　　In English society,

61、people use the public signs of mandatory is very carefully. This is due to western democracy, equality tradition. Only in very special occasion will appear stern tones, unassailable mandatory public signs. Such as: “Poli

62、ce Line Do Not Cross”. In a fire warden, would have some slogans like “No smoking or open fire”.</p><p>　　In Chinese culture, people have a deep sense of hierarchy and respect for authority. Moreover, we alw

63、ays put team first. As a result, government and some professional organizations or agencies have the absolute discourse power in public signs relative to the public. So Chinese public signs often make request demands of

64、public directly. Something like “閑人免進(jìn)”, “請(qǐng)勿***”, “禁止攀折花木”, “禁止踐踏草坪” etc. So the public is accustomed and don’t mind. But when we translated these public signs we should considerin</p><p>　　3 Strategies for p

65、ublic sign translation </p><p>　　British translation theorist Peter Newmark divided language function into six catalogues on the basis of language functional theory. They are expressive function, information

66、 function, vocative function, aesthetic function, phatic function and metalingual function among which the first three functions are the main functions. Public sign is a language that opens to people in general. It serve

67、s as a means of communication to transmit the necessary and useful information to the people, rousing publ</p><p>　　In accordance with the various text types, Peter Newmark put forth two basic translation me

68、thods: semantic translation and communicative translation.</p><p>　　When the “semantic translation” is contrasted with the “communicative translation”, the difference between them is very apparent. Semantic

69、translation centers on source language and focuses on text meaning. It only explains the original meaning and helps target language readers to understand the meaning. As a result, the translations are usually complicated

70、, wordy and over elaborate. On the contrary, communicative translation centers on target readership and focuses on contextual meaning of the </p><p>　　The translation strategy of public sign should attach gr

71、eat importance to the effect with understandable words conveying the information to the public. We can make our public sign translation achieve the ideal effect by following this method. Now we will discuss the following

72、 three strategies: make meaning clear, strengthen intercultural communication and pay attention to the word appropriate.</p><p>　　3.1 Meaning clarity </p><p>　　The “make meaning clear” strategy

73、means the translation should be concise, brief, simple, not involving unintelligible words and complicated long sentences. Newmark pointed out that semantic translation and communicative translation achieve two main goal

74、s of translation: first, accuracy; second, clearness. We establish clearness as one of the strategy in C-E translation on the basis of public sign’s characteristics. Public signs such as shop signs, advertising language

75、and tourism introduction h</p><p>　　3.2 Stress on intercultural communication</p><p>　　Language is the vehicle of culture. Every nation has its profound culture. Different nations with different

76、 cultural backgrounds, daily habits and thinking patterns have different kinds of language expressions. Whenever translating a public sign, we should know clearly that our work serves the translation reader and focuses o

77、n making the translation readable and understandable. We should try to avoid using Chinese English. It is of great importance to the C-E translation of public sign with Chin</p><p>　　3.3 Proper word choice&l

78、t;/p><p>　　In order to ameliorate our problems in public sign translation, we come to the third strategy --- pay attention to words appropriate. We need to fine down our choice of words in the public sign trans

79、lation. Thus there are two points that we shall discuss as follow:</p><p>　　First, we should abound in using nouns, verbs, gerunds, phrases and abbreviations. For example, “商務(wù)中心” is “BUSINESS CENTER”, “表演中心”

80、 is “PERFORMANCE CENTER”, “海關(guān)” is “THE CUSTOMS”, “注冊(cè)登記” is “REGISTRATION” etc. Restricted and mandatory public sign prefers using verbs or gerunds greatly, such as “KEEP SILENCE”, “NO PARKING”, “NO SPITTING” etc. Many ph

81、rases are also applied in the public sign, such as “OPEN NOW”, “SOLD OUT”, “CHECK IN”, “DRIVE IN CINEMA” etc. As to the public facilities and service</p><p>　　Second, avoid using esoteric words. Taking the p

82、ublic educational level into consideration, we should use common words instead of esoteric words, archaic words, slang and technical terms, such as “請(qǐng)勿亂扔廢棄物”---“NO LITTERING”, “(廁所)有人”---“OCCUPIED”, “小心易碎”---“FRAGILE”, “

83、專用車(chē)位”---“APPROPRIATE PARKING” or “PRIVAT PARKING”, “失物招領(lǐng)”---“LOST & FOUND”, “出租乘車(chē)站點(diǎn)”---“TAXI PICK UP POINT” etc. They are all good translations that we should remember. In spite of some public sign with ethnic flavor

84、, we can basical</p><p>　　Above all, we should pay attention to the appropriate choice of words when translating the public signs. Taboo words and wordy sentences should be avoided. Only remember these can w

85、e translate the public accurately.</p><p>　　4 Conclusion</p><p>　　Public signs become a very important part in our daily life. In the same way their English versions contribute a great deal to f

86、oreigners staying in China. This paper deals with the problems of public signs in translating Chinese signs into English. Problems commonly found in the translation of public signs have been talked about in the above cha

87、pters, the thesis categorizes and analyzes the problem based on many examples, and then put forward some possible translation strategies to solve these </p><p>　　From the analysis of the problems, I have rea

88、ched the following conclusions:</p><p>　　First of all in translating signs, we should always pay attention to the problem of readability that we have to make the signs’ meaning clear. As for how to avoid suc

89、h problem in the translation process, the first to do is to have responsibility and treat everything seriously and carefully, and the second thing is that we should be aware that translating signs is as hard as translati

90、ons in the other fields, or maybe even harder because it only have few words. So, in order for the versions to be </p><p>　　Then we should know the translation theories and standard, and be skillful in trans

91、lation. To translate means to produce a text into a target language and maintain the meaning complete and constant. The practical purpose of public sign translation is to provide convenience to the foreigners and make th

92、em feel at home. So translators should stand by the target readers and try to make the translations more accurate and idiomatic.</p><p>　　And last of all, we also should know the culture differences between

93、China and English country. There is one thing we should clear that translating signs is a cross-culture activity, as we make a good translation work, it can perform their function very well, and it also have the function

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102、s</p><p>　　I cannot sufficiently thank my supervisor, Professor He Wenzhao, whose invaluable advice and painstaking instructions of the earlier drafts have a major impact on the final shape of this thesis. M