Signs And Their Translation

With the rapid development of our economy and intensification of our reform and opening-up policy, China has developed good relationship with outside world. It has taken various measures to strengthen the more close connections, among which communication materials constitute an indispensable part. Signs, which are an important unit of communication and play an important role in our daily life, have been attracted considerable attention. By this dissertation, the author aims at drawing more attention on signs and making our country more open and modern.This dissertation consists of five chapters with their contents as follows:First literature review is made in order to give a thorough analysis. Many essays on sign translation appear on translation magazines, such as Chinese Translators Journal and Shanghai Journal of Translators for Science and Technology. And there is a website www.e-signs.info English-Chinese Expression on Signs Research and Service Online established by Beijing International Studies University to systematically study sign translation. Besides, A Chinese-English Dictionary on Signs is edited by Beijing International Studies University and published by the Commercial Press House in 2004. All these provide valuable materials for this dissertation.It is of much significance to translate signs. In most cities, especially large cities, bilingual signs are provided in order to bring convenience to the increasing foreigners. Signs in English are essential to the foreigners and concern about our international image. Therefore, whether sign translation is suitable or not has great significance both to us and to the target readers. Signs bear their own features and perform four basic functions: directing, prompting, restricting and compelling. The dissertation mainly focuses on five chief types, that is, public signs, traffic signs, road signs, signsin scenic places and signs for names and service of institutions.Duan Liancheng has classified two types of problems in communication translation. Here we make his classification for reference. The dissertation divides the problems into two types. Problems of Type A are more obvious including spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes and lexical mistakes. They are due to the translators' irresponsible and perfunctory attitudes and poor mastery of English. Problems of Type B concern about readability of sign translation. These problems, more hidden and serious, are beyond comprehension. They include harsh mood, Chinglish, poor readability and are the most difficult to overcome.Functionalism has emerged in 1970s in Germany after a long time development. Functionalists believe that any form of translation, including therefore translation itself, may be conceived as an action, as the name implies. Any action has an aim, a purpose, that is Skopos, which is also the guiding principle of ranctionalist translation and determines the translation strategies. And one of the most important factors that determine a translation purpose is the addressee—the intended receiver or audience in the target language, culture, with expectations and communicative needs. Therefore, in sign translation, we must first make the functions and intended addressees of signs clear.Some signs carry the same functions with those that exist in English-speaking countries. As for these, we could employ international standard and use the method of Chinese-English replacement. Some bear Chinese characteristics. Their function also includes spreading Chinese culture and transmitting our heritage. We could take some techniques such as explanation, pinyin with free translation, omission , under-translation and so on to solve the problems.All in all, sign translation is far from easy and more attention should be paid to it. Only sign translation achieves the intended purpose, can we say our sign translation issuccessful. There is a way for us to go.