A Functionalist Approach To C-E

Public signs are closely related with people's daily life. Besides offering convenience to foreign visitors, bilingual public signs of Chinese and English are also an important aspect of international communication. They have great significance to China's cultural exchanges and economic cooperation with other countries.Based on functionalist translation theory, this thesis discusses C-E translation of public signs from the perspectives of language, culture, psychology and aesthetics. By analyzing the existing problems in C-E translation of public signs and their possible causes, some feasible strategies and techniques are proposed, which would offer some clues to the study of C-E translation of public signs.The thesis is developed into four chapters. In Introduction, it initiates with the introduction of the current situation and research results of C-E translation of public signs, the main content of this thesis and the research methods. Chapter One presents the definition, classification, functions and stylistic features of public signs. Chapter Two introduces the three main schools of functionalism, namely, Christiane Nord's Skopostheorie, Newmark's Text Typology and Nida's Functional Equivalence. Chapter Three focuses on the study of C-E translation of public signs from linguistic and cultural perspectives, in which differences between Chinese and English signs, the existing problems of translation of public signs and their possible solutions are examined respectively from perspectives of language and culture. Chapter Four deals with translation of public signs from perspectives of psychology and aesthetics, in which the acceptability of translated versions, the target reader's expectation, the acoustical and ocular effects of translated versions and translators' aesthetic perception and understanding are discussed. At last, it is concluded that functionalism is an effective theoretical approach to translation of public signs and in order to achieve a perfect result, translators need to examine their translations from perspectives of language, culture, psychology and aesthetics.