由“please fall down carefully”所想到的——兼议公示语英译

Some Thoughts Inspired by "Please Fall down Carefully"——Discussion on English Translation of Public Signs

"公示语"是一种公开和面对公众的、以达到某种交际目的的特殊的语言及图示。公示语的翻译是一件很严肃、要求较高的事情。但由于缺乏统一的规范和管理,目前公示语英译中语义不清、语用欠妥、拼写错误、语法错误、随意乱译等问题仍然较为常见。因此,建议公示语翻译应注意:1.语义要准确,要注重用语的可接受性和受众的心理感受;2.语用要得体,语气要尽量地婉转、客气;3.译者要有认真负责、严谨细致的工作作风。

＂Public signs＂ is a special language or graphic sign （s） which is used publicly for the purpose of communications. Therefore, the translation of it is a very serious job and requests highly of quality. However, for lack of unified standards of translation and the effective management, there still exist some commonly seen problems in its English translation, such as ambiguousness of meanings, the inappropriate usage of words in pragmatics sense, misspellings, grammatical mistakes, etc. Therefore, the suggestions are as follows：1. the meanings must be exact, it must be focused on the acceptability and the psychological responses of the readers;2. the expressions used should be proper, the language should be mild and polite ;3. the translators must have a serious, exact and responsible attitude in work.