功能决定形式——探讨港澳地区诗型公示语英译

English Translation of Chinese Poetic-style Public Notices in Hong Kong and Macao from the Functionalist Perspective

诗型公示语,是一种在中文公示语中广泛使用的特殊公示语形式,通常具有排比、对偶、押韵等特色。如果根据莱斯的文本类型来分类,公示语应归类为感染型文本,诗型公示语就是诺德所说的具有"诗歌感染功能"的文本类型。本文从功能翻译理论的角度探析港澳地区中文诗型公示语的英译,在对诗型公示语及其英译定量分析的基础上,对具有中国古典诗歌形式的诗型公示语的英译进行分析,探讨诗型公示语英译的方法。研究发现,在中文诗型公示语的翻译中,感染功能的实现是首要考虑因素。在译文中,诗型公示语的诗歌形式通常被舍去,而核心信息则通过编译的方法传递到译文中,以实现与原文等效的感染功能。

Poetic-style public notice, a special type of notice, is widely seen in the Chinese-speaking areas. With parallel structures and rhymes, poetic-style notices are usually welcomed by Chinese readers and easy for them to read and to remember. According to Reiss＇ s text typology （1971/2001）, public style notices belong to operative texts, and based on Nord＇ s （1988/2005） further classifi- cation of the text functions, poetic public style notices are equipped with the ＂poetic appellative function＂. This paper aims to discuss the English translations of Chinese poetic style public notices used in Hong Kong and Macao from the functionalist perspective. It first gives a quantitative analysis of the characteristics of Chinese poetic style public notices and their translations; then, it analyzes the translations of Chinese poetic style public notices and identifies the translation strategies and methods used in this kind of poetic text. It has found that in the translation of poetic style public notices, poetic forms are usually lost, but the intended appellative function is maintained in the target text with application of adaptive translation methods. It is hoped that the result of this study will shed some light on future translation of similar discourses.