With the rapid development of Chinese economy, more and more foreigners have been attracted to China to invest, work, study, and travel. To help the foreigners better understand China and facilitate cross-cultural com...With the rapid development of Chinese economy, more and more foreigners have been attracted to China to invest, work, study, and travel. To help the foreigners better understand China and facilitate cross-cultural communication, bilingual or even trilingual public signs spring up in every part of China. As is known that public signs, usually in the form of a few words, pictures, or words accompanied with a picture, function not only as a＂face＂ of a city and a nation, but also as a first calling card given to the foreigners. Moreover, public signs have definite functions--informing, warning, or directing. However, to our disappointment, mistranslations of the public signs are often presented in some places. As a special text whose function is strong and communicative purpose is quite clear, the translation of public signs should be based on the text＇s functions and the translator＇s purpose. This paper classifies public signs, compares Chinese signs with English ones, and comes up with the principle for its Chinese-English translation, namely, an A-B-C approach （Adapt-Borrow-Create approach） which is based on the Skopostheorie.展开更多
文摘With the rapid development of Chinese economy, more and more foreigners have been attracted to China to invest, work, study, and travel. To help the foreigners better understand China and facilitate cross-cultural communication, bilingual or even trilingual public signs spring up in every part of China. As is known that public signs, usually in the form of a few words, pictures, or words accompanied with a picture, function not only as a＂face＂ of a city and a nation, but also as a first calling card given to the foreigners. Moreover, public signs have definite functions--informing, warning, or directing. However, to our disappointment, mistranslations of the public signs are often presented in some places. As a special text whose function is strong and communicative purpose is quite clear, the translation of public signs should be based on the text＇s functions and the translator＇s purpose. This paper classifies public signs, compares Chinese signs with English ones, and comes up with the principle for its Chinese-English translation, namely, an A-B-C approach （Adapt-Borrow-Create approach） which is based on the Skopostheorie.
