Abstract

Since China opened up and joined the WTO, more and more foreigners have poured into China to do business, study and visit. And public signs function as an important window for foreign countries to learn about China. Therefore, translating public signs plays a significant role both in facilitating foreigners and upgrading China's international image and reputation. However, there still exist some problems in translation of public signs, which always make foreigners confused. The thesis talks about the functions of public signs translation and the classification of public signs. It analyses the causes for mistranslation cases, including culture differences between Chinese and English, Chinglish translation style, spelling errors and semantic ambiguity. According to the existing problems mentioned above, the thesis applies Skopos theory to public signs translation and proposes three methods: culture-oriented method, target readership and qualifing the translators.
 
Key Words: public signs  Skopos Theory  culture-oriented method  target readership

摘 要

自从中国对外开放，加入世贸组织以来，越来越多的外国人涌进中国来投资生意，学习和旅游。公示语作为一个可以让其他国家了解中国的重要窗口。所以，公共标识语的英文翻译不仅在帮助外国友人方面而且在提升中国国际形象和名声方面都起到了显著的作用。然而，英译公示语仍然有一些不足之处，而这些不足之处会因为文化差异的词不达意或者误译常常让外国友人困惑不已甚至于闹笑话。本文指出了公示语翻译的重要性，分析了公示语的分类，公示语翻译错误主要有文化差异造成的错误，中式英语翻译，拼写错误和语意模糊等。根据以上提到的翻译错误，本文提出了公示语翻译的三种策略：以译语文化为导向，译语读者中心化还有译者优化。

关键词：公示语 目的论 译语文化 译语读者中心化

1 Introduction
With the development of China's economy and rising of its international reputation, more and more foreigners are willing to visit, study, live and invest in China. The translation of public signs couldn't be more important nowadays, because foreigners need guidance if they want to stay in China. Therefore, the public signs translation could facilitate the foreign public, so that foreigners could know more about China and understand it better.
Public sign is a public display of a message, or structure on which guidance, informations, directions and warnings can be posted.Public signs are widely used in public facilities, transportation, tourist spot and so on, so public signs should be concise and striking to catch people's attention easily.