Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the translation strategies of the Chinese dish names based on the theory of text type theory and communicative translation proposed by Peter Newmark. The author first defines “the Chinese dish name” as “a short title of a dish of Chinese food, listing on a sheet of paper or a book for customers to order food, which is called menu,” suggesting that it should belong to the informative and vocative text, and should adapt a communicative translation. According to the appearing situations and functions, dish names should be classified into dish names in daily life and on formal occasions, which the former one is informative and the later one is vocative. In detailed translation methods, the author divided Chinese dish names into eight kinds and explained the methods respectively. It turns out that the employment of the text type theory and communicative translation is suggestive. With the increasingly culture communication, the SL-oriented translation is an inevitable trend, and the flexible and wide-usage communicative translation would shows its immeasurable function in the future.

KEYWORDS:Chinese dish name; informative; vocative; communicative translation.

摘  要

本研究以彼得纽马克的文本类型理论及交际翻译理论为基础，就中国菜名翻译策略进行讨论。研究首先将文中“菜名”一词定义为“有关一道菜的简短称呼，出现在顾客点菜时所用的纸头或小册子（即菜谱）之上。”以此为基础，笔者认为菜名应属于信息型和召唤型文本，采用交际翻译。根据菜名出现的不同场合与功能，菜名又可分为家常菜与宴会菜。其中，家常菜为信息型，宴会菜为召唤型。在讨论具体翻译策略时，笔者根据命名特点将菜名分为八大种，逐一讨论在两种场合下的翻译策略。研究结果表明，将文本功能理论与交际翻译理论应用于中国菜名翻译是可行的。随着文化交流日益频繁，侧重于保留原语特色的翻译将成为一种必然趋势，而灵活多变的交际翻译必将大放异彩。

关键词:中国菜名；信息型；召唤型；交际翻译。

1.    Introduction
Chinese food is prestigious for its bright color, attractive smell, perfect taste, and distinctive shape. It is also famous for the genius naming methods within the names. This thesis is a tentative study based on the text type theory as well as semantic and communicative translation to discuss the proper translation methods of Chinese dish names.
1.1 Research background
Recent years witness the comprehensive development of China. Besides its economy prosperity, China also enjoys a high-speed culture boom. As a result, the cultural communication with other countries is accordingly on the rise. Chinese food is an indispensable part of Chinese culture. However, due to the language problems, foreigners could not grasp the connotative meanings under the names, so they could not find a way to learn the essence of Chinese food. Therefore, an accurate translation is a necessity. A proper and informative translation is a bridge to connect the East and West together.