Abstract:

With the booming development of Chinese economy, more and more foreigners come to China on business or for tourism. Public sign, as a kind of special language used in public places, is the window of foreign friends to know China. Therefore, bilingual public signs have become one of important symbols of an international city. Whether the public sign translation realizes original function of the sign not only influences the basic necessities of lives of foreign friends, but also relates to the international image of China. Consequently, we should pay close attention to the public sign translation. Nowadays, the majority of versions can convey the function of original public signs, whereas there are also a lot of improper or nonstandard ones, which should never be ignored. Therefore, further study of public sign translation must be done without delay. The core of German functionalist theory ---- Skopostheorie provides us a brand-new angle of view for public sign translation. It breaks through the traditional idea of translation and enriches the ways of translation research. According to the Skopostheorie, translation is a kind of intercultural behavior, and it is also an interaction with purpose. The process translation is determined by purpose of translation, namely “purpose determines means”. Therefore, in public sign translation, different translating strategies should be adopted neatly according functions and purposes of target texts. This paper will start with the definition, classifications and functions of public sign, and then analyze a series of problems existing in the present C-E public sign translation in order to explore some specific translation strategies from the functional view.

Key words: Public sign; Skopostheorie; translation strategies

摘要：

随着我国经济的快速发展，越来越多的外国人来华出差或旅行。公示语，作为一种应用于公共场合的特殊语言，是外国友人了解中国的窗口。它的双语化已经成为了城市国际化的重要标志。公示语译文的优劣不但影响着外国人在华的吃穿住行等细枝末节，更影响着我国的国际形象，因此我们必须予以特别关注。目前，大部分的公示语的翻译能很好地体现出公示语的功能和作用，但翻译不规范、误译等现象仍然屡见不鲜，因此对该领域的深入研究刻不容缓。而德国功能派翻译理论的核心 ---- 目的论无疑为公示语的翻译研究提供了崭新的视角，它突破了传统翻译理念，丰富了翻译研究的方法。根据目的论，翻译是一种跨文化行为，一种有目的的互动。翻译目的决定翻译策略，即“目的决定手段”。判定译文质量的标准不是等值翻译，而是译文文本能否完成其在译语语境和文化中的交际功能。因此，在公示语翻译中，译者应该根据文本的预期功能和目的灵活地选择不同的翻译策略。鉴于此，本文拟从公示语的定义、类型、功能特点出发，以目的论作为理论依据，通过大量实例对公示语翻译错误进行分类研究，探讨公示语翻译中普遍存在的问题及解决策略。

关键词：公示语；目的论；翻译策略