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A Critical
Analysis of the Translations of Public Signs in
by
ZHANG Yanping
Under the Supervision of
Professor Ke Ping
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Department of English
School of Foreign Studies
Nanjing University
May 30, 2006
Upon
the accomplishment of this thesis, I would like to convey my sincere gratitude
to Professor Ke Ping, my supervisor, without whose help and support this thesis
would not have been possibly completed and presented in its present form. His
instructions and suggestions guided me in planning and implementing this study in
a methodical way. His earnestness in
academic research inspired me and motivated me to carry
out the physically and mentally demanding field work involved in the study. Moreover, his
strict regard to details prompted me to revise the language and
format of this thesis repeatedly.
My
thanks also go to Professor He Chengzhou, who supported me to take up the present topic of study.He
was kind enough to encourage me
to keep on with it,
which helped me to bring this thesis project to a desirable end.
Besides,
I want to give my thanks to my classmate and research partner,
Li Xiaosa, for the efforts she made with me to
collect from many
public places in Nanjing all the
samples needed for the study.
Finally,
I wish to thank my parents, whoseenormous love and support have accompanied me throughout my four years’ study at , I could have gone
nowhere.
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The
purpose of this research is to find out the principles governing, and translation
strategies and methods
workable in Chinese-English (C-E) translation of public signs so
that the informative and vocative functions of such texts can be fulfilled.
The
theoretical basis of this thesis came from A
Textbook of Translation, written by Newmark (2001). Newmark points out
three main functions of language, namely the expressive, informative and
vocative functions, and argues that informative and vocative texts
should be communicatively translated. Considering that the chief functions of public signs are informative and
vocative,
the study concluded that the communicative
translation approach should be adoptedin
translating such texts.
This
research was based on field study and
surveys, and used
comparable corpus and qualitative analysis. The author investigated many
bilingual public signs in critically analyzed
the main existingproblems
identified in these translations. Besides, ten translations of public signs were
selected and transcribed in a questionnaire, which was administered to a
group of native English speakers (including a linguistics professor) to test
their communicative effect.
The
study found that
translators of public signs are inclined to translate
literally and neglect the
communicative function of the original. On the
basis of corpus study, the thesis discovered some most common types of translation mistake, including misuse of
words, grammatical mistakes, inconsistency in referring to the same object, wordy
translations and unfaithful translations, and came up with four translation strategies that are advised to be adopted by the translator
to avoid these mistakes, namely, paraphrase, amplification, reduction
(or zero translation) and adaptation. The thesis concludes that accuracy,
economy and faithfulness should be the main principles to be followed in the
C-E translation of public signs. The research also
found that
in order to achieve communicative effect, the translation of public signs
should conform to such conventions of English public signs as shortness in
length, plainness in vocabulary and simplicity in sentence structure.
Despite its limitations, the present research is significant in that it yields some important findings regarding
the problems existing in the C-E
translation of public signs in
? ?..............................................................................................................
Abstract.........................................................................................................
1.1.2 Rationale for the Research
C-E translation of
public signs
1.3 Organization
of the Thesis
Chapter Three
Results and Discussions
3.1 A Critical
Analysis of the Problems in Translations of Public Signs
(1) Misuse of words and grammatical mistakes
(2) Inconsistency in referring to the same object
3.2 Proper
Translation Methods and Specific Strategies in the Translation of Public Signs
3.2.1 Communicative Translation
(3) Reduction (or Zero Translation)
4.1.1 Ways of Adapting to the Conventions of
English Public Signs
4.1.2 Principles Guiding C-E Translation of Public
Signs
4.1.3 Methods and Skills in C-E Translation of
Public Signs
4.2 Implications
of the Findings
4.3 Limitations of
the Study and Suggestions for Further Research
References....................................................................................................