从文化角度看杭州景区公示语翻译

On Translation of Public Signs in Hangzhou Scenery Spots fromCultural PerspectiveAbstract: Signs are irreplaceable elements of communication materials and their translation is a necessary step in the process of integration with outside world; Culture is a very important factor which may have decisive effects on the success of international communication. This thesis intends to conduct a comparatively systematic study on the translation of public signs from cultural perspective. In doing so, the thesis attempts to explore some effective strategies and methods applied to the translation of public signs through analyzing the present English versions of public signs in Hangzhou scenery spots. And some suggestions are also offered.Key Words: public signs; translation; culture; Hangzhou scenic spots从文化角度看杭州景区公示语翻译摘要:公示语是交际资料中不可替代的要素，其翻译在与外部世界融合的进程中起着不可或缺的一步；文化则是直接影响国际交流成败的重要因素。

本文从文化的角度对公示语翻译进行研究，对收集到的杭州旅游景区公示语翻译进行分析通过探索公示语翻译的策略和方法，同时，并提出一些建议。

关键词：公示语；翻译；文化；杭州景区CONTENTSIntroduction (1)1.Principles of Signs Translation ........................... 错误！未定义书签。

1.1 Conciseness (2)1.2 Comprehensibility (3)1.3 Consistency (5)2. Influence of Culture on Signs Translation (5)2.1 Retaining the Cultural Image (6)2.2 Shifting the Cultural Image (8)2.3 Omitting the Cultural Image (10)3. Analysis the Present Situation of Signs Translation in Hangzhou Scenic Spots (10)3.1 Examples of Effective Translation (11)3.2 Examples of Faulty Translation (12)3.3 A Brief Survey of Translation Effects among Foreigners (14)4. Conclusion (15)Bibliography (17)IntroductionSince Macro Polo first returned from the Far East in 1295 with exotic treasures and wondrous stories, China has been a land of great fascination to the West. Covering an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, China is endowed with a variety of tourism resources, which provide an advantage for developing tourism. Her five thousand years of civilization, her beautiful landscape and her diverse spectacles cast an irresistible charm on the people all over the world and attract numerous western travelers to visit China. At this time, public signs play an important role in the activities of cultural communication. As an international touring city, Hangzhou, who owns the fame of ―paradise‖, is linking the rail to the word. And the translation of public signs increasingly stands out in the scenery spots, which greatly contributes to the intercultural communication. However, because of various reasons, many problems still exist in the translation, including spelling errors, grammar problems, vocabulary difficulties and the readability of the public signs. Therefore, this paper intends to conduct a study of the translation of public signs in Hangzhou scenic spots with the aim to explore the strategies and methods to enhance public sign translation. And it will mainly focus on the following three parts: the principles of the signs translation; the influence of culture on signs translation and the analysis of some problems and successful examples in the translation of public signs in some scenic spots in Hangzhou.1．Principles of Signs TranslationAs time goes by, since the Romans firstly used a certain sort of directional signs when they installed milestones along the new straight roads they had built in Britain, giving distances to the next town or military base, people began to realize the importance of signs in our daily life. As signs are commonly used, the translations of public signs are also commonly used in our daily life; at the same time, they are also influencing our social life. Especially at present, with China‘s fast development, and with China‘s entry into WTO, China‘s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, a lot more other international events are held in China, more and more people from all over the world have come to China to travel, study or do business. All these international practices and activities make the public signs essential to all the foreignpeople, from government officials to entrepreneurs, from scientists to overseas students, from artists to sportsmen. At this time the signs may sound silent but they do speak louder than voices. All in all, as an important window to the outside world, public signs translation is the first impression that China has left to all the foreign tourists, so they are not only interpreting the language; they are also interpreting the international image of this country. Also the boom of international activities has greatly increased communication among people from different cultural backgrounds and the needs for intercultural communication boost the translation of public signs. Signs translation has great significance both to our country and to the foreigners. Therefore, signs are irreplaceable elements of communication materials and their translation is a necessary step in the process of integration with outside world.Public signs have been applied to every respect of our daily life and thus cover various fields of life. As a particular variety of English language, public sign English has its own language functions which are mainly directing, prompting, restricting and compelling, with its stylistic features as conciseness, stipulations of an agreement and consistency. When we translate the public signs, these stylistic features should be considered. So there are three principles for Chinese to English translation of public signs, namely, conciseness, comprehensibility and consistency.1.1 ConcisenessConciseness means that the translated version of public sign is either a word or a sentence, being easy to understand and without unnecessary words. So the signs can obtain the optimal feedback with a simple form. This feature mostly lies on its own practicality. Evidently, the concept of conciseness principle has two aspects of meaning. First, the translation of public signs should be terse and economical in writing and speaking achieved by expressing a great deal in just a few words. Usually signs are on the board, which has comparatively small space. Readers may only give a quick glimpse when they pass by. Readers are expected to grasp their meaning in such a glimpse. Different with the literary work, which may influence generation aftergeneration of readers, the effects of signs are instantaneous and transient. So they must catch the readers‘attention as soon as possible. In order to achieve such effect in a short time, the sign language must be simple, concise and easily understood by its readers. Newmark, when commenting on semantic and communicative translation, also pointed out that these two methods ―fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are first, accuracy, and second, economy‖(2001:47). On the basis of Newmark‘s opinion, terseness and economy of the translated version is one of the purposes of translation. An effective sentence should be without unnecessary words, that is, there should not be any word complex or of multiple tenses. So the signs should be translated with few words as possible. Second, because of the different educational levels, it is advisable to use simple words and sentence instead of difficult terms and complex sentence, which also agrees with the language feature of public signs English.For example, in the hospital, above each patient bed, there is a bell. The patient can press it in emergency. ―夜间有事，请按此铃‖We need not render it into a sentence. ―Night Bell‖is enough. On the exhibition, the organizers do not allow visitors to touch exhibits, so they may put a small sign on the exhibits ―勿动展品‖. Someone translates it into ―Please Don‘t Touch the Exhibits.‖Though the English version expresses the intended meaning out, it sounds clumsy and goes the wrong direction towards conciseness. If we just render it as ―Don‘t Touch‖ or ―Hands Off‖, we may receive a better result. And ―市内公共汽车专用‖we can translate like this ―City Busses Onl y‖.1.2ComprehensibilityNewmark‘s (2001:41) once remarked, ―the core of the vocative function of language is the readership, the addressee.‖The term ‗vocative‘is used in the way intended by the text. Newmark takes notices, publicity, propaganda, persuasive writing (requests, cases, theses) and possibly popular fiction, whose purpose is to sell the book or to entertain the reader, as the typical ‗vocative‘text. The unique characteristic of public signs is that they have the readers, or the addresses, as their core. From thispoint, we can say that comprehensibility is a principle of prime importance to a public signs translator. We can imagine that if an English public sign is not translated with strong comprehensibility, no matter how faithful it tries to be to the original, people will not feel easy to understand it, or even worse, they will be confused and feel at loss at all. As a public signs translator, one must attach great importance to the comprehensibility of his rendition. Newmark‘s theory, to some extent, is in the same line with that of Nida‘s functional/dynamic equivalence, which also lays emphasis on readers‘feedback. ―In the communicative translation of vocative texts, equivalent effect is not only desirable, it is essential; it is the criterion by which the effectiveness, and therefore the value, of the translation of notices, instructions, publicity, propaganda, persuasive or eristic writing, and perhaps popular fiction, is to be assessed. The reader‘s response – to keep off the grass, to buy the soap, to join the Party, to assemble the device –could even be quantified as a percentage rate of the success of the translation‖(2001: 48). Both Newmark and Nida‘s viewpoints bear some relevance to public signs translation. In addition, “translationese”has become rather a common problem in translation practice.“Translationese”, coined by Nida in his The Theory and Practice of Translation (2004), mainly refers to such renditions as obscure, unnatural, and difficult to read and understand. Due to the differences in English and Chinese culture, the two languages often differ greatly in their sentence structures and patterns of theme development. As a result, compromises and restructuring are often needed in the rendering of the source language into the target language. However, in the actual process of translating, the translators are often too much subjected to the confinements of the original version and rely heavily on word –for –word rendering, resulting in what we call translationese. In this respect, the translations of “软席”and “硬席”are good examples. “软席”and “硬席”shows Chinese characteristic, since there is no such distinction in the foreign countries. However, the translation “Soft Seat”and “Hard Seat”in many domestic train station, for example the Shanghai Station have made foreign people surprised and puzzled ----“how am I going to figure out how “hard”the seat is?”Obviously, they did not understand the sign, thus buying a ticketbecame a big trouble for them. An incomprehensible sign only make things worse; however it reflects the necessity of comprehensibility in public signs translation. Considering this, I suggest translating them into ―Cushioned Seat‖and ―Ordinary Seat‖ ----―Cushioned Seat‖ is the one with a cushion on it while ―Ordinary Seat‖ is the one without ----which is easy to understand and can be accepted by the foreign people.1.3 ConsistencyConsistency comes down to the rule of the translation of the public signs, especially the way of given expression or the translation of some specific place. The concept of consistency covers the following three aspects. Firstly, public signs translators, before racking their brains for the English equivalent, should first of all make sure that there is such an expression already in use in the English language. If there is an English expression addressing the same meaning and is commonly used worldwide, we simply adopt ―borrowism‖----take it and use it. The so-called ―borrowism‖ includes the borrowing of idiomatic expression and native expressions. For example, the sign ―旅客止步‖(―游客止步‖or ―宾客止步‖) has been translated quite differently, such as ―No Visitors, Please!‖, ―Stop‖, ―Guests Go No Further!‖, ―Passengers, Stop Here!‖, ―Tourists Stop the Step‖and so on. In fact, there is an English expression widely used in the same context in English-speaking countries. It simply shows ―Staff only‖. Secondly, he/she should accept rather than create on his/her own words. It means that if there is a fixed translated name or term, the translators should follow the established translation. For example, the name of ―华东医院‖should be translated into ―Hua Dong Hospital‖whereas ―华东师范大学‖should be ―East China Normal University‖, because the translated name has already been sanctioned by popular usage, the translator has no alternative but to follow the fixed version. Thirdly, the translator should refer to the dictionary and the English version of official websites or newspapers for the English of Chinese neologism, if there is neither idiomatic expression to borrow nor fixed translation to follow.2. Influence of Culture on Signs TranslationAffected by various factors, the increment, decrement or distortion of information naturally occur in the process of signs translation, which results in the consequence that the information of a translated version is more or less than the original, or deviates from the original. And the culture is one of the most important reasons. Because of the difference between languages and cultures, it is hard for the translators to achieve the same with the original. As Snell-Hornby ( 2001: 39) points out ―Language is not seen as an isolated phenomenon suspended in a vacuum but as an integral part of cultures‖. Culture works as potential director for the behavior of a people. Chinese and English people have formed their own unique culture, each displaying the particular features. All of these can be reflected in language. The Chinese language enjoys a lot of culture-specific items owing to her unique culture. In C-E translation, how to render these culture items is a big headache for many translators. But to the translators, the cultural image of the original should be made prominent as possible. Their main purpose is to try their best to preserve the cultural image in the process of the signs translation. However, preserving the image with indispensable annotation and shifting the image are necessary when it is hard to find the same or equivalent words in English for the original image because of the different forms and meaning between the two languages. Simultaneously, considering conciseness and readability of the signs translation in the scenic spots, the translation has to part reluctantly with what one treasures, omitting the image so as to make them better understood by foreign tourists. This following part will analyze the translation of public signs in scenery spots from cultural perspective through retaining the image, shifting the image or omitting the image, in order that the foreigners can understand the signs easily.2.1 Retaining the cultural imageMetaphrasing is commonly used in the translation of signs which is meant to retain of the cultural image. Retaining of the cultural image as much as possible in the translation can make the target readers have a taste of the source text and enhance thecommunication between the language and culture.When the information in the source text would not prevent target readers from correctly and easily understanding it, the source text can be metaphrased as displayed in the following example.(1) 花钱如流水It used to be translated into ―to spend money like dust‖. In this phrase the cultural image ―水‖ is changed to be ―土‖(dust). Now in many books we can see the version of ―to spend money like water‖, which is much visual, lifelike and vivid.(2) 雨后春笋The translation ―to spring up like bamboo shoots after a spring shower‖ instead of the version of ―to spring up like mushrooms after the spring shower‖is better to transmit the original culture to the target readers.(3) 鲁迅祖母卧室鲁迅的继祖母蒋菊花（1842-1910）卧室。