Abstract

With the process of reform and opening up, more and more foreigners travel to China, leading to the large use of public signs in spot sites which can provide them with necessary information. In recent years, people pay more attention to public signs in spot sites and have made some achievements but there are still many different kinds of mistranslations in every city of China. The function of public signs is increasingly important in international exchange while their translation is not standard, even with some mistakes. Translators can conduct the translation of directional terms in public signs from the perspective of semantics, function and culture based on relevance theory so as to figure out the inferential communication intention by interpreting their ostensive information to find out the optimized relevant assumption and convey the accurate information to audiences effectively, to carry out desired international communication. The paper first use perspective of adaptation to correct the mistranslations of public signs by taking spot sites of Nanjing as an example and then put forward some practical measures for consideration.

Key words: public tourism signs; perspective of relevance; C-E translation; translation suggestions

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Significance of public sign translation-1

1.2 Structure of the thesis-2

2. Literature Review-2

2.1 Concept of pubic sign-3

2.2The situation of public signs in Nanjing-5

2.3 Relevance Theory-8

2.3.1 The concept of relevance theory-8

2.3.2 Principles of relevance theory-9

2.3.3 Appliance of perspective of relevance theory in public signs-9

3. Possible Reasons of Mistranslation-11

3.1 Tampering and loss of information-11

3.2 Improper and wrong use of language-12

3.3 The carelessness of the maker-12

4. Some Suggestions to Solve the Problem-14

4.1 Strengthen the management of public signs-14

4.2 Strengthen the standardization of terms-15

4.3 Improve the quality of Translators-16

5. Conclusion-17

References-19