Abstract

 Tourism has indispensably been becoming a common part of social consumption for human life. To relax from overloaded daily work and to learn more about historical backgrounds, most people, especially foreigners may choose to visit sites of primitive cultures during their holidays. Therefore, the number of travelers has climbed dramatically in the recent years. Hangzhou, after being the host of G20 summit, has become a popular tourism destination for the oversea visitors. In a tourism destination, everything may be unknown and new to a foreign visitor who travels around the tourist spots despite the translation of the tourist destinations’ introductions---the tourism texts. Hence, the C-E tourism text, which undertakes the responsibility to disseminate culture, is a bridge to facilitate the interflow of different cultures. However, language barriers and mistakes in C-E translation of tourism texts may cause target tourists to have wrong understandings of Hangzhou, and impede the development of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, it’s crucial to offer a faithful tourism translation text which can be easily understood by foreign visitors and give them a taste of cultural sense.

To give a terrific tourism translation text, the theory guidance is of vital importance. As the base of functional theories of translation, Skopos theory, established by the famous German linguists Hans Vermeer and Katharina Reiss, comprises the core idea that translating and interpreting should primarily take into account the function of the target text, which provides a new perspective for Hangzhou C-E tourism translation. From the functional perspective, the aim of tourism translation is the primary yardstick of the translation. Hence, the tourism translation text is the informative reference book and operative advertisement according to Katharina Reiss’s four text types approach, processing different strategies of translation. Skopos theory contains three rules: the Skopos rule (which means the translation strategies of the texts should be determined by its purpose,), the coherence rule (which means the translation texts are acceptable for target readers), and the fidelity rule (which means the translation texts are faithful to the source language).

After the classification of background and meaning of the text and literature review, the author of this thesis intends to make a probe into the Hangzhou C-E translation text from the Functional perspective. The examples and cases, from Hangzhou tourism website, brochure and the C-E tourist attraction introductions, would be assessed with the three rules. Meanwhile, the merits and mistakes would be demonstrated with the criteria of Skopos theory. Last but not least, the author would make conclusion of the dissertation and analyze the demerits of it, hoping to provide a reference for the future practice of tourism translation and enhance the international image of Hangzhou no matter how little it is.

Keywords: functional perspective; Hangzhou tourism translation; translation strategy

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter 1  Introduction-1

1.1Research Background-1

1.2 Significance of the Research-2

1.3 Organization of the Paper-3

Chapter 2 Literature Review-4

2.1German Functionalist translation theory-4

2.1.1Text Typology Theory-4

2.2.2 Skopos Theory-5

2.2 .Related Researches on tourism text translation at home and abroad-6

2.2.1 A Literature Review of Studies on Tourism Translation Abroad-6

2.2 .2A Literature Review of Studies on Tourism Translation in China-7

Chapter3. An Overview of tourism texts-8

3.1Definition and variety of tourism texts-8

3.2Category of tourism translation-8

3.3Functions and purpose of tourism texts-9

Chapter 4 On C-E Translation of Hangzhou Tourism Translation from the Perspective of Functionalist Translation Theory-10

4.1Text Typology Theory's Application to Hangzhou tourism text translation of the website-10

4.2 Skopos Rule's Application to Hangzhou tourism text translation of the spot’s introduction-12

4.3 Coherence Rule's Application to Hangzhou tourism text translation of brochure-13

4.4Fidelity Rule's Application to Hangzhou tourism text translation of brochure-14

Chapter 5  Conclusion-16

References-17