韦娟容 广西梧州岑溪市大隆镇西宁中心小学 543200
中图分类号：G623.5文献标识码：A文章编号：ISSN1001-2982 （2019）02-012-05
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 The Background of the Study
Public signs cover almost every aspect of people's social life, somehow it stands for international image, more and more public places are provided with bilingual public signs. However, the frequent occurrence of translation problems can be seen everywhere, any misunderstand and misuse of them can cause trouble with bad result for people. Among these problems, some translation errors are so obvious, such as spelling errors, lexical errors, grammatical errors, pragmatic errors and cultural errors.
Signing affects everybody – travelers, shoppers, visitors, drivers, etc, weather in the course of business or pleasure. Bad signing is at best irritating and worst can be life threatening and dangerous. Under this circumstance, study and analysis of public signs become urgent and necessary.
1.2 The Necessity of The Study
Public signs constitute a vital part in our daily life, translating the public signs in proper ways from aspects in spelling, lexical, grammatical, pragmatic and cultural, can not only bring more convenience to foreign visitors but also result in a good impression. More further, making successful and effective public signs can not only fulfill the communicative goals of informing, warming and advocating without many difficulties, but also attain a positive international image and reputation.
On the contrary, all the translation errors may cause misleading or misunderstanding to foreign guests, they may get the wrong direction and messages from these public signs. Besides, the mistranslation of public signs will misguide the primary English learners that they will accept them as true and copy the examples. What to make matters worse is that it may seriously leave an awful impression to foreign guests and result in damage to Chinese international image.
So it is of great necessity to make a research on the translation cause and errors of public signs
1.3 Present Status Of C-E Translation Of Public Signs In Cenxi.
At recent years, “public signs” is a very complicated language system which undertakes a lot of social communicative tasks. Public signs are widely and frequently used in many kinds of public place, more and more attentions are pay to the C-E translation of public signs. In addition, many researchers have already taken some effective measures and great achievements have been made in this field. However, by closely observing the public signs, we also may find many kinds of translation errors. All these translation errors may make misunderstanding to foreigners, they may get the wrong direction in a short period of time. Believe it or not, it will leave an awful impression to foreign visitors and may result in an unrecoverable damage to China’s international image.
What bellows expectation was that the attention was paid on the C-E translation of public signs was quite inadequate. Many a time, most scholars just research the study from a single aspect without having enough consideration, for example, they only targeted for the road signs or the tourist spot. Fortunately, the first special dictionary in China on standardization of Chinese-English and English- Chinese sign translation edited by Yu Fulin was published in 2003. Lv Hefa and Shan Liping edited A Chinese-English Dictionary on Signs (2004)which was published by Commercial Press. Both of the two dictionaries proved that we have made great strides in C-E sign translation towards a standard and systematic research.
1.4 The Significance of the Study
Public signs cover almost every aspect of people's social life, international exchanges and cooperation became more and more frequent. Public signs reflect the cultural and educational level of a place, the wrong or the nonstandard translation of public signs will seriously affect the image of the place.
Signing affects everybody – travelers, shoppers, visitors, drivers, etc, weather in the course of business or pleasure. Bad signing is at best irritating and worst can be life threatening and dangerous. In this case, it is of great necessity to analyze errors on C-E translation of public signs and provide strategies to eliminate these errors.
The bilingual public signs, especially C-E translation public signs, which are supposed to be the most immediate public guidance for visitors, has become more and more important not only in its public function for directing people, but also more in their significance upgrading the international image and reputation of China in global community. So, well-translated public signs can promote the development of language environment and enhance the image of the country. As a matter of fact, it is urge to translate the public signs in a correct and proper way.
Chapter Two Generalization of Public Signs
2.1 The Definition of Public Signs
Professor Lv Hefa defines the public sign in his book----‘A Chinese-English Dictionary on Signs’ as“ public signs are terse and explicit words, sentences, even photographs that are closely related to daily life, production, ecology and professions so as to direct, prompt, restrict, warm, or even compel the public.” (Lv Hefa 2004) He points out that directing, prompting, restricting and compelling are the four most important functions of public signs. He also said ,“At present, when we are doing research on the Chinese to English translation on public signs, our perspective is from the culture and translation field, we borrowed the concept ‘public signs’ in our present study, but the concept is endowed with new meanings”. (Lv Hefa 2005)
He Xuegeng(2006) defines that public signs is a special genre of writing that is seen by certain people so as to achieve some certain interpersonal objectives. Luo Xuanmin (2006) also defines that public signs are the words with special interpersonal functions, which are shown in public places. Specifically speaking, road signs, advertisements, instruction of products, guidelines, and placards all belong to public signs.
In totally, all the definitions of public signs are reasonable, but there is still no unified and clear definition of public signs. Base on the above definitions, the author lean to the definition of Lv He fa. Because it is the most similar to the public signs in Chinese:公示语、 告示语、标识语、揭示语、标志、标识。
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2.2 The Functions of Public Signs
According to professor Lv Hefa, public signs can be divided into four terms: directing, prompting, restricting and compelling. But Bei Zhu and Shan Aimin (2002) classified the public signs into another four functions: informative, instructive, regulatory and warning. Here we will have a detail look at the samples which related to the four function of Lv He fa.
2.2.1 Directing Function
This directing function of public signs is to provide information about what things are. They do not necessarily forbid or require readers to take any action to do something, only direct the content of the service. Typical examples are as follows:
Tickets (售票处)
Smoking Room(吸烟室)
Airport Security(机场安检)
Internet bar(网吧)
24 Hours Self-service Bank(24小时自助银行)
Exit(出口)
Supermarket(超市)
Business Hours(营业时间)
Hotel(旅馆) and so on.
2.2.2 Prompting Function
The function of prompting aim at reminding people to pay attention if they want to perform any action. People can have a clear idea how they should behave, what they should do when they read the signs which is to prompt or to warn a fact or phenomenon. In other words，these signs emphasis the information that you should or should not do something. The examples are as follow:
Keep Off The Grass 勿踏草坪
Handle With Care 小心轻放
Do Not Disturb 请勿打扰
Road under Repair 前面修路
Reserved 预留席位
Wet Paint 油漆未干
Parking Fine 停车违规罚款
Rear and Collision 追尾危险
Pedestrians’ Paradise 行人专用道
Full Booked 客满
2.2.3 Restricting Function
This kind of public signs is direct and explicit, but the tone is not rough, impolite and unreasonable. They are to inform the constraints or restrictions on the public’s behaviors. For instance: “Construction Site” meaning “ 施工现场，禁止入内”
Usually appears at the building site, it tells people not to enter, in case that their lives may be at risk. “Handicapped Only” meaning “残疾人通道” can be seen in many public places such as airports or railway station, it tells people the way is only used for disabled. These public signs with restricting function are shown in a direct and clear way. However people don’t feel they are rough, impolite or tough. More examples:
Keep Right 右侧行驶
Slow Out 减速慢行
Keep Silence 保持安静
Ticket Only 凭票入内
Stand in Line 站队等候
60km/h 60公里/小时
Free for Children under 12 十二岁以下的小孩免费
2.2.4 Compelling Function
Among the four functions, compelling function has the strongest tone. This kind of public signs give clear requirement for the public to take or not to take certain action without compromise. Words like “No, Forbidden, Prohibited” are always used in such kind of public signs. It means that people have to obey the rules without any other choices. Look at the following examples:
No Smoking 禁止吸烟
No Cameras 禁止拍照
No Visitors 游客止步
No Littering 请勿乱扔垃圾
Do Not Touch 请勿触摸
Fire Prohibited 严禁烟火
Dogs Not Allowed 禁止带狗入内
Don’t Drive after Drinking 严禁酒后驾车
No Admittance in Sloppy Dresses 衣冠不整者谢绝入内
Keep Clear Emergency Exit 紧急出口，保持畅通
Do Not Feed the Animals 禁止投喂动物
As a whole, the four functional features are the most distinctive features of public signs. Both Chinese signs and English signs share these four functions. Since that, it is necessary to know more about these features before starting the study on C-E translation of public signs,
2.3 The Characteristic of Public Signs
Now public signs have been applied in common use and have played an indispensable role in every aspect of our lives. They are in wide use of nouns, verbs, gerunds, phrases, abbreviations, combination of words and graphics, primary tenses, imperative sentence, standardized and normalized vocabulary, concise and accurate diction and wordings with local characteristics. Having a good knowledge of the characteristics of public signs can be of great help for us to have a better understanding of public signs.
2.3.1 Use of Nouns
Among the public signs, nouns are usually applied to express “stative” meaning, with the purpose of offering service, directing, and explaining of something. For examples:
Food and Beverage 餐饮部
Registration 注册登记
Toll Gate 收费站
Ticket Machines 售票机
Conference Center 会议中心
The Customs 海关
Caution: Pedestrians 注意行人
2.3.2 Use of Verbs And Gerund
When the public signs indicate a “dynamic” meaning, verbs and gerunds are widely used. They are usually used in restricting and compelling signs ti call for immediate action of readers. Examples are as follows:
Keep Silence 保持安静
Look Left 注意左侧
No Parking 严禁停车
No Spitting 严禁随地吐痰
Please Mind the Steps 请小心台阶
Keep Clear 保持畅通
Stand Facing the Direction of Travel 面向前方站立
Slow 减速行使
2.3.3 Use Of Phrases
Public signs often use noun phrases and verb phrases because of their simple structure and flexible combination. We often see the following examples:
Open Now 现在营业
Sold Out 售完
Check In 入住登记
Game Reserve 野生动物保护区
Out of Order 暂时停用
Performance Center 表演中心
Duty Manager 值班经理
2.3.4 Use Of Abbreviations
Abbreviations are often seen for the names of public facilities or services. We can easily tell what it is only by shooting a glance at the abbreviation of it. For example:
IDD国内直播、DDD国际直播、WC厕所、i旅游咨询、P停车场、YMCA基督教青年会、YHA青年旅舍、SQ广场、CNTR中心、GDNS花园、VIP SUITE贵宾候机室、CCTV 中央电视台
2.3.5 Combination Of Words And Graphics
In order to leave a deep impression on the people, not only words but also graphics are used in public signs. Combining words with graphics could make the signs easy to understand. Looking at the following examples: 2.3.6 Use Of Primary Tenses
The use of primary tense of public signs is to direct, prompt, restrict and compel the actual behavior of the public in a certain area. Typical examples are as follows:
Keep Dry 保持干燥
Give Way To Buses 公交优先
Don’t Drive When Tired 严禁疲劳驾驶
Protect Against Heat 怕热
Fasten Your Seat Belt 系好安全带
Beware Obstruction 小心障碍
To Avoid Congestion, Please Do Not Stand Near The Stairs
为避免拥挤 请勿在楼梯附近停留
2.3.7 Use Of Imperative Sentence
Imperative sentences are often used in public signs which point at explicit people, and most of those people are on busy going. Here are some example of this kind of public signs:
Do Not Disturb 请勿打扰
Keep Off The Grass 勿踏草坪
Handle With Care 小心轻放
Beware Pedestrians 注意行人
No Entry Please Enter At Other End 严禁进入 请走旁门
2.3.8 Use Of Standardized And Normative Vocabulary
As we all know, public signs are closely related to people’s daily life, many signs had developed their own fixed ways of expression which were accepted by the general public for years or even centuries. Therefor any ambiguity and misunderstanding may lead to the negative results. For examples:
Men’s Locker 男更衣室
Domestic Arrivals 国内抵达
National Park 国家公园
Duty Free Shop 免税商店
Danger High Voltage 高压危险
Beware of Pickpockets 当心扒手
McDonald’s Open 24 Hours A Day Seven Days
麦当劳每周七天全天开放
2.3.9 Use Of Concise Words And Accurate Diction
In order to draw attention of the public who may just cast a glimpse at the sign when they are walking, and make them have a full understanding of the text. The public signs should be concise and simple only by using substantive words or key words and articles, pronouns and auxiliary verbs could be omitted.
Passengers Only 送客止步
Danger 危险
Washing Bay 洗车场
Admission Free 免票入场、
Beverage Not Included 酒水另付
Courtesy Seats 老幼病残孕专座
Authorized Personnel Only 机房重地非请莫入
Caution Door Opens outwards 当心 此门朝外开
2.3.10 Wordings With Local Characteristics
Local characteristics are divided into two types between British English and American English. Looking at the examples as follows:
British English American English
药房 Chemist’s Shop Pharmacy
垃圾箱 Rubbish Bin Garbage Can
地铁 Underground Subway
厕所 Toilet Restroom
邮资已付 Post Free Post Paid
汽油 petrol Gas
人行道 Pavement Side Walk
管理学院 Faculty of Management School Of Management
Chapter Three Analysis on C-E Mistranslation of Public Signs
3.1 An Overview Of The Different Translation Errors On Public Signs
In the book of A Text Book Of Translation, Newmark(1988:103~104) hold:“translation is first a science, which entails the knowledge and verification of the facts and the language that describes them. Here , what is wrong, and mistakes of truth can be identified; Secondly it is a skill, which calls for appropriate language and acceptable usage; Thirdly, an art, which distinguishes good from undistinguished wetting and it is the creative, sometimes the inspired level of the translation; Finally, a matter of taste, where argument ceases, preferences are expressed, and the variety of meritorious translations is the reflection of individual difference.” Therefore, translating the public signs in a correct and proper way is urgently needed.
All the errors caused by the translators’ insufficient linguistic skills or carelessness. According to Nord in Translating as A Purposeful Activity-Functionalist Approaches Explained(2001:44~45), he holds that: if a translation error is defined as a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the translation brief and as an inadequate solution to a translation problem, then translation errors can be classified into four categories which are linguistic translation errors, pragmatic translation and cultural translation errors.(2001:93~94)
3.2 Linguistic Errors
3.2.1 Spelling Errors
Spelling errors in public signs are often found in public places. These errors cause by the carelessness or irresponsibility of the translators or printers. It may not result in misunderstanding, but will leave a bad impression on foreigners or mislead the primary English leaners. Such kind of errors can be completely avoided by translators. For the familiar public sign of "No smoking"(禁止吸烟), misspellings of "No smoky" or "No smorking" are often seen. Another example found by the author in Cenxi railway station:"Do Not Lie Down"(火车站) misspells "No Not Lie Down."3.2.2 Lexical Errors
Lexical errors mean that translators use improper words or vocabulary or unnecessary words or phrases during translation. This kind of error demonstrates our poor mastery of words when we learn vocabulary. The two common styles of lexical errors are inappropriate diction and lexical redundancy. Take the “停车场-Park”in South Market in Cenxi for example, the right translation of it is “Parking”, not “Park”.
Another typical example:“International Convention Center Light Passenger Vehicle Garage” and “International Convention Center Heavy Passenger Vehicle Garage”（国际会议中心小型车停车库/国际会议中心大型客车停车库）. The appropriate and brief translation should be “Parking For Minibuses” or “Parking For Coaches”.
3.2.3 Grammatical Errors
Grammatical errors are also common in public signs. Most of these errors are not that visible, but they are still will give poor impression to foreigners. In a tourist spot of Cenxi called "Lv Yun Shan Zhuang", the author find some public signs which is in grammatical mistakes. For instance, "请清理" is translated into "Please cleaning", which should be replaced by "Please Clean-up"；"禁止攀爬" is translated into "Please Don't Climbing", which should be “Please Don’t Climb”. Another famous motto "时间是一只永远飞翔的鸟" which the author found on the Internet are often translated into "Time just like a bird and fly forever" buy netizen. Obviously, it is translated by the translators without considering the basic grammar. The correct translation should be "Time is a bird forever on the wing".
3.3 Pragmatic Errors
Pragmatic translation is influenced by cultural differences, when people intend to communicate with others from different culture,various problems may arise. The translators are easy to make errors by neglecting the pragmatic principles and rules. Jenny Thomas (1983:101~104) divides pragmatic errors into two types: pragmalinguistic errors and sociopragmatic errors. However both of the two errors are not difficult to be detected if we compare the source text with the target text.
3.4 Cultural Errors
“Culture plays an important role in translation, but it is unpredictable and difficult to deal with.” Said Wan Zhengfang(2004). Except for inappropriate choice of words or inaccurate translation, many of the translation errors were made by lacking understand of both Chinese and western culture. Chinese and English are two different languages, and they reflect completely different history, culture and values. Translation errors on the culture will make foreigners feel they are offended in field as customs, beliefs and faith.
For example: the public signs at the bus stop in Yi Zhou Da Dao in Cenxi , “老年人优先候车” is translated into “Old People Waiting And Getting On First”. However, in Western country the elderly usually don't want to be said that his old, even don’t like others calling them with a word of “old”. In their eyes, “old” means disable or incapable. So they use euphemisms “senior citizens” instead of “old people”. The right translation should be “Senior Citizens First”. More examples in Jia Jia supermarket in Cenxi that “七折” is translated as“70% discount or 70% off”， foreigners will consider it as30% discount.
3.5 Causes Of C-E Translation Of Public Signs
There are different reasons for the translation errors mentioned above. Different errors are made for different reasons. In author’s opinion, causes of these errors may be as followings:
3.5.1 The Translators’ Carelessness And Irresponsibility
Translation errors on linguistic level,such as spelling errors, lexical errors and grammatical errors, may cause by the translator’s careless and irresponsible attitude. Some translators do not take the job seriously or lack the sense of responsibility, sometimes they have not enough time and feel it difficult to find proper English words to replace the Chinese ones. What’s worse, some printers who want to decrease the working hours print the public signs arbitrarily.
3.5.2 Lack In Language Competence
In Nord’s view in the book of Translating as A Purposeful Activity-Functionalist Approaches Explained , linguistic errors are often due to deficiencies in the translator’s source language competence. Some cultural errors are also caused by this reason. For most of time, an incompetent translator make this error by using culturally offensive terms or expressions.
1. Shortage Of Knowledge To The Public Signs.
Many translators neglect the important of context. They just translate public signs literally without grasping the source language, or even not familiar with public signs.
2.Different Cultural Background
People from different cultural backgrounds have different conception on the public signs. A famous scholar named Wang Zuoliang in China once said that the most difficult element during translating is cultural impact, and a qualified translator must be familiar with the foreign culture (Xing Xinying, 2006). Nida also said, “For truly successful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism, since words only have meaning in terms of the cultures in which they function”(Nida,2000:115). Therefore, if a translator has not a good command of two languages, translation mistakes will come into existence.
Chapter Four Strategies For Translation Of Public Signs
From the study above, we can see that C-E translation of public signs is very important in our daily life. it is urge to translate the public signs in a correct and proper way. He Xuegeng (2006) thinks that when translating public signs, firstly, translators should be familiar with the linguistic features and functional meaning of public signs; secondly, they should understand the cultural differences of public signs between Chinese and English; thirdly, translator must put the cultural customs of western countries in the first place. Shi Jianhua (2008) consider that communicative translation should be the translation guideline for public sign according to Peter Newmark’s translation theory and its characteristic. He puts forward four strategies for translating the public signs: cross-culture strategy, context-analysis strategies, popular and easy-understanding strategy and simple and clear strategy. In this article, the author will discuss the strategies from the following aspects:
4.1 Reinforcing The Translator’s Intercultural Awareness
Intercultural awareness is the key to deal with the problem of cultural difference. It is an important and indispensable element for a translator during the process of translating public signs, which means they should recognize the cultural differences among different nations or people with high quality and efficiency. Therefore, as a translator of public signs he/she should recognize the cultural factors and pay attention to the cultural background. What’s more, more consideration for the target culture to the translator will shorten the gap of cultural difference. Generally speaking, reinforcing the translators intercultural awareness are of much value.
4.2 Promoting the Translator’s Intercultural Competence
Cultural understanding is of great importance, and intercultural competence offers better service for the translation. In order to explain the cultural information clearly to foreigners, translators must find out the cultural discrepancies between the source language and the acceptor language, then to deal with them in a better way. Otherwise, the translation will be meaningless and useless.
4.3. Omission
We know that, one of the important features of public signs is conciseness, the English-speaking people emphasize on conciseness and try their best not to use the same words in signs. This means that any word, which performs no useful function in the sentence, should be left out. Besides, word-by-word translation will not necessarily cater for foreign visitors. So, an English public sign should contain no unnecessary words. Taking the sign “创优秀旅游城市，为名城争光” for example, a Chinese-speaking people may translate it into “Build a China best tourism city,win honor of the famous city.” However, if translating the sentence by the side of an English-speaking, the right translation should be omitted as “Build a China best tourism city for the honor of the famous city.”.
4.4. Summary
Translating public signs is not an easy task, any problem in translation will lead to misunderstanding foreign tourists. When translating a public sign, the translators should reinforce cultural lever, promote interculture competence, avoiding improper addition and word redundancy. What is the most important, the translator should be required serious and accountable in attitude and proficient in both the source and the target languages ar the same time. In addition, the translator should always bear in mind the features and characteristics of public signs. Only in this way can a translator make the translation of public signs correct and acceptable.
论文作者:韦娟容
论文发表刊物:《中小学教育》2019年1月02期
论文发表时间:2018/11/3
标签：入内论文; 小心论文; 行人论文; 危险论文; 岑溪市论文; 天全论文; 餐饮部论文; 《中小学教育》2019年1月02期论文;