Chinese-English Translation Strategies of Public Signs Based on Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

As cross-cultural communication between China and other countries becomes frequent and goes deeper, more and more foreigners have flooded into China. Consequently, as the bridge between the source and the target receptors, Chinese-English public signs, become increasingly important, playing an indispensible role in promoting our cities. Any misuse or misunderstanding of them will undoubtedly result in negative effects. Some mistranslated public signs might even damage the image of a city or the whole country. Unfortunately, many translated public signs we observe are of low quality, full of spelling or grammatical errors or marked by inaccuracy. Based on the above understanding, this paper is intended to explore some effective strategies and techniques for translating public signs in the light of Functional Equivalence Theory. The author expounds some views on C-E public signs translation. To begin with, the paper aims to make a detailed analysis of literature review of the Equivalence. Then the author gives the introduction of the public signs and features of them. After that, the author’s analysis is the Chinese-English translation errors and the strategies.