Pragmatic failures in public-sign translation: an eco-pragma-translatology analysis of environmental signage in Quanzhou

Abstract

Abstract This study proposes an integrated model called the Eco-Pragma-Translatology Model (EPTM) with four Kernel Guidelines for accounting for translation of public (environmental protection) signs. An EPTM analysis of pragmatic failures in public environmental protection signs (from the database) demonstrates that the ubiquitous errors and mistakes of rendering come under the rubric of pragmalinguistic failures of translation, sociopragmatic failures, or pragmatic failures straddling boundaries and leads to the conclusion that translators should correspondingly enhance their pragmalinguistic and/or sociopragmatic competence. EPTM is a new, interdisciplinary theoretical approach that largely applies to issues of poor translation of public signs.