公示語(yǔ)

【Abstract】：As public signs are regarded as the cards of China that can give the foreigners the first impression about China， translation of public signs from Chinese into English gets more and more necessary and urgent. The translation of signs is of great significance. Functional theory has opened a new vision for translation theory and practice. Therefore， this article wants to analyze the text and rhetoric style of the public signs in the translated version， by comparing， we can elaborate how the translator processes the source text style of public signs.

1. Introduction

It was not until early 21st century that academic studies on C-E translation of public signs were carried out in a systematic way. As a new field of research， the translation study of public signs has drawn considerable attention of many scholars and translators.

Public signs as “words or graphic symbols that are displayed in public places to offer notification， instruction， warning or other information closely related to life， production and ecology”.（Dai Zongxian and Lü Hefa 2005） . Public signs play a crucial role in regulating social behaviors， adjusting interpersonal relationship， enhancing productivity and building a harmonious society. （Dai Lü， 2005）. According to the scope of their usage， public signs can be classified into traffic and road signs， public health and safety signs， signs in scenic spots， signs for commercial services， signs in stadiums and gymnasiums， and signs in medical services， etc.

Actually， nowadays quite a few public signs presented with its distinct stylistics. As a result， it is important to know the information and the expected meaning of the public signs conveyed， especially the analysis on the language style of public signs. The different language style of public signs can make different effects or functions on the conveyed meaning and information of public signs.

2. The language style of public signs

The style of public signs contains the language form and language features. The language of public signs is concise， brief and striking for the purpose of attracting the reader’s attention； especially some public signs are special in forms so as to leave a deep impression to the readers.

Peter New-mark takes the text type and the purpose of translation into account， and he points out that semantic translation is used for ‘expressive’ texts， while communicative translation for ‘informative’ and ‘vocative’ texts， which gives us some inspiration in our translation of public signs.

A public sign has its special language characteristics， namely， 1） simple and clear， 2） indicative， informative， restrictive and compulsive， and 3） stationary and dynamic. To some extent， the textual form of public signs is the important part to realize the purpose of public signs. The language form of public signs bears some features in the way of semantics， syntax， lexicon， rhetoric， which are called stylistic features. Some rhetoric devices， such as pun， antithesis， parallelism and metaphor are used frequently

2.1 On Lexical level

The context of public signs on linguistic level is apparent. Public signs are used in public places， and word selection is necessarily important， thus making every social member able to get their exact meanings， no matter whether he is a farmer or a scholar. Despite of cultural differences， both Chinese and English public signs commonly share many lexical features. Words used in public signs are simple easy to understand and tend to use the concise expression and employ noun， noun phrases， gerund， gerund phrases， Acronyms， prepositions and imperative sentence. Wordy or lengthy signs can’t cater to the requirements of public signs which basically use core words instead of articles， pronouns， and auxiliary verbs

2.2 On Syntactical level

Apart from the use of words， the public signs also occurred in the form of sentence. So that， in the syntactical level， there are some textual and rhetoric style appeared in public signs.

For example， “保京石通水，為奧運(yùn)加油”this one uses the rhetoric device “pun and antithesis.

“水是生命的源泉、工業(yè)的血液、城市的命脈” this public signs employs the parallelism and metaphor.

Passive voice is also one of the prime features of the English language. E.g. “passengers are requested to remain seated” （in dealing with C-E translation of public signs， we should avoid sticking to the original pattern and try to convert the passive voice into various Chinese sentence patterns，）

3. The contrastive analysis on the translation of public signs

3.1 C-E translation of public signs

According to Peter Newmark’s translation theory and its characteristics， communicative translation should be the translation guideline for public signs. While translating the public signs， four strategies should be followed. They are cross-cultural strategy， context-analysis strategy， popular and easy-understanding strategy and simple and clear strategy.

Compared with public signs in English， public signs in Chinese have some unique characteristics. Figures of speech are used in public signs of Chinese while public signs in English tend to use fewer figures of speech. This is often seen in advocating and educating public signs. However， the Chinese public signs use different rhetoric expressions.

Some public signs both in Chinese and English.

1. 免票入場(chǎng)admission free7. 前方學(xué)校，請(qǐng)減速慢行Slow， School.

2. 酒水另付Beverage Not Included 8. 注意行人caution pedestrians

3. 緊急通道Please Only Use in an Emergency. 9. 保持關(guān)閉Keep Shut

4. 請(qǐng)?jiān)诖烁犊頟lease Pay Here 10.保持通暢keep clear

5. 不收現(xiàn)金No Cash Accepted. 11.嚴(yán)禁停車(chē)no parking

6. 此路已封閉Road Closed. 12.請(qǐng)小心臺(tái)階please Mind the Step

According to the examples above， we can find the words used in public signs both in Chinese and English are concise. Chinese public signs are more specifically described， such as the third， sixth and the seventh one. In English， these three sentences are simple expressed and the textual style of seventh one embodies the hypotaxis of English feature， this public signs usually be translated by using the conjunction like “so that”. But this one is concise and clear conveys the meaning. Those public signs of dynamic indications use verbs and gerunds to attract the addressees’ attention to the action，they are restricted and forced to take by the addressers. To sum up， the twelve translated signs are almost made up of nouns， noun phrases and verbs， prepositions or gerund， the textual style of both versions are almost equal except the seventh one.

In addition， there are some slogans and advertisement， let’s compare the original text with its translated version.

1.“更高，更快，更強(qiáng)Higher， Faster and Stronger”. This is an Olympic slogan，it occurred in the form of comparative degree of adjective and ellipse the component of subject and predicate. This kind of language style caters for the target readers.

2.安全出口 請(qǐng)勿阻擋 FIRE EXIT KEEP CLEAR. The Chinese and English version of this signs are equal each other.

3.鉆石恒久遠(yuǎn)，一顆永流傳The diamond is， forever. The original text uses the parallel device. The English version doesn’t retain the same rhetorical device； it considers the language style of target reader.

4.盈盈花兒對(duì)你笑，依依小草把手招；花草宜人 請(qǐng)多關(guān)照；青青的草 怕你的腳；芳草萎萎 愛(ài)心依依； 保護(hù)草坪 請(qǐng)勿踐踏； 注意安全，小心腳下； 保護(hù)環(huán)境，從我做起. In Chinese， the form of public signs tends to be two syllables and parallel structure. But in English translated version “PLEASE KEEP OFF THE GRASS”， the language style of public signs employs the verbal phrase without the rhetorical devices of Chinese text.

5. “碧水清清卻亦無(wú)情，河湍勢(shì)險(xiǎn)請(qǐng)勿戲水”； “Danger Deep Water”. The Chinese expression is euphemistic and the English expression is direct. The Chinese text chooses the rhetoric devices， that is， antithesis and personification.

6.高高興興上班去，平平安安回家來(lái) Go to work happily and come back safely/drive carefully

7.開(kāi)車(chē)多一分小心 親人多十分放心 Drive safe home safe

The fifth one and the sixth one use the same rhetorical device， antithesis， in English version there are not such kind of language style.

8.五講，四美，三熱愛(ài) Five stresses， four points of beauty and three aspects of love

9.創(chuàng)建綠色飯店，倡導(dǎo)綠色消費(fèi)（strive）For a green hotel and green consumption.

10.節(jié)約用水 人人有責(zé) Make the Most of Every Drop

From the example eight to ten， we can find that the public signs about politics， policy and education pay more attention to the meaning so that the free translation is emphasized without considering the language form.

4. Conclusion

Since source-text and target-text addressees belong to different language and culture communities， their needs， expectations， previous knowledge， etc. are quite different from each other. It means the translator cannot and needn’t offer the same amount and kind of information as the source-text producer.

Due to the influence of Chinese literary tradition， the language of Chinese signs shows preference for the use of paralleled structure and antithesis. Hence the Chinese writing style is featured by the frequent use of “four-character phrases and eight-word clauses” out of the need of aesthetic symmetry. This shapes a sharp contrast to the simple ad concise style of English writing. Balanced in structure and appealing in sound， those paralleled phrases and patterns in Chinese signs are highly appreciated by Chinese readers.

As the above description， equivalence is no longer regarded as the normal aim and standard of translation. Reiss proposes the particular purpose or function achieved by a translation action should be considered a new model of translation criticism. In other words， the translation critic can no longer totally rely on features of the source text. Instead， it should judge whether the target text is functional in terms of the translation context （Nord， 2001， p.9）.

References：

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