Abstract: As China is increasingly linked to the outside world, bilingual public signs are becoming windows for foreign tourists to get further understanding of China. Unfortunately, many public signs are mistranslated. Under the guidance of the functional equivalence theory, this paper tries to compare the target language and the source language of some regulatory signs in scenic spots and to explore the functional equivalence of the two versions. With detailed analysis and exploration, this paper proposes three tentative improvements of the translation strategies on C-E regulatory signs, namely, (1)translators should take cultural difference and foreign receptors’ thinking mode into consideration; (2) translators should “borrow” directly the “international accepted translation” when necessary; (3) translators should always try their best to achieve functional equivalence between the target language and the source language rather than the correspondence of metaphrase so that the translation is concise and foreign receptors have the same appreciation as Chinese receptors in understanding the regulatory signs.

Key words: C-E translation strategies；regulatory signs；scenic spots；functional equivalence

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction.1

2. Regulatory Signs and Their Translations.2

2.1 Features and Functions of Regulatory Signs

2.2 Conventional C-E Translation 

3. Nida’s Functional Equivalence5

3.1 General Introduction 

3.2 Enlightenment on C-E Translation of Public Signs

4. C-E Translation of Regulatory Signs from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence..8

4.1 General Principles and Strategies 

4.2 A Functional-equivalence Perspective and Tentative Revisions of Improper    Translations

5.  Conclusion

Bibliography.

Acknowledgements