从目的论分析旅游景点介绍的汉英翻译.doc

上海海事大学SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY硕 士 学 位 论 文MASTERS DISSERTATION 论文题目：从目的论分析旅游景点介绍的汉英翻译 学位专业：外国语言学及应用语言学 作者姓名：邹 燕 指导教师：瞿宗德副教授 完成日期：二OO九年六月A Study on English Translation of ChineseScenic-spot Introductionsfrom the Perspective of SkopostheorieA ThesisPresented to the English Departmentof Shanghai Maritime Universityin Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Master of ArtsBy Zou YanUnder the Supervision of Associate Professor Qu ZongdeMay, 2009AcknowledgementsUpon the fulfillment of the dissertation, I feel it highly committed to extend my heartfelt thanks to those who have made unremitting efforts during my study and thesis writing. First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Qu Zongde, my supervisor, for his inspiring guidance, insightful comments and unfailing encouragement. His warm-heartedness and patience have helped me out time and again in my course of drafting and accomplishing the dissertation.I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Prof. Han Zhonghua, Prof. Wang Dawei, Prof. Zheng Lixin, Prof. Mao Junchun, and Prof. Weng Fengxiang, whose illuminating lectures on translation theory and practice, on linguistics and stylistics have helped deepen my understanding of translation and have proved to be greatly beneficial to my composition of this dissertation. I am also grateful to my classmates, who were generous in helping me search for the reference books over the past several months and showing me great concerns during my precious period of postgraduate study.A Study of English Translation of Chinese Scenic-spot Introductionsfrom the Perspective of SkopostheorieAbstractWith the development of world economy and the contact among countries, tourism has entered a promising stage. China has become one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, whose breathtaking natural beauty is irresistible appealing to foreigners. The booming of tourism in China calls for extensive research on the translation of tourist texts in general, and landscape descriptions in particular. Tourist materials cover a large scope, including those which introduce Chinas tourist industry and tourism resources, with average tourists as readers, such as scenic-spot introductions, tourist advertisements, notices and public signs in scenic spots, tour schedules and couplets hung on the columns of the tourist attractions, etc. Scenic-spot introductions, as one of the most important types of tourist materials, form the hard nut for translation. Therefore, by analyzing scenic-spot introduction materials, the author endeavors to discuss the translators ability based on the Skopos theory. It is the first and vital step for translators to clarify the translation purpose, and meanwhile, they should be equipped with the quality of dynamic adaptation in dealing with translation problems.The thesis is composed of four chapters:Chapter one reviews the literature related to the present study; introduces the development of tourist industry in China; elaborates on the features of scenic-spot introduction texts and analyzes the differences in tourist texts between English versions and Chinese versions.Chapter two advances the theoretical basis of this thesis-Skopos theory of German Functionalism, including the development of Skopos theory, the important concepts in Skopos theory such as text function, the criteria of evaluating the translation, etc.Chapter three discusses the significance of the Skopos theory in the translation of scenic-spot introductions.Chapter four proposes the translators ability based on Skopos theory, and as an additional theoretical support, adaptation theory is adopted to tackle some problems. Tourist material translation, as pragmatic translation, is an emerging and promising field for translation studies. The translators should understand that tourist material translation is ultimately evaluated by its acceptability among tourists, thus promoting tourism products and attracting foreign tourists. Whats more, the translators should be adaptive in choosing strategies depending on specific context in order to succeed in fulfilling the purpose of tourism translation.In conclusion, the present study purports to open a window on new, alternative approaches to the translation of scenic-spot introductions. Since tourism translation lays emphasis on the transmission of information and its publicity effect, what and how much information should be remained mainly depends on translation purpose and target readers needs. Therefore, the Skopos theory has been confirmed to be applicable and successful in tourism translation. As far as the translators ability is concerned, to specify the translation purpose is just the basic step for tourism translation. Furthermore, the translators should be adaptive because of the differences in culture background, aesthetic habits of readers and features of English and Chinese，and make proper choice accordingly. Key Words: Scenic-spot introduction translation; Skopos theory; Translators ability; Dynamic adaptation摘要世界经济的发展，各国人民之间的交流，带动了旅游事业的蓬勃发展。中国已经成为世界上最大的旅游目的国之一。无数令人惊叹的自然美景，灿烂悠久的历史文化，让外国游客无法抗拒。旅游业的繁荣发展无形中推动了旅游资料翻译的研究。旅游资料主要包括旅游景点介绍、旅游宣传广告、旅游告示标牌、民俗风情画册、古迹楹联解说等，其中尤以旅游景点介绍翻译最具旅游文体特色，也是旅游资料翻译中的重点和难点。故本文以景点介绍文本为分析素材，以诺德的翻译目的论为基本理论框架，重点探讨译者的能力要求。译者不仅要明确翻译目的，在具体操作中应具备动态顺应能力，所以本文还结合顺应论来解决译者所遇到的问题。本文共包括四章：第一章主要介绍我国旅游业的发展现状；回顾国内外学者对旅游资料翻译所做的研究；旅游介绍文本的研究及特点；中英文旅游文本的对比分析。第二章主要介绍本论文的指导理论德国功能主义目的论，目的论为旅游翻译在宏观策略上指明了方向，同时还为译者顺利实施不同的翻译策略提供了理论依据。第三章主要介绍目的论对旅游景点翻译的指导意义，主要从源语文本、目的语文本读者以及译者三个方面来分析。第四章主要是介绍在目的论的指导下，译者应具备的能力，并结合顺应论解决译者具体翻译过程中所遇到的问题。旅游资料翻译是应用翻译研究领域的一个分支，它是一种以传递信息为主并注重信息传递效果的实用性翻译，译者要明确其译文质量取决于它能否为游客所接受，达到宣传促销旅游产品和吸引国外游客的目的，与此同时译者在翻译过程中应根据具体语境对翻译策略做出选择来实现旅游资料翻译的目的。本文旨在为旅游景点介绍翻译的研究开拓一个新的视角，旅游翻译重在传递信息和感染读者，对原文信息的选择主要根据翻译目的和目的语读者的需求来决定，因此可以说翻译目的论，无论在宏观策略上，还是在微观策略上都为旅游翻译找到了理论依据。但就译者的翻译能力来说，明确了翻译目的只是做好了基础工作，由于源语读者和目的语读者的文化背景，欣赏习惯以及两种语言之间的差异，译者还应具备动态顺应的能力，具体问题具体分析，适时做出恰当的选择。提高旅游景点翻译的质量，促进旅游业的发展。关键词：旅游景点翻译；目的论；译者能力；顺应选择ContentsChapter1 Introduction to Tourism Translation.11.1 A Brief Introduction to the Development of Tourism and Tourism Translation.21.2 An Overview of the Studies on Tourism Translation.31.2.1 Studies Related to Cultranslation31.2.2 Studies Related to Functional Analysis41.2.3 Studies Related to Practical Methods51.3 The Importance of English Translation of Chinese Scenic-spot Introductions51.4 Contrastive Study between Chinese and English Scenic-spot Texts.71.5 The Features of Introduction to Scenic-spot Text.91.5.1 Text Function91.5.2 Linguistic Features101.5.3 Information Structure12Chapter2 Introduction to the Skopos Theory.132.1 The development of the Skopos Theory.132.2 Rational of Skopos Theory.142.2.1 The Hierarchy of Three Basic Rules in Skopostheorie182.2.2 Text Function192.2.3 The Criteria of Evaluating the Translation202.3 The Significance for Skopos Theory to the Translation of Introduction to Scenic-Spot21Chapter3 Skopostheorie in the Translation of Introduction to Scenic-spot.243.1 The Role of the Source-text.243.2 The Role of the Target-text Receiver253.3 The Role of Translator.26Chapter 4 The Translators Ability Guided by Skopos Theory.304.1 The Translators Basic Ability.304.1.1 A good Command of the Purpose of Scenic-spot Introductions314.1.2 A Good Command of Target-text Readers Different Needs314.1.3 Proficiency in Two Kinds of Languages334.2 Dynamic Adaptation334.2.1 A Brief Introduction to the Adaptation Theory334.2.2 Adaptability354.2.3 Translation as a Choice Making Process364.3 The Translators Ability to Make Choices in Language Use374.3.1 Word Level384.3.2 Sentence Level394.3.3 Discourse Level404.3.4 Strategy Level424.3.5 Culture Level45Chapter 5 Conclusion.47Bibliography.50viiChapter1 Introduction to Tourism Translation1.1 A Brief Introduction to the Development of Tourism and Tourism TranslationTourism, known as the sunrise industry, is one of the rapidly expanding industries in the world. Since Maco Polo first returned from the Far East in 1295 with exotic treasures and wondrous stories, China, with a vast territory, abundant resources, remarkable natural cultural and historic landscapes, has become such a land of attractions to the outside world that each year thousands upon thousands of foreign tourists are crowding into the country, eager to see the mysterious land. Tourism has been a promising industry in China. The rapid growth of tourism has contributed greatly to the prosperity of some countries or areas as it has become the most important means of earning foreign exchange. According to the World Tourism Organization, China is predicted to be the worlds largest tourism destination and the fourth largest source of tourists by 2020, and Tourism 2020 vision released by WTO forecasts that, by the year 2020, international arrivals are expected to reach over 1.56 billion, worth some $3trillion annually. Although the history of the development of tourist industry in China is rather short compared with developed western countries, tourism in China is developing at a high speed. Since 1950, with the rapid development of transportation, tourism has risen each year at an average rate of 72%.Tourism translation, as a direct channel to introduce tourism information to the potential tourists, serves as a sounding board. Through it, foreign readers can get the information about China. Although it hasnt been researched as widely as the other subjects in translation field, more and more importance has now been attached to it due to the practical motive as well as theoretical necessity. Tourism translation, as one branch of applied translation, is in urgent need of profound and thorough researches under certain translation theories. As China plans to promote its inbound tourism, tourism translation shoulders unprecedented responsibilities for providing the information about the tourism resources in our country and outputting our culture.To meet the needs of foreign travelers, a host of tourist information materials written in Chinese, such as guidebooks and tourist brochures are translated into English. As publicity material, tourist information publicizes tourist resources, local culture, customs, history and religion. Proper translation of tourist information contributes to building up Chinas international image as a highly civilized country, to show her attractiveness to the world, and to expand the international tourism market.However, the low quality of an expanding number of translated tourism texts does not ensure efficient promotion of Chinese tourist attractions. Although some translation versions are bilingual tourism publications which provide foreign travelers with an access to China, the substantial unqualified translation versions do hamper foreign visitors from understanding Chinese culture in the right way. The translation of tourist materials should meet two purposes: one is to attract foreigners to visit China so as to further develop tourism; the other is to spread unique Chinese culture to the world. The booming international tourism industry has given rise to the need of well-translated tourist texts which provide adequate information for foreign tourists and attract more foreign people to visit China. It therefore needs improvement of tourism translation under scientific guidelines. The Skopos theory was developed to meet the growing needs of translating non-literary text types in the 1970s, and tourist information texts fall into this category and thus are fit for a fresh perspective from the theory by investigating what effect the translated works have on their readers. In the study of tourism translation, people have adopted many theories and made some progress. However, no fundamental improvement was made, because translation involves such complicated factors such as linguistic structures, target readers, thought pattern and cultural background. The failure in adopting target-reader orientation to produce intended function causes various translation problems and errors, which makes target text unacceptable to target readers.Before moving on to tourism translation, the author is to give the definition of Tourism texts. Tourism texts can be defined in a broad sense or in a narrow one. In a broad sense, from the prospective of genres, it belongs to vocative texts which include introductions to scenic spots, tourism advertisements, signs for tourists, albums of folk customs, and explanation of Chinese couplets (Jia Wenbo, 2004:106). The translation of Introductions to Scenic-spot is a major kind of tourism translation. Here in this thesis, tourism texts are limited to introductions to scenic spots in a narrow sense. 1.2 An Overview of the Studies on Tourism TranslationMost of the translation studies on tourism-related materials in China are mostly related to cultranslation, functional analysis and practical methods.1.2.1 Studies Related to CultranslationTourism is a kind of typical cross-culture activity. Wang Xiaowei holds that cross-culture consciousness plays an important role in C-E tourism translation. Chen Gang (2002 ，p: 30-35) holds that the translation of tourist guide manuals is cross-cultural translation. Cross-cultural awareness, therefore, is a must for the translator, who should always be tourist-oriented and be as ready as tourist guides are in introducing the Chinese culture to foreign tourists. Tourism materials contain profound cultural connotations. However, it is the cultural differences in them that cause much trouble to tourism translation. Under the direction of Skopostheorie and cultural connotations, Bai Wei (2007， p：140-142) proposes some effective strategies for the translation of culture- loaded words, tourism attractions and couplets, thus serving the purpose of communication and promoting the development of tourism industry in China. Wang Ruizhen (2007，p：89-90) analyzes the differences in tourism culture and influences of signs and proposes corresponding solutions to improve the tourism of Guizhou province on foreign affairs. Tourist English involves a lot of cultural differences and brings much difficulty to the tourism translation. If we cannot deal with the differences probably, tourism activities will encounter many barriers. Wang Zhihua (2006，p：139-142) analyzes the differences between the East and the West and provides the corresponding strategies to overcome the cultural differences.1.2.2 Studies Related to Functional AnalysisAs a breakthrough with the traditional idea of equivalence and an important complement to translation theories, German functionalist translation theories have opened up a new perspective to the study of tourism translation. Ke Xixiang (2002，P:90-91) applies the Skopostheorie to concrete C-E tourism translation and holds that, in tourism translation, translators should focus on the tourists response instead of the so-called equivalence to the source text. Through a comparison between English tourist text and Chinese versions, she argues that Chinese tourist texts usually contains a large number of legend tales and poems; while the language in tourist texts written in English is characteristically plain and simple. Therefore she asserts that C-E tourism translation ought to adapt to the English tourist text writing style which would make the translated text more user-friendly to foreign tourists. In 2003, Guo Ruijuan (2003, P: 98-100) published a paper applying the text typology theory to tourism translation. She holds that the translator should aim at fulfilling the communication of the vocative and informative function of tourist texts. She also puts forward some principles and strategies in translating tourist texts into English. You Liqin (2006, p: 73-75) states that the translator should stand in the shoes of the target language reader and select translating strategies in accordance with the expected skopos of the translated version. In respect to the actual practice of C-E tourism translation, she makes a detailed analysis of the application of the functionalist translation theories to the translation of tourist texts. The translator, as is argued, should not only be competent bilingually but also excel in the understanding and coping with cultural differences. As long as he has respect for the source-text, he is entitled to adjusting or rewriting the source-text in order to make his translation more comprehensible and acceptable to the target reader and achieve the intended purpose and function of the target text. Lv Guofei (2006, P: 78-81) published a paper based on Skopostheorie. Following the principles of this theory, he first discusses the functions and purposefulness of translating Chinese tourist texts of scenic-spot, and then analyzes some translation errors in the English versions of Chinese tourist texts functionally and pragmatically. He also argues that the causes of these translation errors lie in the translators lack of a definite translation purpose.1.2.3 Studies Related to Practical MethodsA lot of scholars have summarized useful translation methods for the English translation of Chinese scenic-spot introductions from their own translation practices. Jin Huikang (2003, p: 20-24) offers us his experience in tourism translation in Guangdong, putting fourth some personal suggestions, which are likely to be useful to translating unique items i