Public sign is a bridge of communication between people and the environment, which is an important part of social construction。 With the international degree of reform and opening-up deepening, our signs are translated into English, so as to express our respect and concern。 Therefore, bilingual signs are an important means to propagandize our country。                                                                         

So what is Chinglish? Chinglish, with the characteristic of half English and half Chinese, but neither English nor Chinese, is jokingly called by Joan Pinkham “a language with Chinese characteristics”。 Such a kind of language can be found in every part of our life, in street posters, in newspapers, magazines and in government documentation (Pinkham 241)。 However, these translators have searched a lot of information, based on those papers, finally they conclude it means that Chinese-English words, which frequently appear in Chinese to English translation。 It is one of the major problems that influence the publicity effect。 By using clipping method, this word “Chinglish” is made up of the first part of the word “Chinese” and the latter part of the word “English”。 In general, we refer to the definition given by a domestic learner named Li Wenzhong。 He puts forward that Chinglish take English grammatical rules and habits rigidly, due to the interference of the native language。 It is abnormal English, usually incomprehensible and unacceptable by the English speakers (Li 18)。

In recent years, lots of scholars and translators domestically and overseas have done much research in the aspect of the improvement of the quality of public signs translation。 In the precious researches, such kind of error analysis has been the research center。 The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish is a monograph on Chinglish, written by Joan Pinkham with collaboration of Jiang Guihua, published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in 1999。 In this book, the writers mention that no matter how highly trained and experienced translators are, “Chinglish” will be found without exception in their translation works。 In their opinion, Chinglish is a misshapen and hybrid language that is neither English nor Chinese but that might be described as “English with Chinese characteristics” (Pinkham 1)。

Public signs, especially bilingual public signs, are widely seen in our daily life and in various fields。 The purpose is to provide necessary information for foreigners。 In China, bilingual public signs do help international friends for a long time。 However, not all bilingual public signs achieve effective communication duo to various incorrect translations, such as the English-Chinese translation of public signs。 Dozens of scholars and translators domestically and abroad have discussed it from different perspectives in recent years, focusing on the general types of public signs, including names of shops, roads and institutions, traffic and roads signs, names of expos and exhibitions, slogans, business signs etc。 Chinglish public signs possess a large part of incorrect translation in China。 Those public signs may not only cause misunderstanding but also spoil the international image of China。 Thus, it is both necessary and urgent to study the Chinese-English translation of public signs, especially the Chinglish phenomenon in public sign and figure out effective strategies to get rid of it。文献综述

II。 An Analysis of Clinglish in Public Signs Translation

2。1 Direct Translation

For most of the time, there is no error on grammar and rhetoric of the public sign translation, although it doesn’t conform to the target language expression habit。 This phenomenon also widely exists in public signs translation。 This method not only greatly reduces the public authority, but also causes some jokes。 Therefore, when we translate public signs, we shouldn’t just base on the literal meaning。 For example, when I enter a supermarket or hospital, generally, there exists the public signs like “进口和出口”。 It is a necessary symbol that indicates the direction。 Let’s look at the following pictures。 Respectively, the Chinese “进口” is translated into “ENTRANCES” in English: the Chinese “出口” is translated into “EXPORT”。 From the Chinese perspective, we usually use “入口” not “进口”, and foreigners choose to use “ENTRANCE” rather than “EXPORT”。 Because the word “EXIT” expresses the meaning of “出口”, but “EXPORT” means that selling products or raw materials to other countries。 According to the third picture, we can know that we also choose to use PINYIN to translate Chinese public signs。 This way is of course really impractical for foreigners。 And its translation adopts a method of literal translation。