Public signs are extensively applied in our daily life, such as mass transit, tourist spots, business facility, spots facility and sanitary facility, etc。 They have become an indispensable part for foreign people in China。 Improper public signs have no influence on Chinese, but badly influence foreign people’s travel。 At this point, we must realize that how important English version of public signs is for us。 It represents the image of China and spread Chinese culture。 A correct English version of public signs not only delivers effective information but also show our culture to foreign people。 But, the inappropriate English version of public signs may give foreign people false information, so far as to cause danger to foreigners, which will hamper the healthy development of the foreign language environment。 

Fortunately, in last few years, public signs have been drawing more and more attention, many scholars and experts have made academic achievements, the translation of public signs has made impressive progress。 However, people are not satisfied with the translation of public signs to a great extent, because there are still a lot of errors or mistranslations。 

This paper would adopt Eugene Nida’s Translation Equivalence Theory as the theoretical guidance。 In his view, translators should “reproduce the message” rather than conserve the forms of utterance。 Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that relevant departments should improve translator’s ability (55)。 

With the development of interchange and communication, the mutual integration, mutual promotion, mutual influence, and mutual benefits among different industries are becoming a mainstream trend。 With this international background, a higher degree of responsibility is proposed for requirements in communication and transmission for the information and culture。 China has made its contribution such as the implementation of a series of active measure for further improvement of the bilingual environment, which reflected the necessity for the promotion of the international exchanges。 It is of great significance for countries to propose plans and implement them for mutual harmonious development and integration between different cultures and value systems。 The China, in Chinese traditional culture and in Chinese value concept for further improvement of China, in Chinese traditional culture and in Chinese value concept for further improvement of smooth exchange and friendship。 

But at the same time, non-standardized and so far as to wrong English expressions bring bothers, such as perplexity and misinterpretation, to people from the countries outside China who choose to visit, work, study and live in China。 Since public signs have applied in many public places to play a role of guiding, errors not only bring perplexity and misinterpretation to foreigners, but also result in side effects to China’s cities。 For example, jeopardizing the anticipant function of public signs, even worse, the information for guidance has become worthless; and further more exacerbating the image of the city。 Both of the above side effects are not favorable for further promotion and development of cities in China。论文网

Ⅱ。 Basic Knowledge of Public Signs

In this part, the definition, category and main functions of public signs will be introduced by author, based on which the author would explore the types of the errors that originate。 

2。1 Definition of Public Signs

In Longman Advanced American Dictionary, a public sign is “a piece of paper, metal, etc。 in a public place with words or pictures on it that brings information to people and warn them not to do something, etc。” 

However, Different people have their own interpretation on the definition of public signs。 

Professor He Xueyun defines public sign as a special type of text for communicative purpose and for special groups of people to read, including road signs, advertising signs, road mark, shop signs, warning signs, etc。 Public sign transfers the most effective information in the simplest form (57)。