Chapter Five Conclusion    19
5.1 Major Findings    19
5.2 Limitations    19
5.3 Suggestions for Further Studies    20
References    21
On the Chinese-English Translation of the Public Signs in Xuzhou from the Perspective of Functional Approach
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
With the rapid development in economy, China opens up even more to the outside world. In order to improve the bilingual environment and create a good humanity environment which can better serve for foreign exchanges and publicity, more and more scholars focus on studying Chinese-English translation of public signs.
1.2 Research Significance and Purpose
Public signs in a city impress visitors at the first sight of the city. The quality of the translated public signs shows the city’s cosmopolitan progress. Xuzhou, with splendid historical culture and beautiful natural landscapes, is the cradle of the Han Dynasty culture. Xuzhou has been awarded the titles of “National Historical Cultural City”, “Excellent Chinese Tourism City” and “Modern Ecological Garden City”. The superior investment environment has formed Xuzhou a new image of “Honesty and Credit”, which makes it a vigorous hot land for investment from both home and abroad. In this sense, the quality of the translation of the public signs plays an important role in the further development of Xuzhou’s foreign exchange and cooperation. However, according to the author’s previous investigation, some improper bilingual public signs have been found in the city. Therefore, this thesis focuses on improper Chinese-English translation of public signs in Xuzhou from the perspective of functional approach, thus to improve the image of foreign publicity of the “Xuzhou as thoroughfare to five provinces”．
1.3 Thesis Structure
This paper consists of five chapters.
Chapter one introduces background information, research significance and the overall structure of the paper.
Chapter two includes general review of researches on functional approach abroad and general review of researches on the translation of public signs at home.
Chapter three is methodology. In this part, the author raises three questions which will be discussed afterwards. And then, four main methods including case-study, literature research, comparative analysis and error analysis are introduced methods the author uses when collecting data, doing note-taking and analyzing both of Chinese and English public signs as well as C-E translation problems of bilingual public signs respectively.
 In chapter four, the main part of the thesis, the author firstly presents an overview of public signs including its definition and functions, and then the author gives four principles when translating the Chinese Public signs into English versions under the framework of functional approach. After those discussions, the author starts analyzing translation errors of public signs in Xuzhou, and gives proper revision from the perspective of functional approach.
Chapter five is the conclusion part of this thesis, which includes major findings, limitations as well as the recommendations for the future research.    
 
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Researches on Functionalist Translation Theory
In the 1970s, a functional category was introduced by Katharina Reiss into her objective approach of translation criticism. She established the model of the functionalist translation theory. “Taking equivalence as her basis, Reiss develops a model of translation criticism based on the functional relationship between source and target texts.”(Nord, 1997, p9) Her student Hans J. Vermeer thinks that “Translation is a form of translational action based on a source text, which may consist of verbal and/or non-verbal elements (illustrations, plans, tables, etc.). Other forms of translational action may involve actions like a consultant giving information.” (Nord, 1997, p11) He then puts forward Skopostheorie, a theory of purposeful action. In this theory, the addressee, who is the target receiver with culture-specific world-knowledge, expectations and communicative needs, is considered as one of the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation. Every translation is targeted at an intended receiver, since to translate means “to produce a text in a target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target circumstances.” (Vermeer, 1987a, p29) Justa Holz-Mänttäri goes one step further than Vermeer. She points out translational action with the purpose of transferring messages across culture and language barriers by means of message transmitters produced by experts, which extends the field of functionalist translation theory. In the early 1990s, Christian Nord put forward her “Function plus Loyalty” theory, whose perspective of functional approach stands on two pillars: function plus loyalty. “Function refers to the factors that make a target text work in the intended way in the target situation. Loyalty refers to the interpersonal relationship between the translator, the source-text sender, the target-text addressees and the initiator. Loyalty limits the range of justifiable target-text functions for one particular source text and raises the need for a negotiation of the translation assignment between translators and their clients. ” (Nord, 2001, p126) 功能翻译理论徐州的公示语汉英翻译(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_21117.html