【正文】 for consolidating the appearance of a city． At the same time, they can also prompt the city‘s reputation． For example： 我們關(guān)注 !歡迎批評 ! We care! We want your ments! 顧客第一，信譽至上 Customers First and Credit First Social Service Commercial institutions not only create economic benefits but also share some social duties. For example: 共同努力，世界更精彩 Working together, we can make a world of difference. 拯救自然，拯救世界 Save the wildness and save the world. III. Existing Problems in Chinese— English Translation of Public Signs in Huangzhou Spelling Errors Spelling errors are typical translation problems in bilingual public signs. The reasons for this type of errors attribute to the three factors: the inpetent language acquisition, the laziness of the translator when writing, the uncertainty of the correct spelling. The author finds that ―嚴禁亂刻亂劃 ‖ in a park of Huangzhou is translated into ― No Grassiti‖. In fact, here we should use ―No Graffiti‖. ―游客止步 ‖ is translated into ― Staff Owly‖, obviously, ―w‖ should be replaced by ―n‖. Grammar Errors Grammar errors generally refer to improper usage of the function of the words that may lead to the distortion of the meaning and the inadequate translation. The grammar errors normally occur when the translators don‘t have strong petence in using proper words for the expression. Dai Fugu ,a wellknown Chinese poet, once acclaimed Su Shi as ―東坡居士 ‖. However, one of boards in the Burning Bank Park reads: One of the great poets acclaimed Su Shi as ―The Immortal of The Slope‖. Obviously, ―great‖ should be replaced by ―greatest‖. What‘s more, ―東坡居士 ‖ cannot be translated that way, ―東坡 ‖ here means the place where Su Shi lived, but not a real slope. After doing a lot of research, the author thinks that ―Resident of Dongpo‖ is better. 黃岡師范學(xué)院本科畢業(yè)論文 5 Harsh Tones The bilingual public signs written in an authoritative tone are normally translated in a harsh tone. However, the imperative tones are not widely used in English public signs due to the fact that the message explicated in the signs serves for the function of munication between the senders and the receivers. So the mild and polite way is more desirable in conveying the information. From the foreigners‘ perspective, the harsh tones not only offense them but also fail to achieve the intended function. For instance,―游客止步 ‖ is translated into ― Keep Out‖ in front of a tower in the Burning Bank Park. In the principle of manner, we‘d better translate it into ―Staff Only‖. Also,―小草在休息，請勿打擾 ‖ is translated into ― Keep Off The Grass‖ in the park. Meanwhile, in the principle of manner, ―The Grass so Fair, Needs Your Care‖ is better. Wrong Dictions Wrong Dictions occur when the translator doesn‘t make right choices of words in the target culture that will lead to unsuccessful expression of the correct information to the target text receivers. In fact, many English words have more than one meaning. Sometimes one word used to describe the source culture may not be applicable in another situation and the diction is conditioned. In front of the park, there is a map which reads: Guide Map to Dong Po Red Cliff. However, foreigners may feel puzzled about Red Cliff. In reality, the park is so called because there was a famous war here in history. Thus ―赤壁 ‖ may better be translated into ― Burning Bank‖. Similarly, Su Shi is a wellknown poet in ―南宋 ‖. In the park, ―南宋 ‖ is translated into ― Southern Song‖. Though on the surface it is equally translated, it can not be understood either by foreigners or by our Chinese. So it may better be translated into ―Nan Song(960—1127)‖ that the meaning of the sign is clearly conveyed. What‘s more,―二賦堂 ‖ is translated into ― Two Fu Hall‖. This is a phenomenon which is called Chinglish. After looking it up in a dictionary, the author thinks that―賦 ‖should be translated as ―Ode‖. IV. Solutions to Existing Problems Equivalence Theory and Reasons for Existing Problems 黃岡師范學(xué)院本科畢業(yè)論文 6 Nida once said that ―No two languages are identical, either in the meanings given to corresponding symbols or in the ways in which such symbols are arranged.‖(Nida, 1964, 156) So he put forward ―dynamic equivalence‖, which is based on what is called ?equivalent effect‘. It is achieved when ―the relationship between receptor and message is substantially the same as that which exists between the original receptors and the message.‖(Nida, 1964, 45) For Nida, the success of a translation depends on achieving equivalent response. Here are four requirements of translation: *Making sense *Conveying the spirit and manner of the original *Having a natural and easy form of expression *Producing a similar response Then in 1969, Nida gave an explicit definition of Dynamic equivalence: ―Dynamic equivalence is therefore to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language.‖(Nida. 1969, 15) However, the expression, dynamic, is often misinterpreted only as the influential things, which causes many people to believe that if a translation is influential, it must be the example of the dynamic equivalence. In order to avoid this kind of misinterpretation, Nida used ―Functional Equivalence‖ to replace ―Dynamic Equivalence‖ in 1993. The functional equivalence consists of four aspects which are equivalence at word, equivalence at syntax, equivalence at text and equivalence at style. And according to Newmark, another great export of this theory, the text can be divided into three types which are informative text, expressive text and operative text. There are three main requirements of Functional Equivalence. The first one is the equivalence of cultural message of source language and target language. The second one is the equivalen