蹩脚的公示语和随地吐痰有着“一曲同工”之妙。

二者都是“陋习”，且都已经有些”历史“了。

人人都知道随地吐痰的危害，可还是”不吐不快“。政府相关职能部门采取了一系列的方法，加大宣传力度，罚款，举办各种各样的活动，及时清扫，等等等等，不可谓不积极，功夫不可谓不大，可是随便到街头看看，痰迹还是随处可见。害的政府坦言：随地吐痰的问题并非一朝一夕可以解决的，需要国民整体素质的提高。可整体素质的提高，哪有那么容易？

随地吐痰尚且如此，何况公示语呢？那不过是近几年才有的现象，而且宣传力度远远不如随地吐痰的大，又没有什么诸如罚款之类的”强硬措施“，当然是”错你没商量“了。被”外人“嘲笑，我们有良心的中国人看着心痛，可也确实没有什么有效的办法，只能是日复一日年复一年的努力，能尽多少力，就尽多少力，步步为营，打一场近期内看不到尽头的持久战。

公示语的地方标准早已出台，还有公示语的专著、论文、专题报道等等等等让研究公示语的人看了高兴的事儿。可以说，已经做到了“有法可依”的一步，可是“有法必依”呢？“执法必严”呢？“违法必纠”呢？这些事情谁在做？做的怎么样？能打多少分？

有多少人在“依法”制作公示语的标牌？这方面恐怕做的不是很好，要不也不会有那么多的笑话，让稍懂些英语的中国人看了心痛。为什么做的不好？因为没有“执法”机关，没有人管它们，或施以一定的惩罚。于是这些错误标牌就那么堂而皇之地、如雨后春笋般地出现了，而且总也改不过来。

那真的不是译界专家开几次研讨会写几篇论文出几本书就可以解决的。我们不过是“一介书生”，没有“执法”的权利，只能不断地呼吁，在呼吁没有效果的时候，也只能以“一声叹息”作为终结。

专门管公示语的部门似乎还未产生，或者已经建立了，但还没有正式开始“执法”，也不好“执法”，行政能力有些弱，面对铺天盖地的错误标牌显的无能为力。如此看来，要想彻底改善公示语的面貌，远非“指日可待”，而是需要长时间的不懈努力。这努力，不仅是英语界翻译界的事儿，也是行政职能部门的事儿。

再过几天，2007年就过去了，2008年就要来了，奥运会就要开了，各国友人就要齐聚北京了。考验公示语的时刻也就到了。

从现在的情况看来，真担心到时候人家会从标牌中读到多少笑话，会怎样地嘲笑标牌制造者的“无知”，会怎样看待中国的英语水平，会怎样评价中国的翻译现状。

公示语研究开展了颇有几年了，研讨会开过，电视报纸报道过，宣传过，倡导过，但现在的标牌，该错的照样错，该改的都没改，而且更多错误标牌如“雨后春笋”般地加入到原有错误标牌的行列中来，看了让人心痛不已。

小地方倒也罢了，象前门大栅栏的那些小商铺，外国人游走在其中，看到几个翻的不象话的标牌，考虑到店铺的主人知识水平基本不高，也就一笑了之，过去了。可那些大地方，象超市、购物中心、地铁、公共汽车、银行、酒店......这些本不该出错的地方，这些外国人认为知识水平应该很高的地方，却照样高挂错误标牌，而且“屡纠不改”，就不能不让人匪夷所思了。

那些标牌上的错误恐怕早有“热心人”给他们指出了，或者他们自己在标牌竖立之后就已经发现了错误。纠其“不改”的原因，无非是“工作太忙”、“小事一桩”、“花钱太多”等等。不管什么理由吧

7. Conclusion
The research is done with an aim to find out the main problems exist on the
English translation of public signs, and try to explore the ways on how to avoid these problems.
In order to reach this goal, a field survey on the English version of public signs in Beijing has been conducted. Mistakes found on these public signs are pointed out, and the types of mistakes are summarized and categorized. Emails regard to the problematic translations have been sent to native speakers to

6. Results and suggestions
6.1. Results
The “field survey” conducted by the author on the problems of English translation
of public signs in Beijing has shown that mistranslated public signs are prevalent in Beijing. Many factors may responsible for that, among with linguistic problems and neglect of cultural differences are the most important.
Linguistic problems, which involve inappropriate selection of words, meaningless word-for-word translation, redundancies and inappropriate tone of

回顾以前贴的论文, 发现少了文献综述部分. 多谢网友提醒, 现在粘上.
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2. Rationale
2.1. Differentiating of signs and public signs
2.1.1. Sign
Basically, a sign is “a piece of paper, metal etc in a public place, with words or
drawings on it that give people information, warn them not to do something.” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2005).
      From this definition we can see that sign can be either picture or word alone, or the combination of pictures and words.
      C.S. Pierce define

5. Translation strategies
According to the functions, public signs are classified into four categories, i.e. directing, prompting, restricting and compelling. Each has its own linguistic features and translation strategies.
1) Directing public signs
Used to provide information and indicate what kind of service is provided. Nouns are widely used on the translation. For example, “vegetable” (蔬菜区), “Jingtong Expressway”(京通高速)，”car rental” (租车服务) etc.
Accuracy and conciseness are the language r

4.2.2. Mishandling of Chinese specialized terms
Some terms are the production of Chinese tradition and institution, hence no equivalence can be found in the target language. Foreigners may be confused by “model toilet” (文明公厕), “promise-keeping company” (守信企业), “creditable company” (质量信的过单位) etc, and at the same time, “请便后冲水”, “请讲究卫生” and “禁止随地吐痰” etc. does not make any sense to them. Since the target readers of English signs are from western countries, translation of such terms are not necessar

Summary：
1. Causing of the mistakes: The tone of speech is sometimes too strong on the restricting and compelling public signs. Target readers can understand them without problem, but may feel uncomfortable. Changes should be made to the expressions on such signs in order to make them more friendly and politely.
2. Ways of avoiding such mistakes:
1) Avoid using too many “no” on signs, which is a definitely negative word. It can be replaced by a good deal of other expressions, such as “hand

Summary:
1. Causing of the mistakes: Almost every word in the examples are rendered, which makes them wordy and clumsy. The translators of such signs are making their efforts to be faithful to the original, without considering the time and space limitation.
2. Ways of avoiding such mistakes: The core message should be recognized and translated, others to be cut off. The translators should value the translation from the target readers’ perspective, and had better to show the translation to a f

Summary
1. Causing of the mistakes: The translators of the above mentioned signs are doing a simple job: consulting a dictionary for a Chinese character, then adding them up, without even changing the order of the words. Strictly speaking, it can’t be called “translation” at all. The English versions read like nonsense, and sometimes they can be quite ridiculous. It is assumed that those translations are done by translation software (machine translation) instead of individuals.
2. Ways of avo

Summary:
1. Causing of the mistakes: In a Chinese-English dictionary, the first English explanation of “男”, “女”, “防火” is “male”, “female” and “fireproof” respectively, from where we can see that the public signs are mistranslated by the unqualified translators who do the translation simply by picking up the first or the most frequently used English explanations, or just select the words randomly, without considering the actual meaning and situation. Some of the selected words have nothing to d

4.1.1. Inappropriate selection of words
A Chinese word may have several English equivalences. For example, the Chinese word “烟” can be translated as “smoke”, “mist”, “vapor”, “tobacco”, “cigarette” etc. These words are all listed under the entry of “烟”, but the pragmatic meaning of them sometimes are quite different.
Some public signs are mistranslated by using inappropriate words. Examples of such signs are as followed:

Example 1




(Shot on a toilet located in Andingmennei Street)

3. Data description
The data to be analyzed are 30 pieces of mistranslated bilingual (Chinese and English) public signs----guideposts, slogans, names of institutions and enterprises, directing boards in stores, and words on common facilities, which are collected from buildings, shops, subways, expressways, common facilities, parks and railway stations in Beijing. Most of the target signs are taken from famous commercial district in Beijing, which are frequently visited by foreigners, such as Wa