Article,
Information loss and change of appellative effect in Chinese-English public sign translation
Babel, (2012)
DOI: 10.1075/babel.58.3.04ko
Abstract
A ‘public sign’ or simply ‘sign’ generally refers to the type of sign posted in public places to alert readers to certain information, such as ‘No Parking’, ‘No Entry’ or ‘Staff Only’. Due to the fact that such signs are mostly placed in public places, they are also referred to as public signs by Chinese scholars (e.g. Ding 2006: 42; Luo & Li 2006: 66; Gu 2001). According to anthropologist Ashley Montagu, a sign is defined as a “concrete denoter” possessing an inherent, specific meaning, similar to the sentence “This is it; do something about it!” (quoted in Encyclopaedia Britannica). In marketing and advertising, a sign is referred to as “a device placed on or before a premise to identify its occupants and the nature of the business done there or to advertise a business or its products” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). According to the Macquarie Dictionary (1987), a sign is “an inscribed board, space, etc., serving for information, advertisement, warning, etc., on a building, along a street, or the like”. In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1977), a sign is defined as “a posted command, warning, or direction”.
