Abstract：Tourism is one of the fastest expanding economic sectors in today’s China. With its rich history and various ethnic cultures, the country has become a favorite destination for numerous international tourists seeking exposure to exotic cultural experience. Therefore, English translations of tourist materials are of great importance in helping visitors’ understanding of the Chinese culture.
This paper attempts to probe into the socio-semiotic approach to cultural elements in tourist texts. The representative of Socio-semiotic approach, Eugene Nida, has put forward the theory of Functional Equivalence and insists that translation is translating meaning. The criterion of correspondence in meaning and similarity in function has been established by following scholars. Much attention should be paid to the linguistic, designative and pragmatic meaning of the tourist material, as well as its informative, vocative and aesthetic functions. The author has collected a lot of first-hand English versions of tourist materials in Nanjing and tried to give a detailed explanation. This will be of some guiding function for future tourist translation studies.
Key Words: Socio-semiotic approach, tourist material, correspondence in function, similarity in function
摘要：旅游业已成为当今中国发展最快、最具活力的经济产业之一。中国具有悠久的历史和丰富多彩的各族文化，是许多国外游客心仪的文化旅游目的地。具有丰富文化特色的旅游文本的翻译对于促进中国的入境旅游有着非常重要的作用。
本文试图从社会符号学翻译法角度解读旅游文本中文化元素的英译方法。社会符号学翻译法代表尤金·奈达提出了功能对等的翻译理论，认为翻译即翻译意义。后来学者更树立了“功能相似，意义相符”的翻译标准。旅游文本的翻译需要注意语言的言内意、指称意及语用意，也需要特别注意语言的信息功能、祈使功能和美学功能。本文给出了大量的南京旅游资料实例，加以分析阐述，具有一定的参考价值。
关键词：社会符号学翻译法，旅游文本，功能相似、意义相符
More and more foreigners are coming to China today. Travelling business is booming. Tourist materials are an effective way to publicize China’s image and promote the tourist industry. There is a great need for good translations and good translators.
Translating the cultural elements in tourist materials is no easy task. This paper tries to translate the cultural elements in tourism from the perspective of socio-semiotics, on which basis, the criterion of Correspondence in Meaning and Similarity in Function is established.
The author also proposes several ways to deal with cultural element translating: transliteration plus explanation, analogy, addition and omission. She puts much attention to the name translation and analyzes how correspondence in meaning and similarity in function is achieved in an article.
A good tourist translator should have cross-cultural awareness and enough Chinese tourism knowledge and the basic translating skills. He or she is not just a translator, but a messenger between two cultures. It is no easy task too. Much effort should be paid to the practical translation training courses.
