A Corpus-based Study of English Translation of Chinese Traffic Signs

This paper takes Wuhan's traffic signs as the research object, and collects the Chinese and English traffic signs in largequantities to build a small corpus. According to the text type theory proposed by German functionalist school Katarina Rice, in thisarticle the traffic signs are classified into three categories: information type text identifier, expression type text identifier and operation type text identifier according to six functions including indication, prompt, restriction, compulsory, persuasion and publicity. Itattempts to reveal the characteristics of Chinese signs and English translations of different text types, and to explore the translationand semantic rhyme of the word "forbidden" in the English translation of high-frequency vocabulary in traffic signs. It aims to provide reference for the English translation of traffic signs, create a good language environment, shape a good city image, and increasethe degree of China's internationalization.