学术英语学期论文学术英语学期论文题 目： _(中文题目)专业班级： 汉语言文学 121 班 姓 名： 陈 彦 如 学 号： 1122510022 指导教师： 厉 芳 完成日期： 2013 年 12 月 1 1(英语题目，15 号字体，居中对齐)The surprise effect of humor based on relevance theoryWU Ya-ting(Dept of Foreign languages, Zhejiang University of Science between speakers ostensiveness and hearers inference; and last but not least, it results from the contrast between the maximal relevance and the optimal relevance. The key to understanding humor is to choose a cognitive context that is of optimal relevance. Key words: surprise effect; context; relevance（Times New Roman, 12 号字体，1.5倍行距）1. Introduction （14 号，黑体）号，黑体）In our daily life, we can commonly find a lot of signs such as “咨询处”, “凭票入场”, “禁止吸烟” , and so on, which show or direct the public what should or should not do, or for further information. Signs like that can be classified as public signs. Public sign is a kind of text with such functions as directing, reminding, warning, noticing, persuading1. Nowadays, foreign people tend to flow over into China after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the World Expo, helping the development of globalization. As for the Chinese-English translation of public signs, dozens of scholars and translators both at home and abroad have discussed it from different perspective in recent years, centering on the types of public signs, including names of roads, institutions, shops, slogans,business signs, traffic and road signs names of expos and exhibitions, etc.Hangzhou, one of famous Chinese tourism cities, receives hundreds of thousand foreign tourists and foreign students every year. By the same token, Hangzhou is the host city of China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, which appeals more and more foreign tourists and cartoon fans to our city. Public sign is the “face” of a city, however, there is no denying fact that signs in public places in Hangzhou still 2 2need to be improved to strive for a good international image and a better environment for local person and people who come to China on business, for studying or for sightseeing to some extent. Based on Skopos Theory, with the aim of being well accepted by the audience, the paper centers more on analyzing the public signs that are collected in Hangzhou public places and tries to find solutions to these problems for practical purpose.2. Review of public signs translation （14 号，黑体，号，黑体， ）2.1 Definition, types and features of public signs （12 号字体，黑体）号字体，黑体）Public sign is a kind of text with such functions as directing, reminding, warning, noticing, persuading1. Public sign is designed to convey some information to the public, giving the public hints of doing or not doing something. It can be defined as service language. Frequently appearing in traffic, tourism and transportation fields, public sings are often expressed in the forms of public indicators, notices, short notices, warnings, poster sticks etc. 2.2 The rules of public signs translationSimplicity means to be understood and adapted quickly without any difficulty3. It is decided by the public language environment and attitude as public signs is for the people who are in the public places, that is to say, the readers are in the state of dynamic. So public signs should meet the need of quick-understanding. It demands that translation of public signs should comply with the objective language and culture as much as possible.Take picture one for example. If it is expressed in this way “please pay more attention when you walk beside the river”, it can also warn people, however, “CAUTION: WATCH YOUR STEP” can not only alert the people , but also can remind them timely. Otherwise, after reading the former one, perhaps its too late to be really “cautious”.3. Analysis of public signs translation from Skopos TheorySkopos theory is a concept from the field of translation studies. It was established by the German linguist Hans. J Vermeer and comprises the idea that translating and interpreting should primarily take into consideration the function f 3 3both the source and target text.4. Public signs translation strategies As far as the public signs are concerned, it is fairly necessary to make some adjustments in Chinese-English translation. Here are the reasons. First, English and Chinese reflect two different cultures. Second, English and Chinese are two different languages in aspects ranging from their forms, pronunciations, allocations to pragmatic meanings, forms of words or characters. Third, English and Chinese readers or potential visitors have different values. Here are some strategies concluded from the perspective of Skopos theory.5. ConclusionEnglish public signs to foreigners in China is just as Chinese public signs to our Chinese public, which play a very important role in our daily life. However, there still exist various errors in Chinese-English translation of public signs. In this disse