3.2.1 Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Conjunctions 11

3.2.2 Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Tense and Subject-verb Agreement 11

3.2.3 Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Sentence Structure 12

3.2.4 Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Voice 12

3.2.5 Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Avoidance 13

4. The Causes of Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in Tourism Translation 14

4.1 Different Modes of Thinking 14

4.2 Different Ways of Constructing Sentences 14

4.3 Different Diction Habits 14

5. Conclusion 15

References 16

1. Introduction

With the advancement of tourism, an increasing number of people intend to travel home and aboard. Thus, scenic spots in Ningbo have attracted thousands and millions of tourists from overseas and governors strongly feel the need to translate the introduction of scenic spots into English to draw more oversea tourists. 

Ningbo, a prosperous city in Zhe Jiang, attracts hundreds and thousands of tourists from home and abroad. In Ningbo, there are various scenic spots, such as Baoguo Temple, Tianyi Library and Yuehu Park. Baoguo Temple is a time-honored temple with more than one thousand year. It is the oldest and best preserved architecture with wood structure and has high historic , artistic and scientific value. Tianyi Library was built by Fan Qin, who was a famous book collector. Tianyi Library has pasted from generation to generation and has ever endured great hardships, but still stands there. Yuehu Park is a place where people can view the fascinating natural scenery and have quality time with their family members. 

Tourists from abroad view the beautiful scenery and visit historic spots in Ningbo, and want to know more about the Chinese culture. But the errors in tourism translation in scenic spots has been barriers for their further understanding of Chinese culture. Thus, the translation of attraction signs forms an important part of tourism translation and it is necessary to correct the errors of tourism translation. 

1.1 Background

With the development of economic globalization, an increasing number of foreigners want to travel in China. And attraction signs have become the main way for those foreigners to get the introduction of scenic spots. Thus, English translations of attraction signs are important to those tourists. As for the content of attraction signs, it mainly introduces the knowledge of nature, culture and custom. As for the expression of attraction signs, it should be accessible and understandable for tourists from different level of literacy. The appropriate English translation of attraction signs will have a positive impact on tourists’ traveling, which can also promote the prosperity of local tourism industry and the development of local economy.

1.2 Significance

The theory of negative transfer of mother tongue is a theoretical basis of this thesis. In this thesis, the research subject will be three scenic spots in Ningbo----Baoguo Temple, Tianyi Library and Yuehu Park. Errors in English translation of attraction signs in scenic spots will be analyzed from the perspective of lexicon and syntax. The significance of this research is to promote the translation quality of attraction signs in scenic spots in Ningbo and promote the prosperity of tourism industry in Ningbo.

1.3 Structure

This thesis consists of five parts. 

The first part is introduction, which consists of the research background, the significance of the research and the structure of the thesis.