2。1。2 Functions of Public Signs

In accordance with the research of C-E translation of public signs, public signs are pided into four categories。

1。 Directing function。 It embodies in the thoughtful services without any restrictions or enforcement。 It means that public signs will direct the content of service, not demanding anyone to take action。 In most areas, public signs simply denotes what kind of service is being offered, or where the place is。

For example, we can see the “Ticket & Travel Center票务与旅游中心” at the railway station, “Public Toilet公共厕所” in almost all public places, “Information 问询服务” in a hospital, etc。 In a word, directing signs direct people, offering them information about what kind of service it can provide。

2。 Prompting function。 For those cities with large visitors everyday, excellent prompting public signs for the public environment can bring forth high efficiency for people。 Most of them play a necessary part as the warm prompt。 In addition, a part of prompting public signs should be called “warning signs”。 They often tend to contain the language feature with obvious caution or warning。 On this account we are informed to be aware of the probabilities of potential threat and guard against all kinds of potential hazards so as not to cause unnecessary losses, such as “Break Glass in Emergency紧急时击碎玻璃”, “Wet Paint 油漆未干”。 This kind of signs is widely used as a reminder to admonish people to focus on。

3。 Restricting function。 It mainly shows effective constraints to people’s public behaviors。 In English-speaking countries, these restricting public signs may tend to be direct in special contexts, but do not make people feel impolite or offensive。 For example, “Construction Site Keep Out施工现场，禁止入内” means that it is dangerous to come in; “Handicapped Only 残疾人通道” means that it is for the disabled person; “Stand in line” tells people to wait in line patiently。 They all express the restriction in a clear and direct way, but people would not feel affronted。

4。 Compelling function。 Each of the four functions bears the strength of feeling, from weak to strong, while compelling function is the strongest one。 It requires people to take certain kind of measures or to be prohibited to do certain behaviors。 Compelling function is viewed as a way of leading authority to the public and may impose penalties on violators。 For example, “Please buy your ticket before you travel, or you may have to pay a penalty fare。请购票上车，无票者将被处以罚款”, the language applications are often pretty straight forward and non-negotiable。 “No” with nouns or gerund is a special but normal sentence structure in contexts, which is most commonly seen: “No Smoking禁止吸烟”, “No Parking禁止停车”, “No Entering禁止入内”, and some others: “Danger! High Voltage当心触电”, “All forbidden fire严禁一切明火”, “RESTRICTION禁区”。来`自+优-尔^论:文,网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-

2。2 Classification of Public Signs

According to different standards, public signs are classified differently。 For example, they can be pided by various carrier forms。 There are traditional, metallic, wooden, papery, electronic public signs, or writing directly on the wall,etc。 As for different writing ways, there are symbolic, literal, pictorial or mixed public signs,etc。    In terms of applications,there are traffic and road, public sites, tourism, business, environmental protection public signs and so on。

1。 Traffic and road public signs。 This kind of signboard is used to inform place names, directions, traffic rules or state of roads to pedestrians and drivers, such as“Si Ping Bridge思平桥” “Curve Ahead前方弯道”“Road Under Construction道路维修中。”