The Error Analysis of Chinese Translation of Airport Public Signs in Thailand

Abstract

         The purpose of this research was to analyze the translation errors of Chinese public signs appearing in 16 airports in Thailand from 2019 to 2022 by random sampling. The research instrument was an error analysis table using percentages and frequency distribution. The translation theory of Yanfu's “faithfulness-expressiveness-elegance” (2009) and Kanokporn Noomthong's 10 principles for translating Thai into Chinese (2011) were used as the conceptual frameworks for the study, and the results of the descriptive analysis were presented. The 159 Chinese public signs with translation errors were analyzed and a total of 257 errors were found, with lexical errors being the most common, 62% in total, including: 1) inconsistent translation; 2) mistranslation; 3) confusion of word meanings; 4) confusion of Hong Kong and Taiwanese terms with Chinese terms; 5) use coinages; 6) direct phonetic translation. The next most common errors were grammatical errors, with the total percentage of 23%: 1) grammatical confusion and sentence ambiguity; 2) wrong use of the word “被”; 3) wrong use of numerals and measure words; 4) wrong use of verbs; 5) grammatical errors caused by missing translations. Chinese character errors, 9% in total, included: 1) misuse of Chinese characters; 2) mixing of traditional and simplified characters; 3) use of variant characters. Punctuation errors were: 1) wrong use of punctuation marks; 2) lack of punctuation marks; 3) mixed use of Chinese and English punctuation marks; 4) wrong punctuation positions; 5) other punctuation errors. These punctuation errors accounted for 4%, with the remaining 2% being errors caused by ignoring cultural factors.