What are the public signs in life?

1, indicative public sign:

Indicative public signs provide information for the public, and do not restrict or force the public to take certain actions or execute certain orders. Therefore, indicative public signs are mostly composed of nouns or noun phrases. For example: Zhongshan Road Information Station.

2. Prompt public signs:

The purpose of suggestive public signs is to remind the public of the content, but it does not require the public to take action, but is widely used. For example: wet paint, sharp left turn, 2 km rest area ahead.

3. Restricted public signs:

The purpose of restrictive public signs is to limit or restrain some improper behaviors of the public, and its language is straightforward. For example, idle people are not allowed to enter the employee-only area, do not trample on the grass, park for 30 minutes, and no parking on private roads.

4. Mandatory public signs:

Mandatory public signs demand that something must be done or command not to do something in a strong tone, which is the strongest tone of all public signs. It needs to be implemented by the audience, which is non-negotiable and plays a strong warning role. For example, smoking is forbidden, littering is forbidden, walking is forbidden, dogs must be tied, and the cordon should not cross the cordon.

These public signs should follow the principle of consistency. Because public signs have the function of providing information and completing instructions, any ambiguity or misunderstanding will lead to inaccurate information transmission, so "standardized and standard vocabulary" (Dai Zongxian, 2005) is one of the linguistic features of public signs.

The consistency principle of Chinese-English translation of public signs includes the following meanings:

1. Make full use of common public signs in English-speaking countries. For some common public signs, direct quotation is adopted, which is consistent with the expression of international practice. For example: employee only, wet floor, 30% discount, manual operation, etc. This method of directly copying commonly used foreign signs is not only simple and practical, but also keeps the original flavor of public signs, which is convenient for foreigners to understand the established meaning.

2, consistent with the fixed translation that has been used so far. For some China-specific public signs that are difficult to find ready-made expressions in English-speaking countries, if their English translations have been used for many years and are widely accepted by the public, they can be considered for use without retranslation on the premise of correct translation, so as to avoid confusion. Such as: Peking University, China Bank, etc.

3. For the Chinese-English translation of public signs neologisms, if there is no established English expression to follow, we can consider unifying their English translation into a special official website or dictionary for public inquiry and reference. If there is an authoritative dictionary or the official famous newspaper website as a reference, the newly translated public signs will be widely accepted and used by the public, and provide a reliable reference for the translation of similar public signs, so as to maintain the consistency of their use and avoid the chaotic translation of new public signs.