Functionalism And The Handling Of Appellations In Translation

All the peoples in the world have their own naming systems. Forms of address vary a lot in terms of words employed and dimensions represented in different cultures. The author's own observation of and investigation into this part of a culture demonstrate that there are tremendous differences between the Chinese and Western systems of address. After making a cross-cultural comparison between appellations in Chinese and those in English, the author attempts to analyze and explore how appellations should be handled when one translates from Chinese into English and vice versa.According to functionalism, translations should be purpose-oriented and with the purpose in mind translations should be loyal to the target language readers. As the handling of appellations in translation is in fact an act of cross-cultural communication, the author suggests that the translator bear in mind the cross-cultural aspects and always be reader-oriented so as to ensure that the target text conveys the meaning, form and style of the source text in a cultural perspective.