E-C Translation Of When We Were Young From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the development of international art and culture exchanges,China’s demand and research on fine arts translation have also gradually increased.Fine arts literature plays an important role in cross-cultural communication.However,the overall quality of translated works in China is uneven at present and the translated works of children’s fine arts are rare.The research materials of this thesis is based on the translator’s translation of three and four chapters and part of the chronology(about30,000 words)of When We Were Young which is written by Jonathan Feinberg,a famous American contemporary art historian.Guided by Nida’s functional equivalence theory,this thesis explores how to achieve functional equivalence at the lexical and syntactic levels in the process of Chinese translation of When We Were Young in light of translation practice.The main points of functional equivalence theory and its applicability to fine arts literature are firstly elaborated in this thesis.Then this thesis analyzes the language characteristics and audience characteristics of When We Were Young,and finds that the text is characterized by professionalism,flexibility and abstract expression in language.This is mainly reflected in the use of terminologies,nominalized structures and conceptual abstract words in lexical level,and the use of compound sentences,passive sentences and quotations in syntactic level.The text has the characteristics of diverse groups and diverse reading needs in the audience characteristics.Audience groups include art researchers,educators and other personnel with professional,social and life type reading needs.After that,the translator summarizes three basic principles should be followed in translating the text: accuracy and specification,popularity and understandability,and similar reader’s response.Lastly,the thesis discusses how to achieve functional equivalence in terms of lexical and syntactic levels during translating the text When We Were Young,in order that the target readers can understand and appreciate the translation in the same way as the original readers.At the lexical level,functional equivalence can be realized through accurate understanding of terminologies,conversion of part of speech,and free translation with combining context.At the syntactic level,it’s unnecessary to stick to the surface structure of the original text.The translator can fully exerts the advantages of the Chinese language,and use the methods of reorganization of structures,appropriate addition and omission to clarify the meaning,and voice conversion to make the translation express smoothly and vividly,so as to reproduce the original style very well and to achieve functional equivalence.