On Zhang Guruo’s Translation Of The Landscape Descriptions In Tess Of The D’urbervilles From The Perspective Of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory

The equivalence between the source text and the target text at lexical,grammatical,and other linguistic levels has been emphasized for a long time in traditional translation theories,while the response of the target readers is not fully valued.The functional equivalence theory is put forward by Eugene A.Nida as a judgment of the adequacy of a translation.Focusing on the response of the target readers,it is a theory about the requirements that a good translation should meet.According to the theory,the target readers are expected to properly understand and appreciate the target text through an effective translation in primarily the same manner as the original readers understand and appreciate the source text.The novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a representative work of the famous English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.The novel is about the tragic fate of the pure and brave country girl Tess,who struggled to live her life despite the conventional social rules and sexual morals of that time.In the novel,Hardy makes a special effort to describe the landscapes and natural environment,behind which readers find profound implications related to the development of the story.When rendering this novel,translators are supposed to reproduce such descriptions in a way that can make the target readers understand their implications.In Zhang Guruo’s Chinese version of the novel,the landscape descriptions are effectively translated.Through his translation,the target readers can understand and appreciate the profound implications as the original readers.Taking the functional equivalence theory as its theoretical framework,the thesis studies Zhang Guruo’s translation of the landscape descriptions in Tess of the d’Urbervilles.Based on the clarification of the theory and the landscape descriptions’ implications,the thesis summarizes Zhang Guruo’s translation methods,including formal conformity,major types of changes introduced into text and translation with notes,and gives further exploration through specific example analyses.