On The Translation Of Chinese Folk Terms Based On Nida's Functional Equivalence

With the rapid development of economic and political exchanges in the world, cultural communication becomes more and more important.Translation is an important device in cross-cultural communication. Translation studies are no longer limited to linguistic analysis and textual comparisons only.More and more attention has been paid to the cultural factors in translation.In fact, translation is not only a linguistic transformation but also a cultural transfer.China s folk culture from thousands of years of the Chinese nation's culture and tradition, the profound connotation of it consist of the characteristics of the cultural essence, and it play an important role to strengthen the cohesive force. It is of great importance to translate this kind of words correctly but also a problem in culture communication. There are abundant Chinese folk terms in Lu Xun s short novels.This is regarded as a striking feature of his works.In this thesis,the English version, Selected Stories of Lu Xun,translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang is chosen as a case study.Functional Equivalence is the core of Eugene A. Nida s translation theory. It had great impact on Translation Studies in the 1960s and 1970s and was one of the theories which were introduced into China at early time. So its influence in Translation Studies in China is profound. His functional equivalence focuses on the response of the receptor , in which the criterion of evaluation lies in the comparison between the understanding of the target readers and that of the source-language readers. The closest natural equivalent translation is the one that can evoke from its target readers the same response as the source text can from its readers. So the study tries to find out whether the closest natural equivalence has been achieved in Yang s translation and to achieve equivalence. And the purpose of this thesis is to help readers appreciate the translation of Selected Stories of Lu Xun better and also get the translation skills used by the famous translators through the study in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang s translation from the perspective Nida s Functional Equivalence and at the same time, confirm the guiding role of Nida s Functional Equivalence in translation practice.Cultural factor is an important obstacle in the process of translation. Specifically, there are 6 culture differences: social conventions, geographical environment, living habits, historical literary allusions, religion belief, and different opinions in objective things. Because of these culture differences, it is hard for the translators to find equal expression. In view of the characters of Chinese folk terms, I think during C-E translation we have to express not the semantics but the national colors, aims to deliver the implications of the Chinese folk terms effectively and to reach the culture communication best. Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang mainly adopted 5 skills when translating the Chinese folk terms in Lu Xun s short novels: literal translation, free translation, a combination of literal translation and free translation, literal translation plus annotation, and transliteration or transliteration with notes or explanation.They use these five ways flexibly according to the relevant context and the specific circumstances. Thus they not only maintain the original style but transfer the Chinese culture information in the text to the TL readers fully; we can see that they reach the Functional Equivalence to the maximum degree.The body of the paper consists of six parts.Chapter One is introduction.1.1 The background and source1.2 Research methods1.3 Aim and significance1.4 The formatChapter Two discusses the importance and difficulties of the translation of Chinese folk terms under the era of globalization.Chapter Three is a brief review and introduction of Eugene. Nida s Functional Equivalence theory.Chapter Four briefly introduces the book Selected Stories of Lu Xun and Lu Xun's fiction, and also introduced the translator Yang Xianyi, Gladys, and their translation ideas.Chapter Five classifies 5 translation methods the Yangs use in translating the Chinese folk terms in Selected Stories of Lu Xun. Then it analyzes examples of each method in great detail and tries to find the strategies employed from perspective of Eugene. Nida s Functional Equivalence.Conclusion is the summary of the whole thesis.