Functional Equivalence In Translation

Hard Times is one of Charles Dickens'immortal work, which even in the present, the novel still has a very high status and the novel has been one of the most rankings of the best novels of world literature. Nearly all the skills and techniques that Charles Dickens used in his realistic novel is contained in this novel, so the novel can be said to be an outstanding representative work. According the functional equivalence of Nida's translation theory, the thesis makes a systematic comparative study of two Chinese versions of Hard Times. This thesis aims to probe into the guidence of the theory in literary translation and to make a thorough inquiry of how to apply the translation theory to the translation practice.In the year 1980, the functional equivalence theory which was first addressed by Nida was introduced to China. To draw on the experience of the previous translation theories, Nida's functional equivalence theory presents some advantaged perspective. Not the same with the previous translation theories which focus on the similarity of the word. Nida's functional equivalence theory stresses the importance of the receptors, and trys to ensure that the target language readers'respondence of the translated text is equivalence to the source language readers'respondence of the original, thus from a viewpoint of dynamatic forming a new criterion of translation criticism. However, as we all know, to bring up a new theory will bring about controvsery. Recently, more and more scholars began to doubt the application scope of the functional equivalence theory, and the attitude of the translation field has changed much, from the first total acceptance to the considerably much criticism in the present. Therefore, studies on the functional equivalence theory and the guidence it has played in translation practice, especially for literary translation are of great significance and have played a very important role in building a system of translation theories which is adapted to the Chinese cultural tradition.In this thesis, the author introduces the definition of Nida's functional equivalence theory and some relative notions. And the author also deals with the significance of the theory and the important role it has played in the translation field. In addition, the author presents the Chinese version of Hard Times, and makes an analysis of the Chinese version in the aspects of the meaning equivalence and the style equivalence. Thus the author is certain about the practicality of the theory in translation, especially in literary translation.In this thesis, the author is under the impression that functional equivalence can be a good guide to the translation of literary works. If a translation can achieve functional equivalence to the original in the aspects of meaning and style, the translation can be said to be a good translation. So as to achieve functional equivalence, a translator should first make a thorough understanding of the original text and to reveal the contextual meanings such as connotative meaning, collocative meaning, affective meaning, grammatical meaning and cultural meaning so that the equivalence be in the semantic and in literal meaning can be realized. And then the translator should try his or her best to grasp the style characteristics of the original text, make proper adjustments of the language forms and properly translate the deviations of the original text, thus to achieve the equivalence in style.