Redundancy Equivalence In Translation

In this paper, the concept of redundancy in information theory is applied to translation theory and practice, based on the communicative nature of translation. In addition, redundancy equivalence is suggested as a component of dynamic equivalence to test the accuracy and naturalness of a translated text. Chapter 1 is an introduction.Chapter 2 presents a relationship between communication and translation and some basic concepts in information theory that can be applies to translation studies.Chapter 3 is devoted to the discussion of redundancy in language. First, the author reviews linguistic definitions of redundancy, which might have different expressions but the same concept of predictability. Then redundancy is analyzed on several levels: syntactic, semantic, cultural and rhetorical. And the last point goes to the relationship between redundancy and ambiguity. Chapter 4 focuses on application of redundancy theory to translation process. Communication load and channel capacity are primary elements for any effective communication. Literal translation might break the balance between them. Redundancy in the original text must be adjusted to fit the normal redundancy limit in the target language.Chapter 5 points out that redundancy equivalence is part of dynamic equivalence, which is a criterion to judge translation accuracy. Moreover, techniques are suggested to achieve redundancy equivalence. Chapter 6 comes to the conclusion that the theory of redundancy equivalence provides a new perspective to the argument of literal and free translation and that it is only a part of dynamic equivalence to test the accuracy of a translation.