The Comparison Between Two Chinese Versions Of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Based On Functional Equivalence

In 1969, an American linguist, Eugene A. Nida, advanced the theory of "Dynamic Equivalence" or "Functional Equivalence" which has promoted the development of translation greatly. However, more and more scholars have expressed doubts to its application scope recently. The present thesis attempts to affirm the guidance of the theory in translation.The translation theories in the past stressed the correspondence between the source language (SL) and target language (TL) and studied translation simply from the transference of languages. Differently, Dynamic Equivalence emphasizes the role of the receptors and points out the purpose of translation is that the receptors should respond to the TL message with substantially the same manner to the SL receptors do to the original. The thesis aims at displaying the important role the theory plays in the achievement of the equivalent rendering by comparing and analyzing the examples from the two Chinese versions of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It helps to draw the conclusion that translation is feasible and rough equivalence can be achieved in translation.In the thesis, equivalence in translation is illustrated from two aspects: "meaning equivalence" and "style equivalence". Take the novel as an example, the thesis tries to discuss that in order to achieve "style equivalence" in the novel, the translators should pay special attention to the equivalence of language style, furthermore, proposes three ways to realize the style equivalence.