English Rhetoric Translation: A Functional Perspective

The English language enjoys a long history, during which various rhetorical devices emerged to enrich its expressions. Rhetorical figure is an expressive form, it can mean everything that can be felt. With rhetorical expressions, the author would be able to inject his lifetime spirit into his work. Therefore to figure out what is behind that expression, or what linguistic function the rhetorical expression plays, displays great importance in the relevant research and translation which often appears to challenge translator's wits, and much emphasis shall be put on the task. So simple reference to bilingual dictionary is far from enough for target readers or translators to achieve perfect understanding of the rhetorical expressions.To ensure the successful translation, perfect appreciation of English rhetoric and hence smooth cross cultural communication, we need certain methods to refine knowledge base as needed for the task. This thesis proposes an approach based on detailed analysis of English rhetoric devices and Eugene A. Nida's functional equivalence, a "meaning-based" approach to translation—one that looks for functional equivalence rather than formal resemblance in translation.The approach details the history, characteristics, in particular the function of English rhetoric and then utilizes a case-theoretical process to find potential functional equivalence by making use of specific translating strategies (literal translation, free translation, replacement, compensation and annotation). The integration of concrete cases and Eugene A. Nida's theory may ensure the correct direction of English rhetoric translation and in turns reduces the difficulty and complexity of the rhetoric appreciation and translation.