A Comparative Study On Functional Equivalence Translation Theory And Relevance Translation Theory

Equivalence has been a controversial issue in the field of translation for a long time. Functional equivalence was proposed by Eugene.A.Nida. It yields far-reaching influence on translation theory and practice both home and abroad. It discards the idea of text-centerness and advocates paying more attention to the readers who are always being neglected in traditional translation theory and practice. German scholar Kellor (1972) even claimed that equivalence theory would be the one that overwhelms all the other priciples. But some scholars raised different opinions. They held that equivalence can't be realized (such as Peter Newmark), equivalence is always an ideal. Relevance theory is put forward by Dan Sperber and Beirder Wilson in 1986 in their works relevance: communication and cognition. It is a cognitive theory of human communication basing on the relevance principle in pragmatics posed by Grice. Ernst August Gutt, the student of Sperber and Wilson, made a deep study on translation according to relevance theory. Five years later, he published his dissertation thesis translation and relevance: communication and cognition. In this book, he first put forward relevance translation theory. Relevance translation theory brought new idea to translation study and attracted extensively concern and study interest of many scholars. Toward the two translation theories, scholars all have their own opinions. And both the theories have their own supporters and objectors. Even some scholars analyze functional equivalence theory from the perspective of relevance theory and they think that there are many limitations in functional equivalence translation theory, it is unpractical. Hence inspired by this, in order to better understand the two theories, this thesis attempts to make comparison between the two theories and tries to search for the similarities and differences in some aspects between them. The thesis considers that the two theories can supplement each other and the unity of them will better direct the translation practice and translation study.The significance of this thesis lies on the attemption of study on the comparison and unity of the two theories. Above all, the thesis points out that similarities are more than differences...