Equivalence In Legal Text Translation

In the 1960's, Eugene A. Nida put forward his equivalence theory, first as "dynamic equivalence", and later developed it into "functional equivalence" in 1990's. Ever since its appearance, equivalence has been a popular concept in translation theory.However, this theory has been under criticism in recent years, both at home and abroad. In the west, some translators argue that equivalence only exists in an ideal situation, while in reality it is impossible to achieve such equivalence. Some of them even go so far as to claim that it is wrongful to use equivalence theory in terminology translation in legal text, where equivalence should be cast away and translators should adopt a more flexible method. In China, many theorists argue that E.A.Nida's equivalence theory is a theory workable only for Indo-European languages, while it is not applicable in translation between Chinese and English.The present thesis shows that criticisms to the theory are chiefly due to a misunderstanding of E.A.Nida's use of the term "equivalence". Moreover, equivalence theory holds true even with English and Chinese legal text translation, where not only two distant languages but also two different legal systems are involved.In the first chapter of the thesis, the author gives a brief introduction to E.A.Nida's equivalence theory, together with criticisms to the theory from other translators. The part ends with questions as to the validity of these criticisms as well as to the restriction of the theory's application.In the second chapter, the author first makes a re-examination on E.A.Nida's equivalence theory, showing that criticisms to the theory are chiefly due to a misunderstanding of E.A.Nida's use of the term "equivalence". This part ends with the major research question of the thesis: whether equivalence theory holds true even with English and Chinese legal text translation, where not only two distant languages but also two different legal systems are involved.In chapter three, the author first provides a brief account of legal language together with the history of legal language translation in the west. Following this, the author makes an analysis on the characteristic special with legal text translation.The following two chapters are devoted to the verification of equivalence theory in legal text translation between Chinese and English. Chapter four illustrates the existence of equivalence on lexical level, namely words, phrase and terminology; while chapter five, that on syntactic level, with particular reference to two pairs of distinctive linguistic phenomena: negative and affirmative, and passive and active.To end the thesis, the last chapter concludes that equivalence theory is not only valid but also instrumental. It may well be used as guidance in translation, including legal text translation. Meanwhile, some topics for further research in the field are proposed.