On C-E Publicity Translation From Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

This thesis concerns itself with the English translation of Chinese publicity materials from the perspective of Nida's functional equivalence theory. It probes into the existing problems of C-E publicity translation, and puts forward some effective techniques that help to improve the quality of translation. The main motive of this study is to highlight the crucial role that functional equivalence plays in producing high quality publicity translation and to work out more effective strategies for translating Chinese publicity materials, with the hope of achieving better effect in international communication.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter 1, a brief introduction of C-E publicity translation, includes its definition, history and the recent researches in this field. Chapter 2 reviews the theoretical basis of this thesis, i.e., Nida's functional equivalence, and then discusses its applicability to C-E publicity translation. In Chapter 3, the existing problems of C-E publicity translation are discussed in three perspectives, namely, those caused by linguistic factors, those caused by cultural factors and Chinglish phenomenon. Examples illustrative of the three perspectives are analyzed from the approach of functional equivalence. And the factors accounting for those problems, such as different language structures, modes of thinking, aesthetic standards, etc, are discussed in details. Accordingly, some techniques are put forward in Chapter 4 to improve the quality of C-E publicity translation, namely, annotation, deletion and adaptation.Based on the discussion and analysis, we finally come to the conclusion that, (1) the rendered version of Chinese publicity materials is punctuated or even in some extreme cases, flooded with inappropriate translation; (2) the problems of publicity translation are yet to be brought under limelight at the discretion of the translators; (3) C-E publicity translation leaves much leeway for improvement under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence.