Strategies For Chinese Neologism Translation Under Guidence Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Since the reform and opening up to the outside world, development of science and technology and progress of society have stimulated the emergence of Chinese neologisms greatly. More and more new things and concepts appear to be a challenge to translators.This thesis makes a study on Chinese neologism translation into English. On the basis of scientific analysis and theoretical guidance, the author tries to explore some practical and appropriate approaches in this field.This thesis begins with the brief introduction. This part introduces the emergence of Chinese neologisms and points out the realistic significance of the study in Chinese neologism translation by reviewing the current research in this field. The first chapter presents the basic knowledge of Chinese neologisms including the definition, classification and the ways of creation of Chinese neologisms. Meanwhile, the author illustrates some common difficulties and problems in Chinese neologism translation. In order to explore and improve the effectiveness of translation, in the third chapter, the author looks back on the development of functional equivalence theory and analyzes the contribution and feasibility of Nida's functional equivalence theory. Based on Nida's theory, we can conclude that Chinese neologism translation aims to achieve the closest equivalence between the comprehension and appreciation of the source text readers and that of the target text readers. Under the guidance of Nida's theory, translators are supposed to follow some principles in translating process, in order to realize the task of transmitting message and achieve the effect of communication. What's more, the author goes further to discuss the application of the two translation strategies: foreignization and domestication in dealing with the cultural elements. It is believed that both of the two strategies are essential in Chinese neologism translation. it is proved by practice and experience that foreignization can be adopted as the main approach because it focuses on faithfulness and aims to introduce readers alien culture on the basis of source culture. But it is true that overused foreignization will inevitably cause confusions and ambiguities now and then. Therefore, domestication should be necessarily employed as a supplement. As mutually supplementary and contradictory they are, what is crucial is translators must employ different strategies considering different situations and needs.The purpose of the thesis is just to draw more attention to the choice of foreignization and domestication in Chinese neologism translation, whereby the author hopes to offer some useful supplementary materials and ideas for further research in this field.