On Metaphor Translation In Fortress Besieged From Functional Equivalence Theory

Functional Equivalence Theory is the core of Eugene A. Nida's translation theory. It had great impact on Translation Studies in the 1960s and 1970s and was one of the theories which were introduced into China at an early time. Therefore its influence in Translation Studies in China is profound. With the spread of the influence of Translation Studies, the scope that Translation Studies engaged in expands. However, the role of Functional Equivalence in guiding translation can by no means be ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to help readers appreciate the translation of Ch'ien Chung-shu's Wei-ch'eng, or Fortress Besieged better and also get the translation skills used by the famous translators through the study from the perspective Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory and at the same time, confirm the guiding role of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory in translation practice.The kernel view of Functional Equivalence Theory is: achieve the maximum level equivalence, or minimum level one from style and reader's response upon the source language. Compared with translation theory put forward before, Functional Equivalence Theory brings translation into the field of linguistics but at the same time, it introduces culture and reader's response into translation studies. Functional Equivalence Theory based on the equivalence of meaning and style emphasizes that the receptors should respond to the target language message with substantially the same manner to the source language receptors do to the original. Reader's response is the criterion that evaluates the quality of translations. This thesis explores Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao's Translation of Chung-shu's Wei-ch'eng on different linguistic levels. Their translation achieves Functional Equivalence to the maximum and meanwhile their translation also achieves formal correspondence to some extent which makes up the disadvantages of Functional Equivalence. Their translation of Chung-shu's Wei-ch'eng testifies the guiding role of Functional Equivalence in practice and also proves the achievement of Functional Equivalence in practice.The study indicates that the translators, in most cases, have kept the image unchanged when they do the metaphor translation. 'Their information is obvious, that is to offer target readers a chance to make processing effort and have the contextual effect by themselves. What's more, they also aim at introducing Chinese culture to their target readers. When analyzing the examples, the author of the thesis points out that cultural overlapping could be great help in achieving the optimal relevance, while in other cases, due to the cultural barriers and the constraint of the translators'knowledge of Chinese language and culture, the optimal relevance is not achieved.This thesis consists of five chapters including introduction and conclusion.Introduction is the first chapter; the author introduces the purpose and the significance of the thesis.Chapter Two is about the literary review on Functional Equivalence Theory and metaphor studies of the world. In this chapter, firstly, Nida's Functional Equivalence will be discussed in detail. Then the research on metaphors in the east and west will be discussed which lays a foundation for Nida's Functional Equivalence.Chapter Three is a brief classification on the metaphors in the translators'Fortress Besieged. They are classified as speech and actions, description, mentation and appellation.Chapter Four is guidance of the perspective of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory analyzed from four different types of metaphors.Conclusion is the summary and limitation of the whole thesis.