A Functionalist Approach To English And Chinese Translation Of Metaphor

Metaphor is not only a linguistic concept, but also takes on culture-specific features. This thesis analyzes different approaches and strategies adopted in metaphor translation from the perspective of functionalism. Skopos theory reflects a general shift from predominantly linguistic and rather formal translation theories to a more functionally and scioculturally oriented concept of translation. As the most important theory of functionalism, Skopostheorie persists that the Skopos is the prime principle to determine the overall translational action. In the framework of Skopostheorie, one of the most important factors determining the purpose of a translation is the target text addressee, who is the intended receiver or audience of the target text with their culture-specific backgrounds, their expectations and their communicative needs. Furthermore, as the kernel of the functionalist theories, Skopostheorie contains three rules: the"Skopos rule", the"coherence rule"and the"fidelity rule". The"fidelity rule"is considered subordinated to"coherence rule", and both are subordinate to the"Skopos rule", which is the top-ranking rule for any translation. With the framework of Skopostheorie, this thesis attempts to explore and analyze metaphor translation in two different functional text varieties, namely appeal-focused texts and content-focused texts, and presents some possible translation methods.This thesis is composed of foreword and four chapters:The foreword introduces the research background and puts forward question as well as my data and methodology.Chapter 1 is firstly about the macro background from which the functionalism comes into being, secondly about the formation of functionalist translation theory, thirdly the development of functionalist translation theory and lastly a brief historical review of metaphor translation.Chapter 2 introduces definition, classification and characteristics of metaphor.Chapter 3 analyzes the specific strategies adopted in two text varieties by using theories mentioned in the previous chapter.Chapter 4 summarizes the major findings and limitations of my present study.