Study On The Shift Of Perspective In Est Translation In The Light Of Functional Equivalence Theory

As a translation technique, the shift of perspective has been studied widely by scholars. But many of these researches aim at non-EST translation. The shift of perspective plays a significant role in EST translation. To date, however, little attention has been paid to this aspect.This thesis tries to study and discuss the importance and application of the shift of perspective in the field of EST translation. The author studies the theories of functional equivalence and the shift of perspective in the field of EST translation. The theoretic basis of the thesis comes from two parts. The first one is Nida's functional equivalence theory which requires to reproduce in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message,first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style.Meanwhile this theory allows certain freedom and flexibility to the interpreters in that adjustment is needed to achieve functional equivalence. The second one is the theory of the shift of perspective. It is necessary to have adjustment in EST translation and the greater the differences between the source and target languages,the greater the need for adjustments. In fact all the theories are closely related with the practice of EST translation.Examples are used to discuss how functional equivalence influences EST translation. The definition and categories of the shift of perspective are discussed in EST translation in details. On the basis of the above discussion,the author analyzed the differences of the shift of perspective between EST translation and non-EST translation. EST translation emphasizes the shift of perceptual perspective and spatial- temporal perspective while non-EST translation emphasizes the shift of ideological perspective and narrative perspective. In addition, the application of the shifts of perspective in EST translation is studied on lexical level, the syntactic level and paragraghic level. It includes abstraction vs. concreteness, static state vs. dynamic state, passive vs. active, subject vs. topic, whole vs. parts, large concept vs. small concept, concentrative vs. dispersed, front vs. rear.The conclusion of this thesis is that functional equivalence theory is a feasible translation criterion to guide the practice of translating EST into Chinese. Taking functional equivalence as the theoretical guidance of EST translation into Chinese can help to improve the translation quality of EST translation into Chinese. In order to make the translation natural and smooth, we must adopt some necessary adaptations just like adjustments and shifts. The shift of perspective is an indispensable technique in EST translation which makes the translated text more coherent and acceptable.