Distinction, From The Functional Theory Analysis Of Literary Translation And The Non-literary Translation

English is a required course and universal education in China. Nowadays many Chinese people can speak English, especially the youth, students, and staff of service trades like hotels, restaurants, airlines, banks and post offices. However, we are startled and disappointed at the public English translation. There is an urgent need to improve the quality of English.Besides, countries in the Information Era become so interrelated that the market demand for translation is skyrocketing, especially for non-literary translation. Unfortunately, a majority of translators and scholars in China have not realized the differences between the two types of translation. They have seen and dealt with them in an undifferentiated approach as if they were same in nature and operation. This thesis aims to clarify, from a Functionalist perspective, some of the misunderstandings involved in dealing with non-literary and literary translation.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I is a general background introduction. Chapter II presents a gist of the German Functionalist Approach, including the text typology proposed by Katharina Reiss, the Skopos theory by Hans Vermeer, the theory of translation action by Justa Holz-Manttari and the function plus loyalty by Christiane Nord; Chapter III discusses the fundamental differences between literary and non-literary translation from five perspectives, i.e. funtion, thinking, author's role, translator's role and requirement for terminology. Chapter VI describes the process differences between literary and non-literary translation, followed by the concluding Chapter V.The author hopes that the thesis will be helpful to those who are studying translation.