The Translation Of The Mongolian Culture-specific Terms From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the economic globalization and frequent international cross-culturalcommunication, the cultures of ethnic minority groups have come to be known bymany people from different countries. More and more people have become interestedin experiencing and learning about the cultures of ethnic minority groups. Whetherthe translators can accurately and fluently translate the tourism materials and literaryworks of the ethnic minority groups into English or not directly influences the effectof transmitting the cultures with special characteristics. Therefore, to improve thequality of the translation of culture-specific terms may be of great help for spreadingChinese ethnic group’s culture and thus promoting international communication.This thesis takes the Mongolian culture-specific terms as a case study toanalyze the present translation strategies under the theoretical framework offunctional equivalence theory, especially the transmission of cultural information,thus contributing to improving the quality of the translations. Culture-specific termsare the key point in transmitting cultural information. If the translator just literallytranslates the whole culture-specific terms for the goal of transmitting the originalculture, it may just make the target readers feel somewhat confused instead ofunderstanding the cultural connotation. Hence, only by making the target readersunderstand the culture-specific terms fluently and accurately can we achieve thepurpose of transmitting the culture to a large extent. Functional equivalence theoryemphasizes the use of the natural and closest languages to transmit the cultural connotation of the originals. It argues that the receptors of the message in the receptorlanguage should respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in thesource language.Through the comparative and correlative analysis of abundant examples, thisthesis draws the conclusion that the application of functional equivalence theory to thetranslation of culture-specific terms is effective. In the practice of translation, thetranslators should obey the translation principles of the functional equivalence theoryand utilize appropriate translation strategies to deal with the cultural informationcontained in the Mongolian culture-specific terms. Only in this way can thetranslators produce more and more qualified translated works so as to make the targetreaders understand the connotation of the original culture better, thus achieving thegoal of spreading the culture with special Mongolian characteristics.