A Study Of The Translation Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence:a Case Study Of Four Chinese Versions Of Charlotte’s Web

As a branch of literature, children’s literature not only has the common characteristics of literature, but also has its own distinctive features. Apart from its easy acceptance both in content and in form, children’s literature has another crucial feature which attracts children-the unique language style. Since children are the main target readers of children’s literature, its language should be vivid, simple, musical and playful.Charlotte’s Web is a famous work for children by an American writer E. B. White. There are four Chinese versions on the mainland, including Kang Xin’s version published in1979, Chun Xin and Liu Shui’s version in1982, Xiao Mao’s online version in2000and Ren Rongrong’s version in2004. Chinese translation of Charlotte’s Web have been studied from the perspective of skopos theory, reception theory and selection and adaptation theory, but its Chinese versions have nobody been studied from functional equivalence. The paper investigates the realization of Functional Equivalence in the translation of children’s literature through a comparative analysis of four Chinese versions of Charlotte’s Web. The theory of functional equivalence proposed by Nida aims at producing a translation that is the closest natural equivalent of the original text, so as to be distinctly understood by the target language receptors as by the source language receptors. This theory stresses the role of the target receptors and points out the purpose of the translation is that the receptors should respond to the target language message with substantially the same manner to the source language receptors do to the original text.The thesis analyzes typical examples of four versions from the perspective of stylistic equivalence based on the principle of functional equivalence. Through a comparative study of the four versions in four aspects:vividness, conciseness, musicality and playfulness, the researcher has drawn a conclusion:Kang Xin uses more formal words which are a little difficult for some children readers but his version is elegant and also reflects the conciseness. Ren Rongrong employs a great many a-sound and colloquial expressions to make it easy for children to read. Besides, Ren takes children readers into consideration so he cuts long sentences into short ones and adopts humorous words and rhymes to create sound effect appealing to children readers. Xiao Mao translates the novel in a literal way but he chooses simple and short sentences to convey the meaning as well. Chun Xin and Liu Shui’s version adopts concise and vivid expression to arouse children readers’interest while literal expressions also appear in many sentences.