On The Translation Of Government Work Report From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Since the beginning of reform and opening up policy, China’s international status in economy, policy and culture has been greatly enhanced. In2010, China’s GDP ranks top2in the world. Hence, more and more foreigners aspire to learn more about China, especially China’s government’s policies. As Government Work Report covers current situation of China’s economy, society and culture and sets out development plans for future years, it serves as an effective channel for the world to know China. During the process, translation of Government Work Report plays a significant role. In this thesis, a preliminary research is conducted on the translation of Government Work Reports in recent five years. By lots of translation examples at three levels, the thesis aims to prove that the translation of Government Work Report can be guided by functional equivalence theory and further put forward related translation criteria.Firstly, the thesis gives introduction to Nida and his famous functional equivalence theory, as well as other related translation theories. As a special genre, Government Work Report embodies unique stylistic features. The thesis explores stylistic features of Government Work Report at lexical, syntactic and rhetorical levels. The third part serves as the main body of the thesis. The author employs qualitative analysis to explore the translation of Government Work Report from three perspectives:lexical, syntactic and textual. It’s found that the translation of Government Work Report fundamentally conforms to the requirements of functional equivalence theory and it’s feasible to employ this theory to illustrate and analyze the translation of Government Work Report. However, there are some non-equivalence translations, which are also illustrated and analyzed. The last part is to bring forward three criteria of translation of Government Work Report on the basis of other related studies:fidelity, intelligibility and naturalness.Based on descriptive analysis, it’s found that functional equivalence theory is one of the most useful translation theories to be used in the explanation and analysis of the translation of Government Work Report, and in hence, future translators can translate this kind of genre in the guidance of functional equivalence theory. Moreover, the translators of similar kind of texts shall be faithful to the source text, make target text intelligible and natural to target readers.