Research On English Culture-Loaded Words Translation From The Perspective Of The Functional Equivalence Theory

Culture-loaded word, as the most vital constituent and one of the most difficult parts in the process of translating, is a very special existence in language. Nowadays, with the development of globalization and cross-cultural communication, more and more literary works are propagated over the world. Due to various cultures, the obstacles in communication appear. As a hot and hard point in translating, the researches on culture-loaded words are numerous. However, many scholars apply themselves into the research on Chinese culture-loaded words while ignore the elite part of the English culture. Even there are some translations on foreign works, they just focus on the message of the text of some masterpieces. The research on English culture is far from enough, not to mention the translation of English culture-loaded words.In1964, Nida proposed the functional equivalence theory. For half a century, it has produced profound influence on translation. Nida holds the opinion that in translation there exist "formal equivalence" and "functional equivalence". When "functional equivalence" and "formal equivalence" are in conflict, the translator should first consider "functional equivalence". He emphasizes "the closest natural equivalence, not only in form, but in the message they convey" and "receptor’s response" to achieve the purpose that the target language readers have the same feeling or response with the source language readers. That is to say, the translator should fully understand both the source language culture and the target language culture to make sure that the translation is easy to understand.This thesis focuses on the translation of English culture-loaded words in The Portrait of a Lady and applies the functional equivalence theory in the analysis. By classifying the English culture-loaded words from different perspectives and then analyzing proper strategies and methods for different types of culture-loaded words, the author tries to find out some rules for the culture-loaded words translation of literary works and provide guidance for them. With the guidance of functional equivalence theory, and through the analysis of the typical examples in the text, the author draws the conclusion that both English culture-loaded words and Chinese culture-loaded words are greatly influenced by their cultures and they have their own characteristics. In the process of culture-loaded words translating, the strategies for Chinese culture-loaded words such as transliteration, substitution, annotation, literal translation and liberal translation can also be used in the English culture-loaded words translation. These strategies and methods can be used simultaneously to achieve the equivalence of form and content to the greatest.