On Application Of Functional Equivalence Theory To Political Document

Political document aims at conveying the latest policy, major social issues to the public, so the translation is very important for it provides a platform for the outside world to know more about China. Outline of National Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) is the first guiding principle for science and technology development in the21st century in China, which plays an important role for a relatively long period at present and in the future.The Outline is a typical political document, which can be regarded as "authoritative statement" in the category of "expressive text", according to Peter Newmark’s Functional Classification. Authoritative statement has its unique features that it has been barely discussed in the field of traditional translation theories which are mainly focusing on the relations between source-language and target language. To some extent, functional equivalence theory is a significant complement for it has provided a new angle of translation studies by emphasizing the response of target-language readers.The first part is introduction. This thesis aims at exploring the application of "functional equivalence" theory in political documents. The second part is literary review of researches on political documents translation. The third part is about the theory and its development from "dynamic equivalence" to "functional equivalence". Part four mainly focuses on text analysis, and then put forward the problems that may occur in translation. Part five is the application of functional equivalence in translation practice. In considering the differences between Chinese and English as well as the text features of political documents; the foremost task is to put the reader’s response at the first place instead of imitating or copying the structure of source language when translating. The last part is conclusion:under the guidance of functional equivalence theory, the translation is strived to achieve the most natural equivalence in information and deep structure by using some translation methods such as free translation, omission, compensation and so on, therefore probe into the most satisfactory translation strategies.