On C-E Interpretation Of Chinese-Cultural Specific Terms From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

As the speedy development of our economy, it plays a more and more important role in the global prosperity. Thus, our economic and political policys have attracted much attention from all over the world, especially the annual NPC and CPPCC.While in the interpreting, the most thorny problem for interpreters is the handling of cultural-specific terms, including culturally-loaded words, Chinese four-character idioms, lines of poems, folk adages, proverbs and literary quotations. The present thesis attempts to make a study on the interpretation of cultural-specific terms from the perspective of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory. Based on the previous research on cultural-specific terms and Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory, the author tries to study the methods of the interpretation of Chinese cultural-specific terms. The Chinese cultural-specific terms found in the press conference of Premier Wen Jiabao are collected and classified, The author also analysed the related cultural elements. Then two cases for study are grouped into two categories and are evaluated according to Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory.The present study shows that the commonly used methods for translating cultural specific terms include literal interpretation, free interpretation (paraphrase and idiomatic translation) and addition. Besides, the author puts forward the general principles dealing with interpretation of the Chinese cultural-specific terms:Different types of cultural-specific terms have their corresponding translation methods and strategies; Once the literal method is adopted, the target language receiver has the same reaction as the source language recipient, then literal method is acceptable.However, if literal method is not acceptable, other methods should be taken into consideration, such as free interpretation or addition.