The Translation On Characteristic Culture Of Yi Ethnic Group In Liangshan From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the economic globalization and frequent international cross-cultural communication, the culture of ethnic minority groups have come to be known by many people from different countries. More and more people have become interested in experiencing and learning about the culture of ethnic minority groups. Whether the translators can accurately and fluently translate the tourism materials and literary works of the ethnic minority groups or not directly influences the effect of transmitting the cultures with special characteristics. Therefore, to improve the quality of the translation of Yi characteristic culture may be of great help for spreading Chinese ethnic group’s culture and thus promoting international communication.This thesis takes Yi characteristic culture with the special reference to the English version of The Breeze from Liangshan as a case study to analyze the present translation strategies under the theoretical framework of functional equivalence theory, especially the transmission of cultural information, thus contributing to improving the quality of the translations. Yi characteristic cultures are the key point in transmitting cultural information. If the translator just literally translates the whole Yi characteristic culture for the goal of transmitting the original culture, it may just make the target readers feel somewhat confused instead of understanding the cultural connotation. Hence, only by making the target readers understand Yi characteristic culture fluently and accurately can we achieve the purpose of transmitting the culture to a large extent. Functional equivalence theory emphasizes the use of the natural and closest languages to transmit the cultural connotation of the originals. It argues that the receptors of the message in the receptor language should respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language.Through the comparative and correlative analysis of examples, this thesis draws the conclusion that the application of functional equivalence theory to the translation of Yi characteristic culture is effective. In the practice of translation, the translators should obey the translation principles of the functional equivalence theory and utilize appropriate translation strategies to deal with the cultural information contained in the Yi characteristic culture. Only in this way can the translators produce more and morequalified translated works so as to make the target readers understand the connotation of the original culture better, thus achieving the goal of spreading the culture with Yi characteristic culture.