A Study On The English Translation Strategies Of Government Documents From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

The Functional Equivalence Theory is proposed by famous translator Eugene A. Nida. Through the formal equivalence and the content equivalence, the translation text can become more coherent and accordant, thus the readers can have a better understanding. Nida’s theory exerted a great impact on translation researches and provided a range of much sounder English translation strategies and skills in the process of translating.The Government Document is the most authoritative and informative text and it is clearly that its translation must be equivalent to the original version, which not only means that both the form and the content should be equivalent to the originals, but also that the style should be formal, accurate so that more foreigners can have deep insights into the political, cultural, social and economic developments of China.The thesis mainly studies the translation strategies of 2014 Government Work Report(hereinafter referred to as “GWR”) from the perspective of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory with the aims to discuss the English translation strategies from the lexical, syntactic and discourse level. Based on the practical translating activity and the analysis of the examples, the research proved that, under the guide of the Functional Equivalence Theory, the expressions of target texts can be more appropriate to originals and that the translation can fully achieve the aims of the formal equivalence, the content equivalence and the stylistic equivalence. Thus it is feasible that we apply the Functional Equivalence Theory to the translation of the GWR.The research proved that translators should apply the appropriate translation strategies and skills so as to let the target readers totally understand the contents and meaning of the original texts. The thesis divides the lexical items into three parts such as the general words, words with Chinese characteristic and proper nouns. In the application of the Functional Equivalence Theory to the English translation of those lexical items, the translation strategies and skills are explained in detail, such as the literal translation and clarification and conversion, addition, omitting and others. The thesis divides the syntactic levels into three parts such as the complex modifiers, long sentences and non-subject sentences. In the application of the Functional Equivalence Theory to the English translation of those sentences, the translation skills are explained in detail such as post-modifier, subordination, transformation of sentences, adding the subject and so on. In the application of the Functional Equivalence Theory to the discourse analysis, the cohesion skills between the paragraphs are explained such as substitution, conjunction and reference, which are very important translation skills to reach the Functional Equivalence at discourse level.There are six parts in the thesis. The first part mainly describes the research background, purpose and the significances as well as the organization of the whole thesis. The second part mainly describes the relevant studies of the Functional Equivalence Theory and GWR home and abroad. The third part introduces Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory including its definition, development background, contributions to and influences on the translation activities. The fourth part analyses the characteristics of Government Documents and the language features of the 2014 GWR. The fifth part of the thesis addresses the translation strategies of lexical items, syntactic and discourse respectively from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory. The sixth part is the conclusion of the whole thesis.The translation of the official documents is a window for the foreign countries to know about China including our national conditions, social development and the government policies etc.. This thesis mainly studies the translation strategies as well as some skills based on the practical translation of 2014 Government Work Report, thus helping us to have a better understanding of the Functional Equivalence Theory and to apply the theory to wilder areas. The translation strategies as well as skills which I studied in the thesis may play the instructive roles in the future translational activities of our governments. At the same time, the study of the thesis can help the foreigners completely know about China and promote the exchanges and spreading of Chinese culture.