A Study Of Translation Of Goldfinch From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Functional equivalence is an important concept in the field of translation studies. Eugene A. Nida first introduced it in 1960s and Chinese translators embraced this idea in the 1980s. Functional equivalence puts content prior to form and pays attention to target readers’response of the translated text.The translation text is selected from The Goldfinch, a novel written by the famous American writer Donna Tartt. This work earns its reputation as a beautifully written, yet intriguing story. This makes it difficult for translators to convey the information of the source text to target language readers.This thesis mainly explores the translation of Chapter 2 of The Goldfinch under the guidance of functional equivalence. It analyzes the translation from four aspects: vocabulary, syntax, text and style. It also makes suggestions of translation strategies from the perspective of source language’s meaning, context and style and readers’ response. In terms of vocabulary, the translator should avoid being fettered by words’ literal meaning but adopt appropriate translation strategies. In terms of syntax, the translator should figure out logical connections between sentences and adjust sentence structure in accordance with the habit of Chinese expression. In terms of text, the translator should take into consideration the specific context and relations between paragraphs so as to guarantee its smoothness and coherence. In terms of style, the translator should grasp the linguistic features of the source text to represent the original style and display the aesthetic value and social function of literary works.Through translation practice and analysis, this thesis proposes that the translator does not have to be constrained by formal equivalence while translating a literary text. Instead, the translator should grasp the meaning and style of the source text and take into consideration both the social context and the features of Chinese language so as to translate the beauty of the source text to the target text.