A Study On English-Chinese Translation Of Songs From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the rapid development of economic cooperation and cultural exchange between countries, song has played an important role in international communication.However, the researches of song translation at home and abroad have been ignored for a long time, and the relevant research results also remain extremely weak. Therefore,English-Chinese translation of songs becomes a significant problem that can not be ignored at present.A song mainly consists of a title and a few lyrics, both of their translation qualities have important effects on its spread. Song title often refers to a concise summary of song, being regarded as its eyes; and lyrics are the foundation of songwriting, in which the essence of the whole song can be reflected. Through intensive studies and analyses, it can be found that functional equivalence theory proposed by Nida plays a guiding role in English-Chinese translation of songs. With this theory, the translation qualities of English songs can be effectively improved.Functional equivalence refers to the response of the target-language readers(the TT readers) should be basically the same as that of the source-language readers(the ST readers). According to Nida, both meaning and form should be considered in translation. However, if form will prevent the TT readers from fully understanding and appreciating the text as the original readers, it is necessary to make some proper adjustments to form for ensuring the transmission of meaning, and this is just the connotation of functional equivalence theory.This thesis makes a comprehensive study on English-Chinese translation of songs from the perspective of functional equivalence theory in terms of titles and lyrics. On one hand, based on the connotation of functional equivalence theory, the application of this theory in title translation is concretely analyzed, and the relevant main principles are also summarized. In this part, how to achieve the equivalence in meaning from language, culture, and the background of songwriting is mainly discussed. On the other hand, in this thesis, lyrics translation is combined with the informative function, the educational function and the aesthetic function of song todiscuss how the Chinese translations respectively achieve the equivalent effect in the three functions, moreover, several translation methods of lyrics translation are also concluded.Innovation is the soul of each paper, and there are three major innovations in this thesis. Firstly, this thesis makes an analysis of English-Chinese translation of songs in two aspects, namely, titles and lyrics, making the whole thesis more comprehensive and systematic; secondly, it puts the theory into practice, mainly elaborating title translation on the basis of the connotation of functional equivalence theory, and combining lyrics translation with the three functions of song, so that the thesis appears more practical and targeted; thirdly, all the examples in this thesis are collected from hundreds of classical English songs by the author personally, and in order to avoid baldness, some latest songs are carefully selected as examples.