A Functionalist Skopos Theory-based Study Of Strategies For English Translation Of Chinese Neologisms

With the rapid development of society, a lot of new things have sprung up like mushrooms. Accordingly, to mirror the changes, numerous Chinese neologisms have been coined to name the new things. What's more, Chinese neologisms not only carry a certain social connotations, but also embody Chinese culture nowadays, which have become an important subject in the field of language research. Although the translation of Chinese neologisms have intrigued translators and made great achievements, there indeed exist many problems such as mistranslation, mechanical literal translation, random translation and cultural loss. These are mainly due to a lack of systematic theoretical guidance and negligence of the relation between Chinese neologisms translation and its intentionIn view of the above-memtioned problems, this study, guided by the functionalist skopos theory, conducted a systematic analysis of a collection of translated neologisms and then concluded with two primary purposes of Chinese neologism translation: to make the translation easily understood by the target receivers and to popularize Chinese unique culture to the outside world. In view of these purposes, three translation principles are proposed to be applied in English translation of Chinese neologisms: the principle of conveying accurate connotation, the principle of observing target language habits and the principle of valuing the target receivers' acceptance. By combining the purpose of Chinese neologism translation and its principles, the author raised instrumental translation strategy and documentary translation strategy. As for the first purpose, instrumental translation strategy which includes equifunctional translation and heterofunctional translation should be adopted. And for the second one, documentary translation strategy including word-for-word translation, literal translation, literal translation with explanations and foreignizing translation should be used.Different translation purposes demand different translation strategies. After the study of the theory and amount of cases, it can be concluded that if they intend to popularize Chinese unique culture to the outside world, translators should employ the documentary translation strategy to fulfill this purpose by retaining the original language style, form, content and even the situation. But if translators are more concerned about the target receivers' understanding and acceptance, instrumental translation strategy is more appropriate because of the source text adapted to target-culture norm and language conventions. Therefore, the functionalist skopos theory can guide the C-E translation of Chinese neologisms effectively and feasibly. Under the guidance of the functionalist skopos theory, it is hoped that the present research can provide useful reference for future similar translation practice.