A Comparative Analysis Of The Language Of Characters In The Two Chinese Versions Of Wuthering Heights:from The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

The character's language is the important part of novels, and it is also the most difficult and crucial part for translators to translate. It indirectly manifests the personality and status of the characters.The present research is based on the theory of functional equivalence put forward by Eugene·Nida, taking the two Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights as research material with the purpose to contrastively analyze the translation of the character's language in these two versions. The meanings of the research are as follows:(1) sincethe introduction of the functional equivalence theory into China in the 1980s, many domestic scholars have already made some research into it, but very few of them use the functional equivalence theory to analyze the translation of character's language. (2) Wuthering Heights, the representative work of Emily Bronte, enjoys great popularity among readers all the time, and has been studied by many researchers. But most of the studies are from the angle of aesthetic appreciation, or analyzed from translators of different genders. However, so far, on study has been directed to the character's language of this novel on the basis of functional equivalence theory. (3) The two Chinese versions in the research, of whom the translators have translated many literary works and have enjoyed a well-known reputation in the field of translation, are very popular among readers. The character's language of the two versions is not only the most difficult part in translation, but also the most important part of a novel. Therefore, to contrastively analyze the translation of the dialogues in the novel is conducive to understanding the accuracy of delivering the meaning of the original version, and also helps to investigate the influence of translators'full understanding of the identity, background, personality of the characters and the situation of the dialogue on the translation of charaters'language.The two Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights in the present research were translated by translator Yang and Song, of which the dialogues are taken as the materials for analysis from three aspects of the functional equivalence theory:lexical equivalence, syntactical equivalence and stylistic equivalence. The result shows that in terms of lexical equivalence, the Chinese version translated by Yang shows a better job than that by Song in choosing more suitable and accurate words. Yang's translation not only delivers the original meaning of each word accurately, but also takes the identity and status of the characters into consideration, which, to a certain degree, influences on the quality of the translation. In terms of syntactical equivalence, the two translators both do well and have their own advantages in dealing with details. In terms of stylistic equivalence, the translation styles of these two translators are extraordinary different, but both of them are very loyal in delivering the original meaning of Withering Heights, meanwhile, they also maintain their own translation style. It's hard to say which one is better. Therefore, according to functional equivalence theory, we can conclude that both of these two versions are of high quality and worthwhile for us to appreciate and learn from.