Eugene Nida's Functional Equivalence And The Translation Of Designing Your Life

This paper discusses the EC translation of Chapter 7 to Chapter 10 of Design life: how to Build a Well-Lived,Joyful Life.Based on Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory and standards of translation,the writer intends to describe the difficulties and look for techniques and solutions related to the translating process in three perspectives,including linguistic differences,cultural context and styles.From the perspective of linguistic differences,the writer mainly focuses on the analysis and discussion of translating techniques in order to overcome obstacles caused by the differences between English and C hinese.It is difficult to conquer those difficulties by sticking to the principle of formal equivalence,and it is more advisable to act upon dynamic equivalence,which allows the translator to break limitations of words and sentences and makes the translating process more flexible.The writer here utilizes three techniques: class shift,substitution of words and conversion of sentence structures.In terms of cultural context,this paper mainly discusses the translation techniques concerning names of people and place;technical terms and idioms.Translation strategies chosen by translators,literal translation or free translation,should vary with different cultural contexts.Finally,with regard to styles,translation is mainly affected by the style of original author and text types.This paper attaches its importance to the analysis of the vocative texts.It also sums up translation strategies of this type of text in light of Nida's functional Equivalence Theory.On one hand,translators should not adhere to the literal meanings rigidly but try their best to make the translation close to the source texts.On the other hand,it is not suggested to deviate from the writer's original idea in order to fit in the target language and achieve functional equivalence.In short,the techniques we choose in translation should be flexible and variable.Translators should not only attach more importance to loyalty and cultural factors but also try their best to improve their bilingual skills and overall capacity.