On Translating Chinese-specific Terms From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Chinese-specific terms show the unique things and phenomena in China.As a representative work of anti-corruption novels since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,there are a large number of Chinese-specific terms in the book,especially vocabularies and terminologies of the Chinese political system.In the translation practice of the first and second chapter of the novel Ren Min De Ming Yi(In the Name of the People),the author of the report has encountered many relevant translation problems.Therefore,based on the translation practice of the Chinese-specific terms in this anti-corruption novel,this report discusses the translation methods of this kind of terms through collecting and sorting out the relevant problems encountered in the translation.It is expected that this study can be a helpful reference for the future translation of more excellent Chinese political works.Nida's functional equivalence theory emphasizes that the readers of the translated text should have basically same feelings as the readers of the original text,which provides ideas and directions for the translation of Chinese-specific terms.Therefore,based on the Chinese-English translation practice of the chapter one and two of Ren Min De Ming Yi,this report is to study the translation of Chinese-specific terms from the perspective of Nida's functional equivalence theory.The first chapter of the report is an introduction,including the description of the task,the purpose and significance of the study and the structure of the report.The second chapter is the detail process of the translation practice,including before-translation,while-translating and after-translation,from the overall understanding of the source text,the study of the background knowledge,the preparation of translation tools and the arrangement of the translation schedule before translation,to the comprehension of source text,the reference search for certain terms and the final expressions while translating,then to the review of the target text,the feedbacks and suggestions from the supervisor and the revision by the translator according to feedbacks.The third chapter introduces Nida's functional equivalence theory,which is the theoretical basis in the process of the translation practice.It talks about the development,content and characteristics of the theory and its guiding role in the translation of Chinese-specific terms in this translation practice.As the most important part of the report,the fourth chapter discusses the cases on the translation of Chinese-specific terms in the chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Ren Min De Ming Yi under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory.It introduces the definition and the classification of Chinese-specific terms and the obstacles on their translation as well as expounds detail cases of the translation of Chinese-specific terms to achieve the functional equivalence by means of annotation,paraphrase and idiomatic translation.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the report about the findings from the research as well as the limitations and suggestions in the study.The study finds that,due to social and cultural differences,some terms in Chinese do not have their counterparts in English at all.In this case,this kind of terms can be literally translated or transliterated,and then added corresponding explanations to fill the gap in Chinese-English translation,so as to convey their complete meaning to the target language readers.For some Chinese terms which are not translatable into English,especially idioms,proverbs and allusions,translators should judge the meaning of such expressions according to the context,and adopt the paraphrase method to convey the information of the source text to the target text readers effectively and truthfully.And if there are expressions with the same or similar meanings in the target language,which have their own distinct cultural characteristics,translators should try to handle them through idiomatic translation,so as to achieve the equivalence both in form and in content.Of course,the translation methods for the Chinese-specific terms are not just these three,which are only adopted mostly by the translator in the translation of excerpt from Ren Min De Ming Yi.In order to better represent the content and style of the original text,and effectively improve the translation and readers' acceptance,the translator should have rich literature knowledge,master different translation methods and adopt them flexibly according to different situations in the actual translation process.