A Report On Tourism Escort Interpreting From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

In the 1960 s,the notable functional equivalence theory,put forward by distinguished Nida,exerted tremendous influences on the world.The theory advocates translators to abandon form in style to maintain cultural elements in source language when meaning and style could not be obtained at the same time.Functional equivalence includes lexical equivalence,syntactic equivalence,textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence.Mainly applied in translation,functional equivalence theory,especially its principles,namely meaning delivery,coherence and fluency,and priority to audience's response are far-reaching in interpretation.The author provided tourism escort interpreting service to an American visitor,Brent,at Yuelu Academy,Hunan Provincial Museum and some scenic spots in Zhangjiajie in September 2018.Based on functional equivalence theory and on-site recordings,the report,analyzing problems and obstacles in interpreting at lexical level,textual level and stylistic level,explores available interpreting methods and techniques for improvement.Meanwhile,it also evaluates the author's performance in the last part.The report consists of five parts: theoretical basis,task description,process description,case analysis and task summary.It finds out that transliteration and amplification are effective for culture-loaded words to achieve lexical equivalence.Literal interpretation and liberal interpretation could reveal meanings in specific context to realize textual equivalence.Omission and conversion maintain conciseness and antithesis in Chinese couplets so as to approach stylistic equivalence.Literal interpretation,liberal interpretation,transliteration,amplification,omission and conversion are conducive to tackling problems at scenic spots.Conciseness suffers if transliteration and amplification are both adopted to keep cultural elements in culture-loaded words.It remains to be explored about how to approach conciseness and maintain cultural elements in culture-specific words at the same time.Therefore,the report is far from being perfect.The author hopes the report could be a reference to interpreting learners.