A Report On E-C Translation Of The Science Of Storytelling (Excerpts) Guided By Functional Equivalence Theory

The Science of Storytelling written by William Storr reveals the secrets of storytelling from the perspectives of neuroscience and psychology.Unlike the books which talk about skills and methods of storytelling without exploring the reasons behind it,The Science of Storytelling explains that the brain is the ultimate storyteller in essence,and it helps to understand storytelling from a scientific perspective.The translator has chosen this book to translate to provide new thinking for domestic storytelling research.This report focuses on discussing the translation of the first two chapters of The Science of Storytelling under the guidance of Nida’s functional equivalence theory.The Science of Storytelling aims to convey scientific and profound knowledge about storytelling to readers.There are authentic words,complex sentences and figurative language in the original text.The functional equivalence theory emphasizes that the translation should be accurate,natural,smooth,convey the spirit of the original text,and rouse similar reader responses.Therefore,the translator pays attention to the conveying of semantic information and considers readers’ responses and acceptance in the translation process.Typical examples are analyzed from lexical,syntactic,textual and stylistic levels,and translation methods and techniques used in the translation process are summarized in this report.At the lexical level,culture-loaded words and technical terms are annotated for accurate conveying of meaning;idioms are applied to replace the original idiomatic and lively phrases,which achieves the conveying of the deep meaning and original spirit.At the syntactic level,division,restructuring and other techniques are used to deal with long and difficult sentences so that the translation conforms to Chinese expression habits.At the textual level,repetition and amplification are used to achieve cohesion and coherence in the target text.At the stylistic level,literal translation and shift are employed to reproduce the original style.The translation of the first two chapters of The Science of Storytelling under the guidance of functional equivalence theory makes the translator have a deeper understanding of the applications of the theory.The translator hopes that the experience gained from this translation practice may provide references for the translation of similar texts.