翻译理论之功能对等

《翻译理论》课程论文FunctionalEquivalence:ACommentontheEnglishVersionofASmallIncident姓名：李娇学号：20140307210年级：2014级班级：2班专业：英语翻译任课教师：罗云二零一七年一月FunctionalEquivalence:ACommentontheEnglishVersionofASmallIncidentAbstract:ThisarticlewillcommenttheEnglishversionofASmallIncidenttranslatedbyYangXianyiandDaiNaiyibasedontheFunctionalEquivalence.FunctionalEquivalencetheorywasputforwardbyAmericantranslationtheoristEugeneNida.Throughcommentingwordsequivalence,syntacticalequivalenceandtextualequivalence,wecanlearnthatNida'sfunctionalequivalencetheoryhasagoodguidinginfluenceontranslation.【keywords】FunctionalEquivalence；EugeneNida；ASmallIncident；comment1.BriefIntroductionofEugeneNidaandHisTheoryEugeneA.Nida(1914--)isoneofthemostdistinguishedcontemporarytranslationtheoristsinthewest.Duringhispastfiftyyearsofstudyintranslationtheoryandpractice,hehasachievedgreatsuccessinthisfield.HistranslationtheoryhasexertedatremendousinfluenceonthetranslationstudiesnotonlyinwesterncountriesbutalsoinAsiancountries,especiallyinChina.Heisgenerallyrecognizedasthemostinfluentialoneamongallthecontemporarytranslationtheorists.Functionalequivalencetheorywasfirstputforwardin1964.Thisprincipleemphasizesthefunctionalequivalenceofinformationinsteadofthedirectformalequivalenceintranslationsoastokeepthemeaningandstyleofthesourcelanguagefunctionallyequivalenttothatofthetargetlanguageasmuchaspossible.Thefunctionalfeatureofthetranslationdependsonthebalanceoftworelationships,thatis,therelationshipbetweenthetargetlanguagereceptorandthetargettextshouldgenerallybeequivalenttotherelationshipbetweenthesourcelanguagereceptorandthesourcetext,anditisthetworelationshipsthatprovidethebasisforfunctionalequivalence.Functionalequivalenceincludesfourlevels:lexicalequivalence,syntacticalequivalence,textualequivalenceandstyleequivalence.2.BriefIntroductionofASmallIncidentandtheEnglishVersionASmallIncidentwaswrittenbyLuXunin1919,duringtheMay4thMovement.Althoughthenovelonlyhasabout1000words,itsdeepmeaningmakespeoplethinkalot.Therearethreemaincharactersinthenovel:I,rickshawman,anoldwoman.Thesubjectofthispassageinvolvesthreeaspectsatleast:first,thecriticismofintellectualtounenlightenedmasses,whichshowedbycriticizingtheoldwomaninthepassage;second,thepraiseoftheintellectualtopartofthecrowd,whichshowedbypraisingtherickshawmaninthepassage;third,theself-reflectionandnewunderstandofintellectual,whichshowedby“my”thoughtsinthepassage.Howtotranslateproperlythatapassagehasconcisewordsbutdeepmeaningisthemajorproblemoftranslators.IchoosetheEnglishversionbyYanXianyiandDaiNaiyi,becauseitisatypicalfunctionalequivalenceTheory-basedtranslation.DaiNaiyiisaBritish,soherreactiontothetranslationequaltothetargetlanguagereader’sreactiontoagreatdegree,andeverytime,YangXianyiwillletDaiNaiyireadhistranslationandmodifyittobasicallyrealizethefunctionalequivalenceofsourcelanguageandtargetlanguage.3.CommentsThebasicrequirementsoftranslationinclude：revealthespiritsandpresentationofsourcetext；naturalpresentation、conciseformandsamereaders’reaction.FromNida“Thereadersofatranslatedtextshouldbeabletounderstandandappreciateitinessentiallythesamemannerastheoriginalreadersdid”(1995:224).Next,Iwillcommentthetranslationthroughwordsequivalence,syntacticalequivalenceandtextualequivalence.3.1).wordsequivalenceWordsandphrasesarethebasicmeaningunits.Strictlyspeaking,besidessomeprofessionaltechnicalterms,thereisnocompleteequivalentwordsandphrases.Atranslatedsentencefirstlydependsonthechosenwordswhetherproperlyornot.let’slookatthetranslationofthetitle：S-T：一件小事Yang:ASmallIncidentAlthoughLuXunchose“一件小事’’asthetitle,thespiritsofthepassagearenosimple.throughoutthecontrast,readerscanfeeltheenlightenmentdeeper.Accordingtotheexplanationof“incident”inOXFORDADVANCEDLEARNER'SEnglish-ChineseDictionary，incident:（1）somethingthathappens,especiallysomethingunusualorunpleasant.（2）aseriousorviolentevent,suchasacrime,anaccidentoranattack.(3）adisagreementbetweentwocountries,ofteninvolvingmilitaryforces[7].AccordingtoLongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish,incident:（1）anevent,especiallyonethatisunusual,important,orviolent.（2）aseriousdisagreementbetweentwocountries[8].Accordingtoexplanation,incidentcanexpressunusualthingsbutwithoutthemeaningofsmallthings,soYangandDaiusesmalltomodifyincidentthatmakethecontrastofthetitleandcontentmoreprominent.3.2).syntacticalequivalenceSyntacticalequivalenceismorecomplicatedthanlexicalequivalence.InEnglish-Chinesetranslation,singularandpluralformisanimportantandevidentproblem.PluralmeaninginChineseisnotexpressedwithanyevidentpluralform,whichisdifferentinEnglish.Moreover,fordifferenttargetlanguage,tender,numberandtenseshouldbetakenintoconsiderationintranslation.Thus,translatorshouldbeclearaboutwhethersuchasentencegrammarexistsinthetargetlanguageornot,andbeclearaboutthefrequencyofsuchsentencegrammar.S-T:风全住了，路上还很静。Yang:Thewindhaddroppedcompletely,buttheroadwasstillquite.Thenovelmentionedabovethat“Itwasthewinterof1917,astrongnorthwindwasblustering...Imetscarcelyasoulontheroad...”,sowecanspeculatethatthewindhaddroppedcompletelyand