翻译理论之功能对等

翻译理论之功能对等
《翻译理论》课程论文
Functional Equivalence: A Comment on the English Version of A
Small Incident
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
Functional Equivalence: A Comment on the English Version of A
Small Incident
Abstract: This article will comment the English version of A Small Incident translated by Yang Xianyi and Dai Naiyi based on the Functional Equivalence. Functional Equivalence theory was put forward by American translation theorist Eugene Nida.
Through commenting words equivalence, syntactical equivalence and textual equivalence,w e can learn that Nida's functional equivalence theory has a good guiding influence on translation. 【keywords】Functional Equivalence；Eugene Nida；
A Small Incident ；comment
1.Brief Introduction of Eugene Nida and His Theory
Eugene A. Nida (1914--) is one of the most distinguished contemporary translation theorists in the west. During his past fifty years of study in translation theory and practice, he has achieved great success in this field. His translation theory has
exerted a tremendous influence on the translation studies not only in western countries but also in Asian countries, especially in China. He is generally recognized as the most influential one among all the contemporary translation theorists.
Functional equivalence theory was first put forward in 1964. This principle emphasizes the functional equivalence of information instead of the direct formal equivalence in translation so as to keep the meaning and style of the source language functionally equivalent to that of the target language as much as possible. The functional feature of the translation depends on the balance of two relationships, that is, the relationship between the target language receptor and the target text should generally be equivalent to the relationship between the source language receptor and the source text, and it is the two relationships that provide the basis for functional equivalence. Functional equivalence includes four levels: lexical equivalence, syntactical equivalence, textual equivalence and style equivalence.
2.Brief Introduction of A Small Incident and the English Version
A Small Incident was writtenby Lu Xun in 1919, during the May 4th Movement. Although
the novel only has about 1000 words, its deep meaning makes people think a lot. There are three main characters in the novel: I, rickshaw man, an old woman. The subject of this passage involves three aspects at least: first, the criticism of intellectual to unenlightened masses,which showed by criticizing the old woman in the passage; second, the praise of the intellectual to part of the crowd, which showed by praising the rickshaw man in the passage; third, the self-reflection and new understand of
intellectual, which showed by “my” thoughts in the passage.
How to translate properlythat a passage has concise words but deep meaning is the major problem of translators. I choose the English version by Yan Xianyi and Dai Naiyi, because it is a typical functional equivalence Theory-based translation. Dai Naiyi is a British, so her reaction to the translation equal to the target language re ader’s reaction to a gre at degree,and every time, Yang Xianyi will let Dai Naiyi read his translation and modify it to basically realize the functional equivalence of source language and target language.
/doc/805958643.html,ments
The basic requirements of translation include：reveal the spirits and presentation of source text；natural presentation、concise form and same readers’ reaction. F rom Nida “ The readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did”(1995:224). Next ,I will comment the translation through words equivalence, syntactical equivalence and textual equivalence.
3.1).words equivalence
Words and phrases are the basic meaning units. Strictly speaking, besides some professional technical terms ,there is no complete equivalent words and phrases. A translated sentence firstly depends on the chosen words whether properly or not.let’s look at the translation of the title：
S-T：一件小事
Yang: A Small Incident
Although Lu Xun chose “一件小事’’ as the title, the spirits of the passage are no simple.through out the contrast, readers can feel the enlightenment deeper. According to the explanation
of “incident” in OXFORD ADV ANCED LEARNER'S English-Chinese Dictionary，incident:（1）something that happens, especially something unusual or unpleasant.（2）
a serious or violent event, such as a crime, an accident or an attack. (3） a disagreement between t wo countries, often involving military forces[7]. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, incident: （1）an event, especially one that is unusual, important, or violent. （2） a serious dis agreement between two countries[8]. According to explanation, incident can express unusual things but without the meaning of small things, so Yang and Dai use small to modify incident that make the contrast of the title and content more prominent.
3.2).syntactical equivalence
Syntacticalequivalence is more complicated than lexical equivalence. In English- Chinese translation, singular and plural form is an important and evident problem. Plural meaning in Chinese is not expressed with any evident plural form, which is different in English. Moreover, for different target language, tender, number and tense should be taken into consideration in translation. Thus, translator should be clear about whether such a sentence grammar exists in the target language or not, and be clear about the frequency of such sentence grammar.
S-T:风全住了，路上还很静。

Yang:The wind had dropped completely, but the road was still quite.
T he novel mentioned above that “It was the winter of 1917, a strong north wind was blustering...I met scarcely a soul on the road...”, so we can speculate that the wind had dropped completely and people on the road,on the contrary, the road still quite. That Yang uses “but” “still” is properly, which can
express the transition relation.
3.3).textual equivalence
In order to achieve textual equivalence, language is not the unique element we should consider, what we should also take into consideration is how the language represents meaning and performs its function in a specific context. Textual equivalence consists of three parts, textual context, syntactical context and cultural context. T extual context lies in analysis of language, which aims to judge the meaning of words and semantic units in original text, and is based on analysis of meaning and connotation of the passage. Syntactical context includes the concrete person and things involved in communication, the channel of communication, the relationship
among participants and mental emotions.
S-T:我想，我眼见你慢慢倒地，怎么会摔坏呢，装腔作势罢了，这真是可憎恶。

车夫多事，也正是自讨苦吃，现在你自己想法去。

Yang:I thought:I saw how slowly you fell, how could you be hurt? Putting on an act like this is simply disgusting. The rickshaw man asked for trouble, and now he is got it. He will have to find his own way out.
Lu Xun expresses the subject that the intellectual criticized unenlightened masses in there. Although the author did not use exclamatory sentences to emphasize, we still can feel the strong displeasure of “mine” to the rickshaw and the old woman from the textual and main idea of this novel, because “I” think the old woman was putting on an act and the rickshaw asked for trouble. But from Yang’s translation, we can not feel the strong displeasure or the writer’s emotion.
4.Conclusion
From using Functional Equivalence to comment this short
no vel, we can find that Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory is advantageous instruction to translation, and through commenting others’ translation we also can improve our own translation ability. As a translator, we should not translate the source text just from its literal meaning. we should consider a lot in translating, combine textual and correctly comprehend the author’s emotion in his work. Let the readers of a translated text are able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did.
References
马会娟.苗菊. 《当代西方翻译理论选读》[M]. 外语教学与研究出版社，2009.4。