汉英习语互译的功能对等研究Chinese-English Translation of Idioms in the Light of Functional Equivalence Theory开题报告
2020-04-17 20:29:44
1. 研究目的与意义(文献综述包含参考文献)
2. literature review 2.1 brief introduction of functional equivalence theory functional equivalence theory is a classic translation theory. for the translator, it is a compulsory theory of the learning process. functional equivalence theory means that the translation seeks not only the lexical meaning but also the equivalence of semantics and style instead of the rigid correspondence of the surface of the text. generally speaking,in the process of translation, the correspondence between words and sentences is not forced, and the translated content must be truly translated in accordance with language forms and cultural practices. for the simplest example, chinglish shows that we do not follow the principle of functional equivalence. another example is the difference in the position of the surname in chinese and english. 2.1.1 the definition of functional equivalence theory functional equivalence,originally called dynamic equivalence, is between languages and cultures, by searching for translational equivalents, reorganizing the form and semantic structure of information in an appropriate way for communication. according to eugene nida, dynamic equivalence, the term as he originally coined, is the "quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been so transported into the receptor language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the original receptors." for example, when the translation is as white as snow, if there is no word "snow" in a language, but there is a "frost" word, the frost is also white, and can be expressed as white as frost. contrary to formal equivalence theory, dynamic equivalence tries to get rid of the language structure. it is possible to associate functional equivalence with how people interact in cultures. in a word, dynamic equivalence translation means to choose the translation which is closest to the original language on a natural basis. 2.1.2 the development of functional equivalence theory the theory and practice of translation is one of nida#8217;s most important works, he definited explicitly”dynamic equivalence”. in the book, i#8217;m impressed by the sentence: ”translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (nida1969: 12). the focus of translation studies shifts from the form of information to the meaning of translation primitives. in later years, nida distanced himself from the term "dynamic equivalence" and preferred the term 'functional equivalence'. he hopes to emphasize the communicative function of translation. in order to further enrich his theory, he takes culture differences and language into account. functional equivalence theory does not exist in isolation, in fact it provides a broader space for translators. 2.1.3 the application of functional equivalence theory there are some techniques are widely used in functional equivalence: (1) adding or taking away information (2) providing glossings (3) altering the material and so on. in order to accurately reproduce the source language culture and eliminate cultural differences, translators can follow the following three steps. first of all, strive to create a translation that conforms to both the original semantics and the original cultural characteristics. secondly, if the meaning and culture message cannot be taken into consideration at the same time, the translator only has to abandon the formal equivalence and achieve the purpose of reproducing the semantics and culture of the original text by changing the form of the original text in the translating. for example, in the english idiom "spring up like mushroom", "mushroom" originally meant”蘑菇”, but the translation into chinese is mostly ”雨后春笋” instead of ”雨后蘑菇”。
because in chinese culture, the image that people are more familiar with is ”springing up like bamboo shoots ”. in addition, if the change of form is still not enough to express the semantics and culture of the original text, the translation technique of ”re-creation” can be used to solve the cultural differences and make the source language and the target language equal in meaning. ”re-creation” refers to the transformation of the deep structure of the source language into the surface structure of the target language (guo jianzhong, 2000, p67) .what need attention is that the translator should transfer the meaning from source language to target language through transferring the kernel words, which requires the translator#8217;s knowledge of the target language. 2.2 the influence of functional equivalence theory in china in the 1980s, nida#8217;s theory was first introduced to china. in china, nida's translation theory, especially functional equivalence translation theory, is the earliest, most frequent and most influential among contemporary western translation theories. for more than 30 years, nida and its translation theory have been a hot topic in the translation industry in china. it has been widely used in various translation practices. scholars in the field of domestic translation are very interested in this theory. over time, nida#8217;s theory has also been challenged. with the deepening of the research and application of nida's functional equivalence theory, more and more problems have begun to appear. in fact, there are some misunderstandings about certain aspects of the theory. therefore, it is necessary to re-examine nida#8217;s theory and accurately understand its meaning. 2.3 a general analysis of mutual translation of chinese and english idioms idioms are the treasures of the nation, reflecting the unique history and splendid culture of each country's language. how to deal with culturally idioms is also a challenge for translators. in view of the difficulty in and the significance of idiom translating, it is a good idea to build a bridge for the eastern and western cultures. 2.3.1 resources of chinese and english idioms although the cultural background behind chinese and english idioms is vastly different, their formation and origin are roughly the same. there are many sources of chinese and english idioms, mainly in the following aspects: natural environment, historical events, myths and legends, literary works, folk customs and living habits. english,as the most active and widely used language,enjoys a vast idiomatic basis with about 4,000 idioms used in the daily communication. english idioms are passed down from generation to generation and preserved through various documents. the preservation of the idioms is also a classic work that has a great influence on western culture. these works are mainly: the bible, shakespeare's anthology and aesop's fables. 2.3.2 similarities and differences between chinese and english idioms the similarities between chinese and english idioms are obvious. first of all, from the connotation, chinese idioms are loaded with a lot of unique content about ethnic customs, traditional culture, religious beliefs and historical classics. in other words, their formation and source are similar. second, both chinese idioms and english idioms are fixed in structures. third, they are all concise, vivid, and rich in content. fourth, in the sense, the meanings expressed by chinese and english idioms are independent and complete. compared with chinese idioms, the fixed collocation and fixed sentence patterns of words and words belong to english idioms. for example, as a matter of fact(事实上).in addition,chinese and english idioms are also very different in form. as we all know, there are many connectives in english idioms, and in chinese idioms, connectives appear much less frequently. in chinese, a speaker being able to use four-character idioms is in most cases a cultured one, whereas it is not necessarily the case in english. in addition,chinese idioms include the unique afterword. 2.4 previous studies on functional equivalence and chinese translation of english idioms 2.4.1 studies on functional equivalence abroad the term ”equivalence” was first came up in jr. firth#8217;s writing in 1957. at that time, he stated that ”the so-called translation equivalence between two languages are never equivalent”(snell-homby, 1988: 37). among of the theories, nida#8217;s functional equivalence or dynamic equivalence stands out. nida#8217;s theory is based on e.v. rieu#8217;s equivalence theory, at first, nida proposed ”formal equivalence” in the early 1960s, and later he improved it into ”dynamic equivalence”, adding the importance of the equivalence of source-language message for the communicative elements. later, nida has published a lot of relevant books to better illustrate his ”dynamic equivalence” and changed it into ” functional equivalence” to avoid misunderstandings. from the time of emergence of functional equivalence, this theory has put a great effect on the translation studies in the west, pushed forward the development of modern translation and inspired the following translators. 2.4.2 studies on functional equivalence at home some chinese scholars believe that nida's functional equivalence theory can be applied to translate idioms in chinese. because chinese idioms have dual meanings, namely literal meaning and internal metaphorical meaning, the internal meaning of idioms is more profound. therefore, when translating chinese idioms, we should not only translate them literally or formally, but translate them by means of free translation, substitution, and annotation, so that the meaning of idioms can be properly translated and functionally equivalent. in general, nida's functional equivalence theory is highly accepted in china and still plays an important role in the development of chinese translation. 2.4.3 studies on chinese translation of english idioms in today's world, english is the most widely spoken language. in order to make english idioms more widely known, foreign translators try to translate them into chinese slang that the chinese people like most. among them, the application of synonymous idioms is very common. such as spending money like running water(花钱如流水). some images of english idioms have the same or similarities in pragmatic or semantical meanings as the corresponding idioms in chinese. for example, an ivory tower(象牙塔). cultural differences determine the translation strategies of pure idioms. chinese is unique, which differs from english in a lot of aspects, for instance, sentence structure and logical connectivity. because the differences between english and chinese languages are huge and heterogeneity is greater than homogeneity, domestication translation strategies are often used in idiom translation. for example, rain cats and dogs(下暴雨). translating such idioms is prone to mistranslations. 2.4.4 studies on english translation of chinese idioms chinese culture is profound and profound, and chinese is unique among the world's language forests, and it has far-reaching influence. china is catching up and the economy has achieved great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. at the same time, the national cultural soft power has to be exported to all parts of the world. among them, more and more people of different nationalities are talking about beautiful chinese, idioms, as cultural messengers of chinese, and need to be translated into english to be understood by more people. functional equivalence theory provides an idea for the translation of chinese idioms. the translator should choose the translation which is closest to the original language on a natural basis. for example,”水滴石穿”is translated into ”dripping water can wear through rock”, and ”自作自受”is translated into ”self do,self have. ” references qing zhang, jiaqi wang,(2010). application of functional equivalence theory in english translation of chinese idioms. journal of language teaching and research, 1 (6),880-888. cathine wearing , (2012).metaphor, idiom, and pretense. nous, 499#8211;524. zahra fotovatnia, mehdi goudarzi b, (2014) .idiom comprehension in english as a foreign language: analysability in focus. procedia - social and behavioral sciences, 98,499 #8211; 503. belinda fust#233;-herrmann, (2008). idiom comprehension in bilingual and monolingual adolescents. dissertation abstracts international,69-08a. dmitrij dobrovol#8217; skij elisabeth piirainen, (2006). cultural knowledge and idioms. international journal of english studies,6(1),27-41. alefirenko, n., lagodenko, j., chumak-zhun, i., goleva, n., zhilenkova, i, (2018). ethnocultural specific of idioms: from traditional to innovative paradigms. journal of history culture and art research,7(2), 78-89. shorouq k. al-houti 1 sultan m. aldaihani 1, (2018)2. letting the cat out of the bag: efl college students#8217; attitudes towards learning english idioms, international journal of higher education,7(1), 24-44 csilla takacs 1, (2015). the fascination of translating idioms, philology and cultural studies, 8 (57) , 35-68 赵润龙,(2014)。
从功能对等角度分析《国情咨文》的英汉翻译策略。
2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案
1 Research Questions :The present paper makes research on the appropriate translation of some English Idioms. The specific research questions are as follows: 1. What strategies are used in Chinese-English translations of idioms to achieve functional equivalence? 2. What strategies are used in English-Chinese translations of idioms to achieve functional equivalence? 3. What are the similarities and differences between the functional equivalence strategies of the translation of Chinese and English idioms? 2 Research Method:This paper studies the functional equivalence of Chinese-English idioms through observing and enumerating some lucid examples and compares the official version with other different versions to make a judgement. 3 Data Collected: The examples are from An English Chinese Dictionary of Idioms in Current Use.