论文总字数：33716字

摘 要

《简·爱》, 是十九世纪英国著名作家夏洛蒂·勃朗特的代表作，具有一定的自传色彩。这部作品在世界各地都广泛传播，因此对其的翻译也有很多研究。

 在众多翻译理论中，关于尤金·奈达的功能对等理论是比较出名的，对文学的翻译具有一定指导意义。本文从奈达的功能对等角度下以《简·爱》为切入点，阐述作者对于英汉翻译的一些见解。

文学作品的翻译与其它文本的翻译是不尽相同的。通过研究作者发现，对于文学作品的翻译来说，我们不应该只限于对语言的翻译，更应该对深层文化加以重视，同时也应多关注受翻译者不同的文化背景以及风俗习惯。根据翻译的实例我们可以得知对等理论是可以指导文学翻译的，因为对等理论不仅强调了读者对目标语言的阅读感受是对等的而且还要求翻译时文学语言的对等。换言之就是，对文学作品的正确表述是翻译的基本要求，但是关于作品中体现的非语言问题也有着同样的重要性。随着中外交流的日益频繁，对于文学翻译的要求也在逐渐提高，应当予以重视。

关键词：《简爱》 对等理论 翻译文本

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of economy and technology, the world has become smaller and smaller. The ties between countries are stronger and deeper. As a result of globalization, people can watch foreign movies easily. However, a few obstacles still remain. Among these obstacles, language is one of the biggest barriers. Although English have become more popular around the world, there are still a plenty of people hardly understanding English without translation. Therefore, the translation of the works plays a real important role in foreign novels.

1.1Need for the Study

In new century, novels have been played as an essential tool in cultural communication. However, since different countries have different linguistic features, cultures, and conventions, the translation of novels is not as easy as it seems to be. Therefore, this thesis aims to analyze the translation strategies of foreign and Chinese novels from the aspect of translation strategies of linguistic features and culture.

In general, novels are characterized by wonderful languages, rich meanings, innovative spirit, and different styles. English novels are different from Chinese novels in linguistic features, cultures and social customs. Consequently, the translation of novels is not only the phonetics, vocabulary and grammatical transformation between languages, but also the cultural and traditional transformation. That is to say, someone who wants to translate novels should learn about the social, political, cultural, religious, and economical state of the origin place, and then he can ensure that the translated text achieves the same effect without translation errors. So it is very useful to analyze this topic.

Of course, the general translation principles should be followed by the translation strategies, but these principles are not enough to translate novels. Novels have their own characteristics and communicative purposes. This thesis involves some strategies, such as, literal translation, trans-formative translation, ellipsis translation and replacement translation, and I also cites some examples from Jane Eyre to support my view.

1.2Research Purpose

This paper is to make a tentative research on the translation Jane Eyre through translation method --- equivalence theory. A good translation can reflect charm of the novel, making audience have good impression. However, a defective translation may make audience misunderstand the novel and have no interest in reading it, and the worst result is that it may destroy reputation of the novel at last. Sometimes, the translation cannot present the origin meaning of the novel because of the different culture between two countries.

Translating the English novel into Chinese literally without consideration of Chinese culture background may diminish the English novels’ essence and popularity for the first impression. Therefore, a translated novel as well as the novel itself is of great importance. The translation of the book of Jane Eyre that is analyzed in this thesis makes a research of the equivalence theory. In summary, I wish this paper could be beneficial to call people’s attention on translation from Equivalence Theory perspective.

1.3 Structure of this Thesis

This paper mainly divided into 5 sections, which are the introduction, the literature review, the comparative study of the translated texts based on the equivalence theory, the main findings and conclusion, respectively. And I will have a brief statement below.

The first section is the introduction of this thesis, which has already been listed above and explained some background information of the paper.

The second section is literature review, and it provides some background information that is used in this paper, such as some studies of Jane Eyre and introduction of the equivalence theory.

The third one is the comparative study of the translated texts that based on the equivalence theory, which is the most important section in this paper. In this part, I combine the analysis methods with the data—some representative sections in Jane Eyre that means I analyze Jane Eyre from functional equivalence perspective.

Then there is the summary of the findings, and I also present some limitations of this paper as well.

Finally, there is the summary of the whole thesis in the conclusion section.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies on Equivalence Theory

Nida used to define the functional equivalence as “be closed natural equivalent to the source—language message.”(Nida, 1993) What’s more, he also had a deep discussion on functional equivalence as well. From this definition we can see that there are three essential terms—equivalent, natural, and closest.

Nida’s theory has a quite influence in the field of translation. Among these theories, Nida’s functional equivalence theory was introduced into China much earlier and discussed more widely by researchers. To some extent, the introduction of functional equivalence theory of Nida leads to a new situation of translation. Nida’s functional equivalence theory has been called “equivalence theory”, “the theory of equivalence effect ”, or “functional equivalence” in China (郭建中, 1998).

The predecessor of “functional equivalence” is a “dynamic equivalence”, which was put forward by Eugene A. Nida in Toward a Science of Translating in 1964. He states in the book that “In such a translation one is not so concerned with matching the receptor language message with the source-language, but with the dynamic relationship, that the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message” .It was the first time that the term of “dynamic equivalence” was formally put forward in the field of translation. His principle of “dynamic equivalence” is based on a scientific foundation of information theory, communication theory, semiotics, and so on. He emphasizes on the reconstruction of information -- the adjustment of language structure, and the “equivalence” should be standing on the point of meaning and spirit of the original language, which should not bejust the complete correspondence to the language or language structure. The information is a broad concept, including semantic information, problem information, situational information and psychological information. Meanwhile, considering the receptors‟ status, Nida points out that the quality of the translated text should be judged by the receptor-language readers for which the translation serves for them. 

Actually, Nida’s “dynamic equivalence” is from the starting point of the readers of the target language, and the translators are influenced by the differences of the language and culture between two countries inevitably, and as a result, it is difficult to obtain the complete equivalence as Nida says. In a word, “dynamic equivalence” is limited to the different cultural and historical backgrounds; therefore the responses between the source language receivers and the target language receivers cannot be thoroughly identical. Yet, since many people misunderstand the term “dynamic”, referring to something that has impact. In the 1980s, Nida further modified and supplemented the previous theory to make his theory consummated in order to adapt to the rapid development of translation theory. He changes the term “dynamic equivalence” into “functional equivalence” from one language to another. He further explains that “equivalence cannot be understood in its mathematical meaning of identity, but only in terms of proximity, i,e. on the basis of degrees of closeness to functional identity”. Though the terms are different, “dynamic equivalence” and “functional equivalence” are the same in essence, which both “aim at complete naturalness of expression, and try to relate the receptors to modes of behavior relevant within the context of his own culture; it does not insist that he understand the cultural patterns of the source-language context in order to comprehend the message.” Because of historical and cultural differences, Nida divides the equivalence into two levels, the maximal and minimal equivalence. He defines the maximal and ideal functional equivalence as “The readers of translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially as the same manner as the original readers did”.For the minimal and realistic functional equivalence, he defines as “The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it,to some degree, they can conceive how the original readers of the text understood and appreciate it.” it is almost impossible for the target language readers to understand a translated text exactly as the source language readers do. 

Because there are no exact same languages, language structures, histories and cultures, the maximal functional equivalence can not be realized and just be an ideal one. Nevertheless, Nida provides us with a standard to evaluate the quality of translated works. Of course, that means any translated work between maximal functional equivalence and minimal functional equivalence is acceptable, otherwise any translated work below minimalfunctional equivalence is unacceptable. And the closer to maximal functional equivalence is, the better the translation is.

2.2Translation Studies about Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a novel written by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London in 1847. It is a novel that often be considered ahead of its time because its major role is a thinking and passionate young woman who has the idea of dependence and pursuing for a full life, and has a high moral. Jane grows from a poor and plain woman without captivating charm to a mature one that becomes a compassionate and confident woman. She comments much on the complexities of the human condition in her matures stage. Jane has a deeply pious trust in God, but she is highly self-reliant. In spite of suffering much, Jane is never described as a damsel in distress who needs rescuing. For this reason, this novel is regarded as an important novel that is about the idea of early feminist (or proto-feminist).

When talking about the translation of the novel, we always think of different translation methods, such as the literal translation method, the free translation method, the semantic translation method, the communicative translation method, the foreignization method and the domestication method. When translating, people want to use different methods to translate so that the translated text can express the meaning of the novel completely and smoothly. These methods can be divided into three levels according to present studies, which are sentence level, discourse level and culture level.

1. Sentence Level

Literal translation method and free translation method are the language-level translation. Literal translation implies translate as original language, including the translation of words, phrases, sentences, and rhetorical devices. This method works well when English and Chinese languages have corresponding expressions. However, the situation of corresponding cannot happen all the time. Most of the time, free translation is used more often. Free translation is more focused on meaning than structure. That means the method of free translation is about expressing the meaning, without caring details. Compared with the method of literal translation, the free translation seems to care more about the results. However, these two methods are not opposite but reciprocal.

1. Discourse Level

Communicative translation and semantic translation are included in discourse-level translation. Communicative translation attempts to give its readers the original meaning of the novel. And the effect that the semantic and syntactic structures are as close as the second language that can be achieved by semantic translation, so that the readers can get the original meaning of the novel.

1. Culture Level

The key factor in translation is the exchange of culture, foreignization and domestication are the two methods, which is what I am mainly going to analyze in this paper. It is very significant for interpersonal communication and the exchange of culture in business.

2.3 The limitations of the past Studies

Translation has different classifications based on different perspectives. Firstly, translation contains written translation and oral translation, and the oral translation is also called interpretation. Due to the different target of the methods, generally speaking, translation includes literary translation, specialized translation, and daily translation. Literary translation consists of poetry, fiction, drama and so on, which requires the translators to have high language competence and a profound literary background. Specialized translation mainly means translation in professional areas, such as technology, business, and law. The core duty is to transmit accurate. The daily translation has a very wide concept, which includes many situations in common life.

The process of the translation is complex and paradox. Translation is developing and these paradoxes always been discussed, and till now there are also some problems about translation. In the following parts, I will mainly talk about four most common paradoxes.

The first paradox is the difference between form and content（形式和内容）. Commonly speaking, language is the form and meaning of culture. However, when people who have the same language can communicate together, we just focus on the words or sounds, without noticing language itself. Language is combined with form and content. If we lose any one, it may make the translation meaningless.

The second paradox is translatability and non- translatability(可译性和不可译性). Due to different culture, language, and the patterns of thinking, there are not all the contents that can be translated fully. This is quite usual in the method of literary translation, especially the method of poetry translation. However, there is not a clear boundary between translatability and non- translatability. So when meeting some cultural-loaded words needs translating, I personally prefer explanation rather that translation.

The third paradox contains literal translation and free translation (直译和意译). They are two language-level translations. Literal translation implies translate as original language, including the translation of words, phrases, sentences, and rhetorical devices. This method works well when English and Chinese language has corresponding expressions. However, the situation of corresponding cannot happen all the time. Most of the time, free translation is used more often. Free translation is more focused on meaning than structure. That means the method of free translation is about expressing the meaning, without caring details. Compared with the literal translation, the method of free translation seems to care more about the results. However, these two are not opposite but reciprocal.

Finally, the last paradox is the faithfulness and elegance. The main task for translation is to exchange the idea to people in different languages, which means the paradox of the faithfulness is the main requirement for translation. While with the foundation of faithfulness, we also need elegance, which means translated text can be accept easier and more comfortable. In this way, translation is not only a kind of science, but also a kind of art.

However, the translation methods which are discussed above ignore one important feature—the target audience. Different audiences’ culture means a complex concept including religion, art, morality and acquired ability and custom. Therefore, I mostly focus on the equivalence theory in the translation of novel in this thesis.

3. The Study of Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Equivalence Theory

3.1 A Brief Introduction to the Equivalence Theory

In 1969, famous American translation theorist—Eugene A. Nida put forward equivalence theory (Nida, 1993), which was unlike the traditional theories. It was mainly about the correspondence between the origin language and the language that translators want to translate. Nida’s equivalence theory got many reader’s responses. Nida pointed out that in order to reach the ideal translation, it is necessary to find the closest equivalence. Nida's equivalence theory has opened a new perspective for the study of translation.

There are two different kinds of equivalence: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Formal equivalence puts emphasis on the message of the novel, including form and content. And such translations are about the type of correspondences. The kind of structural equivalence is named as a "gloss translation”. The translator can reproduce the original form and content literally and meaningfully. In short, formal equivalence translation is the reproduction of grammatical units, consistency in the use of words, and the same meanings with the source context.

Dynamic equivalence aims at completing a nature expression when translators do translate. A dynamic equivalence translation puts emphasis on the equivalence of response instead of the form of equivalence. The relationship between the language that the translators want to translate and the origin language should be substantially the same as the content. The principles of dynamic equivalence translation include translation of culture, the selection of style and the message that constituents arrange.

As for the literature translation, there are some principles about functional equivalence. A certain change must be introduced to the translation. If formal translation seems to generate a misunderstanding of the original meaning, it means the literal translation may be retained but a footnote explaining must be added to give an express. Moreover, a certain change must be introduced to the text. If formal translation makes no sense, a footnote will be very useful to explain the nature of the obscurity, unless the text is purposely obscure, which means the obscurity may be retained. It is difficult for people to understand the translation if formal translation is semantically and syntactical, and a certain change is needed. Indicating such changes in introduction or footnotes may be useful. If the formal translation makes people cannot understanding of the original meanings of the text or the translation has a significant loss in the stylistic values of the source text, it is important to make a change to reflect the associative values of the source text. A manner and an adjustment have a significant influence upon the extent, so they should be used in the translation. Adjustments and manners are phonology, lexicon, syntax, and discourse.

3.2Linguistic Differences between English and Chinese Novels

Same words and sentences may have quite different meanings between Chinese and English. English depends on form, and Chinese depends on meaning. In English countries, different sections of a sentence are represented through vocabulary directly.

There is only one predicate sentence in English language under constraints, so it expresses the meaning of action, static characteristics by other means. This feature has various types.

English sentence likes to use non biological words as the subject. English is different from Chinese in that English usually use passive voice of extensive. In English, we do not take the initiative to facilitate coherent context or other occasions. The passive voice is often used in English and it is more prominent for science and technology.

In English language, long sentences are often used, but in Chinese language, short sentences are usually used, and there is another difference between English and Chinese languages. The difference is closely related to the four kinds that mentioned above as well as post modifier (attributive phrases in English or attributive clause), which is located in the verb adverbial phrase or clause, while the Chinese language, the general language should not be too long. All of these cause English language uses long sentences and Chinese likes to use short ones. Therefore, when we translate English into Chinese, English sentence will be translated into several short sentences according to the characteristics of Chinese, and when we translate Chinese to English , a variety of conjunctions are usually borrowed from English to Chinese. Compared to what I said above, Chinese also has its own characters. Different sections of a Chinese sentence are connected by the meaning of words or phrases. English is a form language, and that is why English has different tense, plurals and so on.

Owing to the fact that the Chinese verbs have no morphological changes, which focus on the dynamic description, so in Chinese language, we use verbs a lot. Chinese prefer to use biological words as subjects. In translation, we should carry out the personal conversion in order to make the translated texts have the original meaning.

From Chinese, the use of the passive voice is far lower than that of English. When it translates into Chinese, most of them are translated into active sentences.

In summary, different cultural origins of two countries lead to their various ways of thinking and expression. There are four main differences between them. Firstly, impersonal subject are often used in English language，but Chinese language always uses personal way. Secondly, Chinese language likes to express them indirectly but English language is usually direct. Thirdly, passive voices are used in English language, but Chinese language always takes the active one. Finally, English people regularly begin with putting their main idea at first in their speech while Chinese prefer putting them at the end. Considering what has been discussed above, translators should be careful about the difference and translation in appropriate ways.

3.3Differences between English and Chinese Novels Translation

Intercultural communication implies that people who have different cultural backgrounds interact with each other. Since the globalization and many intercultural organizations, the interactions among people from diverse cultures are becoming more and more frequent. So knowing communication skills and owning the contacting ability seem to be an increasing need for many people. That’s why more and more researches are making on it.

People communicate with each other all the time in current society. When encountering various cultures or behaviors, we may not understand and sometimes even do not like it. However, in order to do business or achieve certain personal relationship, we sometimes need to learn other people’s culture. We might find when we do such behaviors; it does not always consist with what we think of, that means intercultural communication actually is not an easy task. As English is becoming a world’s language, it is no longer a problem for people from different countries to communication. But the culture barrier is still a huge issue. It also suggests that intercultural awareness is very important.

It is also evident that the concern between the difficulties which cultural diversity poses for effective communication and the desirability to enhance intercultural communication, has given rise to the marriage of language, culture ,the recognition and communication of intercultural communication, which regarded as a field to study different academic interests and perspectives. Investigating differences in language and culture is needed in the fusion of cross-cultural communication. Those elements have the biggest impact on the communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. Our focus in this course is the aspects of language, culture and communication which also forms the basis of translation practice.

3.4Translation Strategies Used in the Translation

As what I have mentioned above, translation is a process. And this process can be divided into two main sections—understanding and expressing. It is easy to know we need to understand. However, when we are doing it, it is not as easy as what we think of.

Understanding is the key of translation that can let the translation has a good quality. It contains the understanding of semantics, logic, background information and context and so on. I will introduce them one by one.

A phenomenon of the language includes vocabulary, language structure, expressing methods, and rhetorical skills, which all could reveal the meaning of original language. So the understanding of semantics is the base of understanding a certain article or essay.

Context has two meanings. On the one hand, it implies the linguistic context, which means the vocabulary is next to it in the sentence, paragraph, or the whole text. While on the other hand, it implies the non-linguistic context. It contains all types of things in the world, and the background information, which will be presented below. All of these formed a complex semantic system.

Background information can help the translators have a deeper understanding of the article. When we acquire this professional knowledge, we can express the meaning better and more reliable.

The understanding process is also a process of judging and selecting. Out of the mentioned that tests, the rules of judgment and select also includes logical thinking. The language logic, thinking logic, form logic, and even life logic will all affect the translation to some extent.

In general, the ways to translate have two main perspectives—transforming and compensation. When we translate, we need to transform from one word to another word. And sometimes, the transformation cannot always happen due to many practical reasons. In this sense, we need to find certain compensate to express the similar meanings. Due to the limitation of space, I will just talk about the transformation perspectives in the next chapter.

4. Conclusion

The translation of Literature works is quite different from that of other texts, such as poetry translation and subtitle translation. Compared with other kinds of translation, it is formal and complex. The translation of Literature works in movies is almost written words and expressions, so it has many formal words. At the same time, it covers many aspects, which requires translators having rich knowledge. Besides, the translation should adapt to the target audiences’ specific situations.

Literature translation is not new in translation field and it has complete system and theory. The writer should regard it as a type of innovation and apply the functional equivalence theory into literature translation. In translation, the writer should understand the speaker's meaning firstly and consider China’s social status. Through the above translation examples, we can see that, Equivalence theory is suitable to guide the literature translation. Equivalence theory not only emphasizes on the target language that the readers feel, but also pursues the translation equivalence of the literature works. Literature translation requires translators understanding the source language and using another one language to describe the original texts so that the influence of the literature works on target audience is close to that of literature works on the source-language audience.

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