A Study of the English Translation of Chinese Buzzwords from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

As the internet and social media develop further, there are numerous buzzwords used by the citizens, which are the fashion phenomena in China. As inter-cultural communication between China and other countries becomes deeper and frequent, an increasing number of foreigners have good command of Chinese culture. As a result, as the cultural bridge between the source and the target receptors, Chinese-English (CE) words translation become increasingly important, playing an obvious role in facilitating our communications. This study aims to apply the functional equivalence theory to the English translation in translating Chinese buzzwords so as to translate the original texts accurately. Four main methods including lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, discourse equivalence and stylistic equivalence are applied to have the C-E translation. The result is that lexical and syntactic equivalence are widely applied in the translation practice, which conveys the implicated cultural meanings correctly and feasibly. Furthermore, the methods of discourse equivalence and the stylistic equivalence can also be used to elaborate the implicit meaning as close as the target language. This study examines the translation practice under the guidance of Nida’s theory, providing the proper strategies for interpreters.