Functional Equivalence Theory Research Articles

A Study on Chinese-English Translation of Culture-Loaded Words in Shanghais Intangible Cultural Heritage under the Theory of Functional Equivalence

In todays era of rapid globalization, effective cross-cultural communication and precise translation work are more vital than ever. Cultural-loaded words, which carry the nuanced meaning to particular cultures, stand at the forefront of this cultural exchange. Shanghai is an international metropolis renowned for its abundant and diverse intangible cultural heritage. Given this rich tapestry of cultural treasures, the demand for an accurate and good translation is imperative. Ensuring that the essence of Shanghai's cultural heritage is accurately preserved and communicated across linguistic boundaries is therefore a crucial task in todays interconnected world. This paper delves into the challenges and strategies involved in translating the cultural-loaded words from Chinese into English within the context of Shanghais intangible cultural heritage. Taking the Functional Equivalence Theory as the theoretical framework, various translation methods including literal translation, transliteration, and free translation are examined in this research, emphasizing their effectiveness in preserving cultural meanings. Practical applications and challenges in translating terms with culturally nuanced terms are demonstrated by analyzing the case studies from the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage. This research not only highlights the significance of balancing cultural context and intelligibility in between source language (SL) and target language (TL), but also demonstrates the role of Functional Equivalence Theory as a vital tool for facilitating cultural exchange. In conclusion, the paper provides valuable insights into the complexities of translating cultural-loaded words and presents approaches for translating cultural-loaded words in Shanghais intangible cultural heritage.

International Publicity Translation Based on the Perspective of Eugene Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory: A Case Study of 2022 Government Work Report

The Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li during the Two Sessions in 2022 is an authoritative summary and future outlook of China’s economic, social, cultural and diplomatic development in the past year, which has attracted wide and high attention from the international community. As an official state document, the Government Work Report is highly authoritative. Therefore, when translating the report into English, translators are supposed to strictly follow the principles of publicity translation on the premise of profoundly grasping the content of the report, so as to accurately convey the content and meanings of the report to foreign readers and spread the positive voice of China. After careful study and comparison, Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory plays a pivotal role in the publicity translation strategy. Taking the 2022 Government Work Report as the research object, this paper analyzes the English version of the report from three levels of lexicality, syntax and discourse from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory, then discusses the skills and strategies of publicity translation, so as to provide useful reference for China’s publicity translation.

Optimizing Bilingual Sports Commentary under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence Approach

This paper explores the application of functional equivalence theory in enhancing bilingual sports commentary, with a focus on Chinese and English languages. By analyzing commentary from various sports events, including the F1 British Grand Prix, NBA games, FIFA World Cup matches, and League of Legends World Championships, the study identifies key differences and areas for improvement in both language commentaries. Chinese commentary often suffers from clarity issues due to excessive commentators and informal language, while English commentary lacks cultural and idiomatic richness. The research demonstrates that integrating functional equivalence theory can significantly improve the quality of sports commentary by ensuring that it is culturally and linguistically tailored to the audience's experience. This approach not only provides a richer viewer experience but also bridges the gap between different linguistic audiences, maintaining the excitement and context of the sports event.

On Subtitle Translation of American TV Series from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the development of globalization and cross-cultural communication, more and more artistic works are introduced into the promising market, China, including film and television works, music and novels. Of which, American TV series have become one of the hottest subjects, which arose enthusiastic pursuit and discussions among Chinese. Compared with domestic TV series, it contains more exciting plots and beautiful background music. What’s more, the quality subtitle is an essential part of this introduction. Regarding the theory put forward by Roman Jacobson, the founder of Prague school, translation is divided into three categories: intralingual translation, interlingual translation and intersemiotic translation, and subtitle translation is kind of interlingual translation. It means an interpretation of source language by means of target language. For film and television works, subtitle acts as a bridge between source language and audiences of target language as well as playing the role of communication and transformation of original emotions and image, which is the best illustration of functional equivalence theory developed by Eugene Nida. Differentiate from traditional literary translation, subtitle translation has its own unique features despite its being an emerging field. It has spatial and time constraint and must reproduce the content of source language as accurately and elegantly as possible within the limited time, as a result, this paper intends to carry out a further study on subtitle translation and functional equivalence theory. In 2018, the American TV series Killing Eve created a fad at home and abroad and the successful subtitle translation definitely contribute to it. In my perspective, its subtitle translation can be considered the great illustration of the principles and requirements of functional equivalence theory, which is a best case to study. From the perspective of functional equivalence theory, the paper has potential to produce a better understanding of subtitle translation's classification, features and related study at home and abroad. Give priority to the role of functional equivalence theory played in subtitle translation so as to give a boost to its development.

Compare Eileen Chang's Theories on Chinese Life and Fashion and Her Self-translated Work Geng Yi Ji Based on Functions

Zhang Ailing is a famous modern Chinese female writer. Due to the influence of her family atmosphere and her own educational experience, she has a high level of expertise in both traditional Chinese studies and English. Her profound literary background in both English and Chinese has enabled her to create many excellent literary works and literary translations. Her articles published in the English monthly magazine of the 20th Century have made her stand out in the literary world, Therefore, Chinese Life and Fashions, as their first English prose published in this journal, has great research value. This article is based on Eugene Nida's principle of functional equivalence, the differences between Chinese and English languages, and some translation strategies to compare and analyze the two texts. These translation strategies include addition, deletion, domestication, etc. The employment of various translation procedures is based on the target language readers' diverse cultural backgrounds, as well as the target language readers chosen by Zhang Ailing. And the use of these strategies also reflects Eugene. Nida's theory of functional equivalence.

Application of Functional Equivalence in English-Chinese Subtitle Translation in Green Book

Under the trend of globalization, movies, as a medium of cultural communication and exchange between countries around the world, are becoming increasingly prominent. Subtitle translation, which has been sublimated from an obstacle between cultures to a convenient tool, can restore the effects of art in movies and television programs, and extend the meaning within the works to facilitate cultural dissemination. In this sense, different meanings within movies as well as cultural background and character features have to be translated. This article intends to summarize the functional equivalence theory, and base the analysis of translation skills and characteristics in the movie Green Book on the theory. Through further consideration for the relationship between the theory and the practice, the research questions of how lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence function and cooperate with one another are to be fully investigated. Finally, the conclusion is to be drawn with the purpose to show the original taste of the movie Green Book and put forward some advice in subtitle translation.

An Analysis of the Translation of English Songs From the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory: A Case Study of Taylor Swift's Songs

An Analysis of the Translation of English Songs From the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory: A Case Study of Taylor Swift's Songs

功能对等视角下《哪吒之魔童降世》的字幕维译研究

The secret to effective film communication is excellent film subtitle translation. The reproduction of the original text is emphasized by Eugene A. Nida’s functional equivalence theory. This paper explores the movie subtitle translation from the standpoint of functional equivalence theory at the lexical, syntactic, and phonetic levels, using the Uyghur translation of “Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child” as an example. It then illustrates the issues with the translation and suggests solutions. The study found that functional equivalence theory can examine the Uyghur translation of movie subtitles thoroughly and offer guidelines for translators to raise the quality of their work.

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

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.

The Utilization of Functional Equivalence Theory and Context Hierarchy Theory in the Translation of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture

The Utilization of Functional Equivalence Theory and Context Hierarchy Theory in the Translation of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture

An Analysis of the Use of Functional Equivalence Theory in Novel Translation—Taking Everything I Never Told You as an Example

An Analysis of the Use of Functional Equivalence Theory in Novel Translation—Taking Everything I Never Told You as an Example

Examining the English Publicity Materials of the Cultural Heritage in Xi’an from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Xi’an, one of the political, economic and cultural centers of ancient China and the starting point of the New Silk Road, has increasingly become an important window through which Chinese culture is introduced to the outside world. The publicity materials of Xi’an cultural attractions contain rich Chinese cultural elements. At present, the study of their English translation in the academic circle is still fragmented, relatively macro and insufficient in the cases, which seriously affects the communication and exchange between Shaanxi and foreign cultures. In this essay, a series of important cultural terms were selected from the publicity materials of Xi’an cultural attractions issued by Shaanxi Tourism Bureau. Then the literal and cultural meanings of these terms in Chinese and English were compared so that the problems in their translation were studied. It is found that there were three kinds of translation problems: disparity in both the literal and cultural meaning; disparity in acquired meaning; disparity in associated cultural meaning. The results of this study have some theoretical value in the translation of important cultural terms, and have certain practical value in introducing the Chinese culture to the rest of the world and improve the image of Xi’an.

Research of Translation Strategies of Culture-Loaded Terms in Three Kingdoms from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Research of Translation Strategies of Culture-Loaded Terms in Three Kingdoms from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

A Contrastive Study on Two English-Translated Texts of the First Memorial to the King Before Setting off for War Under Functional Equivalence Theory

The First Memorial to the King Before Setting off for War reads sincerely. It manifests emotions of loyalty and chastity. It is highly approved of and considered as a representative work of its kind. This paper, taking functional equivalence theory as a basis and contrasting two English-translated texts respectively by Luo Jingguo and Xie Baikui from perspectives of word-level and syntactic-level equivalence, attempts to locate a translated version that can make the reading experience of the target-text receptors more similar to that of the original receptors. According to the analysis, it has been found that Luo Jingguo’s version can elicit a more ideal response from the target-text receptors and that it realizes functional equivalence in a better way.

An Analysis of Translation Strategies Used in External Publicity News from China Daily Based on Functional Equivalence Theory

As one of Chinas most influential news media, China Daily is also an important window for people worldwide to know about the country. This research aims to select four news reports from China Daily and their corresponding English translations, all of which are economic topics, to compare the Chinese and English discourses. At the same time, the research analyzes the translation strategies used during the translation process based on Eugene Nidas functional equivalence translation theory, analyzes the logical differences between Chinese and English languages and corresponding solution strategies, and summarizes the strategies for external news translation. In so doing, the results can better guide the practice of external publicity translation. Research has found that in bilingual news translation, retranslation, including addition, subtraction, and part-of-speech conversion, are commonly used as translation strategies. These strategies ensure that the translator can give full play to his subjective initiative in the translation process and is not limited to the original text. Considering things from the perspective of the target language readers, the translator can also make the translation more in line with the expression habits of the target language. Meanwhile, the translator cannot blindly adapt to the readers and thus damage the information of the original text.

A Report on E-C Translation of The Lord of the Rings Based on Functional Equivalence Theory

A Report on E-C Translation of The Lord of the Rings Based on Functional Equivalence Theory

Study of the Translation Strategies for the Chinese Culture-loaded Words in Chinese Classic Dance under Functional Equivalence Theory

In the past century, Chinese classic dance has entered the spotlight of the international stage. Translation activities and researches on Chinese dance have been increasingly rising. The interdisciplinary study of the translation in Chinese dance field has practical significance and theoretical value for the expansion of the connotation of Chinese translation studies and the development of Chinese dance in the world. One of the features Chinese dance carried is that it involves abundant culture-loaded words. As a consequence, under the direction of functional equivalence theory proposed by Eugene Nida, this study is focused on the analysis of Chinese classic dance terminologies and cultural-loaded words, and the translation strategies of them. Afterwards, the study discovers that, first and foremost, when utilizing the functional equivalence theory, the target texts quality is better; second, translators will use several translation techniques for various categories of cultural-loaded terms in Chinese classical dance; third, several typical approaches that are used in this study with cultural connotations from Chinese classical dance are as follows: literal translation, free translation, annotation and substitution, among which literal translation and annotation are the most popular.

Translation of Long Sentences in Engineering Contracts under the Theory of Functional Equivalence: Taking FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction (Red Book) as an Example

The FIDIC (Fédération lnternationale Des lngénieurs Conseils) Conditions of Contract for Construction are widely used in international engineering contracts, and their translation also plays an active role in the construction of China's own engineering contract texts. Due to the complexity and variety of the logical levels and modifiers, understanding and translation have become a major challenge. This paper will use functional equivalence theory as the theoretical guide, take the English and Chinese versions of FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction (1999 Red Book) as the main research text, analyze the long sentences of FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction and its translation techniques in Chinese translation, and explore how Chinese translation can deal with complex long sentences to achieve the closest and most natural equivalence between the target language and the source language.

Research on English Translation of Silk Patterns under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory

In the contemporary era, as global interactions continue to intensify, the significance of China’s cultural outreach has become increasingly paramount. Chinese silk patterns constitute an integral facet of Chinese culture, and their translation serves as a crucial conduit for intercultural exchange. The explication of silk patterns typically encompasses profound connotations, distinctive stylistic elements, and an abundance of cultural imagery. Nevertheless, the current body of research on silk pattern translation remains somewhat inadequate. While research perspectives have diversified, there are still notable deficiencies in its advancement. This study, guided by the functional equivalence theory and informed by translation practice, endeavors to consolidate the principles and translation strategies that ought to be adhered to during the process of rendering Chinese silk patterns into English. By doing so, it aims to provide valuable insights for the English translation of Chinese silk patterns, thereby contributing to the dissemination of Chinese culture on the international stage.

A Study of the Aesthetics of Translation Using Functional Equivalence Theory

A Study of the Aesthetics of Translation Using Functional Equivalence Theory