A Preliminary Study On Functional Equivalent Translation Of Hypotaxis And Parataxis

The comparison of texts in different languages inevitably involves a theory of equivalence. Equivalence can be said to be the central issue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have caused heated controversy, and many different theories of the concept of equivalence have been elaborated within this field by different translators. Among them, Eugene Nida's functional equivalence is an important milestone in the study of translation theory and is applied extensively in the translation practice. In the field of English-Chinese Contrastive Study, it is generally agreed that parataxis, as opposed to hypotaxis, is an important subject, and also the most important feature distinguishing the Chinese language from English. The use of hypotaxis and parataxis can be found almost everywhere in literature. Then, how to render hypotaxis and parataxis from one language into another language through the application of the functional equivalent theory? This paper firstly studies the general principle in the functional equivalent translation of hypotaxis and parataxis and then lists three approaches in handling hypotaxis and parataxis: the first one is that both the form and the function are or almost are maintained; the second is that the function is maintained, but the form is altered; and the third is that the function is maintained, but the form has to be cancelled. Finally, a number of samples from the English version of A Dream of Red Mansions are quoted and analyzed so as to demonstrate the application of the functional equivalent translation of hypotaxis and parataxis.