Strategies Of English-Chinese Translation Of Postpositive Attributes Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

The postpositive attributive is an indispensable part in both English and Chinese grammar. However, English postpositive attributes are more diversified in their formation and more widely used than Chinese postpositive attributes. In addition, the syntactic function of English postpositive attributes is not always equivalent to its semantic relation. All these lead to difficulties in translating English postpositive attributes into Chinese. Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory holds that translation is not literal equivalence but to achieve functional equivalence between the two languages, and translation should not stick to formal equivalence. This thesis analyses the syntactic and semantic features of English postpositive attributes, and holds that English postpositive attributes have three semantic features, i.e. modifying and describing the headword, supplementing and explaining the headword, and logically showing the circumstance of actions in the main clause. This thesis also points out that according to their different semantic features, these postpositive attributes can be translated with methods of preposing, juxtaposing, and converting respectively. Translation practice proves that understanding different semantic features of postpositive attributes contributes to the choice of translating strategies and makes the translation work equivalent to the source text to the greatest extent.