A Funtionalist Study Of Translating Foreign Proper Nouns:a Comparison On Translation Practices In Mainland China,Hong Kong And Taiwan

Proper nouns refer to the names of individual people, places, organizations as well as the nouns or nouns phrases with special meaning. In English, it is characteristic of a capitalized initial letter. Transliteration has long been a major translation method of proper nouns in Mainland China. Increasing importance has been attached to the translation of proper nouns due to the closer ties between China and overseas countries.Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan differ from one another in the translation of proper nouns owing to their distinctive social background, customs, the dialects, etc. Examples include“戴卓尔”(Hong Kong),“柴契尔”(Taiwan)" and’‘撒切尔”(Mainland China);’‘列根”(Hong Kong),"雷根(Taiwan)" and "里根”(Mainland China)";“雪梨奥运会”(Hong Kong and Taiwan) and’‘悉尼奥运会”(Mainland China). The various translated versions of foreign proper nouns has caused much inconvenience to the smooth exchanges of culture and economy among the three regions of China, exerting negative effect on the development of the Chinese culture as a whole.This thesis is therefore pragmatically important and theoretically significant with a detailed research on the translation of foreign proper nouns in the aforementioned regions. Previous studies on the translation of foreign proper nouns have been focused primarily on error analysis and skill discussion. Greater efforts are needed to seek a feasible theoretical approach to the translation of foreign proper nouns.The thesis makes a descriptive analysis of the similarities and differences in translating foreign proper nouns in the aforementioned regions in light of the functionalist translation theory. On one hand, translating foreign proper nouns into Chinese is meant to help people comprehend the linguistic and conceptual information the proper nouns carry. On the other hand, the functionalist theory emphasizes the achievement of intended function in the target text. As a result, the functionalist translation theory can serve as an ideal theoretical foundation for the research on the translation of foreign proper nouns.The thesis finally arrives at a series of specific strategies in the three regions and the following conclusions:(1) Translators are justified to take appropriate approaches in view of the target readers and target language;(2) As long as the versions can meet local people’s informative and aesthetic needs, disunity of the translated versions in the three regions could be kept properly;(3) With Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan forging closer ties in various fields, it is desirable for foreign proper nouns to be translated in a unified way. Meanwhile, translators from the three regions need to learn and benefit from each other so as to come up with better translated versions of foreign proper nouns.