A Comparative Study On Three Chinese Versions Of The Little Prince From The Theory Of Nida's Functional Equivalence

In these years,with the globalization of children's works,the quality of the translation of children's literary works is particularly important.At the same time,because of the receptors are special,the translation works of children's literature are quite different from others in the process of translation,which are often ignored.This study holds that as for children's literature translation,we should consider the receptors' identity so that children can get the same feeling from the translation works as well as the original readers.Nida's functional equivalence theory states that in order to achieve the ideal translation,we must find the most natural and closest equivalent to the original text,as well as the response of the receptors to the translation should be the same as those of the source language.Therefore,under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory,this thesis analyzes the Chinese translations of the famous novel The Little Prince,which is written by the well-known French writer Anthony de Saint-Exupery,translated by Zhou Kexi,Li Jihong and Ai Ke.The little prince is a symbol of childhood,from whom we can see the most innocent and kindhearted childhood in people's life.The thesis holds that The Little Prince is an excellent work of children's literature and it is also a worthwhile translational text.The three versions of The Little Prince are compared and analyzed on the four aspects of the functional equivalence,which are the reader's response,informative equivalence,cultural equivalence and stylistic equivalence.Therefore,the similarities and translation strategies of the three versions are explored.Through the comparison,it is found out that Zhou's translation version is the closest equivalent of the standards of Nida's functional equivalence theory.Nida's functional equivalence theory provides a new perspective of analyzing the translation of The Little Prince.At the same time,certain practical demonstration and theoretical reflection of Nida's functional equivalence are carried out in the thesis,which further indicates that functional equivalence theory is of great guiding significance of the translation of children's Literature.