A Comparative Study On The English Translation Of The Real Rights Part Of The Civil Code And The Property Law(Expired)from The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

English versions of Chinese laws and regulations enable foreigners to understand the contents and principles of such legislation.Most of the contents in the Property Law which has expired are preserved unchanged in the Civil Code.Nevertheless,the translation of the same Chinese legal provisions is sometimes different.Eugene Nida proposed the functional equivalence theory,arguing that correspondence in meaning should have priority over correspondence in form.The function of legal documents and legal translation includes communicating legal information and values to non-experts.Nevertheless,traditional studies on legal translation tend to over-emphasize linguistic correspondence.This thesis uses Nida’s theory as the framework,and employs qualitative methods to study the official translation of the two laws.It aims at answering the following questions:(1)What differences are there between the English translation of the Real Rights Part of the Civil Code and that of the Property Law?(2)From the perspective of functional equivalence,why are there differences between the two versions?(3)Is there any improvement room for C-E legal translation in light of Nida’s theory?This thesis finds that(1)the modifications in the Civil Code can be divided into three categories,and most of them make the genuine,and sometimes implied,meaning of ST explicit,and explain the intricate legal relations.Therefore,the translated Civil Code is more acceptable to targets readers and better fulfills the function of legislation.Nevertheless,the translation of the Civil Code is not yet perfect in this sense.For example,the excessive use of shall should be addressed.(2)the translated Civil Code is more receiver-oriented,with a shift of focus from mechanically replicating ST structure to exposing and delivering the real meaning of the source text.(3)translators should take into account ordinary readers’ capacity for understanding and make their translation comprehensible.Even in legal translation,changes to ST structure and other formal adjustments can be justifiable.