A Report On The E-C Translation Of A Special Book For Food Safety Officer Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

“Food is the most important thing for people,and food safety is the top priority.” With the continuous improvement of people’s quality of life,food safety issues have attracted more and more attention from the international community,and international exchanges on food safety issues have become increasingly frequent.More and more scholars have also noticed the importance of food safety text translation in improving the domestic food safety management system.Based on this,the translator selects the third chapter of the latest edition of A Special Book for Food Safety Officer,a special manual published by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI)in 2022 for the qualification examination of food safety officers,as the source text for the English-Chinese translation practice.A Special Book for Food Safety Officer provides a comprehensive and detailed introduction to food safety,covering issues related to food safety laws,food packaging,food testing and analysis techniques,and food contamination.It is a scientific and technological text that aims to convey information and has the characteristics of authenticity and objectivity.Its language is precise with a clear logical structure,and its content is specific to the purpose of presenting scientific and technological information.In addition,the text contains relevant knowledge of law,science and technology,microbiology,chemistry,etc.,which is highly professional.In order to fully reflect the characteristics of the original text,restore the original information and embody its characteristics of professionalism and objectivity,the translator adopts Functional Equivalence Theory to guide the translation.The theory of Functional Equivalence emphasizes finding natural equivalent discourse in the target language as close as possible to the source language information,that is,achieving functional equivalence between the two languages rather than word-for-word translation,firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.Equivalence includes lexical,syntactic,textual and stylistic equivalence.Among them,stylistic equivalence is the most intuitive aspect of achieving functional equivalence in translation,which is embodied in lexical,syntactic,and textual equivalence.The requirements for the accuracy of information transfer in the translation of scientific and technological texts and the same feelings of the target language readers and the source language readers coincide with the theoretical expectations of the Functional Equivalence Theory.Therefore,the translator adopts the theory to guide this translation practice,and specifically discusses translation strategies and methods from the four levels of lexis,syntax,text and style.At the lexical level,the translator mainly discusses the translation of professional words and common words in scientific and technological texts,and adopts the methods of terminology normalization,word conversion and semantic supplement for translation;at the syntactic level,the translator mainly carries out translation through voice conversion,split and reorganization and omission and reduction;at the textual level,the translator mainly takes the textual coherence and structural consistency as an example to analyze the problems of textual cohesion.Through this translation practice,on the one hand,the translator hopes to promote people’s awareness of food safety;on the other hand,by introducing the Indian experience and requirements for the training of food safety officers to the nation,the translator hopes to promote the exchange of professional knowledge and provide the latest experience of foreign countries for the training and management of food safety officers in China.This translation practice has improved the translator’s translation skills and will also help to enrich domestic research on food safety translation,which can be a reference for the translation of such literature in the future.