A Report On The C-E Translation Of An Illustrated Introduction To Qi Culture(Excerpt)Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

The report is based on the Chinese-English translation of the first four sections of Chapter Three from An Illustrated Introduction to Qi Culture.The source text introduces the culture and history of the State of Qi from the time when Jiang Taigong founded Qi to the reign of Duke Xiang of Qi.It’s a mixed text of modern Chinese and classical Chinese which includes quite a lot of culture-loaded words and poems.Short sentences and non-subject sentences are often used.It is coherent and objective.Under the guidance of Nida’s functional equivalence theory,based on the linguistic features of the source text,the translator picks out the representative translation cases and summarizes the corresponding translation strategies and methods.At the lexical level,free translation can be used to translate culture-loaded words and idioms to achieve cultural equivalence.Conversion of word class and omission can help achieve content equivalence.While translating the names of persons,places,and books,literal translation with annotation can be used to achieve meaning equivalence.At the syntactic level,it is better to analyze the structure of the sentence while translating long sentences.The methods of conversion of syntactic order,conversion of voice,combination,and amplification can help narrow the differences between Chinese and English.In terms of discourse,it can make the context more coherent and cohesive by using conjunctions and relative words and using the method of information reconstruction can help achieve functional equivalence at the textual level.The report further enriched the application practice research of functional equivalence theory and can provide a reference for Qi culture translation practice.