On C-E Company Profile Translation from Functional Equivalence Perspective.doc

on c-e company profile translation from functional equivalence perspective从功能对等理论看公司简介的汉英翻译abstractas the booming of our financial condition and the accelerating globalization, increasing numbers of companies are in or going into the participation of the international competition. the company profile plays an important role in propaganda, setting up a good and healthy company image and expanding foreign markets. so the c-e translation of company profile turns in to a new research subject. however, the functional equivalence theory which has established by eugene nida makes great sense of it for its translation purpose. in nidas opinion, functional equivalence refers to the closest natural equivalence. and translation signified the cultural transfer, communicative interaction and a cross-culture event based on target language.this thesis studies on the definition, function and character of company profile, and the theoretical principle of company profile translation, aim at providing the viable translation tactics of company profile from the functional equivalence perspective. according to the functional equivalence principle, the main pursuit of company profile translation is the equivalent between the original text and target text, so that it can get the same react in a different cultural background.key words: company profile; translation principle; functional equivalence.摘 要随着全球化的不断推进及我国经济的迅猛发展，越来越多的企业正在或即将参与国际竞争。宣传企业，树立良好的企业形象，拓展国外市场，打造世界性名牌，企业简介起着举足轻重的作用。由此，公司简介的汉英翻译也渐渐成为一门新的研究课题。而终其翻译目的，美国语言学家尤金奈达提出的功能对等翻译理论对公司简介的翻译有着重要的意义。功能翻译理论认为，翻译是一种文化转化，一种交际互动，一种以目的语功能为导向的跨文化活动。本文详细讨论了公司简介的定义、功能和特点，以及公司简介翻译的理论基础，旨在从功能翻译理论的角度为公司简介的汉英翻译提供一些可行的翻译策略。根据功能翻译理论，公司简介翻译的主要目标是寻求原文与译文的等效，使其在不同的文化传统和语言习惯中达到同等的效果，为企业起到更好的宣传作用。关键词：公司简介；翻译策略；功能对等acknowledgementsthis thesis is the product of the author and the supervisors two months of efforts. it has been repeatedly revised under the guidance of professor . it was the joint efforts of both the author and the teachers in foreign languages department. i would like to express my heartfelt thanks to professor and the teachers who have helped the author in the process of the thesis writing. i will also give my thanks to my classmates and friends who have helped me revise the thesis. last but not least, i will give my heartfelt thanks to my parents who have been always supporting and encouraging me. contentsintroduction11 functional equivalence theory21.1 brief introduction of functional equivalence21.1.1 the analysis phase in translation31.1.2 the transfer stage in translation31.2 the connotation of functional equivalence41.3 principle of functional equivalence52 analyses on the present company profile translation72.1 practical translation problems72.2 cultural translation problems92.3 language translation problems103 company profile translation principles on functional equivalence basis113.1 cultural transfer and communicative interaction, core of functional equivalence theory123.2 strategies of company profile translation123.2.1 posed layout in accordance with translation requests123.2.2 implementation strategy on the basis of text function13conclusion13bibliography1414introductionrecently, there has been a spate of need in how to translate a company profile. as the booming economic globalize and the step forward of our foreign trade, the english version of company profile becomes necessary in a company. however, there still has no rule to follow about how to translate the company profile or how to write a sterling english version company profile. obviously, most company has great problems on the english company profile. such as literal translation, chinglish, the discrepancy between the translated text and the source language and the corporate culture translation always makes the reader confused. therefore, a standard principle of chinese-english company profile translation has already becomes an urgent need.in the existing company profile translation texts, we can see that the translators tend not considering the non-linguistic factors such as the readers, target language culture, the idiomatic expression of target language and the availability of the translation text. but show a blindly loyal to the source text in the linguistic level. as a result, it undermines the effect of the company profile. whats more, it has release its negative impact on the company image and the loss will outweighs the gain. based on the functional equivalence theory for guidance, the effect of the company profile as the starting point, this thesis analyzes the phenomenon and put forward the corresponding countermeasures from two aspects of theory and practice, and find out the translation strategies for company profile translation.functional equivalence theory was put forward by eugene nida an american linguist. the main academic activities of his life are all around the bible translation. in the process of bible translation, nida developed a set of unique translation theory based on the practice, and finally became a classic translation theory. the core concept of nidas theory is functional equivalence. functional equivalence means to pursue a functional equivalence between source text and target text, but not a formalist literal equivalence. in the theory of functional equivalence, nida indicated that the aim of translation is to pursue the closest natural equivalence on both semantics and type of source text. in nidas opinion, the relevant definition of translation specifies the glossary significance in translation includes not only the equivalence of style, but also style and semantic equivalence, as well, translation conveys both of the information about surface vocabulary and profound cultural information. functional equivalence has four aspects, lexical equivalence, syntactical equivalence, section equivalence, style equivalence. in these four aspects, nida considers the meaning most important and form the next. the author will introduce the current status of company profile translation and the development and background of functional equivalence at first. find the contact between the two aspects, and point out the company profile translation can take up from the angle of functional equivalence. and then take the current english company profile for example, point out the deficiency, and retranslate it on the theory of functional equivalence. by comparison of the two versions, we can summarize a new viewpoint.1 functional equivalence theory 1.1 brief introduction of functional equivalencefunctional equivalence theory was put forward by eugene nida. in the theory of functional equivalence, the aim of translation is to pursue the closest natural equivalence on both semantics and type of source text. nida thinks it includes the following stage in translation process, analysis, transfer and reconstruct. first, translator analyses the information of the original language, and dissect the structure into the simple form. on this basis, they transfer the original text and reorganized it into normal translated text. 1.1.1 the analysis phase in translationthe analysis phase includes three aspects, they are, the grammatical relations between components, the extension meaning of semantic units and connotations of grammatical structure and semantic units. 1.1.2 the transfer stage in translationtransfer means transfer the event-noun from one language into another language. in usual, we change it into verb form. and similarly, we change the abstract noun into adjectives and adverbs. nida thinks, there has generated four basic structure units when we transfer the various expression of surface structure into core structure, they are thing, event, abstract and relation. in addition, nida put forward the methods about how to restrict and establish the meaning of lexical units in certain context, namely, limited the meaning by the syntactic structure, and distinguish meanings by semantic structure. there have three relationships with similar meaning, proximity relation, connotation and overlapping relations. nida emphasized, we cannot be restricted to study the syntactic relationship and extensional meaning of the linguistic unit during the original language analysis, in information transfer, style is with more significance. in the transfer stage, nida puts forward translation countermeasures to the semantic non-corresponding vehicle difference, vehicle and semantic default. the connotation and extension of the structure should be pay special attention during translation; nida presented three methods to transfer the extension content, recombination, decomposing and polysynthetic composition. as far as nida considered, recombination process involves two main categories: form and function. the form category needs to recombination according to the styles and the literary form, and the function category requests for attention to the reception of the readers. therefore, the core of the translation countermeasures which has presented by nida is the semantic contrastive analysis and semantic equivalence. 1.2 the connotation of functional equivalencein 1964, nida had published his toward a science of translating, in this book, he presented formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. he emphasis on the last one specially, because in his view, there has great different on form and content between every language, and dynamic equivalence pursues the closest natural equivalence between original language and target language. later, nida replaced dynamic equivalence with functional equivalence. as well, functional equivalence emphasizes that, the response of the target text and the original text should be generally the same by both of the readers. translation involves many influence factors, such as the reliability of the original text, text variations, expected readers and skopos, thus, equivalence in every aspect of translation is no doddle. equivalence is relative, many different translation is actually reflects different degree of equivalence. its means that equivalence does not equal to identity, but only means proximity. from this, it can be seen that functional equivalence is absolutely not identity, but roughly equivalence. so flexible handling is allowed to reparation the diversity of different language. it has different appropriateness according to functional equivalence.nida proposed functional equivalence has two levels: the highest and lowest levels of equivalence. the highest level, namely, means the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did. but it was just an ideal realm which could never been achieved, especially when the culture and aesthetic differences are obvious between the two language. the lowest level means the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciate it. this is the lowest practical significance of functional equivalence; the translated text which was below this level can not be accepted. functional equivalence is an objective theory of equivalence translation; it pursues the effect of translated text, and emphasize the readers of a translated text should have essentially the same response as the original readers did, and the quality of the translated text will be measured by it. therefore, in the process of translation, the translator should focus on the meaning and spirit of original text, but not the language structure. this is what nida had advocated meaning is the most important and form the next. 1.3 principle of functional equivalenceif literal translation can accomplish equivalence in function and form at the same time, it must be the perfect translation, and this is what nida has pursued. but language is different, each language has a unique productive, sequence, syntax, discourse markers and various special language forms. such as poetry and adage, every language has rich vocabulary to express the characteristics of its nation and culture. thus completely equivalent of form and function are rare. when we cant make the equivalence on form and function at the same time, we should take account of the original content first, but as the connotation of functional equivalence has reveals, we must adjust the form if we want to keep the original content. this is the principle which functional equivalence insisted. proper adjustment or change of the form need to following the principles as follow:1. if the literal translation is likely to cause referential misunderstanding, translator must adjust the form. in most cases, the change of visual culture will be easily accepted by the readers of translated text. but sometimes we can take annotations on literal translation. the most simple example is the formulae when chinese greeting people, “吃过了吗？”“到哪去？”“干什么去？” these are all formulaic speech, and they are not really wants to know the answer. it will be difficult to accept for the westerner, if translate it as “have you eaten?” “where are you going?” “what are you going to do?” they will consider it as interfere in his private affairs. but simply translate it as “hi!” can put the meaning naturally and clearly. 2. if there has no significance and clear meaning in the literal translation, we must adjust the form. meaningless phrases in the translated text were uncomfortable works. the translator should make some speculation, choose a most likely meaning in the text, and enter a note to state the uncertainty of the original text. 3. if the translation beyond peoples average understanding in both semantics and syntax, the form must be adjusted. in nidas opinion, the needs of readers are superior to the traditional form of language. 4. if the literal translation would cause misunderstanding of the original text, the form must be adjusted. in chinese, “农民” has no derogatory, but if we literal translate it as “peasants”, it means uneducated and disadvantaged people, or “hillbilly”. in english culture, “dragon” is the symbol of evil, but in chinese is quite different. so when people explain “亚洲四小龙”, they always say it “four asian tigers”, but not “four asian dragons”.2 analyses on the present company profile translationthe author has analysis on some of the company profile, and found that the translated text just blindly loyal to the original text in linguistic level without considering the skopos, culture of target language, regardless of the acceptance of the target readers and the practicality. this thesis analyzed this phenomenon from the two aspects of linguistic and extra linguistic, and puts forward appropriate countermeasures. because the source text and translated text has different conditions, and affected by various factors which would influenced by the hypertext, we will have translation problems in translation process. this thesis classify the problems of company profile translation into four aspects, they are cultural translation problems, practical translation problems, language problems and unique text problems. translators ignorance of translation problems will affect the function of the translated text, and the unresolved of translation problems will produce translation errors. 2.1 practical translation problemsaccording to the theory of functional equivalence, translation process is a pursuit of equivalence effect between the source text and translated text. practical translation problems were caused by the disparity of these two effects. for example, 年初，公司为满足国内市场对专用车的需要，及时调整产品结构并成立专用车公司，在做稳、做强客车的同时，投巨资实施专用车项目，精心打造有洛阳宇通特色的专用车产品，本着“低端切入、高端占领”的原则，经过精心筹备，四大系列产品即混凝土搅拌车系列、散装水泥车系列、加油车系列、洒水车系列一经投放市场，便以其全新的设计、优美的造型、细腻的工艺赢得了市场的青睐。the initial version: in the early of 2003, in order to meet the demands for special-purpose car in domestic market, we adjusted our products structure and set up a new department dealing with special-purpose car. while steadying and strengthening the production of passenger car, we invest large amounts of money in special-purpose car to carefully make this kind of products with vivid luoyang yutong characteristics. with the principle of “cutting in from the low end and taking possession at the high end”, our four series of products were put into market in april of 2003 after careful preparation. they are bowser series, water cart series, bulk cement vehicle series and concrete-mixing vehicle series. the products win for their new designation, exquisite molding and techniques. modified version:in addition to its wonderful performance in the sector of passenger cars, luoyang yutong automobile co.ltd. moved forward with an aggressive campaign to stay at the forefront of transportation. in the early of 2003, we set up a new sector to manufacture special-purpose vehicles including fuel trucks, spraying cars, bulk cement trucks and concrete-mixing trucks which are tailored to the needs of chinese market. they gained excellent reputation for their original design and state-of-the-art techniques among clients as soon as they were put into market in april of the same year. the underlined part of the initial version was vague and general, but the english company profile was particular about simple and unadorned. so the modified version deleted this part. the modified version was mainly adopts the delete method, remove the needless contents of the original text, adjust the form and finally achieve the functional equivalence. 2.2 cultural translation problems cultural translation problems were caused by the difference of guidance verbal and nonverbal behavior standards between the two cultures. for example: 十多年来，公司一贯以优质的产品、卓越的服务为宗旨，备受国内外广大客户的支持拥护及信赖。