用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译

1 编编 号 号 河南大学河南大学 20122012 届本科毕业论文届本科毕业论文 A Study of Tourist Texts Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence 用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译 论文作者名称 姚立月姚立月 作 者 学 号 080170057080170057 所 在 学 院 外语学院外语学院 所 学 专 业 英语语言文学英语语言文学 导师姓名 职称 侯健侯健 助教助教 论文完成时间 2012 05 072012 05 07 2 A Study of Tourist Texts Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence 用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译 Yao Liyue College of Foreign Languages Henan University May 2012 3 Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to many people who have provided me with valuable advices and revisions through the difficult course of my undergraduate thesis My deepest gratitude goes first to Mr Hou my supervisor for his constant encouragement and guidance He has helped me through all the stages of writing this thesis Heartfelt thanks are also due to all my competent teachers in College of Foreign Languages at Henan University Their consistent and illuminating instructions are treasure in my whole life Finally my thanks would go to my beloved friends and family members for their loving considerations and great confidence in me through all these years Only with your sincere support can I reach the present success 4 Abstract Abstract Although China has developed in bound tourism for years and accomplished great achievements some English translations of scenic spot introductions are still beyond satisfaction even though the translations suffer no apparent grammatical mistakes it is hard or even impossible for foreign tourists to understand Because the foreign tourists mainly depend on the English scenic spot introductions to know relevant information proper English scenic spot introductions are not only of great help to tourists but also to the further development of China s tourism Therefore tourist texts translation has become an urgent issue which deserves a deep study to call for the translators attention and solution The thesis introduces Nida and his functional equivalence theory analyzes the characteristics as well as the functions of tourist texts studies cultural problems in tourist text translation and explores the features and requirements and criteria of tourist text translation This thesis makes a tentative study on tourist text translation based on functional equivalence theory and prescribes what strategies and methods should be adopted in the translating of Chinese tourist texts with examples illustrated Key Words Nida functional equivalence English tourist texts translation strategies 5 摘要摘要 摘要摘要 尽管中国开展入境游已经很多年 也已取得巨大的成就 但是一些旅游 景点的英译并不如人意 有的英文景点介绍虽无明显语法错误 却让外国游客很 费解 甚至是不知所云 由于外国游客很多依赖英文景点介绍来获知景点的相关 信息 所以恰当的英文景点介绍不仅方便游客 也有助于推动我国旅游业的进一 步发展 因此 我们有必要深入研究旅游文本的翻译以此唤起翻译者的注意并提 出解决方案 本论文介绍了奈达的功能对等理论 分析了旅游 旅游文本的特点 和作用 研究了翻译涉及的文化问题 并探讨了旅游文本翻译的特点以及翻译的 要求和标准 本文以奈达的功能对等理论为基础 对旅游文本的翻译做了尝试性 研究 并用实例说明在中文旅游文本翻译过程中所应采用的策略与方法 关键词关键词 奈达 功能对等 旅游文本 翻译策略 6 Contents Acknowledgments Abstract English i Abstract Chinese ii Introduction 1 Chapter One An Introduction to Nada and Functional Equivalence Theory 3 1 1 Brief Biography of Eugene A Nida 3 1 2 A Brief Introduction to Nida s Functional Equivalence 4 Chapter Two Features of Chinese Tourist Texts 6 2 1 Figurative Use in Description 6 2 2 Abundant Quotation of Poems and Allusions 7 2 3 Flowery Style of Writing 7 Chapter Three Tourist Text Translation 9 3 1 Requirements and Criteria of Tourist Text Translation 9 3 2 Tourist Text Translation and Culture 9 Chapter Four Strategies and Methods of Tourist Text Translation 11 4 1 Translation Strategies 11 4 2 Translation Methods 12 4 2 1 Addition 12 4 2 2 Deletion 13 4 2 3 Explanation 14 4 2 4 Analogy 15 4 2 5 Paraphrase 16 4 2 6 Rewriting 17 4 3 Summary 17 Conclusion 19 Bibliography 20 7 Introduction As we all know tourism is the worldwide favorite recreational activity in modern society With the development of the national communication tourism becomes more and more important in the cross cultural communication It is an important channel through which China can communicate with the other countries With a fairly long history of civilization and resplendent culture modern China has plenty of well known historical sites spectacular scenic spots colorful national customs and potential tourist resources which guarantee the unceasing development of its tourist industry According to the estimate by the World Tourism Organization China would become the world s leading tourist destination overtaking traditional destinations such as Spain France and the United States by 2020 It is believed that China s tourism has a bright future With the development of domestic tourist trade more and more tourist texts need to be translated into English Tourist text publicizes tourist resources local customs culture history and religion As the principal means of tourist advertisement tourist texts play a significant role and are needed to be translated into English in much larger quantity and higher quality Proper translation of tourist text helps to build up China s international image as a highly civilized country to show her attractiveness to the world and to expand the international tourism market Despite the importance of tourist texts translation the quality of Chinese English C E translation of tourist text is far from being satisfactory Many of them are filled with word for word translation linguistic mistakes Chinglish and many cultural elements are not adequately rendered into English Some of them even cause misunderstanding by English speaking tourists Serious mistakes may frequently occur in some publications which results in a negative influence on the image of China So in order to enhance the national image and accelerate the development of tourism it is quite necessary to produce satisfying tourist text translations The reason behind the inadequacies in C E translation is the 8 interference by Chinese language and culture and the failure to take target language and culture into consideration Tourist text translation is by no means an easy job so the thesis will make a tentative study on tourist text translation by applying functionalist approach and prescribe what methods and strategies should be adopted in the translating of Chinese tourist text Anyway the thesis is hoped that it will not only be helpful to improve the quality of the whole tourist text translation but will help the development of China s tourism 9 Chapter One An Introduction to Nida and Functional Equivalence Theory 1 1 Brief Biography of Eugene A Nida Born on November 11 1914 in Oklahoma City Eugene Nida and his family moved to Long Beach California when he was 5 years old He began studying Latin in high school and was already looking forward to being able to translate scripture as a missionary By the time he received his Bachelor s degree in 1936 from the University of California at Los Angeles he was well on his way Having earned his degree in Greek he enrolled in the Summer Institute of Linguistics and discovered the works of such linguists as Edward Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield Nida then pursued a Master s degree in Greek New Testament at the University of Southern California In 1941 he began a Ph D in linguistics at the University of Michigan and completed it in two years His dissertation A Synopsis of English Syntax was at that time the only full scale analysis of a major language according to the immediate constituent theory Nida was determined to produce a theory that would foster effective communication of the Good News of Bible across all kinds of cultural and linguistics barriers A prolific writer his book Toward a Science of Translating and later The Theory and Practice of Translation helped him achieve this objective These two very influential books were his first book length efforts to expound his theory on what he called dynamic equivalence translation later to be called functional equivalence How significant revolutionary and convincing this new approach proved to be can be seen in the fact that hundreds of the Bible translations have now been effectively carried out with this methodology In essence this approach enables the translator to capture the meaning and spirit of the original language text without being bound to its linguistic structure Nida s work with indigenous language translations had shown that in order to reach people who bring no prior knowledge to their encounter with the Bible the 10 translation needs to place the highest priority on clear communication in easily understood language and style Thus under the leadership of translator William Wonderly a Spanish New Testament called the Versi n Popular a contemporary translation was published in 1966 At almost the same time the Good News Bible New Testament Today s English Version under the leadership of Robert G Bratcher a Nida colleague was published Both of these books were enormously successful publications with sales in dozens of millions even before the Bible editions were published in 1976 A scholar teacher leader influencer innovator and influential theoretician Eugene A Nida is very possibly unsurpassed in the history of the Bible Society movement in terms of global impact His work his organization his ideas and the organization he put into place represent a watershed for the movement and for Bible translation Thanks to him the world of Bible translation and translation studies has been enriched and challenged into an exciting field of study and discourse 1 2 A Brief Introduction to Nida s Functional Equivalence Nida is an outstanding American linguist and translation theorist of the contemporary time In the early phase of translation studies the conception of linguistic equivalence plays a predominant role Discarding the traditional equivalence Nida advocates a functional approach and differentiates between formal and dynamic equivalence in translation Formal equivalence refers to faithful reproduction of the source text ST while dynamic equivalence indicates acquisition of equivalent extra linguistic communicative effect According to Nida translation is a communicative process so he views dynamic equivalence as a translation principle In order to achieve the purpose of effective communication any text must be the reader centered Nida explains his concept of dynamic equivalence as follows in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language Nida 1969 24 That s to say the 11 relation of target language receptors to the target language text should be roughly equivalent to the relationship between the original receptors and the original text The concept of dynamic equivalence which has featured Nida s whole theory system later has been replaced by the term functional equivalence which emphasizes the function of communication Different from traditional translation theories which focus on the relationship between the ST and target text TT Nida s dynamic equivalence introduces a new measurement the response of the receptor to the target text should be equivalent to that of the source text reader to the original Nida stresses that the target text should function in the same manner in the target situation as the source text functions in the source text That is to say the target text should be functionally equivalent to the source text Nida indicates that the validity of a translation cannot be judged only by a comparison of corresponding lexical meanings grammatical classes and rhetorical devices What is more important is the extent to which the target receptor can understand or appreciate the translated text Functional equivalence requires both the equivalence of message and equivalence of form because the receptor will no doubt has different response to that of the source text reader if the translator only transmits the meaning of the original but ignore the style According to Nida the comparison of the receptors response rather than the comparison of the structure between the ST and the TT is the key point to determine whether it is faithful to the source text or not He believes that if the translation has laid great difficulty the source text or resulted in the misunderstanding the translator has the right to correct the source text so as to make the target text reach the expected response 12 Chapter Two Features of Chinese Tourist Texts In Chinese tourist texts specific attention is always paid to the introduction of the Chinese culture The particular cultural information is always embedded in Chinese tourist texts Because of the deep rooted differences in thought patterns and aesthetic habits between Chinese and English speaking people the same text type may have quite different language conventions According to Newmark s text typology and Nida s dynamic equivalence tourist text translation should be reader centered and the translation needs to make sense to the target readers so as to reach the intended purpose of the target text One of the difficulties in C E tourist translation is caused by the differences between Chinese and English tourist texts Thus the translator has to do one work before starting studying the specific features of Chinese tourist texts 2 1 Figurative Use in Description It is full of figurative language in Chinese descriptive tourist texts The use of figurative language makes the tourist texts more interesting and such rhetoric devices as simile metaphor parallelism hyperbole and personification can help to enhance communication effect by making the texts more vivid and appealing Many tourist texts make great effort to impress the reader by offering flowery and exaggerated descriptions of the scenic spots 玻璃与铜板相间 宛如 琴键飞奔 凌空飞架的四条钢架 又似高山流水 水袖当舞 Between the glass and bronze plates are piano keys and the four steel flames look like stream running from high mountains and sleeves flying in the sky 1 In the above example the Chinese version uses the similes 宛如琴键飞奔 while in the English version it just renders as the piano keys 2 2 Abundant Quotation of Poems and Allusions 1 13 Because of China s long history numerous historical allusions have come into use and become valuable legacy of Chinese culture as well as rich materials for Chinese literature In scenery descriptions Chinese people like quoting Chinese classic poems or allusions to support their opinions and at the same time enhance charm to the scenic spots Each allusion has an impressive story either appealing or instructive Chinese writers like to use allusions to bring numerous associations to readers who are familiar with the Chinese culture and history while foreigners are not acquainted thus it eventually brings about great challenges for translators as the following example shows 慈母手中线 游子身上衣 临行密密缝 意恐迟迟归 谁言寸草心 报得 三春晖 这是唐朝著名诗人孟郊的经典之作 德清是孟郊的故乡 Thread in the hands of a loving mother Turns to clothes on the traveling son She adds stitch after tight stitch until he leaves and worries about his return A grass blade is bathed in spring sun How can its inch sized heart return such love This is the great poet in Tang Dynasty Mengjiao s classics Deqing is Mengjiao s hometown In this example the poem is quoted in the introduction of Deqing County in Huzhou which is the hometown of the poet Mengiiao Mengiiao may be a household name for the Chinese readers and the writer use the poem to produce deeper impression on Chinese readers 2 3 Flowery Style of Writing Comparing with the English tourist texts Chinese tourist texts are more ornate or flowery It is a tradition that the Chinese have developed great favor of flowery words and lyrical writings from ancient times Many Chinese writers of scenic descriptions influenced by Chinese literature have special favorite to rhythmical prose 14 style neat parallel structure and elegant descriptions As a result many Chinese tourist texts are characterized by gorgeous diction and the abuse of adjectives four character phrases Chinese featured four character phrases compounds reveal the aesthetic value of Chinese Balanced in form and sounding with emphasis on meaning they are generally regarded as the refined expressions since many of them are derived from the rich Chinese literary tradition For example 山海相连 岚光晦明 峰峦叠嶂 怪石嶙峋 深涧幽谷 碧海仙居 缥缈海 市 构成了崂山幽邃文袤 离奇多变的天然之美 峰顶耸立 层峦叠嶂 深涧幽 谷 奇峰异石 有 天然雕塑公园 之称 2 In this short description 13 four character phrases are used to achieve rhythm and parallelism which depict a magnificent view before Chinese readers Some of these four character phrases do not have practical meanings So it is not easy for translators to render these texts 2 http www qdta gov en 15 Chapter Three Tourist Text Translation 3 1 Requirements and Criteria of Tourist Text Translation The principles or the criteria of translation are not only a norm for measuring the quality of translation but also an ultimate goal for translators to pursuit Alexander Fraser Tytler an English translation theoretician has put forward the criteria which claimed that a translation should be made or judged by three fundamentals in the last decade of the 18th century 1 A translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work 2 The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original 3 A translation should have all the ease of the original composition Chen Hongwei 2004 5 For a long time the translators are bound to the literal translation theory by the translation traditions and they have little freedom to show their creativity But the function or intention of translating tourist texts is quite different from those texts such as legal documents scientific reports and Government Documents etc It is successful if a translation can adequately reach the intended purpose of the target text Because the function of tourist texts is to transmit Chinese unique cultural to the foreign tourists and to arouse their curiosity to travel the translation should be interesting to the target readers But Chi