功能对等理论指导下的《西非游记》翻译实践报告之英语研究

本文是一篇英语论文，文中包括很多的翻译难点，比如专有词汇和长难句等等。在词汇层面，笔者主要采用了词性转换、音译和增译的翻译方法；在句法层面，笔者主要采用了句式转换的方法，另外针对长难句的翻译，笔者对句子进行切分和组合以达到更为顺畅的译文；在篇章层面，笔者主要采用的是直译和意译相结合的翻译方法。与此同时，笔者还会不断地上网查阅词典和资料，以求用准确的语言来展现源语的信息内容。

Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Background of the Translation Task
Nowadays,  under  the  background  of  globalization,  the  tourist  industry  is  also vigorously  developing.  The  exchanges  among countries  are  not  limited  to  the  economic and  political  aspects,  while  the  cultural  exchanges  are  also  increasing.  As  an emerging industry,  tourism  has  gradually  entered  people's  lives  and  has  attracted  the  attention  of many people at home and abroad. The travel books, which describe what the author saw and  heard  in  a  new  place,  are  getting  more  popular  among  people in  different  countries. Therefore, the translation of travel text also play a very important role in strengthening the cultural exchanges in the world.
In this case, the translator selected Travels in West Africa as the source text for this translation  report.  Travels  in  West  Africa,  written by  an  British  explorer  Mary  Kingsley, talks about the story of a brave woman who travels to Africa alone and lives in Africa for a long time. This book was based on the author’s personal experience and had a profound influence  on  the  perception  of  Africa  at  the time.  As  a  typical  book  of  the  travel  texts, Travels in West Africa hasn’t been translated into Chinese up to now, so it is worthwhile for the translator to carefully study.
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1.2 Objectives and Significance of the Translation Task
First  of  all,  the  choice  of  travel  books  for  translation  helps  to  deepen  the understanding  of  the  field  of  knowledge,  and  in this process,  I  can  combine  the  tourism knowledge learned in undergraduate courses and the translation knowledge learned at the postgraduate  level.  The  knowledge  is  combined  to  make  good  use  of  my  strengths  in different fields.
Secondly,  by  translating  the  content  of  the  selected  material,  analyzing  and  solving the  problems  encountered  in  the translation work,  and  summarizing  the  translation methods and strategies used in the translation process, this is a great improvement for the level of translation. Reading foreign language books can not only open up your own vision, but  also  learn  a  lot  of  useful  knowledge, and  learn  some  words  and  expression  while improving your English reading skills.
In  addition,  translating  foreign  language  book  is  a  process  of  applying  translation skills  and  strategies  learned  during  the postgraduate  period.  It  is  a  process  of  testing  the results  of  my  own  learning.  At  the  same  time,  I  continue  to  learn  in  this process, constantly  improve  my  translation  skills,  gain  more  experience,  thus  making  myself become a better translator.
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Chapter II Theoretical Framework

2.1 The Definition of Functional Equivalence Theory
This  translation  report  is  based  on  Eugene  Nida's  functional  equivalence  theory.  In order to create a standard for the conversion between the source language and the target language,  Eugene  Nida  proposed  the  famous  translation  theory  as  dynamic equivalence from the perspective of linguistics and according to the nature of translation. In this theory, he points out that translation is the reproduction of the source language from semantics to stylistics  in  the  most  appropriate,  natural  and  equivalent  language. Nida's  definition  of translation indicates that the equivalence of translation is not only on the word, but also on the sentence, passage and style. The equivalence includes four aspects, which are lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, textual equivalence, and stylistic equivalence. In these four  aspects,  Nida  believes  that  meaning  is  the  most  important  and  form  is  the  second. Forms  are  likely to  hide  the  cultural  meaning  of  the  source  language  and  hinder  the exchange  of  culture.  Therefore,  in  literary  translation, according  to  Nida's  theory,  the translator  should  accurately  reproduce  the  cultural  connotation  of  the  source  language  in the target  language  by  using  the  four  aspects of  dynamic  equivalence as  the  principle  of translation.
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2.2 The Development of Functional Equivalence
Theory The  development  of  Nida's  functional  equivalence  theory  has  gone  through  two stages.
In  the  first  stage,  in  the  1960s  and  1970s,  Nida  believed  that  translation  was  more than a science. He believed that translation was also a skill, but in the final analysis, the excellent translation is an art. Based on this theory, he proposed two core concepts, which are  dynamic  equivalence  and  functional  equivalence.  This  shows  that  in  the  process  of translation, the translation should pay attention to the equivalence of vocabulary, syntax, text  and  style,  etc.  But  this  dynamic  equivalence  emphasizes  that  the consistency  of content  between  the  translation  and  the  original  text  is  more  important  than  the  formal consistency, so it is easy to cause a contradiction between content and form. Therefore, in the second phase, Nida revised the concept in the 1980s, calling it functional equivalence, and  Nida  replaced  dynamic  equivalence  with  functional  equivalence  as  function  regards translation  as  a form  of  communication  and  focuses  on  the  content  and  results  of  the translation, so functional equivalence is better than dynamic equivalence. The realization of  functional  equivalence  is  divided  into  two  levels,  which  are  the  highest  level  and  the lowest level. The  highest  level  means  that  the  readers  of  source  language  and  target language  have  the  same  comprehension  of  the article,  which  is  the  ideal  level  of translation.  And  the  lowest  level  means  that  the  readers  of  target  language  can  imagine how the readers of source language understand the article while reading.
In China, scholars' learning of functional equivalence is also divided into three stages. The  first  stage  is  the  introduction  and dissemination  of  equivalent  theory.  The  first introduction  of  Nida's  equivalent  theory  to  Chinese  scholars  is  Tan  Zaixi.  The second stage is the critical stage. Domestic scholars have also noticed the shortcomings of Nida's dynamic  equivalence.  They  think that  it  is  a  kind  of  domestication  translation  and  a summary of the translation practice of Indo-European languages which is not completely suitable for the translation of English-Chinese languages. The third stage is the reflection and  reaffirmation.  Domestic scholars  have  both  critique  and  respect  for  Nida's  theory. Nida's  functional  equivalence  theory  still  plays  an  important  role  in the  translation between English and Chinese today.
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Chapter III Translation Process ................................ 5
3.1 Pre-translation ............................... 5
3.2 Translation ..................................... 5
3.3 Proof-reading ............................. 5
Chapter IV Case Analysis Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence ............................. 9
4.1 Translation at Lexical Level ....................................... 9
4.1.1Part-of-speech Transformation ..................................... 9
4.1.2 Transliteration ............................... 10
Chapter V Conclusion ..................................... 19
5.1 Major Findings ................................... 19
5.2 Limitations ................................... 20

Chapter IV Case Analysis Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence

4.1 Translation at Lexical Level