Abstract in Chinese III

I. Introduction 1

Ⅱ. Literature Review 3

2.1 Researches on A Song of Ice and Fire 3

2.2 Reviews on Western Fantasy Novels 4

2.3 Researches on Translations of A Song of Ice and Fire 5

III. Theoretical Basis 6

3.1 Introduction of Nida and Functional Equivalence Theory 6

3.2 Development of Functional Equivalence Theory 6

3.3 Main Features of the Theory 7

IV. The Chinese Translation  Observed under Functional   Equivalence

Theory 9

4.1 Functional Equivalence in the Aspect of Lexical Choice 9

4.1.1 Literal Translation Words 10

4.1.2 The Translation of Culture Words 11

4.1.3 The Translation of Coined Words 12

4.2 Functional Equivalence in the Aspect of Syntactical Level 14

4.3 Functional equivalence in the aspect of style 16

V. Conclusion 19

5.1 Summary and suggestions for translation 19

5.2 Limitation of the study and the theory 20

Bibliography 21

A Study on Translating Fantasy Novels under Functional Equivalence A Case Study of A Game of Thrones

I. Introduction

It was a very long time ago when the first western fantasy book appeared. After that was a silent period. Then, all of a sudden, fantasy novels are booming in China as globalization advances. During the trend, translation has helped a lot. Many books, like The Chronicles of Narnia (2001), Harry Potter (1997) and The Lord of Rings  Trilogy  (1955), reached China through translation. Among all, A Song of Ice and Fire (1996) written by George RR Martin has been the hot spot for recent years. This series of books became the bestseller after their publication, as they struck readers with unique structure, tortuous plots and profound connotation. However, for most Chinese people, they have to read their translation to experience the magnificent scene and the wide range of themes of the source books. Therefore, translation played  an  important role in bridging Chinese culture and Western culture.

Compared with the soaring demand for translation of foreign fantasy novels, there is not adequate production of translation, let alone the quality of these translation works. Meanwhile, researches of original text and translation of them also have considerable room to develop. The current demand sparked the desire to discuss on the translation of A Game of Thrones (1996) under the perspective of functional equivalence and aims to find out the common translation strategy of western fantasy novels.