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3.2.2 Being Informative 8
3.2.3 Being Communicative 9
3.2.4 Being Culturally Complementary 10
3.3 Interpreting Strategies or Methods 10
3.3.1 Transliteration 11
3.3.2 Literal Translation 11
3.3.3 Free Translation 13
3.3.4 Annotation 14
4 Conclusion 15
References 17
On C-E Interpreting of Culture-loaded Expressions in Speeches by Chinese Leaders from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory
1 Introduction
With its unprecedented achievement in economy and improving status in the global community during the past few decades, China has conducted enormous culture exchanges with the rest of the world after its reform and opening up. Chinese leaders are often seen by the public delivering speeches on different occasions in world affairs. Naturally, culture-loaded expressions, including four-character idioms, poems, allusions and economic phrases with Chinese characters, often appear one after another in speeches by Chinese leaders. Under this circumstance, interpreters are confronted with an ever-tough challenge because these messages are of high cultural intensity and it is hard to find out ready equivalents in the target language.
Nida puts forward two types of equivalence: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message in both form and content, whereas dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalence effect. Formal equivalence is changed into formal correspondence while dynamic equivalence is later changed and renamed as functional equivalence. Nida’s functional equivalence theory emphasizes not formal correspondence, but functional equivalence; not literal meaning but dynamic equivalence; not what language communicates but how it communicates.
The interpreting strategies used in translation are closely associated with the translation quality. This paper therefore aims to explore the coping principles and strategies used by the interpreters in translating the culture-loaded words by the Chinese leaders from the prospective of the functional equivalence theory. The paper, on the one hand, hopes to give a general explanation of the culture-loaded expressions, the functional equivalence theory and the application of the theory to the interpreting of the culture-loaded expressions; on the other hand, it also aims to discuss the different interpreting strategies and to present related examples in the interpreting process from Chinese to English.
Yet the number of researches on the interpreting of speeches by the Chinese leaders has been far from sufficient so far, it is undeniable that much more attention has been aroused and cast to this practice. In times of a world of frequent cultural exchanges, emphasis should be laid on the definite and specific meanings and the functions of the culture-loaded words. In other words, both what language communicates and how language communicates should be desirably achieved. It is hoped that through this research, interpreters may improve their translation by choosing appropriate principles and strategies under the guidance of functional equivalence theory.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Functional Equivalence Theory
Functional equivalence theory is first put forward by Nida. According to him, “translation is reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida & Taber, 2004, p.12). Nida holds the opinion that there are two kinds of equivalence: formal equivalence which is changed in the 2nd edition by Nida and Taber into formal correspondence; dynamic equivalence, which is renamed as functional equivalence. The theory pays attention to the functional equivalence of detailed information rather than the simple formal equivalence in translation in order to keep meanings and styles of the source language functionally equivalent to that of the target language as much as possible. Nida’s functional equivalence theory does not refer to the equivalence of each word and sentence. It mainly stresses that the target readers’ reaction to the text had better be similar to that of the native readers’.