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 thetranslation, so functional equivalence is better than dynamic equivalence. The realization of functional equivalence is pided 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 pided 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
English and Chinese are completely different in the habit of expression. In the process of translation, some words in the source language are difficult to find the accurate words in the target language, which creates certain difficulties for the translation work. Therefore, the translator should follow Nida’s functional equivalence theory to guide the translation of vocabulary. The functional equivalence means that the translation does not seek the rigid correspondence in the surface of the text, but achieves functional equivalence between the two languages. “The fundamental task of translation is the regeneration of meaning”(许均，2009). When translating those difficult words, the translator carefully understands the meaning that the author wants to express, and uses the methods of part-of-speech transformation and free translation, so as to achieve the correspondence of the meaning of the target language and the source language.
4.1.1Part-of-speech Transformation
English is a kind of static language, while Chinese is a dynamic language. “There is a morphological change in English, which is not common in Chinese”(连淑能，2010). In English, most of the words are nouns, but in Chinese, there are full of verbs. Therefore, the translator should transform the part of speech flexibly.
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Chapter V Conclusion
5.1 Major Findings
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