编号：大学2012届本科毕业论文A Study of Tourist Texts Translation from thePerspective of Functional Equivalence用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译论文作者名称：立月作者学号：080170057所在学院：外语学院所学专业：英语语言文学导师、职称：侯健助教论文完成时间：2012-05-07A Study of Tourist Texts Translation from thePerspective of Functional Equivalence 用功能对等理论研究旅游文本的翻译Yao LiyueCollege of Foreign LanguagesHenan UniversityMay 2012AcknowledgmentsI 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.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 st udy 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】奈达；功能对等；旅游文本；翻译策略ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbstract (English) (i)Abstract (Chinese) (ii)Introduction…………………………………………………………….……………. .1Chapter One An Introduction to Nada and Functional Equivalence T heory (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……………….….…. .93.2 Tourist Text Translation andCulture (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 (1)9Bibliography (20)IntroductionAs 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 notadequately 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 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 dev elopment of China’s tourism.Chapter One An Introduction to Nida and FunctionalEquivalence Theory1.1 Brief Biography of Eugene A. NidaBorn 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 B achelor’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 ofTranslating, 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 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 Versión 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 EquivalenceNida 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 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 functionallyequivalent 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.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’sdynamic 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 DescriptionIt 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。