旅游英语课程学期论文论文题目:(中文)基于功能对等理论:新疆美食翻译的形象转换(英文)Based on the FunctionalEquivalence Theory: The Conversion ofImages in Translation of XinjiangCuisine学生姓名冶延菊学生学号201107050201411学生班级2011-2班学科专业英语学年学期 2014-2015学年第一学期指导老师李亮所在学院语言文化学院2014年12月12日摘要近年,中国经济飞速发展,作为祖国的“边陲明珠”的新疆也不甘落后,呈现出一派繁华。
随着国际经济交流的日趋加强,新疆旅游受到越来越多外国友人的青睐,尤其是新疆美食所蕴含的深厚民族文化,更是吸引着无数国际友人。
本文旨在通过奈达尤金的功能对等理论来解读新疆美食翻译中的形象转换。
通过典例分析,让国外游客对新疆美食及文化有更多了解。
关键词:新疆美食;形象转换;功能对等AbstractIn recent years,China’s economy has developed rapidly,and Xinjiang, “the Pearl of the Frontier”, also keeps pace with this rapid economic growth. With the more frequent international economic communication, Xinjiang tourism is highly appreciated by more foreigners, especially Xinjiang cuisine which contains rich folk culture. This paper is intended to analyze the conversion of images in translation of Xinjiang cuisine by Eugene Nida’s functional equivalence theory. Foreign tourists will learn more about Xinjiang cuisine and culture by means of the analysis of typical example.Key words: Xinjiang cuisine; conversion of image; functional equivalence theoryIntroductionEugene A . Nida is a famous American linguist translator and translation theorist . In 1969 Eugene A . Nida put forward functional equivalence theory in his book The theory and Practice of Translation , which has cast a profound impact on the translation circles in the world . As to the functional equivalence theory , Nida also called it theory of dynamic equivalence .And the main content of the functional equivalence (or dynamic equivalence) is to "attempt to convey the thought expressed in a source text(if necessary, at the expense of literalness, original word order, the source text’s grammatical voice, etc.), while formal equivalence attempts to render the text word-to -word(if necessary,at the expense of natural expression in the target language)"(Nida, 1969). In other words,Nida thinks that translation is a flexible and dynamic process of cultural conversion, and it is not a static one. And the translated materials should play a communicative role, rather than a conversion between source language and target language. So, when dealing with translation, the translators should not only focus on the conversion of language,but also take the cultural conversion into account. Thus, the translation of original materials can achieve the effect of conveying the information accurately,and make the target language readers accept and understand equivalent information to the largest extent. At present, the translation of Xinjiang cuisine is not professional and standard, so it is very necessary to standardize the C-E translation of Xinjiang food based on an authoritative theory. As a result,this paper will put forward some ideas about translation of Xinjiang cuisine by take advantages of functional equivalence theory.BodyAs is known to all, Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnically inhabited and developed region in which most of nationalities are Islamism. In its long history, local people bring forth new ideas in cooking,which is usually on the base of beef and mutton. With the rapid development of Xinjiang tourism, the culinary tourism also develops into a thriving industry. Although, there are more than 180 kinds of cuisine and specialties in Xinjiang, in spite of they enjoy a good reputation among a lot of countries, there are many problems in cuisine vocabulary English translation which causes the misunderstanding in foreign cultural exchange. Those unreasonable translation are neither relevant to Chinese meaning nor understood by foreign visitors. And those translations play little attention to the acceptability, let alone the functional equivalence and cultural conversion.Let’s take one Xinjiang dish for an example,there are three English names for the most popular cuisine “烤全羊”(I’d like to call it Kaoquan Yang for now). The first type of translation is Baked Complete Sheep. For this translation, although it has made clear main meaning probably, it still lacks cultural fit. For one thing, the verb “bake” fails to conform with the Chinese cooking style, because the meaning of the “bake”is “to cook food in an oven without extra fat or liquid ”, and it usually refers to make bread, cake or pies,mainly about wheaten food(Hornby, 133). However, our Xinjiang Kaoquan Yang is a kind of meat dish, as a result, the word “bake”can’t explain the cooking method precisely. For another thing, the Xinjiang Kaoquan Yang chooses a lamb as the main raw material, and generally it is a goat, instead of a sheep. Consequently, the Baked Complete Sheep can provide the foreigners with a rough meaning of this dish, but it still can’t achieve the effect of the biggest cultural coincidence between the source language and the target language. And most people are likely to associate the translation with another image of Mongolian cuisine, or other dishes like that. This translation is little far away Nida’s “the closest natural equivalent to the message of the sourcelanguage”(Nida, 1969), and it only focuses on the style equivalence, neglecting the meaning equivalence.And the second type of the name translation is the Great Goat Roast. When first exposed to the English translation, you may feel it is not a bad one. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, it is a poor one. Why you think it is a an acceptable English translation? The answer is that you are Chinese and you have known Chinese culture very well, so you can understand the meaning of the name without any confusion. On the contrary, it is difficult for foreign tourists to catch the exact “image and feature”of the dish through such a English name. One problem of this translation is under a reverse order that brings about uncomfortableness for readers. Generally speaking, the dish name translation depends on the translation pattern of cooking method + raw materials(therefore, the wrong order should be adjusted to the Great Roast Goat). Another problem is the choice of adjective “great”, this word meaning is too broad to get correct understanding. According to the dictionary, the adjective “great”means “very large; much bigger than average in size or quality”, “used to emphasize an adjective of size or quality”(Hornby, 893). So, it is obvious that the word “great” can’t show a vivid image of a intact lamb. In addition to, the “goat”is very different from the “lamb”(lamb is about one-year-old goat,very young).The third translation type is like my first quotation, Kaoquan Yang, which is a transliteration from Chinese language. Although this translation is very simple to pronounce, it completely loses the role of cultural bridge, at the same time, it also doesn’t have communicative function. Even though the transliteration can keep the exotic atmosphere,the Achilles’heel is that the pronunciation from source language can’t trigger the target language readers’ association about the cuisine image. Originally in tourism, cuisine name should have play a role of arousing tourists imagination, and let them can’t help but want to go to a meal. Once an English name translation of dish even can’t meet the most basic requirement, let alone keep tourism industry in a flourishing growth.Based on what I have analyzed about those three types of translation, which in spite of containing some advantages, they are still far from meeting the requirement of the functional equivalence theory, because they ignore the implying culture in different languages, and can’t convert the culture and image successfully. Now, there is my own translation version of Kaoquan Yang which is in line with the functional equivalence theory. My translation is Xinjiang, the Whole Roast Lamb. At first, the name of place, Xinjiang, is a symbol of the local cultural characteristic, which is similar to the Beijing Roast Duck. And when the foreign tourists see the name, they will associate a vivid and specific image about this cuisine. Because the words “whole”“roast” and “lamb” are close to their culture and cognition, and it is easy to be accepted and noticed by them.ConclusionTourism translation is not only a language conversion, but also a kind of communicative behavior. And tourism makes the mutual understanding between different cultures possible. Therefore, the translator must understand the meaning of words in certain context when he/she is engaged in the translation process, and choose accurate words from the target language through personal creativity. Based on the dynamic equivalence theory, the translator should treat the translation as cultural conversion in order to better provide the foreign tourists good understanding to the culture of the source language.References[1]Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary. Beijing: The CommercialPress, 2009[2]Nida,Tiber,The theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Brill Academic Pub, 1969[3]谭卫国,蔡龙权等著,《旅游英语的语言特点与翻译》,上海交通大学出版社,2011[4]周志培,陈运香等著,《文化学与翻译》,华东理工大学出版社,2013[5]/gundong/detail. March 14,2012[6]/forum.php. March 15,2010[7]/question/54026135.html. June 3, 2008。