20201026 trans

Cao Runxin 曹润鑫

The Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese-English Communication

As we all know, translation plays an important role in intercultural communication. A good translator can help to promote the communication between two different cultures. With the process of globalization, intercultural communication is becoming more and more frequent. However, there exist plenty of cultural differences between different cultures, especially between the East and the West. Cultural differences make it hard for translators to translate well. Culture-loaded words belong to one of the differences between different cultures. Therefore, it is of great significance to be aware of the appropriate translation of culture-loaded words. This is because it can help translators translate better and thus make two different cultures communicate better.

Chang Huiyue 常慧月

1 The Definition of Culture-loaded Words

Before discussing what are culture-loaded words, we should know what is culture first. “Culture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly people’s behavior, including linguistic behavior.

Chen Han 陈涵

In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can mostly be found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc.” (Dai Weidong 2002:127) Culture is learned by human beings. A child is born without any certain kind of culture. A child gets its culture through learning. For example, a Chinese kid will speak, act and think like a Chinese if it grows up in China. An American kid will speak, act and think like an American if it is raised in the United States. Meanwhile, if a Chinese kid is raised by an American family in the USA, he will think, act and speak like American people do and vice versa.

Chen Hui 陈惠

Culture is owned by all the social members. The special behavior and habit of a single person is not culture because it is not owned by every member of the society. Culture can be transmitted from generation to generation. During the transmission, culture will also develop. “Generally speaking, there are two types of culture: material and spiritual. While material culture, as the term itself suggests, is concrete, substantial and observable. Most of spiritual culture, the products of mind (ideologies, beliefs, values and concepts of time and space, for example), is abstract, ambiguous, and hidden.

Chen Jiangning 陈江宁

In contrast with nature in the sense of what is born and grows, culture refers to what has been grown and brought up with, in other words, what can be nurtured. Culture, especially material culture, is reproduced and preserved through the maintaining of beliefs, traditions, education and other institutional mechanisms, meanwhile, it changes slowly with the development of the society.” (Dai Weidong 2002:127-128)

Chen Jiaxin 陈佳欣

“Language is one of the most fundamental systems of culture, with the function of storing, describing, expressing and disseminating culture. As the basic unit of language, word is of course the most direct reflection of culture. Culture-loaded words refer to the words, phrases, and idioms only contained in a culture. These words reflect the uniqueness of certain nations. This kind of uniqueness develops from the long historical process.” (Liao Qiyi 2002:232) Culture-loaded words can make a distinction between two different cultures.

Chen Jingjing 陈静静

Culture-loaded words can also reflect a country’s social background, financial base and culture in a certain period of time. During different historical periods, different culture-loaded words occur. Different countries differ from each other because every country has its uniqueness that makes it special. Ordinarily speaking, a literary work, which shows a lot of national characteristics, contains plenty of culture-loaded words. Culture-loaded words make it difficult for translators to translate.

Chen Sha 陈莎

2 Difficulties in the Translation of Culture-loaded Words

Every country has its own cultural origin. And “every nation has its own cultural focus. So its vocabulary always develops according to the cultural focus and becomes more and more detailed and complex.” (Liao Qiyi 2002:232)As we all know, Chinese culture and western culture have different origins. Chinese culture came from the Chinese mainland. There exist two big rivers, the Yellow River and the Huanghe River, across China. So Chinese people fed themselves by fishing, hunting and farming. The vast territory provided Chinese people enough resources to support themselves.

Chen Sunfu 谌孙福

The lofty mountains and high ranges, on the one hand, protected ancient China from the invasion of other countries, while on the other hand, also prevented China from communicating with other countries. Therefore, Chinese people is more conservative and emphasize harmony.

“There is a great difference of the physio geographic condition between China and the western countries, especially the relationship between sea and land. If we say that Chinese civilization came from the land, western civilization came from the sea.”(Huang Yongyuan and Zhang Jing 2011:237)

Chen Yongxiang 陈永相

Europe is surrounded by the sea on the west, south and north, and borders on Asia in the east. The whole Europe continent is close to the sea, and the maritime climate is very significant. As the cradle of Western culture, the ancient Greece, was more connected with the sea. Greece was transportation center of the eastern Mediterranean. It had many ports and mountains but had a barren land. This kind of condition forced the ancient Greeks to operate maritime trade very early to support themselves. Therefore, people from western countries are easy to accept foreign cultures.

Cheng Yusi 成于思

China’s national spirit is different from that of the western countries. For example, China’s definition of “dragon” is so far away from that of the western countries. “The dragon, in Chinese myths and legends, is a kind of god . It is a symbol of the Chinese nation. The Chinese all call themselves "the descendants of the dragon"; it is also a symbol of the ancient imperial power, and the emperors of all ages considered themselves to be the true dragon. Each feature of the dragon represents an advantage.

Deng Jinxia 邓锦霞

The wide forehead represents intelligence, the sword-like eyebrows represent courage, the tiger eyes represent majesty, the lion nose represents prosperity, the horse teeth represent diligence and kindness, the crocodile mouth represents swallowing, the shrimp mustache represents free water absorption , the cattle ears represent the leadership, the antlers represent health and longevity, the fish and clam represent defense, the camel head represents drought resisting, the eagle claws represent the ability to fly, and the snake neck represents the ability of accomplishing a task with ease.

Ding Daifeng 丁代凤

The Chinese dragon can be said to be a favorite to Chinese people. In the Western world, the dragon is called Drakon in Greek, Dragon in English, and Draco is in Latin. The dragon is a derogatory term in the West and a symbol of evil. In Western mythology, the dragon is the demon that makes people fear. The Bible illustrates dragon as a demon, and the devil Satan, who is opposite to God, is called the "great dragon"; the Old Dragon is the Devil, or Satan. In a biological perspective, dragon is a kind of particularly ferocious animal. In many cases, western literature describes the dragon as a monster to be eradicated by the hero.”(Huang Yongyuan and Zhangjing 2011:238)

Fang Jieling 方洁玲

Apart from the examples above, there are still many example containing different meanings in different countries because of cultural differences. For example, the color “red” represents happiness, auspiciousness and success. This is because the color red came from the sun. Ancient Chinese people worshiped the sun. Thus, when getting married, Chinese bride’s wedding dress is red. People will hang red lanterns and paste red couplets in Spring festival. However, in western countries, although they have words like, “red-letter day” and “the red carpet”, which contain positive meanings, the color “red” is a kind of taboo.

Gan Fengyu 甘奉玉

In English, the color “red” is the association of fire and blood. It represents the radical and violent revolutions. So many English phrases containing red have negative meaning, like red-headed, red-light district, red-handed, red ruin, red ink, in the red etc. Similarly, the color “white” contains different meanings in the East and the West. In western countries, white means innocence, honesty, kindness and so on. When getting married, the bride will white wedding dress.

Gao Mingzhu 高明珠

Although the color white contains the meaning of purity and innocence, like “白衣天使”(white angel) which represents doctors and nurses in Chinese, white is a kind of taboo color in China. The color white represents death and ill omen. When a family member died, they will hang white cloth inside and outside the house. We can also realize the different meanings of the same word in different countries. For instance, the word “狗”(dog) contains a negative meaning. However, in western countries, dog always contains a positive meaning, like a lucky dog.

Gong Yumian 龚钰冕

3 Approaches to Translate Culture-loaded Words

Under the great progress of globalization, different cultures have more accesses to communicate with each other. According to Eugene Nida, “Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.” (Nida Eugene A and Charles Taber R 1969:13) “Ordinarily speaking, there are three approaches to translate culture-loaded words, namely foreignization, domestication and translation compensation.

Gu Dongfang 顾东方

The translation of culture-loaded words belongs to the micro aspect of cultural translation. In the context of globalization, the fundamental standpoint of exploring the translation approach is to preserve the unique cultural significance carried by culture-loaded words, which determines that we should use foreignization and translation compensation as the main translation approaches to translation culture-loaded words”.(Wang Xiang 2017:75)

Guan Qinqing 管钦清

3.1 Foreignization

Venuti(1995: 20) considers the foreignizing method to be ‘an ethnodeviant pressure on target language cultural values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text, sending the reader abroad’. It is ‘highly desirable’, he says, in an effort ‘to restrain the ethnocentric violence of translation’. In other words, the foreignizing method can restrain the ‘violently’ domesticating cultural values of the English-language world.

Gui Yizhi 桂一枝

The foreignizing method of translating, a strategy Venuti also terms ‘resistancy’ (1995: 305-6), is a non-fluent or estranging translation style designed to make visible the presence of the translator by highlighting the foreign identity of the ST and protecting it from the ideological dominance of the target culture. Foreignization can preserve the uniqueness of the source language’s culture because respecting the source language culture is starting point. Compared with domestication approach, foreignization considers more about the source language’s cultural background and is more faithful to the source language’s culture.

Guo Lu 郭露

It can keep the exotic flavor of the source language text. However, foreignization is not a perfect translation approach. If the translation doesn’t pay enough attention, the foreignization approach will be abused easily. If the translator misuse the foreignization approach, the target text will be awkward and hard to understand.

Han Haiyang 韩海洋

The food culture contains great national characteristics. It shows the creative spirit and unique style of the Chinese nation. The words related to the food culture are rich in Chinese culture. Many examples of using foreignization approach can be found in the translation of traditional Chinese food. Firstly, the translation of traditional Chinese food can be related to Chinese allusions. Let’s take the translation of Yuanxiao or Tang-yuan(glue pudding) as an example.

Han Wanzhen 韩宛真

“It’s said that a lady-in-waiting called Yuanxiao during the Han dynasty missed her parents so much that she cried with tears in her face every single day. In order to help her, a minister named Dongfang Shuo lied to Emperor of the Han dynasty that the god of fire with the order of the Jade Emperor would burn Changan(the Capital of China in Han dynasty) on the 15th of the first lunar month. The solution to avoid this disaster was to ask the lady-in-waiting named Yuanxiao to make Tang-yuan, the favorite food of the god of fire, and to ask all the people in Changan to hang lanterns.

He Changqi 何长琦

Emperor Wu approved this plan. Finally, the girl named Yuanxiao met her parents. Thus, the tradition of Lantern Festival ( pronounced Yuanxiao Jie in Chinese, “jie” in Chinese means festival) appeared.” ( Xu Xianling and Li Xiangzhaung 2005:230) Therefore, if we translate the Chinese food “元宵” into Yuanxiao by the foreignization approach instead of translating into the glue pudding, the special Chinese culture in the food can be preserved well.

Hu Baihui 胡百辉

Secondly, the translation of Chinese food can be related to Chinese customs. Chinese people eat special traditional food in special Chinese festivals. For instance, people will eat double-ninth cake on the Double Ninth Festival. The Double Ninth Festival is on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. The translation of double-ninth cake can keep the traditional Chinese culture well. Thirdly，the translation of traditional Chinese food can be related with Chinese people’s appreciation of beauty.

Hu Huifang 胡慧芳

For example, “the Chinese cuisine ‘鸟语花香’, can be translated into ‘Singing Birds and Fragrant Flowers(Steamed mandarin fish and bird-shaped shrimps)’’ and ‘青龙过海’ can be translated into ‘Green Dragons Crossing the Sea(Soup with green onion)’”. (Zhang Jiachen 2014:106) By using the foreignization approach, this kind of translation can preserve the beautiful image of these cuisines and the explanatory note can also prevent foreigners from being confused. What’s more, the translation of some Chinese cuisine can be related to the traditional Chinese medical science.

Hu Jin 胡瑾

For example, “‘八珍食品’ can be translated into ‘Eight Delicacies (Stimulate your baby’s appetite and better his or her growth) and ‘当归生姜羊肉汤’ can be translated into ‘ Angelica Ginger Lamb Soup(Replenish your blood and warm your spleen and stomach)’”. (Zhang Jiachen 2014:106) Translating in this way can pass the traditional Chinese medical culture to readers.

Ji Tiantian 纪甜甜

Although the foreignization approach can be of great help to pass the source language’s culture to the target readers, it requires the translator’s great knowledge between the two cultures. Therefore, translators have to do a good preparation before translating.

3.2 Translation compensation

George Steiner divides the process of translation into four parts and “By ensuring the translation is possible, compensation is the last step in the whole procedure”.(2001: 176) It should be acknowledged that translation compensation occurs and accompanies translation activity as early as cultural difference exists. It possesses a history as long as translation activity does.

Jiang Fengyi 蒋凤仪

Scholar Mona Baker holds the view that compensation is a translation skill, which can be applied when “target language is impossible to directly make up for the losses in meaning, language style or emotional force”.(1992: 33) Due to the translation difficulties caused by cultural default and cultural differences, translators have to employ different compensation strategies to make sure their translation outcome can be totally understood by the TL readers. Hervey and Higgins divided translation compensation mainly into four kinds, namely compensation in kind, compensation by splitting, compensation by merging and compensation in place.

Jiang Hao 姜好

The translation compensation approach can be often used to translate the name of Chinese teas. China is the birthplace of tea culture. The record about tea appeared in the era of Shennong about 4700 years ago. Since ancient times, the tradition of providing to guests has been preserved. There are various kinds of teas in China like Longjing tea from Hangzhou , Oolong tea from Fujian etc. Chinese tea culture are also involved in Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and so on. Chinese tea culture is a treasure in traditional Chinese culture.

Jiang Qiwei 蒋淇玮

Chinese and English belong to different language systems. There are great differences between the two languages. Due to the different social environment , life style and vocabulary, sometimes it is impossible for translators to achieve complete equivalence. Chinese people’s ways to name teas are various. Sometimes, the Chinese character “茶” (tea in English) doesn’t even exit in the name of a tea. For example, some teas exhibited in the China Tea Museum in Hangzhou, like “羊岩勾青”(Yangyan Gouqing), “庐山云雾”(Lushan Yunwu), the names of these teas don’t contain the character of tea.

Kang Haoyu 康浩宇

If translators show the English names of these teas to the target readers without explanation, readers may feel confused. Sometimes, the names of some teas are the same as the names of other stuff. For example, “ ‘茉莉花茶’ is translated into Jasmine Tea. This kind of translation mixes the tea name with the flower name. Actually, ‘茉莉花茶’ is a kind of green tea which has the aroma of jasmine. Some kind of ‘茉莉花茶’ contains jasmine flower, some don’t. Similarly, ‘竹叶青’ is translated into Bamboo Leaf Green and ‘玉露’ is translated into Jade Dew.

Kang Lingfeng 康灵凤

Although the translation of these names of teas used the literal translation approach and realized the verbal equivalence, translators neglected the features of the teas. This kind of translation will mislead the target reader to think of ‘竹叶青’ as the tea made of bamboo leaves and ‘玉露’ as the tea made of jade and dew, which is totally impossible”. (Cui Shan 2019:125) The translation of tea names is also a part of intercultural communication. It can directly influence the transmission of Chinese culture in the world and can also influence the business result.

Kong Xianghui 孔祥慧

If a translator doesn’t pay enough attention to the cultural differences, it may lead to bad consequences. For example, a Chinese tea called “龙虎斗” was translated into “The Fighting Between Dragon and Tiger ”.Although the translation kept the verbal meaning of the tea, it violated the western taboo. This is because dragon is referred as a kind of evil and fierce beast. A reader without the knowledge of Chinese culture will have the image of two fierce beasts fighting and killing each other when reading the translation of the tea.

Kong Yanan 孔亚楠

The target reader will feel uncomfortable to read the name of the tea, let alone buy and drink it. “珠茶” is a kind of special tea from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. It is round and bullet-shaped. So it was translated into “gun power”. This kind of translation can easily make people think about the violent images of war. Therefore, when being sold to India, Indian purchasers strongly asked the seller to change the translation of the tea name.

Lei Fangyuan 雷方圆

Due to cultural differences, sometimes literal translation cannot express the true meaning of the tea name well. During this circumstance, translator should compensate the important information under the verbal meaning of the tea name. This kind of purpose can be achieved through the explanation of connotation under the tea name. Let’s take the tea names we have mentioned in the last paragraph as an example.

Lei Kuangxi 雷旷溪

According to the background information of the tea “玉露”, “ the shape of the tea is round and its color is white like jade. So it’s better to translate ‘玉露’ into ‘Jade-green Tea’ instead of ‘Jade Dew’”. (Cui Shan 2019:126) This kind of translation can show the color and type of the tea. It is more acceptable and less confusing for the target readers.

Li Haiquan 李海泉

Similarly, “‘茉莉花茶’ can be translated into ‘Jasmine Scented Tea’ instead of ‘Jasmine Tea’ and ‘竹叶青’ can be translated into ‘Bamboo-Leaf-Shaped Green Tea’ instead of ‘Bamboo Leaf ’”. (Cui Shan, 2019:126) “Jasmine Scented Tea” can show the true features of the tea and distinguish the tea from jasmine flower. And “Bamboo-Leaf-Shaped Green Tea” can tell the target readers the type and features of the tea and stop misleading readers to think of it as the tea made of bamboo leaves.

Li Lili 李丽丽

4 Untranslatability of Culture-loaded Words

Catford thought that untranslatability is caused by the target language’s lack of lexical or syntactical substitute. Different languages differ from each other in the phonetic, grammatical, semantic, pragmatic aspect etc. When translating culture-loaded words, it is hard for translator to translate the culture behind these words in a perfect way. For example, “纸老虎” is translated into “Paper Tiger” in English.

Li Lingyue 李凌月

But if people don’t have a knowledge of Chinese culture, when they read the phrase “paper tiger”, they will think of it as a kind of artistic work. Similarly, “八股文” is translated into “Eight-part Essay”. When people read this kind of translation, they will only think of it as a kind of article containing eight parts. They cannot understand the moral imprisonment this kind of writing style brought to Chinese people.

Li Liqin 李丽琴

When the famous sinologist David Hawkes was translating the famous Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions, he translated a servant girl in the novel called “紫鹃” into “Nightingale” instead of “cuckoo”. This is because the word “cuckoo” in western countries can be used to refer the woman who cheated in a relationship. In the novel, “紫鹃” is a quite innocent girl.

Li Luyi 李璐伊

So the word “cuckoo”, although is literally equivalent to “紫鹃”, it was still not chosen by David Hawkes to be the girl’s name. In English, “nightingale” refers to a small brown bird, the male of which has a beautiful song. It can also refer people who can sing beautifully. Although the translator avoided cultural conflict by translating “紫鹃” into “Nightingale”, “nightingale” still cannot show the innocence of that girl.

Li Meng 李梦

Sometimes, translators will borrow words from other cultures to help themselves translate better. For example, translators translate “a beauty in ancient China named Xi Shi into ‘Chinese Cleopatra’. However, Cleopatra is more like the first and the only female emperor in Chinese history Wu Zetian in Chinese people’s mind to western people.

Li Yongshan 李泳珊

In Chinese phrase ‘蝙蝠迎宾’， the word ‘蝙蝠’ is translated into ‘bird’ in English instead of ‘bat’. This is because bat represents vampires in western culture. This kind of translation avoided the violation of western taboo. But it also doesn’t translate the inner ‘happiness’ behind the phrase in Chinese culture.”(Chen Junming 2013:29)

Li Yu 李玉

Catford thought the cultural untranslatability was caused by the lack of the target target culture’s relevant situational features to the source language’s culture. Cultural untranslatability comes from cultural differences. Although it is hard to translate culture-loaded words into target language in a perfect way, translators still need to try to discover the translation of culture-loaded words. Translators can also add some explanations after the translated sentences or words to make the meaning and culture behind the source language text be understood by target readers.

Lin Min 林敏

5 The Interpreter’s Translation of Culture-loaded Words

Unlike translators, interpreters have much shorter time to translate. Sometimes, it is a great challenge for interpreters to translate in such a short time. As we have discussed above, culture-loaded words make it hard for translators to translate. So during the interpreting, it may be even harder for interpreters to translate utterances with culture-loaded words. An interpreter’s translation can be divided into three steps, namely comprehension, de-verbalization and reformulation. If an interpreter wants to interpret successfully, he should understand what the speaker has said.

Lin Xin 林鑫

The interpreter will keep the content of what the speaker just said in his mind. During step two, the interpreter will forget the structure of these linguistic signs which formed what the speaker said and only remembers the ideas these linguistics signs wanted to express. During the last step, the interpreter uses another language to form new utterances to express the speaker’s ideas. The interpreter has to try to express all the information the speaker mentioned as possible and the interpreter also needs to try to make the translated language easy to be understood by target hearers.

Ling Zijin 凌子瑾

The striking feature of interpreting is its timeliness. Since the interpreter’s memory is limited, interpretation is more about translating the overall meaning of the discourse. Sometimes interpreters have to identify the key information of someone’s utterances and discard the unimportant information. The approach we have discussed above can also be used to interpret. For example, the interpreter can use literal translation approach to translate.

Liu Bo 刘博

By using the literal translation approach, “ ‘莫道今年春将尽，明年春色倍欢人。我期待着明年中国和世界都会变得更好’，can be translated into ‘Do not regret that the spring is departing, come next year as it will be twice as enchanting. I really hope to see that next year in China and in the whole world people will be better off.’”(Guo Huiqing 2018:94)

Liu Jinxingqi 刘金惺琦

It’s worth mentioning that interpreters have to translate in a limited time. So when confronting some special expression that is hard to find the equivalent in the target language. They will try to explain the meaning of these expression. For example, the interpreter can translate “ ‘山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村’ into ‘After encountering all kinds of difficulties and experiencing all kinds of hardships, at the end of the day we will see light at the end of tunnel’”.(Guo Huiqing 2018:95)

Liu Liu 刘柳

This expression is from ancient Chinese poet Tao Yuanming’s poem. This sentence just express the scenery of the countryside. But combing the poem with the utterances the speaker has said, the interpreter translates the sentence into the translation above. This kind of explanation approach can be often used in interpreting.

Liu Ou 刘欧

Translation and interpreting share a lot in common like the approaches to translate. But interpreting has the feature of timeliness while translation doesn’t. This feature brings more challenges for interpreters to translate. It requires interpreter to have to quick response and a better sensibility to cultural differences.

Liu Yangnuo 刘洋诺

6 Conclusion

“Since the knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of the people, it is extremely difficult to separate the two. On the one hand, language as an integral part of human being, permeates his thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. On the other, language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the culture, and the changes in language uses reflect the cultural changes in return.” (Dai Weidong 2002:130)

Liu Yi 刘艺

Language and culture are interdependent during the process of evolution. Language belongs to culture. Translators, who translate the information from one language to another, have the responsibility to promote the communication between different countries. A good translator can help the transmission of cultures. The cultural differences among different countries lead to different culture-loaded words in different countries. The reason why we call a culture-loaded word a culture-loaded word is because it contains the special meaning of a culture.

Liu Yiyu 刘怡瑜

It is exactly this kind of uniqueness which makes a culture different from other cultures. Although culture-loaded words make it hard for translators to translate well, translators still have to find strategies to overcome this kind of difficulty. As long as cultural differences exist, culture-loaded words will still be there. As a bridge between two language or even two cultures, translators still have to work hard to discover better approaches to translate culture-loaded words well. If translators can translate better, the cultural communication between two countries will be better.

A Comparative Study between Functional Equivalence Theory and Skopos Theory and My thoughts on the Two Theories

(1)Introduction

1.1. Functional Equivalence Theory

In 1964, Eugene Nida, the famous American linguist and Bible Translator, first put forward the notion of “dynamic equivalence” in his book Toward a Science of Translating. According to Nida, “dynamic equivalence” refers to “ the closest natural equivalence to the source language message(Tan Zaixi, 1984: 10)”.

Lou Cancan 娄灿灿

In saying this, Nida means to appeal translators to put emphasis on expressing to the target readers both the messages conveyed in the source language and the forms and styles of the original text. Later, he realizes the name “dynamic equivalence” may confuse some translation learners and they may think he only focuses on translating the content and meaning of the source text and ignores its form and style, he then changes the name of “dynamic equivalence” into “functional equivalence”.

Luo Weijia 罗维嘉

Nida thinks that the response made by the target language receptor to the target text should generally be equivalent to the response made by the source language receptor to the source text, so when the translator cannot retain both the form and the content of the original text, he or she should give priority to the content of the original text and change the form of the source text.

Luo Yuqing 罗雨晴

And in response to questions like how and to what degree the translator can change the form of the original text, Nida then points out that in translation, there are four aspects in dynamic equivalence, namely, lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, textual equivalence and stylistic equivalence respectively. If a translator can convey the language form, the content and the style of the source text in natural target language, and make the target readers give the same response to the target text as the source language made to the original text, then his translation can be said to have achieved the maximal equivalence.

Ma Juan 马娟

On the other hand, if a translation only transmit the content of the original text generally, then the translation can be said to have achieved the minimal equivalence.

1.2. Skopos Theory

Skopos theory was first put forward by Hans Vermeer in his book Framework for a General Translation Theory in 1978. According to Skopos theory, translation means to “produce a text at target setting for a target purpose and target addressee in target circumstances”(Liu Junping, 2009: 377). Based on this definition, Vermeer Hans concludes the three rules of Skopos theory, which are skopos rule, coherence rule and loyalty rule.

Ma Shuya 马淑雅

Firstly, skopos rule, or purpose principle, is the primary principle to be followed in translation. It holds that the purpose to be achieved of the target text determines the whole process of translation, including the choice of the translator in translation skills and strategies, and that all translation activities are determined by its purpose. Generally speaking, the skopos rule has under its umbrella three types of purposes: the first one is the basic purpose of the translator; the second is the communicative purpose of the translation; and the third is the purpose of specific translation strategies or means. But at most of times, “purpose” refers to the communicative purpose of the translation.

Ma Zhixing 马智星

Secondly, coherence rule, also called intra-textual coherence, means that the translation must be understandable and readable to the receptors, and meaningful in the communicative environment of the target culture and the target text.

Thirdly, fidelity rule, which means that there should be inter-textual coherence between the source text and the target text. Inter-textual coherence is similar to what is usually called “信” or “be faithful to the original text”.

Meng Ying 孟莹

In the traditional translation theory, “faithfulness” is always regarded as the basic translation standard to obey, but in Skopos theory, to what degree the form and style of the target text should be faithful to the original text totally depends on the purpose of the translation and the translator’s understanding of the source text.

Under Vermeer’ s Skopos theory, the skopos rule is the most important rule among the three rules, the coherence rule the second important, and the fidelity rule the least important. This indicates that in Skopos theory, the end justifies the means(Liu Junping, 2009: 377-378)

Mo Ling 莫玲

II.Similarities and Differences

2.1. The Similarities between the Two Theories

2.1.1. Both Attach Great Importance to the Target Receptor’s Status

Functional Equivalence Theory is a receptor-oriented theory. As revealed by Nida’s definition of translation, that “translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style”, Functional Equivalence Theory emphasizes that the primary aim of translation is such that the target text should bring the target receptors the similar or same response as the response made by receptors in the source language.

Mo Nan 莫南

Besides, to bring to the readers a similar or same response, Nida even put forward that, if it is necessary, different target texts should be made according to the needs of different receptors. All of the two points reflects that in Functional Equivalence Theory, the target receptor’s status is very important.

While the Skopos theory, too, put the reader’s needs on a high status. Of the three rules in Skopos theory, the most important one is skopos rule, which includes three purposes, the basic purpose of the translator, the communicative purpose of the translation, and the purpose of specific translation strategies or means.

Nie Xiaolou 聂晓楼

However, to take all the three purposes into consideration, a translator must first know what and who the target text serves, so he or she can immediately know the purpose of the translation task and do a corresponding and qualified translation. This, on the other hand, also means that in Skopos theory, the target reader’s needs indirectly determine the purpose of the translation, so it is also given priority to by the translator.

Ou Rong 欧蓉

2.1.2. Both Emphasize the Communicative Function of Translation

Under the Functional Equivalence Theory, the translation should achieve a functional equivalence, bringing the target readers the roughly same experience and making them give the responses as the receptors in the source language culture. In doing this, the translator is in fact trying to achieve the communicative function of the original text by shortening the distance of the source text receptors and the target text receptors, which, on the other hand, means that the process of translation is a communicative process between the original language culture and the culture of the target language.

Ouyang Jinglan 欧阳静兰

In Skopos theory, of the three purposes under the skopos rule, the communicative purpose is regarded as the most important purpose of a target text. Skopos theory holds that translation is a communicative activity with a purpose, and the process of translation is determined by the intended function or purpose of the target text.

Ouyang Ling 欧阳玲

2.2 The Differences between the Two Theories

2.2.1. Different Status of the Source Language and the Target Language

From the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory, a good translation achieving the goal of translation not only needs to provide another message similar to the original message conveyed in the source text, but also needs to clearly reflect the meaning and intention of the original text, bringing to the target readers similar or even same effects and making them give a same response.

Peng Dan 彭丹

From this point, one can easily see that Functional Equivalence Theory is centered on the original text, which, to some degree, reflects that Functional Equivalence still put the source language on a high status. The status of the target language is secondary to the source language as the choice of the words, sentence structures of the target text still heavily depend on the source text.

Peng Juan 彭娟

Skopos theory, on the other hand, gets rid of the point of view of the traditional text-centered translation theory, and focuses on the function and purpose of the target text. From the perspective of Skopos theory, a successful translation is not one that places the original text in a sacred and unattainable position. Vermeer further put forward the view of “subverting the source language” in Skopos theory. He stated that “the linguistic and stylistic features of the original text are no longer the only criteria to measure the translation”.

Peng Ruihong 彭锐宏

All of these reflect that the source text enjoys a relatively low status in Skopos theory compared with its status in Functional Equivalence Theory. Besides, from the three rules of Skopos theory, one can easily know that, the most important one is the skopos rule, then the coherence of the target text, namely the intra-textual coherence and finally the fidelity of the target text to the source text, namely the inter-textual coherence. Therefore, we can see that the status of the source language actually lower than the target language in Skopos theory, which is different from the case in Functional Equivalence Theory.

Peng Xiaoling 彭小玲

2.2.2. Different Translation Principles

Nida believes that equivalence is the goal of translation. His translation standard is that the target text should be faithful to the original text in terms of content and style while also being expressive in the eyes of the target readers. As put forward by Nida that, “translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style”, the translation standard of Functional Equivalence Theory include “equivalence”, which is the equivalence of meaning and style, namely be faithful to the meaning and style of the source text.